Chagos to Seychelles

 

The coconut crabs have grown a bit since they became protected

We managed to be in Chagos (Salomon Atoll) for the exact dates on our permit (May 1 through May 28), which is pretty lucky given the vagaries of wind and weather. We saw exactly three boats while we were there (not counting the illegal fishing boat that we spotted several miles away): Time Bandit, Skylark, and Georgia. For about a week, it was just us and the wildlife.

Gan, Maldives to Chagos

Passages are not my favorite part of cruising. Too often it's a bad version of Snow White's dwarves: Sleepy, Grumpy, Queasy. For this trip, 2 new dwarves decided to join in: Squally and Lumpy (the seas). On the bright side, we had mostly decent winds, were visited by pods of hundreds of dolphins, and the boobies that took refuge on our boat at night generally behaved themselves (no crash landing or throwing up on our heads as has been reported by other boats).

We managed to just beat the setting sun and pull into the Salomon atoll during daylight after two and a half days of sailing with just a few hours of motor-sailing at the beginning and end. The ability to sail was a good thing because our starboard engine decided to overheat and develop a leak at the heat exchanger cap bolt, leaving it out of commission until we can figure out what's ailing it. Our last day was spent dodging squalls with the accompanying reefing and unreefing of sails (lather, rinse, repeat) but we averaged 7 to 9 knots of boat speed. At the end, we were rewarded by the welcome sight of the lush Chagos isles, tiny fish jumping like popcorn, and a much anticipated good night's rest. We happily fell asleep to the sound of rain that we didn't have to sail through.

The next day, we stopped by to say hi to Time Bandit, who had gotten there a couple weeks earlier, and then went off to try our luck at trolling a lure from the dinghy. About two minutes in, we had hooked a little tunny. The cruisers who raved about the fishing were not exaggerating. One of the resident black-tip sharks happily gobbled up the remains after we filleted our catch.

To Chagos and beyond

 

And, just like that (it seems), our three months in the Maldives is over and we head for Chagos. The weather and wind predictions are about as good as we can expect for this leg of our journey. We will probably have to motor at the beginning, until our wind fills in, and there may be some squalls. But we will be happy if we get some wind and not too many squalls.

Hunt for the Wilderchildren

 

Notice: Google has notified us that our email subscription service is ending in July and users will no longer receive automated notifications when we post a new blog entry. Bear with us as we try to figure out what we need to do.

If you haven't seen The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, I highly recommend it. This photo above is a shot from our own 'private' island (occasionally visited by locals but not since the start of Ramazan). Conrad is expressing himself using found objects, a.k.a. garbage, of which there is plenty unfortunately.

I don't care what anyone says, we love the Maldives

 

Auto-color in Photoshop gave this a weird look, but it's better than the original, washed out underwater camera coloring.

Before we got to the Maldives, the few recent reports we read were not particularly positive. 'It's expensive.' 'The coral is dead.' 'You can't go where you want.' Of course, the most recent reports were from cruising friends and acquaintances that were here in 2020, which was a bad time for everyone.

$30 in a restaurant...

 

The dodgy pier at the abandoned resort at Dholhiyadhoo

Sometimes we play a game at dinner where we say how much we think our entree would cost if we bought it in a restaurant in the States (have I mentioned that we don't have a TV?). Yesterday, Matt made a lobster risotto and we threw out some numbers, then settled on 'Market Price' because of the lobster. It was good but could have benefited from some white wine.

Death of a Sailboat (don't worry--not ours)

Sachiyo looking like she's seen better days.
But this was the best we ever saw her.

This is a post we wrote awhile back but never published. We're still enjoying the Maldives. Yesterday Matt and the boys swam with dolphins (well, 'with' might be overstating things since the dolphins were just going about their business, but they didn't swim away).

 

We spent over four months with a view of this steel sailboat from our spot on the opposite wall in Galle Harbor. Apparently, she sailed from India to Sri Lanka years ago (the stories range from 5 to 10 years). 

She didn't have an inboard engine, but tried to leave Sri Lanka with a small outboard.  After the engine died and the boat was damaged in a storm, it was towed back to the port and tied up. The owner went away and the years went by.