Redwings Round the World

Exploring the Maldives

2 - 20 February, 1998

Where in the hell are the Maldives?

Check our our Maldives Photo Gallery

2 February, West Male Anchorage, Male, Maldives

Note: This entry is also the last entry in the "Phuket to Maldives" section

Laura - Somehow the watch schedule got skewed. I woke up at 4 a.m. to find Kerry had just gone to bed and Aaron was up by himself eating Snickers bars and listening to Led Zeppelin by himself with the auto-pilot on. We were soon in sight of the lights of Male. Aaron slept for a while and I stayed up (and changed the music to Bruce Springstein). I kept plotting our position on the chart and when we got pretty close, I woke Aaron up again. The sugar must have run out of his blood because he was confused, but soon got it together. As it got light out, at about 8 a.m. on our clocks, which were still set on Thai time, we woke Colleen and the three of us took the boat the rest of the way into Male, a big blob of coral in the middle of the Indian Ocean. As we passed the the island on which the airport sits, I looked up. A big jetliner was on final approach to the runway and we were about a half mile directly off the end of the runway. I'd guess that plane passed overhead at no more then a few hundred feet above the 60-foot mast. We got a darn good look at the underbelly.

We were motoring by then and running the water maker. We rounded the south side of Male, a small city of 50,000 people with low buildings that are the highest points for perhaps thousands of miles. The harbor is deep in most spots, but there is a shallow shelf of 16 meters where a few yachts had dropped their hooks. Christine was also nearby. We joined them and cleaned up the boat and made some breakfast.

The police and customs didn't entirely clear us in until about 9 p.m so we were stuck on the boat all day. That turned out to be okay. We did a big clean up and then I had a cranky meltdown from exhaustion and stared at the wall of the forward cabin for a few hours until it was time to eat dinner. Then, we all went to our respective beds and slept like the dead for 12 hours.

Aaron - We made it!! 1,500 miles in 9 days - an average of 167 miles per day and an average speed of 7 knots. We continue to hit the weather right and confirm that Redwings is fast downwind. Other boats (many of them bigger) have been bragging about making the trip in 10 to 12 days and about fast 9 to 10 day trips to Sri Lanka....

3 February, Male, North Male Atoll, Maldives

Laura --- Took a treacherous dingy ride from Redwings into Male, wearing life jackets and carrying hand-held VHFs for safety. It was a long choppy trip in which Kerry and I got soaked. My underwear didn't dry for hours. Close to shore we were able to duck behind a seawall where lots of local boats were tied up. Then we dodged lines hanging in the water until we found a decent place to tie up to the wall. An old fisherman helped us unload our stuff. We got a lot of funny looks from the locals in this Muslim city of 50,000 as we marched through town soaking wet carrying our life jackets and computer.

We spent much of the day at FIFO, a customs agency where an agent named Mohammed is helping us with life in Male. We made phone calls and attempted e-mail (but were unsuccessful). We also tried to track down the ever-elusive refrigerator. We called the contact in Male where the thing was to be mailed from Sweden. The person who answered the phone knew nothing about it and had never heard of us. HMMM. Not so good. So, it was more phone calls to Sweden and some to Priyani in Sri Lanka who was helping out. She was also trying to make arrangements to meet us, but since Sri Lanka is in such chaos and Prince Charles is there and things seem to be blowing up and the roads are closed so she couldn't get to the airport.

It was a bit of a frustrating day with a lot of waiting around, a bit of wandering around, and not too much resolved. Oh, well. At least Male was fairly interesting, especially in the late afternoon when the fishing boats came in and the place seemed to be crawling with men carrying tuna. I poked my head in the fish market, an open-air affair with a tile floor on which fish are piled everywhere. The city is has clean, narrow, cobbled streets. A few buildings are modern, but many that seem to have been built three decades ago. The latter seem recently painted in the pastels of pale pink, yellow or blue. Bicycles buzz everywhere and far outnumber cars. Parked bicycles line the streets, all unlocked, their owners apparently unconcerned about theft. Male seems to be a society of all men because by the Muslim custom, the women are at home.

Most importantly, we found a place that makes its own ice cream and had some interesting new flavors.

We were in town long enough for dinner and go to the grocery store to get some odds and ends.

Then we were back to the boat just before dark (after a kinder and gentler dinghy ride) to play a few rounds of some game the name of which I can't recall at the moment.

Again, I slept like a log.....whatever that means.

4 February, Male, North Male Atoll, Maldives

Laura --- Spent the morning eating scrambled eggs before they rot and helping guide yacht Marbella into the 15 meter anchorage in West Male by radio. Marbella left Boat Lagoon a few days before we did, but stopped in the Similin Islands for a few days before coming across the Bay of Bengal behind us. Once Marbella had dropped their hook in one of the few shallow spots, we motored from Male anchorage to Laguna Resort anchorage in the morning, dodging the reefs.

I was feeling quite crabby and almost told Colleen to stuff it when she asked me why I had left my salty disgusting towel lying around the deck for three days. But, I held myself back and decided a bit of self-exile would do me good. So I banished myself to the bow for the trip to Laguna. Kerry joined me for a bit and I voice my fears that I might go crazy trapped on the boat much longer and how was I going to handle this confinement? I wanted to run around and live by my own schedule really badly and forget the group for a while. I was having a pretty rough day, but I was trying hard to keep it to myself because from experience I know these things tend to be temporary and it is best just to keep a low profile until it blows away.

We made it safely into the anchorage behind the Laguna resort which was something of a feat considering the twisting, jagged reefs that are lovely to look at, but can be quite treacherous. I think we had luck on our side. We did dodge a few sketchy areas, but we didn't have anyone up the mast looking out for the protruding spots of reef that jut up from the sand and choral bottom. Later in the day, another yacht wasn't so fortunate. They hit a "bomb" (coral head) and made quite a racket grinding themselves off. Next time, we'd better keep a sharper look out.

We dingied ashore and were met at the end of the dock by an official greeter from the resort who instructed us as to how to tie up. Thank you very much. Then we hit reception and learned that the resort allows yachties to use all facilities for free, probably based on the assumption that we will eat in the restaurants. We're quite happy with that arrangement. Unfortunately the restaurants cost about a million bucks. Really, we checked some prices and it was $14 US for fish, $35 US for a steak, $8 for a cocktail, and $10 US for a hamburger. That is quite a shock after Thailand where we could have an entire meal with drinks for $3 each.

The resort is pleasant enough, but not really my speed. It's on a small island rimmed by a white sand beach and a reef. Some of the accommodations are built out over the water. There is a fresh water pool, a store, and five restaurants and a workout room. The strange thing is that once there, the guests are really trapped. It is difficult for them to get to Male so the resort is all they have. It is "tropical paradise," but frankly it would make me crazy. There seem to be mostly Germans and Italians.

We walked around the island and then crashed by the pool for a while. Aaron snagged a copy of Newsweek with the whole scandal about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski. We have been following it with great interest on the BBC every day, but are eager for more details, juicy details. I ran around the island a couple of times. It was a short loop and hot, but I needed to blow off some steam. It felt really good. Kerry and I went for a swim too in the ocean and then to the workout place to play some ping pong. On the way there she let me know, subtly, that she had been a childhood ping pong champion in her neighborhood. Perhaps that was just to let me down easy when she clobbered me later. I pretended that she had never told me this fact of her life before and acted very impressed. Anyway, we got there and these two little German kids beat us to the table by about 20 seconds. We couldn't exactly kick them off since they are paying to stay at the resort. Besides, if some old lady had booted me off the ping pong table when I was a kid, I would have been pissed off. We only had about five minutes to play in the end because we had to meet Aaron and Colleen back at the dinghy. Already, Kerry was putting spins on the ball. But I think she may be a bit rusty, a weakness I plan to cultivate next time.

On the way back out to Redwings from the resort, we stopped by an Australian yacht called La Scala. La Scala has no dinghy at the moment as they lost it the first night in Male. We'd heard the saga on the daily radio blab among the yachties while we were sailing from Phuket. La Scala said they woke up one morning and the line was cut and the dinghy gone. Mohammed, at FIFO, told us he thinks they didn't tie it on properly because nothing like that has ever happened before. Whatever the truth is, these poor folks have no way off their boat so we stopped in to see if they needed anything.

Really, this was to be a quick stop. I mean, I was still wearing my bathing suit and a towel. I didn't even intend to get out of the dinghy. But, Aussies are friendly in general and stranded Aussies are friendlier. So, we climbed aboard (making sure our dinghy was tied securely to the stern) and admired La Scala, a Tanaya 55. Of course they offered us a drink. At first we just had some orange Tang, which seemed natural to us since we haven't exactly been party animals on this trip. It was cold! They have a fridge! Oooh, it felt nice to have a chilled beverage.

There are four people on board La Scala. Kelvin and his partner Lorraine are the owners. They lived in the Boat Lagoon for a couple of years while getting the boat ready. With them are Lorraine's college friend Phillipa and a friend of Kel's named John (or Nick. We can't remember which). Lorraine and Phillipa are about 30 and the two men are about 20 years older, we guess.

So, the quick stop moved swiftly along and pretty soon we were having a good time. When the second offer to abandon the Tang and have a beer came along, we said okay and everyone congregated outside on deck where we were shaded from the afternoon sun. We watched the wind on the water rippling over the tropical bottom turning the surface blue, green and brown. The Aussies were quite amiable and funny and the beer kept flowing. It turns out they drink enough that it is Nick's daily job to restock the cooler with beer and wine.

So through the course of the afternoon and early evening, we talked about everything from Bill Clinton, to socialized medicine, to how the Olympics will effect Aboriginals when the games are held in Sydney in 2000, to how a chicken lays a white egg (are these Aryan chickens?), to where to get visas for Egypt, to Phillipa's cat Pookie, to a crazy Dalmatian Lorraine once knew. Kel told a story about a Danish man who sailed too much by himself, including 17 times across the Atlantic. Kel asked him once, while they were drinking, what the man thought about all that time alone. Kel said the Dane told him that one day in the middle of the Atlantic he had an overwhelming desire to go back to his mother's womb. Of course, that wasn't an option. So instead he hauled his dinghy up on deck, pulled a cover over himself and stayed there all day curled in a fetal position. After a day, the urge to return to the womb was satiated.

After five beers had gone down, we switched over to white wine. I don't recall the sun setting. But I recall, in a remarkably clear moment, that by the way the light came through the wine glass it was suddenly night. Potato chips and peanuts came out. We hadn't eaten since the eggs at breakfast. Aaron began hinting that perhaps it was time to leave. He was worried about overstaying our welcome. That was a distinct possibility, but the Aussies kept saying "How about another beer then?" None of us had had much more than a drink at a time since the King's Cup. Even then, Penny Carter was the biggest partier on Redwings. We are a bunch of lightweights in reality, but we weren't acting like it. Essentially, we were in over our heads, seduced by friendly company and a functioning refrigerator that kept the beer cold.

So, at about 9 p.m., someone made the move to finally leave. Aaron was first in the dinghy and I followed. On La Scala's stern, there is a metal bar that juts overhead, presumably from which the dinghy is hung during passages. I was tempted by this since I have been getting great pleasure from swinging on things since I have some arm muscles for the first time in years. So I grabbed and swung. At first, I intended to swing back and then climb in the dinghy, but I guess I just decided to go for it. I let go. I landed in the dingy, on Aaron. I'm sure it wasn't graceful, but it was kind of fun. We made it back to Redwings, largely because Aaron had stuck with the Tang all night and was quite able to drive. Colleen nearly fell in between the dinghy and Redwings, prompting a rebuke about boating safety from Aaron.

We were a bit beyond tipsy, but we'd feel terrible in the morning if we didn't eat so I set about making pasta. I made the mistake of asking Colleen for advice (since in my cooking ineptitude I had once before managed to bungle even tomato sauce!). She came right over and began smushing up garlic and throwing the skins and the onion heels into my lovely sauce! She wouldn't stop and got a bit belligerent about the whole thing, insisting that is the way it is done, until I finally threw her out of the galley.

By the time the food was ready, it was 10 p.m. Aaron, Colleen and I ate in about 30 seconds. I tried to wake Kerry, but she was face down, sound asleep on the couch in the main cabin, snoozing away in the midst of galley chaos. I tried to wake her also to get to bed, but nothing doing. She spent most of the night on the couch and woke up in the morning ravenous and demanding scrambled eggs. It's a good thing that is what she wanted since we now have a daily required egg consumption to get rid of all the eggs that are about to turn rotten.

5 February, Laguna Resort Anchorage (Velassaru Falhu), South Male Atoll, Maldives

Laura -- Ow! The morning came with a cracking headache. Thank goodness for Advil. I suppose that's what I get for acting like I can drink a lot of beer. Kerry and Colleen both seemed a bit bleary as well. But we all got moving quickly enough. Aaron was up making eggs already. I'm hoping we are closing in on our supply of lovely eggies.

SCRAMBLED! FRIED! OMELET! POACHED! QUICHE! SOUFFLÉ! EGG! EGG! EGG!

After breakfast, the others buzzed to shore with Kel in order to pick up some faxes from the resort that La Scala was expecting. I was in a much better mood than yesterday and I was happy to have the boat to myself. I turned up REM too loud and happily damaged my hearing while I did the dishes in salt water and washed the floor. They came back a bit too soon, but that's okay.

Kerry and Aaron pulled out the dive gear and hopped over the side. It was an exciting moment for Kerry because it was her first dive since getting certified. They followed the anchor line down to the bottom and swam around a bit on some nearby reefs. Then they cleaned the bottom of the boat. Colleen put some lunch together for later while I kept cleaning. We loaned out the dinghy to La Scala so they could head to a nearby reef and do some snorkeling. They returned a couple hours later with glorious reports of seeing turtles.

Meanwhile, word had come on the VHF from Mohammed that Priyani had managed to get a flight from Sri Lanka and was standing in his office. He would arrange transportation for her out to the Laguna and we could expect her by 1 p.m. or so. Also, the fridge is in town! We can pick it up on Saturday (as Friday is the Muslim holiday and not a good day to do business). Yippee!

So, after a few hours, everyone was in the water except me when a big wooden boat pulled up and Priyani hopped off laden with bags of food and Sri Lankan tea for us.

After greetings, we all got in the dinghy and buzzed out to the reef La Scala had recommended. We decided to all just jump over and drift along with the dinghy nearby. There wasn't much current, but the wind blew from the north and pushed the dinghy along. Kerry, who has turned out to be the Snorkel Queen and is in the water with mask and fins at every opportunity, was the first over the side. She stuck her head under water for a moment and the dinghy drifted away a bit. Then she popped back up and said "You guys, there's a shark. Come get me!" Aaron, who was driving, immediately abandoned the motor and jumped in the water to see the shark too rather than rescuing poor, scared Kerry. It turned out the shark was a fairly little fellow, about four feet long by Kerry's estimate, and he didn't bother us. But Kerry swore he looked at her like he wanted to get her.

We moved the dingy around a bit and tried a few different spots. No more sharks. We did see lots of cool fish and all kinds of coral. We wound up by swimming along the edge of a reef that rose out of blue-black oblivion to within about 10 feet of the surface. Near the top it was alive with fish and plants. It had clouded over a bit and probably wasn't as clear as when La Scala had been out so after a couple hours, despite Kerry's protests, we called it a day and went back to Redwings for a late afternoon lunch.

We tried unsuccessfully on the SSB to raise Raffi on Malkat Singapore. They must still be out of range, but we hope to reach them soon. Everyone is wondering how Stacy is doing.

Now Kerry is asleep. Colleen and Priyani are on the bow talking about who got fired from what jobs in Hong Kong since the market crashed. Aaron is emitting a string of curses as he tries to fire up the dive tank compressor. With each pull of the engine cord his language gets more choice and more personally directed at the machine, which seems to take no offense -- except that it refuses to start. Unfortunately, although we seem to have several dozen manuals on the boat, concerning everything from the hand-held blender to the SSB radio, we do not have one for the dive tank compressor. So, swearing is the way to go.

The sun is setting and it has been a lovely, lovely day here in the Maldives. We have been invited to stop in for a drink later on La Scala. So who knows what the night will bring: perhaps an opportunity to perfect a Tarzan swing into the dinghy.

6 February, Laguna Resort Anchorage (Velassaru Falhu), South Male Atoll, Maldives

Aaron - What a great day. Things just seem so easy since we left Phuket. Routine: wake up around 0800, coffee, listen to radio sked of boats currently doing the Maldives / Oman run, egg-based breakfast (today delicious French toast courtesy of Laura), clean up, fiddle around, go in for a garbage run, shower and newspaper fetch, go diving, lunch, fill dive tanks / run engine to make water (the compressor makes such a racket you can't even hear the engine over it), attend to minor boat jobs, coffee/tea, chat, listen to BBC, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up, read or play cards, bed.....

I was in contact this morning with Julius on IDUNN (one of the boats in the Boat Lagoon when we were there - they are currently en-route from Sri Lanka to the Maldives) and he asked me how the chandlery was in Male. I confessed I had not been there of even thought about it - nothing is broken and nothing is needed after our massive session in Thailand! In Phuket, I was in the chandlery/hardware shop every day. One day, I made the 8 km trip to GC Huat in Phuket town (a marine hardware store extrodinare) three times! If we had stayed in Phuket for the season, I would definitely have tried to get a job there.....

So things are different and we are reaping the rewards of our earlier work, frustration, and the steep climb up the learning curve. One nice addition to our life is the radio. We have a fairly sophisticated and and high-power all frequency (ham, marine, short-wave) Kenwood transceiver. We never really bothered using it as on the way down from Hong Kong, we were just trying to keep the boat moving and maintain life-support systems, and following that, we were always within VHF range of whoever we wanted to communicate with. A few days before leaving for the Indian Ocean, we thought we'd better try to make sure it was working so we could keep in contact with other yachts and specifically sked with Raffi. Subsequent radio tests revealed that although we were receiving transmissions, we could not transmit even across the Boat Lagoon. I noted as well that even though the transceiver showed we were transmitting, no load was being put on the batteries when we transmitted. We read and re-read the manual (which already assumes you know the uses of the various functions and radio lingo), followed the various connections, and even had Mick the electrician go over the system and still could not get it to work. Mick suggested we bring the radio into town to get it tested. However, first, he suggested, we should call Alfonz who had helped look at the fridge as he is a radio buff as well as electrical engineer and generally skilled trouble shooter and fix-it man. We have a lot in common with 70+ year old Alfonz - who only shows his age in the way he moves. He owned a Peterson 46 (hull #3), and he currently has the same model Kenwood radio as we do! A few button pushes later, we were transmitting at 100 watts. A 30 minute run through the basic concepts of using the radio as well as specific rules and suggestions for settings followed. Although again he didn't really "fix" anything, he accepted Bt 500 (US$10) for his trouble this time.

Anyway, its been great to hear what other boats are doing and we had a lot of fun talking to Raffi when we could still reach him. He should be off Sri Lanka by now and turning north towards Cochin and within range of us, or at least some of the other boats up that way. IDUNN is relaying our calls for him and they should be within a couple of hundred miles of where he should be. No answer however. Perhaps he was significantly delayed in Phuket... wouldn't that be a shocker! (not...)

Well back to "today" for those who care. Kerry and I went on a "real dive" today while the others snorkeled above us on the reef about 1 km to the east of the anchorage. We worked the wall of the reef at depths of 50 to 75 feet and saw bijillions of fish, lots of pretty coral, and a sea turtle. It is so peaceful below the waves.

No I am not going bald - just sporting the shortest hair cut I've had in 15 years!!

A few fixit jobs in the afternoon: a "broken" fan / short circuit in the galley and a forward head repair. Only a couple of hours of work. Not enough to significantly frustrate, but enough to keep my brain active problem solving and to keep me on track climbing the boat system learning curve.

Dinner was wonderful. Colleen worked for what seemed a couple of hours preparing, at Priyani's direction, a Sri Lankan feast. The eggplant, which was done with mustard and vinegar and I don't know what else, was the most delicious thing I have had for a long time. I have never tasted that particular combination of flavors before... Laura rigged some cockpit lights and for the first time we were able to eat and linger in the cockpit after dark.

Tomorrow we go back to Male and hopefully will meet our fridge. We are so used to living without a fridge, and even without ice, that it does not seem like a big deal to me. Hopefully it will be easy to install and, perhaps, it will even work!

7 February, Finolhu Falhu, South Male Atoll, Maldives

Aaron - More of the same - and that's a a good thing. A call on the VHF to FIFO (our agents in Male) confirmed that yes the fridge had arrived at the airport, but it was suggested that we wait and have them bring it to us tomorrow when they deliver our new guest Christine Dooley who is due to arrive on the 1335 flight from Sri Lanka. This makes a lot of sense. Lets spend another day relaxing and touring the Maldives underwater world.

We decided to try another anchorage on the east side of the atoll, which is close to some of the more celebrated dive sites, and motored off at noon to take advantage of the noon-day sun which makes it much easier to spot the many coral reefs inside the atoll. With Laura on the bow calling the shallow spots we were able to make it out of the anchorage and across the small barrier reef easily. Midway to our destination, we passed by several reefs which were surrounded by an anchorable 25-35 meters so we decided to stop and try the diving / snorkeling as by the time we made it to the other side and anchored, the sun would be too low to really see much underwater. We anchored and all piled into the dingy and headed off to the reef. Kerry and I went diving while the others anchored the dingy on the reef and snorkeled. The snorkeling was the best yet but the diving was pretty much the same as as Laguna - lots of fish and nice coral, but nothing particularly exciting. Apparently, Colleen had a time getting the dingy anchor off the coral and Priyani had to hold on to her legs as she freed it from the reef. The snorkelors then came and picked Kerry and I up who were bobbing 200 meters down current.

We anchored in 7 meters off the Eboodhoofinolhu Resort for the night. While I filled the tanks, the "girls" dingied in to check out the resort. Apparently its a bit of a dump. Probably as no travel agent outside the Maldives can pronounce the name they have been unable to drum up a reasonable business. Good anchorage though. Another night of amazing Sri Lankan cuisine and a peaceful rest.....

Does all this sound jolly yet a bit boring??? Well its not boring in real life - constantly active but never rushed - but it is a bit tough to write about it in an interesting way. Its much easier to be entertaining when its all going to hell and or there is some great scoop or scandal to tell. To make up for the ho hum nature of our recent existence, we have been avidly tuning into to the BBC and VOA each night to pick up what nuggets we can about the Clinton / Lewinsky sex scandal.

Well here is something. Kerry is allergic to cats. When she arrived in Hong Kong, she claimed not to like cats in general and was definitely very allergic to Basil and Sybil. I remember on one of her first few evenings when Sybil stole on to her lap she called out "Colleen... the little one's on me.... get it off...." She kept her mouth shut, but obviously thought Colleen and I were a bit wet if not completely foolish for actually carrying on with the cats as if they were practically human and claiming that we "loved" them.

So now what's the story? Well, Kerry has struck up an intimate relationship with Sybil and neither of them seem capable of going to bed without getting some snugs in with the other. At first, we only caught glimpses of Kerry petting her (she would claim that she was "poking" her and thus not showing affection but just trying to bug her so she [Sybil] would stay away). But the evidence has mounted and there is now no doubt about it: Kerry loves Sybil. She even "pokes" Basil. The other evening, when she was just a wee bit tipsy on La Scala and it was getting late, she was expressing worry to Laura that "you know who" (apparently an attempt to hide from Colleen and I that she was talking about Sybil) would be hungry as we had not been back to the boat for the evening feeding time - "she's so thin..."

Caught in the act: "I do not have an inappropriate relationship with Sybil Lewinsky"

8 February, Male, North Male Atoll, Maldives

Aaron - This morning I awoke at 0645 to rain spitting through the aft hatch and on to my bare ankles. A look outside revealed a dark squall line headed towards us so I ran around the boat closing hatches and picking up cushions and drying towels. At 0700, I turned on the radio to listed to the morning Maldives / Oman sked and lo and behold who do I hear on the air but the Good Doctor Raffi from Malcat Singapore blabbing it up with Gary on Gigilo. When they wound up their chat, I came on and finally reestablished contact. As it turns out, they were in fact delayed a few days due to a few new leaks resulting from some woodwork done on the coach house and some sort of electrical problem - they are still 600 miles away so the quality of the transmission is not yet that great. Stacy is apparently pretty seasick but otherwise things are ok. We will have a regular sked (schedule or timetable for communicating) twice a day from now on. They should be in Cochin, India within four days and plan to leave for Oman about the same time as us so hopefully we will arrive there together and can then continue on up the Red Sea with them.

Shortly after the radio session, the squall hit and it started raining - hard. This was really the first rain we have had since early January in Phuket. It was great. Laura washed her laundry, I cleaned the boat and my body, and Colleen scurried around collecting water in buckets. It only lasted about 15 minuets, but that was enough to get most everything rinsed off in fresh water.

It remained cloudy throughout the morning so we decided to bag the daily diving expedition and headed back to Male around noon. On arrival, Marbella was right on top of the 15 meter anchorage, but we managed to slide in right behind her in about 17 meters. We are a bit close (two boat lengths), but I feel more comfortable being close to her than I do trying to anchor in 40 meters which is the alternative.

Kerry, Laura, and I dingied ashore - they to explore Male, I to dump trash, laundry, and check in with FIFO. When I arrived at FIFO, who was there but our expected-to-be-arriving guest Christine. Mohammed and Mohammed were waiting for the fridge to come from the airport before bringing her, and the fridge, out to us. I did a quick bit of shopping, and Christine and I piled into a taxi and headed back to the dingy and then out to Redwings.

The fridge arrived about one hour later - looks the same as the old guy, but what's this? A new glossy properly written manual. The old one was such a joke as detailed in the book review section. Its a bit late now so I guess tomorrow will be fridge day.

Yet another evening of Sri Lankan gastronomic delight: Priyani's famous spicy chicken dish.

The day ended with a bit of minor excitement. Everyone went to bed at around 2200 but me. I tried to knock of at around 2300, but was nervous about Marbella swinging two boat lengths just ahead and to port of us as the wind built to 18 true. Every time I looked, it seemed that they were drifting closer. I decided that if I was going to get any sleep, we'd better attach a spare rope to the anchor chain so we could let out a bit more scope and drift back a bit. I figured the extra scope would also improve our holding angle and provide a bit of stretch if the wind and waves built.

Unfortunately the spare anchor warp was stored underneath Kerry and Laura's bunk so I had to wake them. They were both pretty bleary-eyed and had apparently just hit deep-sleep mode. Still, better now than the middle of the night. After I got the bitter end of the chain shackled to the warp, I released the chain while Kerry and Laura held the rope. There was a lot more pressure on the rig than I expected and the rope started whipping out - fortunately we had coiled it and made sure there were no snags. However, the three of us had a hell of a time holding the line and getting it around a cleat.

We did though and afterwards I was able to fall of and get a reasonable rest - nothing like the past few nights though. This anchorage is a great motivating factor to get moving out of Male. The plan now is to actually check out tomorrow as well as take on diesel with a view to leaving the following morning for a slow trip to the Northern Atoll. Hopefully I can get the fridge up and running early and we can do some cold food provisioning as well.

9 February, Farukolhufushi Island (Club Med Resort), North Male Atoll, Maldives

Kerry - We are all winding down after a long day on Male. The BBC is now on - everyone gathered around the radio, listening to the latest news - in hopes of more Clinton news. We just had a discussion about whether or not it all matters - and we were explaining to Priyani, who thinks it is all ridiculous and it should just be between Clinton and Hillary, how the whole matter extends beyond his activities, and it is perjury that is now the issue.

The day began with Laura making her Pillsbury blueberry muffins that she had prepared for the day before by provisioning more eggs. Aaron, Laura, Priyani, Christine and I all went into Male for more exploring, to provision, and to check out of the Maldives before we head north. So, we had another visit at FIFO with Mohammed and friends - and Aaron dealt with checking us out. Laura and I walked to the other side of the island and received many friendly hellos from the Maldivian men - given that they can divorce a wife by repeating "I divorce you" three times in a row, they have nothing to lose. Divorce aside, they can have about 7 wives anyway, as I understood it from Mohammed (different from FIFO Mohammed) in Rendezvous Restaurant. To be fair, they have to treat each wife equally, so it isn't as bad as it may seem, says Mohammed. He did agree it isn't fair for the women, but the equal treatment rule helps. The side alleys and homes are really pretty - many built with bricks of coral and bright colors painted on the outside. Each home has its own name - I saw them ranging from Morning Star to Frenzy to Island Flower. It was nice to walk around and have lots of cold drinks - one never knows when the refrigerator will be installed and up and running.

Laura and I provisioned in the market and the fresh market, and then returned to FIFO to meet the rest of the Redwings gang. Unfortunately, Aaron couldn't get through on FIFO's phone line to e-mail or update this log - so that was a bit disappointing. Mohammed called a taxi to bring us and the provisions back to the other side of Male where our dinghy was waiting. Right before we left, we saw La Scala and helped them with their provisions to their lift to the boat. It seems they have been successful in locating a new dinghy as Kel was trailing one behind the boat which we could see in the distance. We will be seeing them again sometime - probably in Oman.

Meanwhile, Colleen was back at the boat waiting for the diesel delivery which seems to have been quite a challenging activity. The diesel professionals sprinkled the deck with almost as much fuel as we received, and we arrived right after their departure. Colleen was still running around dumping soap on the deck to clean it all off. Apparently, they had to make two trips aboard Redwings as they thought they were done, but realized soon after that they still owed us 70 liters. At least they told us! We immediately left for our anchorage for the night which is outside of the Maldive's Club Med. We won't be travelling to this island as it costs US$50 per person to set foot on the island. Laura was screaming $50 to me as I swam to a shallow area near the boat and realized I could stand there. I hope no one comes by to collect later. We all swam/snorkelled for a while - I saw several schools of very large fish, but since there isn't much coral around the snorkelling was minimal. We finished off the late afternoon with a diving competition. Laura gave quite a show to an approaching Club Med transport, all passengers holding up fingers to display their ratings. Christine acted as a judge in the water, and named me as the winner. However, there were protests and the outcome is still in dispute.

We have just enjoyed some fresh guacamole thanks to Priyani and her two avocados. Dinner is our second in a row with chicken as Aaron, Laura and I all unknowingly bought it yesterday not realizing each other had. We left some packages frozen in the cooler which were ready for tonight's dinner. Tonight is a special evening as we are having a small surprise birthday party for Colleen (Feb. 26) - though early, Priyani and Christine wanted to bake a cake since they are both here and Priyani has to leave tomorrow. We keep trying to convince her otherwise, but she has to get back to some business in Colombo.

Aaron - Given the nerve wracking nature of the Male anchorage, and as people are antsy to get to more beautiful and stimulating locations, we decided to just check out today, get fuel, and get going even without taking the time to hook up the fridge. Checking out does not mean we have to leave the Maldives, just that we need to start making progress towards our next destination and that we cannot return to Male without checking back in. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to have a full day fiddling with it (the fridge) while the others can snorkel and clandestinely explore the Island. The anchorage here outside the Club Med Resort is pretty neat. It is inside a lagoon completely enclosed by a ring of coral. There are two dredged channels entering into to it. As you look out, you can see the Indian Ocean breakers crashing in on the outer extremities of the reef some 500 meters away, but inside, there is only a bit of chop whipped up by the still strong and persistent 20 knot winds.

10 February, Faranafushi Island (Club Med Resort), North Male Atoll, Maldives

Aaron - A full day of frolicking with the new fridge for me. I am happy to be able to focus on this with out a million other distractions. Getting the cold plate in and copper tubing installed proved pretty easy, especially with Kerry and Laura helping.

However, when I hooked the electricals back up and flicked the switch, the compressor did what it did previously: start, run for awhile, shut down. However, this time, I noticed a yellow flashing light on the control panel which indicated, as per the much-improved manual, that the unit was not receiving adequate voltage. Strange, the batteries were almost fully charged at over 13 volts. Even with the engine on and the voltage at 13.5, same problem. Checking wires to the compressor with a volt meter revealed that the voltage was only slightly less than the battery voltage. However, when I hooked the wires up to the compressor and then tested them while the compressor was running, the voltage dropped steadily and eventually fell below 10 at which point the compressor shut off. Hmmm... I've heard of something called "voltage drop" - this must be it. A perusal of Nigel Calder's Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual (highly recommended - will help you fix anything and everything on a boat from a blocked toilet to a jammed roller furler) revealed that voltage drop usually occurs due to corroded fittings on a wire or use of wire that is too small in gauge. Sure enough following the wires back, I found a spot where they had been spliced to extend their length and this was very corroded. A new splice and the voltage only dropped 6% when the compressor was running - normal - and it works! A few hours later we had cold drinks. I wonder if that corroded point was the problem all along?

11 February, Farukolhufushi Island (Full Moon Resort), North Male Atoll, Maldives

Aaron - I like a day like this. A few small goals set that can be easily and comfortably achieved at a reasonable pace. Plan: up by 0900, breakfast, walk around island, 1200 leave for Banana Reef dive site one mile away, 1300 - 1500 diving, travel one mile to Full Moon Island Resort anchorage.

The dive at Banana Reef was phenomenal. The experience of that one dive made all of the expense and preparation of having diving capability on board worthwhile. The reef is situated in a large channel that opens up from the Atoll into the Indian Ocean so there is a lot of current which attracts lots of fish looking for free meals swept into and on the way out to the ocean.

We anchored Redwings in 30 meters a few hundred feet off the reef and Laura dingied Kerry and I out at slack tide to the the Northeastern most tip of the reef. The plan was to work our way along the southwestern side to remain out of the strong current as the tide started to go out and hopefully avoid being swept out to sea.

As we descended, I could tell this was going to be an awesome dive. Looking down and to my left, the edge of the reef extended vertically 90 feet to a sandy bottom and was covered with many corals and feeding fish. Looking out to my right I could see a long way through the deep dark blue water and caught glimpses of larger pelagic fish cruising the currents.

Near the wall of the reef at about 70 feet, where we finally halted our descent, there was very little current. Just the peaceful surroundings of the underwater world. Bright sunlight up above kept the scene well illuminated. Fish, fish, fish of all shapes and sizes. As we swam along, we found a series of small caves. Inside were large schools of big-eyed red squirrel fish. We also saw lots of turkey fish and lion fish with their huge spiny fins. We were able to actually sit at the edge of a cave looking out at the reef fish swimming by. I really felt like if we had followed a different evolutionary track and lived underwater, I could be sitting on my front porch. It really is a different, but somehow not totally unfamiliar, world.

Sand from on top of the reef cascaded down the the coral wall in some places in a steady stream looking distinctly like alpine waterfalls. Baby eels covered the sandy ocean floor near the base of the reef swaying too and fro in the currents with half their bodies (about six inches) sticking out of their little holes. As I drifted towards them, swaths of them popped back out of sight leaving only the bare sandy bottom.

A look in another cave revealed some pretty big (say four feet long and two feet high) grouper. A look in the next cave revealed a big mouth (one foot wide at least) and huge grey brown blob that with a flick of its massive tail, moved further back inside the cave. Kerry saw those teeth and was not going any closer. The huge grouper must have weighed in at well over 150 pounds. Off to the right, a small reef sharked cruised just on the edge of visibility.

As we neared the southwestern corner of the reef, the currents at first took us further around the reef, and then came into our faces preventing us from turning the corner. Here, there was a massive fish convention going on. Looking up and all around, I felt as though I were in a fish snowstorm - thousands of little (2-3 inch) black fish swam and surged around us in all directions. We turned around and made our way back along the reef at a depth of 30 feet. A large (four by two foot) humphead wrasse (a big green fish) came up to check us out and would swim right at us and to within a few feet of our masks before cruising back down towards the bottom of the reef. He stuck around for about five minuets. Ascent, and hey we were straight out from Redwings and were easily picked up.

Colleen, Laura, and Christine were not too comfortable with the idea of snorkeling in the surf that was breaking over the reef so we weighed anchor and headed for the anchorage outside the Full Moon Resort. On the third try, we got the hook to stick in an appropriate place and a recon team went in to check out shore side facilities. I spoke to Raffi on Malcat Singapore and it sounds like they are getting pounded in the Gulf of Mannar (between Sri Lanka and India) by 35-45 knot winds forward of the beam and big seas. Stacy is reportedly "just trying to survive". I hope she is not put off from cruising.....

The shore party reported reasonably priced food - so we went for it. A nice dinner of hard to come by dishes for us, such as steak sandwiches and lasagna, was followed by a gossip session with the crew of Marbella who were also stocking up on restaurant fare. An evening session of hearts, which I easily won for the second night in a row reflecting my superlative card playing skills (even though Laura claimed before the start of the game that she was going to "concentrate" - something she claims not to have been doing during her two previous dismal games), rounded out the evening.

12 February, Thulusdhoo Island, North Male Atoll, Maldives

Aaron - Another sunny and breezy day in the Maldives. We left the Full Moon anchorage around 1100 with a view to getting back to Banana Reef at slack tide for another round of diving. Following our exciting reports, Colleen and Christine were keen to try the dive as well. I went down with Colleen and we did effectively the same dive I had done with Kerry. Unfortunately, we did not see quite as many big fish. We kept it fairly short using only half of our air and then swapped the equipment with Kerry and Christine. Kerry's first time to lead a dive! She is very comfortable in the water though so I was not too worried. Christine seemed pretty comfortable as well and had been diving only a month ago in Sri Lanka. They had a short (Kerry was getting low on air) but successful dive and we were all back safely and invigorated on the boat at around 1330, weighed anchor, and departed for another spot some 15-20 miles up the coast.

On the chart, there were several small coral-ringed lagoons with resort islands on the Indian Ocean side of the reef that looked fairly easy to negotiate and anchor in. However, we were unsuccessful in our first several attempts at various likely spots (bumping and grinding over coral heads several times), and with the sun steadily getting lower (making it tougher and tougher to spot channels through the reefs), I was worried that we might have to go offshore for the night. The chop from the persistent 20 knot winds and strong currents as a result of the spring tides were resulting in lots of wild cross currents, whirlpools, and stacking waves around the various reefs and passages from the atoll out to the open ocean. It was a bit hairy and nerve wracking.

Lets try one more spot a further 10 miles up the line: Thulusdoo Island. I looks like there is a fairly large natural channel at the northern tip of the reef. We arrived at dusk. Sure enough we could see a marked channel (a couple of bent and rusty old posts) and local fishing boats inside, but we were not sure how deep the channel was and or if there were any bombies in the way. We could not raise anyone on the radio so Kerry and Colleen went ahead in the dinghy with our "lead" line to plumb the depth. There was a lot of current in the channel and the "dingies" (i.e. those in the dinghy) could not seem to get a good reading of the depth as the lead ball at the end of the sounding line reportedly "floated". Laura and I did not know what they were doing, or what was going on, but they dingied off and apparently asked someone on shore what the depth was in the channel and then called us via the handheld VHF and informed us that it was four meters deep - supposedly. Well it looked deep enough anyway and Laura was confident that it was from her position on the bow so we went for it - and slid right in with 7 meters under the keel.

We dropped the hook next to a dive boat, the local crew of which eyed us with interest and amusement, and breathed a sigh of relief. The ladies dingied in to check out the town while I cranked up the compressor and filled the dive tanks. On their return, Colleen and Christine whipped up a yummy dinner of potato curry and lentils - mmmmmmmm. Flat calm, peacefully quiet. What a sleep.

13 February, Thulusdoo Island-Meerunfenfushi Island, North Male Atoll, Maldives

Laura - It may have been Friday the Thirteenth, but it really was our lucky day. Yes, sometimes, even in paradise where everyday is pleasant, there can be a favorite day of all days.

For me, the day began with a dive off the boat, the perfect waker-upper. Then Kerry, Christine, Aaron and I went to shore to try to fix up Christine's departure schedule and to have a poke around. We beached the dinghy next to a little girl in a green dress. She waited patiently for us and then produced a big shiny cowry shell, which Kerry promptly bought for a dollar. Soon some little boys came and between diving under the water and playing with each other indicated that they wanted a ride in the dinghy. Aaron said okay, but not now. The boys bounced off into the water.

Kerry cleans out the village shell collection

So, we set out walking the small grid of sand streets that overlies the sand island. The buildings all hunker in the shade of palm trees. The hub of activity is the small pier, next to which we had beached the dinghy. Under a large tree, men and boys drape themselves in hanging chairs that are something like hammocks only with wooden frames. They were all watching the progress of about 75 people who were on the other side of the harbor loading up gunny sacks by hand with sand from a sand bar. They all stood knee-deep in the water and piled the sand bags onto an open boat with a prow like a Viking ship. Later the boats were brought to the pier and the whole village seemed to be on hand to unload them. Must be some sort of reclamation project.

Christine stopped in at the island chief's house and Kerry, Aaron and I wandered on to the store, where warm Coke and non-alcoholic beer are the purchases of choice. Some dusty clothes and pencils and a few canned items were also sold there. Kerry and I wandered down the road, saying hello to people. The kids in particular dropped their play to stare at us and then shout hello. They agreed readily to pictures, but stopped smiling when the lens was pointed at them. Seems pictures are a pretty serious business. One man stopped us and showed us his shells. We bought a handful each for a dollar. They are shiny and pretty and he probably thinks we are nuts for paying what seems like so much to him. So, he kept adding a few more to each baggie and then gave us some tiny apples he had picked off the tree in front of his house. We kept going and looked at all the old houses with walls made of coral. Eventually, we ran into Christine again. She had arranged for a boat to take her to the airport at 2 p.m. It sounded like a good bet.

So, we headed back out to Redwings. Aaron and I soon departed again for my first diving lesson. It didn't last long because there wasn't much air in the tanks, but I got a bit of a feel for breathing underwater. The tanks were so empty and light that we actually had to force our way under the surface. But we saw a big moray eel. That was pretty cool. I look forward to round two.

When we returned to Redwings, Kerry was but a snorkel on the horizon. I took the dinghy across the little harbor and found her quite happily tooting along a reef with a mesh bag of shells in her paw. I went along too for a bit, but I had the dinghy and thought the others needed to go to shore so I didn't stay long. I spent the rest of the morning swimming off the boat and entertaining some guests who swam out to the boat from the village in their sarongs to say hello even though they don't speak English and we don't speak Maldivian.

Two hours later, Kerry swam back with reports of sea turtles and "the best spot ever." Christine had only half an hour to her boat, but she, Colleen and I jumped in the dinghy with Kerry and took off for the outer edge of the reef, where the water turns navy blue. We jumped over the side and it was magnificent. So many fish, including a huge puffer fish. I'm sure each log entry of a good diving or snorkeling spot sounds the same, but each place is truly different in size, number and variety of fish and choral. I liked this spot a lot for the way the color of the water changed. We swam for a half hour or so and then ended up swimming back to Redwings. Soon, a bit too soon, Christine's ride arrived. She was in her bathing suit, only half packed and we had to throw everything together for her and toss her onto the big wooden barge-boat while these guys waited for us.

Christine leaves for Male in her own private Dhoni

After she was gone, the rest of us went to shore and wandered about the Coca Cola plant that gives the island residents some employment. It's a dusty affair with lots of glass bottles and two wooden boats painted red and white and with Coke logos on them. It was a Friday, prayer day, so nobody was working, but we sat for a minute under a tree outside the plant in some of the hanging chairs with some officials from the plant who seemed to double as local customs officials. They seemed amused at our interest in their chairs. A bit more exploring around led us to a small restaurant where fish curry was the dish and the only dish. So, we had fish curry...and cokes. It was quite tasty, although we weren't sure what type of fish it was.

Then, we had to go. At the dinghy on the beach, the shell girl was waiting for Kerry to sell another. The little boys proved too shy to actually get into the dinghy. Older boys threw themselves off the pier in extravagant dives for our entertainment. As we buzzed back to Redwings, a little flock of swimmers trailed us for a ways.

We headed out the harbor with ease, now that we knew the way. We headed northeast to Meerufenfushi. Kerry and I did bow duty, keeping an eye out for those treacherous "bombs" (i.e. coral heads) that lie underwater waiting for us. The way was clear until we got to the reef around Meerufenfushi. We arrived at the supposed channel at the same moment as Marbella, which had come from a point west on the other side of the Atoll. We all looked at the channel and decided no way, too risky a spot to try. So, we headed further north where we knew there was a gap. Marbella soon decided the same and followed about a half mile behind us. We cut into the reef in the face of an incredible current that tried to twist us around and push us toward the reefs. Kerry, Aaron and I screamed back and forth, trying to keep a straight line on the edge of a deep and shallow area. The bombs were everywhere and everything to starboard was hidden by the afternoon sun on the water. It was quite hair-raising. We made it though and we are all quite pleased. I looked back at one point to see Marbella with her sails up, trying to back herself off the reef. So, when we found a reasonably clear spot, we dropped the hook and called it a day.

The reward was fresh bread. Aaron, who has embarked on a new baking experience, had popped bread in the oven before we set out for the afternoon journey. We all were quite hungry and gobbled it up while it was hot.

Day ended with reading, water color painting, and I can't remember what else. Too tired out, I guess. Raffi didn't respond so we assume he made it to Cochin and was at a restaurant dining his big heart out. We all went to bed quite tired out, but pretty damn happy.

14 February, Meerunfenfushi Island, North Male Atoll, Maldives

Kerry - This island turned out to be one of the prettiest and untouched with a resort on it. We learned that it was one of the more low budget places to stay, but it is one that I probably would opt for after seeing the variety we had from Club Med to the others. It has a long winding beach that we didn't even have time to fully walk around the entire island, but I think I made it about half way. Walking in and out of shallow water, I noticed at first what I thought were just some larger fish swimming in and around the major snorkelling areas. At closer glance, I realized they were all baby reef sharks. Only a foot long at this stage, they already had the menacing movements and appearance of what they will shortly grow into. Demonstrating her courage towards the first shark she encountered in the water, Laura kicked water in its direction and the poor, scared baby swam away. Throughout the day, I think I saw a dozen or so.

As pleasant as this island was, the resort also presented the most bureaucracy we encountered as guests in the Maldives. We should have announced ourselves at the reception desk when we arrived which is what most resorts require, but this one was seemingly so mellow, nobody approached us, and so we just forgot about it. Laura proceeded to purchase a postcard stamp at the gift shop, and we then learned that we had to pay for anything we bought on the island there or in any of the restaurants right before leaving the island at the reception desk. So, we were instructed to go to the front desk to pay after the clerk had brought the receipt to the front desk. A couple minutes later, Laura arrived at the front desk, received a thorough lecture on checking in policies, etc, etc. I started seeing waving arms and gesticulations here and there from a distance, and so walked over to join in whatever was taking place. Even though we had checked in then, we weren't allowed to pay as we went, only pay once. We explained this was all we were buying, could we please pay now, but they insisted on waiting to see if we ran up any other charges by whatever time it was we gave them to let them know when we were going back out to Redwings. Through listening to other rules, and reasons why we had to do certain things certain ways with them, the front desk worker said what became one of my favorite lines from the Maldives, "Just try not to think about it so much."

We then went back out to Redwings, and got our diving equipment ready to go. However, I already had one problem with my regulator (a small filter on the first stage became loose, potentially causing an easier flow of water to enter into the tank - unlikely, but still possible), and then I uncovered a second problem. There was a small hissing coming out of my second stage (piece which you have in your mouth, allowing inhaling and exhaling air from the first stage and tank). Aaron correctly surmised that a piece inside needed to be tightened, and that it wouldn't present a problem, but I was too nervous to take a chance, and decided to dinghy back to the island to talk to the PADI office and see if they could fix it. As it was mid-day, one of the dive instructors said I should come back between 6:00 and 7:00 pm as they would all be there then and could probably fix it - but they were all out on dives at the moment. I was really downhearted during this waiting period because I thought the problems, though minor, could put an early end to our diving.

Later, Aaron and I returned and both problems were easily fixed by two of the dive instructors. I was really happy and glad to know the origins of each problem as well. We contemplated signing up for a group dive in the area with the instructors, but decided we liked going to the sites better ourselves and not having to deal with large groups of divers unnecessarily. To make up for the time lost during the day, Aaron suggested a night dive, which I have never tried before. We got ready around 9:00 pm, had two diving lights, and jumped off the boat to swim near a small reef as a trial dive. We didn't hit a great area, but it was still an interesting experience. We saw small shrimp who had a neon red sort of glow at night, and when they propelled themselves through the water, they emitted some sort of neon blue sediment behind them.

Just when we thought we weren't going to see much, I saw a floating, flapping wide arm in the corner of my eye. Right below us was an extremely large manta ray. Aaron and I both had our lights on the ray, which caused him, I thought, to get annoyed because it seemed to have somewhat of a blinding effect. At this point, he turned back our direction which made me really nervous as I thought maybe he was going to seek some revenge, but really he was just trying to get away.

Aaron - The early part of the day was dominated by a search for gasoline. We have only enough to run the dinghy for a bit more and not enough to fill any more dive tanks. If we can't get any here, we've got to move on - possibly to the Northern Atoll. What's the point of cruising the Maldives if you can't get into shore (easily that is - we could of course row) or go diving?

Respectful groveling at the resort and its adjacent dive center (which had several petrol powered dive tank compressors) proved fruitless. They claimed not to have enough on hand to sell any - not even five liters. So Colleen and I decided to risk dingying to the next island down on the reef, which was reportedly a local fishing town, to try our luck there. On arrival, we saw the usual crowd hanging under trees in swings and got the usual relaxed nods and smiles - which we returned while pointing at our 20 liter jerry can and chanting "petrol? petrol?". There were two motor bikes parked alongside the local boy gathering so I knew there must be some about and they knew I knew. While one guy went off to see if any could be found, we went into a shop that was owned by his friend. Only the usual tourist junk (wooden fish and pineapples carved in Indonesia, fish t-shirts made in Thailand, coconut ashtrays made in Sri Lanka, and lots of plastic stuff made in China) but we really need that gas so I bought a shirt. The friend returned empty handed, but when I implored for anything, even a few liters (while the shop owner nodded sympathetically) he went off again and soon came back and indicated his cousin had 7 liters he would sell us.

So off we went in our dingy with cousin Abdullah to his little boat that he uses to take parties of 4-6 Japanese tourists out on reef fishing trips. He has a gasoline generator and also an outboard motor - thus the fuel supply. He sold us 10 liters, which was apparently all he had, for about double the going rate in Male but hey, we really appreciated it as we could now stay a few more days. He showed us some anchorages on the chart for the next atoll up and indicated that at Gaafaru, we could buy more gasoline. We offered to bring him out to see Redwings which we did and he was quite impressed with the boat and systems - especially the GPS which would be "great for fishing" and the two heads.

Back to get Kerry and Laura who were in the final minuets of wrapping up their stamp transaction, and then over to the other island to drop Abdulla and spend some time exploring the island. It was another neat (literally very clean and tidy - the sand streets are swept daily) and friendly town, and Abdulla and a friend guided us around. Someone tried to get us to sign up for a native "cultural" show but the group consensus neged the idea.

So back to Redwings and then out for a snorkel on the main reef and inspection of the western "boat channel" which is supposed to provide a 3-5 meter passage out of the atoll. Ok snorkeling, and yes I'm confident we could get the boat through here if the Northern entrance again looks current ripped. We then whizzed back Kerry and I went to get her dive gear sorted and the rest, you already know..... though I think it was some other kind of a ray than a manta ray - too grey-brownish and it did not have that long thin tail but more of a fat one...

15 February, Meerunfenfushi Island, North Male Atoll, Maldives

Aaron - Armed with plenty of gasoline, we prepared for a day of diving and snorkeling. First, I filled the tanks and then Laura and I dingied off towards the sandy bank just inside the edge of the reef for a second, and more serious, diving lesson. It was a perfect place to practice: a three foot coral patch to anchor the dingy on, a sandy bottom at 10 feet deep just to the side which then drooped sharply to another sandy bottom at 25 feet with little coral heads scattered about. No current, great visibility. The lesson went well and we did a 10 minute dive at 20 feet around the little coral heads. Not a huge amount to see, but Laura really liked it and is now psyched for a real dive.

Back at the boat we filled the tanks again and I popped the bread dough in the oven that had been rising - more hot foccicia for lunch. Live is tough.

In the afternoon, we all went together to the outer edge of the reef that surrounds the lagoon for a diving and snorkeling session. I first went with Laura and we did a nice dive at 30 feet for about 20 minuets. Nothing fabulous, but still pretty good and she is now a real diver. Kerry and I then worked up the reef in the other direction for a half hour or so and saw lots of big fish. Colleen was content to snorkel around on the surface. I think we could all really get used to this. Tomorrow it will be time to get moving again.

16 February,Gaafaru Atoll, Maldives

Laura - We rolled out of Meeru at about 9 a.m. and passed easily out the channel. It's so much easier to see bottom hazards without the afternoon sunlight reflecting on the water. We zipped north to Gaafaru Atoll. The Northern entrance was easy to find and deep. We hooked around the western edge of it and anchored just inside the atoll. The plan was to find the Wreck of the Seagull and dive on it. The POA (plan of action) was that Colleen, who didn't want to dive, would stay with the boat and Aaron, Kerry and I would head off in the dingy with the dive gear. We figured it would be pretty stupid for al four of us to be in the dinghy in an unfamiliar place and have no back-up should something go wrong.

We headed for the deep by crossing a reef that was quite shallow in some spots to get outside the atoll. The wreck was just a half mile west of the entrance. Kerry steered the dinghy while Aaron and I dragged our heads over the side. There were tons of huge fish and Aaron saw a turtle. Finally we spotted some old beams that had been part of the hull of the ship. Judging from the undersea life congregated around the sunken ship, it promised to be a great dive. The current was strong so we headed back to the shallow to anchor. Anchor? Oops we forgot the dinghy anchor. We didn't have enough fuel for someone to drive the dinghy in circles throughout the entire dive so Aaron tried to tie us to a piece of choral. No dice. Even in the shallow places, the water was up to his arm pits and the current so strong he could barely walk. So we hemmed and hawed, frustrated, and finally decided to go back to Redwings (a good half mile) and get the anchor, some more chain and some more fuel. We got Colleen on the VHF to get all supplies ready, which she kindly did.

Back at the boat, Aaron transferred all the fuel we had purchased at Meeru into the dinghy motor's gas can. We set out once again. We only got about 50 feet before the motor quit. Water in the fuel! Aaron tried to start the thing. Cough. Splutter. Quit. We slipped past Redwings. Suddenly, I thought, hmm, this doesn't look promising. Kerry and I each grabbed an oar and began to pull against the current. For a few minutes it was hard to get synchronized because we were sitting on all the dive gear and it was just cramped. But we finally got a rhythm and inched our way back. Needless to say, no diving on this day. What a tease to see all those big fishies!

We steered Redwings toward the island of Gafaaru and anchored as close as we dared with the coral head "bombs" all around. Aaron was prepared to row ashore in search of fuel, but almost immediately a fishing boat pulled up and some guys towed him in. That was quite nice, but then the guys came back and circled Redwings the whole time Aaron was on shore, which made Kerry, Colleen and me a bit nervous at first and then just plain irritated. Kerry hopped over and scrubbed the bottom. She then had to dive for her knife, which she dropped. Finally, the fishermen went away and the three of us swam to a nearby coral head to snorkel. Kerry saw a fish she had never before seen. After a while, we heard the sound of an engine underwater and stuck our heads up. Another boat was towing Aaron back out. He gave the guys a tour of Redwings. those of us in the water were getting a bit chilly, but felt uncomfortable swimming back to the boat and getting out in front of these guys, mostly because they live in a society where women are always covered and were sure to get some long hard stares. So, we hung out in the water until we just felt shriveled. Then the guys left. Aaron flushed out the dinghy motor and put in new fuel by dark.

I think it was lentil dinner and then off to bed. I didn't sleep well. Kerry had been reading "Dangerous Marine Animals" and learned that some of the shells she had been finding on reefs have varieties that house poisonous snails that bite with one tooth. I think she plans to be a bit more cautious when she goes poking at the reefs. So, then I took up the book and stayed up half the night reading about dangerous sharks all of which (except the Great White) seem to inhabit the Indian Ocean. I managed to give myself a good scare. Then I kept hearing motors and the anchor chain was clanking and the moon was so bright it seemed like the sun. Overall, it was not a good slumber.

17 February, Naifaru Island, Faadhippolhu Atoll, Maldives

Kerry - We were able to enforce our "up early and in the dinghy" motto more easily than I had originally thought today. All four of us got into the dinghy by 9:00 am, five including the anchor today, and made our way back out to the wreck site. We thought we knew where it was relative to Redwings and the island, but it still took us quite a while to find it again. I leaned out and over the dinghy with my mask and snorkel on, and Laura did the same on the starboard side while Aaron drove down the curve of the reef trying to relocate our site. It took us about a half an hour, during which time my ears became waterlogged, but it was sort of like riding in a glass-bottom boat, except you have to hang upside down to do see it all with your head in the water. I saw a great many fish along the way, including another sea turtle which I really like finding. Once we found the Wreck of the Seagull, Aaron and I jumped in the water and got our equipment on, while Laura and Colleen prepared for some great snorkelling - the whole edge of the reef and surrounding shallow area was perfect for snorkelling.

Aaron and I went down the wreck to about 125 ft., the farthest we could possibly go as recreational divers. Actually, I am only certified to 60ft., Aaron to 130 as he has his advanced diving certificate. However, some of these opportunities have been to good to pass up. The current was unbelievably strong the whole time, and we constantly had to grab onto pieces of the wreck, rocks, or coral in order to stay in one place. The only thing that I have forgotten to bring with me are diving gloves, so my sailing gloves have had to suffice instead, though they have no protection on the ends of the fingers as they are open-ended. Later that day, one of my fingers stung a little bit, so of course I was convinced from my reading of Dangerous Marine Animals that I had grabbed onto Fire Coral, Millepora alcicornis, and let my finger touch it. Just to be safe, I put some antibiotic cream on it. I doubt I actually did touch anything, since I am so careful about what I grab onto and only to do so lightly, but the drama of Fire Coral is more interesting.

After descending to 125 ft. and seeing what we could of the wreck (there was more, but we would have had to go deeper, and we decided against that - the book listed the wreck no deeper than 80 feet, but maybe it has sunk deeper since its writing), we ascended to about 80 feet and did a drift dive down the rest of the side of the reef. It was a good dive, and a challenging one, which incorporated a lot of different skills. We surfaced, and yelled to Laura and Colleen who then came to pick us up after their snorkelling excursion.

After returning to Redwings and putting the equipment away, we set off for our next anchorage. Unfortunately, the light was fading, it was hard to read the reefs and we finally bumped into one, prompting us to move on to our next potential anchorage. We came to an island which apparently had a large village on it which was not shown on our chart and we found our way there and to a good anchorage. As we hadn't much light, we continued to approach the island more closely, until realizing when we began to let out the anchor that we were only 5 or 10 feet away from the reef surrounding the island. So, Aaron put us in reverse and we anchored at a safe distance away. Fast asleep, I was not involved with an incident later in the evening when a boat approached and tried to tie on to us, peddling fish at 1:30 am to Aaron and Colleen. I had immediately noticed a very fishy smell in the air when we anchored (upon investigating in the morning, most of the dried fish stands were set up right on the coast off of our anchorage). There were also many annoying flying ants all around. Though the cats didn't get them all, they certainly attacked their share which helped cut down on our guests.

18 February, Evening Position: 6 deg N, 73 deg E

Laura - Headed for shore in the morning, pulling up in the armpit of the town of Naifaru. Dead fishheads and trash littered the muck on the beach. We knew there had to be a prettier landing spot, but we didn't know where. The town was the biggest yet (about 6,000 people) and had a tuna cold storage place nearby. Lots of dried tuna lined the streets on tables. Fragrants, not all of them pleasant, reverberated in the air of this relatively more commercial port. We explored the shops and walked many of the streets, taking note of the big, modern school on one end of the island. People were friendly, once again, but at one point a very sweaty woman gave me a stern lecture about something. My Maldivian isn't very good and the only English she seemed to know was "Hello. How are you? Where you from?" But, she went on and on, and a small crowd gathered to watch. At the end she pumped my hand up and down a few times and said "Bye" and marched off. I tried to smile pleasantly throughout. I'm fairly sure that at least part of it concerned my legs. We were all wearing shorts, which we shouldn't have been I guess. Women are expected to wear long pants or a sarong and often long sleeves. In Male and at the resorts it hadn't mattered. We vowed not to make the mistake again as we had clearly upset this person and probably others who weren't as outspoken. Besides, since we are headed for the Red Sea countries we'd better get used to it.

Later, we took off for another wreck dive. We anchored Redwings in beautifully clear water along the side of a picture-perfect island. Aaron, Kerry and I dingied across a reef to the other side to a spot where two Japanese refrigeration ships are sunk. The bow of one of the ships sticks dramatically out of the water as if it is in the midst of sinking. I hung out in the dingy while the other two dove for 26 minutes. I hung my face over the side and checked out all the fish, but I didn't snorkel because I didn't want to move the dingy off the reef. It was one of Aaron's favorite dives. He saw a school of plate-sized angel fish and some other beauties.

Then Kerry and I then went for a dive. I only wanted to go to 30 feet since I'm still so inexperienced. So, we saw what we could at that depth. The rusty ship was pretty eerie and neat. I was wearing Aaron's dive computer which started beeping. I knew I didn't have enough weight on because I had to keep swimming to stay down and I had inadvertently risen about 10 feet at a rate the dive computer determined was too fast. Not a big deal, but since I had never used it before I got a bit confused and thought it meant it was time to go up because air was low. In reality, the computer is not connected to the air gauge. Kerry meanwhile thought I was violating a cardinal diving rule and not letting my buddy know I was heading up. Anyway, I figured it all out and we stayed down a bit longer and swam along the reef. Then we headed back. When we popped up, it had only been eight minutes. It seemed a lot longer. Oh well. The world's shortest dive I guess! I saw tons more fish on the dingy ride back because there was no wind and the water was like a window.

The afternoon entertainment was to take Basil ashore to the island in a canvas bag. Sybil wouldn't even get in the dingy. She made an amazing leap to get back on Redwings. Basil went along with it. He's sort of mellow like that. He didn't seem exactly happy or relaxed on his outing, probably because he was scared of the dingy motor and then of the resident crows on the island who didn't care for his company and showed it by diving at his head. But, he rolled around on his back a little, just like the good old days on the Boat Lagoon dock. Colleen found a huge clam shell.

Aaron and Colleen did a bit of snorkeling and then we departed for our overnight trip to the northern Maldives. It was smooth motoring and Kerry, Aaron and I did a major clean-up of the decks with teak cleaner and all while it was still light out. Aaron put sealant around the base of the binnacle.

Then we began night watch rotation and kept careful track to stay well clear of land and mind the currents.

19 February, Uligamu Island, Ihavandhippu Atoll, Northern Maldives

Laura - Well, apparently last night we almost ran into an atoll. That's the kind of thing that perhaps I'd rather sleep through. Funny thing, I did. Almost don't count when it comes to atolls, but I guess that will teach us all to be a bit more on our toes when we get so close to land.

So, we pulled into Uligami Island at about 8 a.m. Several yachts already had their hooks dropped there. It was sort of nice to have company, although we didn't recognize any of them. A friendly Spanish guy named Pedro gave us the scoop on the island over the VHF.

Redwings at anchor at Uligamu

Well, everyone was pretty tired out so we crashed out until about noon. I couldn't really sleep though and ended up doing some reading and some odd chores instead. Finally we rallied and shoved for shore in the dinghy, only to be intercepted by customs officials on a big flatbed boat. Well, it turned out to be the same customs guy we had in Male. During the time we were in the Maldives he got transferred up north. He charged us $5 and after a bit of a wait, some socializing and some cold drinks, we were given permission to go ahead.

Now, it seems that Uligami is just starting to get the hang of what it might mean to make some money catering to the yachts that have visited them during the last four seasons. We were met by several locals, including a guy named Mohammed (what else) who showed us to his house near the dock. He said he would sell us diesel, some food, he could organize a barbecue for us. Best of all, we could do laundry at his house for free. Now, we had learned from Pedro that both Mohammed and the Island Chief (Hussaan) would try to sell us diesel, but that the chief tended to sell dirty fuel. So, Aaron got the price for diesel from Mohammed for 200 gallons and said he would buy it.

Kerry and I wandered off to the Post Office and bought some air mail stamps in a confusing transaction in which we ended up with three stamps, a post card and a 50 Ruffia piece. We got all that for $1, which is the equivalent of 10 Ruffia. An air mail stamp costs 7 Ruffia. We tried to pay more, but the guy wouldn't let us. Whatever.

Then, we all set out in search of a few basic provisions. Pretty soon the entire village seemed to be helping us out. First, were the eggs. One local we met, nicknamed John Cougar by Colleen, I think in honor of his hairdo, told us local free-range eggs are better then imported Sri Lankan eggs. He took us to a friend's house. This woman's name is Havaa. She had about 10 eggs that she sold us for $2. Then she insisted that we stay for a drink. By this time, we had a following of about 10 people. We had been careful so far about not drinking Maldivian water because we had read that it might not be the greatest. But, there we were, in this woman's coral walled house and we couldn't exactly turn down the sweet lemon drinks she so happily prepared us. So we drank up and then had refills. So, then we stayed to buy bananas. For this, we went into the back yard and Havaa's son cut a big bunch off her tree. We asked for 30, but got 20 by Maldivian count. We didn't really care. Everyone at the house gathered around for this exchange as well and Havaa pointed out who in the crowd were her children. She gave my arm a squeeze.

Next potatoes were on the list. John Cougar turned us over to a 14-year-old boy named Niaz. He became our biggest help. What a great kid. I thought he was only about 10 years old because he is quite small, but he had a calm about him that made him seem older. He took us all around, stopping at many houses. He even climbed a tree to get us a guava. And somewhere along the way we picked up a couple of papaya from someone else's house. Colleen gave him a dollar for all his help. Another boy, Hussaan, age 12, gave us some strange waxy fruits that grew on trees. They left viscous red fibers in our teeth, but he was quite nice to make the offer. He and I talked for a little while. He told me about school. I eventually gave him my pen, to help out with school. He seemed a bit surprised, but put it carefully in his breast pocket. Then he gave me a handful of shells. If I ever have kids I hope they are as nice as these Maldivian boys.

We only worried that we were sapping the island of their nutrition supply for months. I mean, if we have trouble finding fresh vegetables, I imagine they simply aren't available. Fish curry seems to be the staple food. I guess I shouldn't be surprised the kids are small.

We also got roped into going to the Chief's house for orange drinks. He wanted to sell us diesel too and said he would offer a big discount. ($70 for 200 liters versus Mohammed's price of $100 for 200 liters). Aaron had already told Mohammed that he would buy from him and it became a bit sticky since these guys were obviously in competition. We knew it wouldn't do to piss off the Chief, but we had been warned about the quality of his diesel. So, we made off and Aaron told Mohammed that if he could match the Chief's price we'd still buy from him. (Next morning Mohammed just sent his diesel out with no further ado matching the chief's price.)

So, then it was back to the boat for a few hours of deck scrubbing, cleaning and maintenance. Late in the day, Kerry, Colleen and I took the dinghy ashore and took a long walk on the beach. The island turned out to be the best shell collecting spot yet. I guess it hadn't been picked over too much. Kerry had her nose buried in the sand, as usual.

I can't recall the rest of the night so it must have passed as usual. Oh, wait. No wonder I blocked it out. I had to cook dinner. It was pasta and chick peas or something imaginative yet not too succulent like that.

20 February,Uligamu Island, Ihavandhippu Atoll, Northern Maldives

Colleen - Our last day in the Maldives before departing on the c.1200 mile passage to Salalah Oman. Bit of a shame we have so much work to do, and can't spend more time exploring this lovely area. Uligamu is definitely my favorite island. Its the most pristine, pure village life we've seen; sand streets, most homes made from coral chunk, sweet courtyards at every corner with homemade swings hanging from shady trees. Kerry, Laura and I dingied ashore to do our laundry from a well, while Aaron stayed aboard to begin the slow, arduous, and messy (!) task of filtering and funneling Diesel into the tanks from jerry cans.

Our laundry washing was not without drama. Laura accidentally dropped a bucket down the well, that we couldn't retrieve. Eventually we consulted Mohammed and had to lower Niaz down into the well with three of us holding his limbs. We bought some more potatoes from the yacht services man, and a few more eggs. Niaz had managed to locate 10 more free range eggs in the village over night. There was a sniff in the air that we might be able to find a "pumpkin" somewhere.

I set off with Niaz through the village. We ended up in his mother's kitchen. Two huge pumpkins were hanging from the rafters. For 4$ I bought what must be at least a 12lb pumpkin.

Back on the boat we somehow managed to find the room to hang all our laundry. Aaron was still at the diesel, which ultimately ended up being a full day job. The diesel was so dirty, he could only filter it in at a very slow rate, using a tea strainer and another finer filter. Kerry, Laura and I set to cleaning up. Kerry attacked the bilge first under her cabin where we had begun storing tomato cans since leaving Phuket. Disaster was revealed...Several of the cans had exploded or leaked, and a frothing cauldron of tomato biology had developed. They all had to be pulled up and the whole area cleaned out. It was pretty disgusting, but the fish on the reef below seemed to enjoy the tomatoes.

We all worked away scrubbing and organizing, on the outside and inside of the boat. Finally at 6pmish, Laura and I were allowed one last swim in the waters of the Maldives to cool down before a dinner of eggs and hashbrowns from Kerry (our diet is becoming very potato-centric; pumpkin and potatoes, and onions is the extent of our fresh vegetable store for the next passage). Everyone soon drifted off the bed after dinner...

Colleen on the beach at Uligamu

February 21, Day 1 Passage from Maldives to Oman

Colleen - So far, so good, but hate to jinx us. Our first day out, on what we estimate will be an 8 day voyage, and the seas seem a lot smoother than our previous two passages. We pulled out of Uligamu promptly by 8:00 am, heading Northwest with a bearing of 303` on the compass. Its a straight line from here to Oman. We ran the engine most of the day to top up on water, and wait for a better wind angle. We are actually close-hauled for the first time. Aaron made foccacio for lunch which went down well, and I served, surprise, surprise, potato curry for dinner. Our new watch schedule is 6-9 Colleen, 9-12 Laura, 12-3 Kerry, 3-6 Aaron. After dinner we chattered on the SSB radio with all the yachts in the area making the same passage. Raffi on Malakat Singapore is about a day and a half behind us it appears. He's much slower with less wind than us.

I enjoyed my 6-9pm watch. The weather is cooler than Southeast Asia (I need a light sweater), and the evening seemed very peaceful. Sleeping was a bit of a challenge during Laura's 9-12 watch though. The wind had picked up and the boat was significantly heeled to the port side.We were all smushed to the left sides of our beds. Basil trying to sleep on me proved an adventure in the conditions. Kerry probably had it the worst sleeping in the forward cabin. She was bouncing up above her bed with each wave.

Back to Redwings Homepage

Copyright ©1999 All Rights Reserved by Aaron Henderson and Colleen Duggan