Time to go

Well it's been an interesting time the last 2 weeks. We left Villigili on a forecast that wasn't too bad, but not looking that great either. We only had a 90mile sail to get to Gan. We crossed the equator at about 3 am with rainy squally conditions around but nothing to bad but then just after daybreak the weather touched up a notch and we copped a big squall that took us a little by surprise. The headsail is on a furler which rolls it up and the top of the sail or the head has webbing on it that attaches a shackle to the top of the furler. Anyway the webbing gave way and the partially furled sail dropped down from the top and as I tried to get it furled it formed what looks like a wineglass in the middle aswell as the bottom of the sail wrapped around the furler drum and couldn't get all the sail tightly wrapped. So in 30+ something knots of wind and rain the sail managed to flog itself to death. Wasn't a pretty sight so we retreated to an island only 5 miles away that lays by itself in the middle of the equatorial channel called Foammulah to sort it out. In the lee of the island it is 100metres deep so anchoring is out of the question so we made our way into the fishing harbour with google earth. It was spring tides and we were right on the bottom of the tide going in, luckily the breeze was dead against us and we could just inch ourselves in and the shallowest we saw under the keel was 60 cm but then once in most of the boats alongside have anchors holding them off with floating ropes so it was an obstacle course by itself, all still pissing with rain!

 We got the sail down and then got an hour sleep before the harbourmaster came knocking. He said we had to pay 50$ for the privilege! 50$ is a lot of money to us here so there was no way we were going to pay for that but with the waves crashing over the breakwater we didn't really fancy heading back out either. So he took me to the office and ended up letting us staying for free on the grounds we came in for repairs which was great. He also gave me a guided tour of the island and took me to his house to pick us mangos and passion fruit! And then insisted we go out for dinner with him and his wife, really nice people. 

So we got an old spare headsail on and left for Gan in the morning and still had a steady 22kts on the beam and had a great sail. There were 3 boats already here waiting to leave for chagos and another 3 arrived the same day we did. The first 3 had a good forecast for chagos and left over a week ago and the other 2 left yesterday. The weather isn't great but doesn't look like improving as the SW winds start to crank up and then we won't make the coarse so easily to chagos.  Looks like we are leaving tomorrow on a forecast that isn't great but hopefully we won't have to motor too much and we won't get too much rain. We have been waiting for our Satphone which arrived in Malè nearly 3 weeks ago and with all the beaurocracy here got majorly delayed. I wouldn't advise anyone to have stuff sent to Maldives unless you have to! Maybe there's an easier way I'm not sure but it sure seemed to turn out to be a massive ordeal for something so simple. Anyway we have it now and can download weather grib files and send emails, even should be able to upload blog in Chagos! So we are happy with it and it's time to leave so we will push on.

For anyone that is sailing here, here's some info. Gan harbour is not a bad place for a yacht but you wouldn't want to be here too long either, a few days is enough. It is very tight anchoring especially with 7 boats which we did have for a short time. There is a bombie which one boat did hit. Once

you have gone through the channel into harbour and it's a little to port about 20mtrs in. The water is very murky so hard to see unless low tide. The town isn't very busy, was expecting more people for some reason. The shops have most things you need but the vegetables are pretty poor, not a lot of choice and most look like it's there 2nd lap around the Indian Ocean! There is a guy in a little tourist shop called causeway just near the anchorage and he gets you veges within 2 days from Malè. This is what some other boats have done and also what we did.

Our agent in Uligamu, Asad asadhu16@hotmail.com was a champion and we would recommend him if your checking in up there. He then organises the agent in Malè that you need and also an agent in Gan to check out. We used Muzhid from Realseahawks in Malè and a fella in Gan called Marty which we don't have his detail but is the only agent here anyway. We haven't got the final bill yet but it is about $1000-1100 for the 3 months visit total. Not cheap at all but we think deffently worth it and would have hated to miss it. Once here basic food supplies are very reasonably cheap. There is hardly any restaurants and deffently no bars to spend your money unless you go to the resorts. We didn't go to any resorts as it's not really our thing and just hung out at isolated places were you can easily catch yourself a fish and meet a few locals. I think there are better anchorages up north and should have spent more time up there but it makes it hard when you have to renew your 1 month visa in Malè. Water is a bit of a problem here but we always seemed to meet some super friendly local that would give us some of there rainwater. Until Gan we had hardly seen another yacht which is quite strange, to think only half a dozen yachts cruised here this season! Very crazy and the price puts people of but I think if you're here for anything over 2 months you get value out of it for sure.

Anyway all the jobs are done and hopefully the 3 old headsails we have left will get us to Mauritius without to many dramas! We are excited for the next adventures that lay ahead in the next couple of months until we get to Mauritius, so Chagos here we come!