Kulhudhuffushi to Milandhoo

We are slowly making our way south - stopping at different islands large and small and trying to get to know the Maldives and its people. Kulhudhuffushi was an interesting stopover. We anchored in its large commercial port - plenty of room for us but apparently not big enough for any large ships so it is just about deserted. There is a large sandy beach on the shoreline of the harbour which the locals use for swimming and general splashing about. Because it was Friday many of the businesses were closed but there were plenty of people in town and lots of smiles and waves to us. We were trying to find somewhere to do or have some laundry done and enquired in one of the many small shops. The woman whose family owned the shop told us that this service was not available in town and then offered for us to do our laundry at her house the following day. So after visiting the local Saturday market, which was a social highlight in the town, we spent a couple of hours with Mahsoma and her two lovely girls while we waited for the washing to finish. They all spoke very good English and Mahsoma told us that she encourages the girls to speak English at home. The older girl, eleven year old Ahoula, was very curious about our life style and asked if she could come to see our boats. We organised to meet them on the beach later that afternoon. A lot more people than we bargained for turned up - 5 children and 2 adults but no big deal - we decided to ferry them over in 2 runs. We just had 4 of the girls out of the dinghy and up our boarding ladder when there was a call from the dock - a number of men wearing official uniforms were yelling at us and telling us to get the girls off the boat. So, back down the ladder we went. The officials would not let us take them back to their mothers waiting on the beach - they insisted that we bring them over to the dock where they proceeded to haul each one of them from our dinghy up the side of the wall despite our protests that it was too dangerous. Naturally we weren't very impressed and the girls were very disappointed. We were told that while we were in the harbour our boat was under the control of the port authority and were not allowed to take anyone on our boat without written authorisation!  Didn't see that in the fine print. Anyway it was all very unpleasant and detracted from our visit. We had such a great time up until then and the people had been lovely. We had even stopped to watch some locals playing badminton in their front yard and before we knew it they had invited us in and insisted on mixed doubles with us.  The following day we left for Milandhoo Island where we had another interesting experience. We anchored in the island's brand new port which attracted a lot of interest as we were the first two yachts to enter. People came from everywhere to check us out - apparently we were on facebook before we had even tied our stern lines to the dock. A holiday had been declared, not because of us, but because there had been a by-election the day before and there were a lot of 'politicians' in town. In fact the president (?mayor) of the local council came down to meet us and then personally escorted us all over the island and invited us to join the election celebrations that night. We also met and ate with the local parliamentary representative. We didn't end up going to the celebrations - didn't need to, we could hear the speeches from the boat - they went on until midnight. Just proves the old saying - no such thing as a free feed! We had visitors to the dockside until well after midnight and we were very happy to leave next morning. So now we are anchored off Fehigili Island - opposite a large resort that doesn't want us ashore or even within cooee of the place. Never mind it is pretty nice here - we are on a 'hang off' - that is the anchor is in the sand at the edge of the reef in about 10m and we are swinging out in the deeper stuff which is fine as the winds are very light. Tomorrow we will keep heading south towards Male, the capital , and apparently where the action is. Sorry about the lack of photos - I did get an online tutorial from my friend Astrid but the photos are not cooperating.