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!

Times up, itching for Chagos!

Well we have got pretty bloody lazy since staying at Fahala island. We left there after almost a month of good times hanging on the beach but it was time to go. Jim and Helen on Gaia arrived a couple of days before we left and we sailed in company south. Also a couple of American yachts called in just before we left but we didn't get to meet them properly but Hopefully we will see them in Gan.

We called in at a couple of different anchorages but they are few and far between as most places seem too deep or have no shelter or both, the snorkelling is a lot better south though with the coral just amazing with loads of reef sharks, turtles, rays and tropical fish. We are in Gaafu atol now and anchored in a dredged out lagoon next to a town Called Villigilli that is only 45nm north of the equator. Nice anchorage with good shelter from anything east but the wind has just gone NW so we are leaving this afternoon for Gan which is 90nm away and the last atol south in the Maldives. We had a call from Customs the other day saying we had to leave here as it is not on the permit but they soon changed their tune with a bit of sweet talking which was great! It's the only time we have seen any officials in over 2 months and it just happened to be that our cruising permit expired the day before! Anyway with a few calls to our agent he sorted it out very quickly and all was well.

We have still been still trying to get Satphone working for data... Finally got a new sim and that worked for data but then it turned out the Satstaion we bought for it didn't! Anyway we are over the isatphone and Satstation and they are sending out an Iridium which is in Malè now getting cleared by customs and hopefully will get to Addu very soon so we can leave for Chagos. Our Agent Muzhid from Real Seahawks is on the case. So hopefully after all this stuffing around we will be able to download a grib file!

The weather started to change a couple of weeks back with Westerlies and rain squalls. Still nice 90% of the time though although the flies seem to have all hatched and are a pain in the ass! 

We are all stocked up with fuel and water and just need a load of good vegetables to last us the next maybe 2 months until we arrive in Mauritius.

Fahala Island

Well we did an overnight sail to do the 120nm here to Fahala and what a place. We have been here nearly 2 weeks now so that sums it up. Was great to get out of Malè and just hang by ourselves again. It didn't take long for the locals to come and suss us out and welcome us in. It is an un inhabited island except for 4 fellas that have cleared a space to build a resort but apparently it has been in the making for 10 years now and doesn't look they will start anything soon. The closest inhabited island is only 2nm from where we are anchored and that has 800 people living on it. We went there a week ago with a drawing for a BBQ to get made up and we met a nice fella named Huisain who showed us about the town and introduced us to Mohammed who is a bit of a welder from his back yard. We managed to get some 10mm stainless round bar from the next island for the frame and he had some other materials for the rest and did a great job! They were all great people we got to meet, his wife busy making fish soup with a couple of her friends and so on.

We also have been busy fitting a salt water pressure pump in the galley which works a treat and is saving us a lot of fresh water. Julie has been a star trying to get this Xgate program to work with the Satphone. It is a program that compresses everything so you don't use to much data on the Satphone to get weather ect but has just turned into a balls up so far! We are getting there but after much frustration and emails back and fourth to the States we got a reply saing they have a bug in the App??! We will get there but it's definitely not been easy.

I also put in a mast step in the dingy to fit the optimist sail and had a trial with an oar for a tiller. Looked great, I new I wouldn't be able to go to windward but thought I could hold at least 90degree course, no such luck! Just went side ways as fast as I was going ahead! Was pretty funny but a bit disappointing. Need a few fittings and try and make some Lee-boards up to use instead of a centreboard.

There has been a couple of days of rain which was a first and we caught a bit 

of water which is needed. The fish are another story.... We haven't had too much luck. It is too far in dingy to get to the back of the reef to get coral trout so we have been trolling in the deeper water here. Lost a few lures to what are probably giant trevally that just take off seriously quick and then find a rock or something and cut the braided line. We got a small one that was nice on the new BBQ and some other skippy of the boat at night and a barracuda and that's about it. The squid are thick though and we have been eating loads so can't complain.

We are planning to leave the Maldives about the 25th of this month but don't really want to leave here yet! We have about 150miles south to Addu where we have to check out from and do the last load of stocking up and get some water before we head to Chagos

Haul Out

Well we hauled out last Thursday at Universal Boatyard on Thilhfushi island. It all went very well once they realised we had a fin keel, in fairness we were only the 2nd sailing yacht they had ever lifted there. It turned out I think the best of the 3 available yards to do the job. Super friendly, very helpful and relaxed, clean place to work that even had a good view. It's owned by a massive corporation called Universal that has 10 resorts in Maldives plus many more scattered around the world. A lot of the resort boats are refitted there as well as new builds and fishing and other work boats getting attention. The workforce is from all over the place, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India as well of course Maldivians. There is also a quite large engineering shop were they are rebuilding engines and doing stainless work so there is a fair bit going on. Ihusaan is the main man there organising most of the workers and goings on and is a super helpful fellow who went out of his way several times to get things done for us and offer advise on paint products ect.

When I last hauled out 15 months ago there was a little osmosis and unfortunately it has grown a little more and will need attention in the next few years which will be a bit of a job to dry it out completely, maybe for 6 months after stripping it all back and then once dry epoxy resin and bog it all back up. Anyway they do a lot of this work in the yard and it was good to hear how they tackle the job.

So basically for 4 days we worked like hell. Covered head to tow in old antifoul as well as epoxy and then finally new antifoul. Julie was a big hit in the yard. Firstly I don't think they had ever seen a woman doing manual work not alone in a boatyard! She was great, got stuck into it and the fellas loved it. Labour is cheap here so I think most people pay to have these jobs done so we were a bit of amusement for them especially the first day scrubbing of all the old anti fouling but they soon got used to us and came over for a chat.

We used 20litres of Transocean longlife antifoul which was one of the cheaper available but still has lots of toxins in and the locals seem to like it so we will see how we go with that. It's price was about $600US so not too bad if it does work?! Nothing is really cheap here in Maldives especially boat parts. A lot of people fly to Malaysia or Thailand and buy the parts they need and come back. There are loads of hardware stores in town and you can get pretty much everything you would need though and there prices are a bit better.

The yard bill was $700US for 4 days hardstand, pressure wash, 2t water and 3 days electricity. So it's not cheap but the cheapest available and a good service and if it has to be done it has to be done?!

So we went back in the water late Sunday arvo and headed 5miles back to Hulamalè anchorage to stock up and provision with as much as we can to last until we get to mauritius in mid may. Julie also kept dragging me around to every hardware store in town looking for parts to convert our dingy to a sailing dingy. I think we have everything we need and will hopefully have it sailing sometime soon! We also picked up a Satstaion Dock for our handheld Sat phone so hopefully we will be able to get it working and be able to download weather files on passages. It came from America and we had to pick it up from the airport and what a drama it turned out to be just to collect a parcel. Anyway we have it. Also managed to find 4kg of cheese which was a big score! Luxury. 

Our agent Muzhid from Real Seahawk also renewed our cruising permit and extended our visas so we are all good to keep on cruising in the Maldives for another while!

We left the anchorage lunch time yesterday and did an overnighter sail to were we are going now,Kolumadulu Atol in search of a nice quiet beach. We have 15 mile to go and have had great wind the whole night so made good time, life is good!

Check out the photo with Julie's shower!

Holiday is over!

Well we had been having a little too much fun hanging out on deserted beaches and catching fish so I have been a real bastard and decided to Haul out. Julie is very excited, almost as excited as me:) 

The slime in really taking over, it's outta control. We scrubbed the bottom 2 weeks ago and it's already 3 inches long and spreading everywhere. It's only been 15 months since I did it and was hoping it would be alright till the end of the year when we get to South Africa but no chance. 

We are now in Malé the capital of Maldives and there is a choice of 2 boatyards with travel lifts suitable for lifting yachts. We have chosen the smaller, cheaper one called Universal. The other one Gulf Craft,is very big and busy. Looks great, very professional but also straight accross from were they burn all the rubbish for the whole population here! Pretty rank to say the least. So we are going over to the other side and even have a good view to look at while we are sanding. 

We went into town yesterday for the first time and it's full on. Very hard to believe after being at the other small quiet islands. The island is just crammed with high rise buildings, no land left at all. Anyway we have worked out the city and found everywhere we needed to find to get paint and all the other stores we need. It's not all that cheap though but luckily we don't need a lot of stuff. We did manage to find a couple of good fishing tackle shops were we did spend a fortune!

So the past couple of weeks before arriving here we were just hanging out back at our favourite island Difuri for a week and then we did an overnight sail south to Thulusdhoo. Thulushdoo is a great anchorage, not to busy and there is also the CocaCola factory there which we had the grand tour of, pretty interesting. It's only 12 mile north of Malé so there were even a few tourists staying in guest houses and also on jet skis from the next island down which is owned by Club Med. 

I had a surf for the first time in 10 years at a left hander, didn't do much good and was pretty sore the next day! Hopefully find a nice right hander somewhere after we leave here.

We did also manage to buy drinking water from a hose on the wharf which was great. 600 litres for $5 so we even did some washing. The 2 pairs of boardies and 1 shirt I had been wearing for the last month were getting pretty sticky and salty!

So we will be hauling out in a couple of days and will hopefully be back in the water a maximum of 5 days from then. I'm sure we will appreciate the beaches that much more then!

This is Living

Well this is what it's all about, why I even started dreaming about a boat in the first place. Fish and rice! Wake up in the morning and quickly discuss what jobs we want to do for the day. Big things such as transferring fuel, clean the oven, tidy workshop, pack something away and most importantly what fish we would like to catch and how we will cook it. Julie is the fish killer. I just drive the dingy while she has the lure in the water holding onto the rod. It gets quite exciting at times with screaming and yelling when there's a big one on the end and the line is spooling out, especially when there's a big mackerel or trevally fighting for its life. So quite a buzz but we do try and get the smaller, tastier fish also around the reefs like coral trout and these other fish I think is a green Jobfish (looking in the book? Very tasty  anyway) so as you can imagine it is a busy day. Sometimes we have even finished ALL our jobs by 11am and then without even thinking its time to celebrate with a beer, well you have to because it just doesn't feel right cooking a fish BBQ for lunch without a coldie in hand??

Then we have the other big dilemma, like where do we go next? 1250 islands all beautiful but some are too deep to anchor and others have resorts. Apparently some of the resort islands welcome you if you call in advance but we would rather be on our own deserted island or maybe with a few locals that invite us in to share a coconut. Is funny, they are living so simple off the land and from the sea and happy to welcome us in and show us their digs and then they want to take a photo of us! They have better phones than we do! Great friendly people and don't seem to have any hang ups from the western world, just happy out. For the West Australian folk reading this place is like the Abrholas islands only greener. The same deal with  loads of reefs and bombies, clear water and marine life everywhere, only a hell of a lot bigger with a lot less wind. Same same but different.

Probably when we get to the capital Male it will be different with 200000 living like sardines on a small island??

Now we are at Fadiffolu Atol anchored off an island called Difuri. There are 6 people living on here that are slowly building a resort for a Swiss fella. We had the grand tour and it looks like if they carry on at the same pace it might be built in another 20 years. Then there is another island to the NW that's a lot smaller were we went yesterday for a troll in the dingy. We were greeted by a young guy that didn't speak a word of English but wanted to give us a borumba?? So we went for a look and he picked a couple of coconuts and we met who I think was his brother. Just the 2 of them living on this little island very self sufficient, growing capsicums and even a dozen turkeys with this picture perfect turquoise bay and their little shack and a couple of outhouse sheds with stuff going on. Anyway we caught a giant trevally today and took that to them and they were very stoked!

Welcome to Paradise!

Well we had a great sail here. Flat glass for the first 2 hours and then a slight sea breeze which built and we were away. Had 15-20 sometimes touching 25 knots from the NNE and after a day it went more around to the NE. Great fast sailing. The last day it lightened of a lot and ended up having to motor the last 4 hours. We  had the anchor down in Uligamu at 0930 and the trip ended up taking just 73hours.
Not a bad spot at all to land..... It's the most Nothern atol.The most southern being nearly 500nm away.
The authorities called us on channel 16 and were over within half an hour and couldn't have been more friendly. The agent  Asad who we had also been in contact with beforehand was also there to greet us. It was all over and done with in half an hour and we were free to explore the Maldives. Asad organised a BBQ for us on the beach with the other 2 yachts here and could not have made us feel more welcome. Great night with fresh fish and everyone bringing a dish from their country.

The next day we were sitting onboard having lunch looking at a heap of dolphins, then a manta ray jumps out and a minute later a freckling turtle pops his head out!!??
So here we are left pinching ourselves thinking how great the next couple of months here are going to
be.