April 2017 - Maldives

1 April 2017   Dhigurah,  South Ari Atoll
The rest of the fleet moved off to an island 25 miles ENE of Dhigurah, but we couldn’t face another small island tour, so we stayed for the day, planning to a dive with “Jackster”.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t too good and Jacqui has developed a cold, so after a bit of prevaricating, we cancelled the dive.  

The wind was blowing steadily from the north west, bringing 2 foot wind waves into the anchorage, so we upped anchor and moved a couple of miles to get some shelter behind a shallow reef.  We anchored at 03°31.26N 072°54.14E in 7 metres on sand, which was a little more sheltered than the main anchorage and much prettier.

The reef looked inviting, so we went snorkelling on the western edge of a sea mount at 03°31.45N 072°54.11E.  The coral is 90% dead, but it was an attractive slope with lots of fish - we spotted Blacktip Reef Sharks, Whitetip Reef Sharks and a huge Grouper.  If you ignore that the coral is dead and focus on the structure of the reef, it’s not too bad - I’m much more positive today.

2 April 2017   Dhigurah,  South Ari Atoll
I climbed out of bed; did my ablutions; leisurely brushed my teeth; and then looked at my phone.  There was a message from  Kia on “Atea” saying that they were going diving at 08:15.  Bloody Hell - that’s in 30 minutes and we’re anchored two miles away.  Glenys looked dazed as I started the engine and started pulling up the anchor.

We motored across the lagoon - Glenys navigating, while I dragged out and assembled our scuba gear.  After gulping down a bowl of breakfast cereal, we jumped in the dinghy and met up with “Atea” & “Jackster”.   We all raced off in our dinghies to follow a local dive boat - Kia from “Atea” had arranged for them to show us a dive called Kudarah Thila, which is in the main channel at 03°33.538N 72 55.431E.

There was a stiff, 10-15 knot wind blowing, raising 2-3 foot waves, so it was tough going for ten minutes in our small dinghies.  The dive boat stopped over the isolated reef and let us tie our dinghies to their boat.  The dive was very good.  It’s a lump of reef that sticks up from the 40 metre deep channel.  There was a strong current running, but the dive master knew his way around the currents.  The reef was in very good condition with lots of healthy coral, sea fans and soft corals.

After a bouncy ride back to the anchorage, we ran our dive compressor and filled our tanks.  We’d just started to relax when Jess and Mairy from “Ngalawa” came over and told us that they’d been snorkelling at a Manta Cleaning Station.  Well we couldn’t miss out on this and zipped over with our snorkelling gear.  We saw a couple of Giant Manta hover over a patch of coral rubble to patiently wait while small cleaner wrasses nibbled parasites from their bodies.

Unfortunately, the site was over ten metres deep and when I snorkelled down to take a photograph, I scared the first Manta away, so I remained on the surface after that.  Dave and Jacqui from “Jackster” took their dive tanks and lay static on the sea bed, which was a much better idea and didn’t spook the Mantas, so they got a much closer look at the huge creatures.

In the afternoon, “Atea” picked up a dive instructor, who had agreed to guide us to a prime dive site.  There was a bit of discussion and finally he took us to a site called “Seventh Heaven” about 2 miles NNE from the anchorage.  It was a very tough bash getting there, but at least there were five dinghies going out, so we had backup.  There was an incredible current on the dive site, so it took us ages to sort out the dinghies and get down the anchor line.  

The “guide” didn’t speak much English and stayed in one of dinghies, so there was confusion about where we were supposed to go.   We headed up current, which was strong on top of the reef, but dropped off once we went over the edge.  It was another nice dive site with lots of soft corals and fish, so it looks like the deep reefs in the channels have survived the Bleaching Event - I guess because the strong currents bring in cooler water.

By the time that we got back to the anchorage, a squall had passed over bringing strong winds, so it was very bouncy in the anchorage - we ran away and re-anchored by the reef in the same place as last night, where it was much calmer.

After three dives on fabulous reefs with colourful hard and soft corals, I’m starting to feel much better about the Maldives.  However, there's no doubt that the shallow reef is mostly dead, so snorkelling is somewhat depressing and the culture of the islands is uninteresting, so I think that we’ll still leave the Maldives much sooner than planned.

3 April 2017   Dhigurah to Jinnathugau, North Nilandhe Atoll
After four nights in Dhigurah, we decided that it was time to move on.  We couldn’t leave the island without one last attempt to see Whale Sharks, so we motored slowly along the south-east shore, staying 50 metres from the reef.  I stood on the bow for three hours, looking for dark shadows in the water, but alas, no Whale Sharks - ah well, perhaps somewhere else.

There was absolutely no wind, so we motored south-east down to the North Nilandhe Atoll, staying outside the north-east side and entering through a pass at 03°13.94N 073°01.96E.  Three miles inside the atoll, we entered the fringing reef of Jinnathugau at 03°11.73N 072°59.51E and anchored at 03°11.89N 072°59.50E in 24 metres of water on sand.  What a fabulous spot - a 400m diameter lagoon surrounded by reef and a small deserted island.  The water colours are beautiful.

We hopped into the dinghy and went for a snorkel on the reef to the west of the entrance channel.  It wasn’t too bad, but most of the coral was dead and the water was murky.  Nevertheless, it kept us occupied for an hour with some interesting coral formations.  With the lack of live coral, I’ve gone all artistic and started to take Black and White photos of the reef structure - well, it’s something to do.

4 April 2017   Jinnathugau, North Nilandhe Atoll
We had a lazy start to the day and pottered about.  Mid-morning, we went snorkelling on an isolated reef located ¼ mile north-west from the anchorage at 03°12.18N 072°59.12E.  It was pretty good - the coral was in slightly better condition (20% alive) and there were crinoids, anemones and some patches of sponges.  I guess that there’s a strong current sometimes, but we hit it at high tide, so there was no current.

The weather was miserable in the afternoon, with squalls going through, so we hunkered down and read our books.  The thunder, strong winds and rain continued into the night.

5 April 2017   Jinnathugau to Hulhudhelee Dekunu, South Nilandhe Atoll
It was a restless night with squalls going through - Glenys was awake for a couple of hours in the middle of the night counting the seconds between lightning and thunder.  

However, by 08:00 it had cleared up and we had a cracking sail down to Hulhudhelee Dekunu.  The wind was 10-15 knots from the south-west, which put us hard on the wind, but in the flat seas, it was a fun challenge to squeeze past the various reefs - sometimes passing within 20 metres of the shallow coral.  I must admit to using the engine a couple of times to “power-tack”, and point 20 degrees higher than we could under sail alone.

We anchored at 02°49.75N 072°50.36E in 14 metres of water amongst lots of coral patches, so I clipped a couple of fenders onto our anchor chain to lift it off the seabed and try to prevent it snagging on the coral.  As usual, we were soon in the dinghy and off snorkelling, but it wasn’t very interesting with murky water because we’re inside a lagoon.

We’re travelling in company with four boats “Atea”, “Ngalawa” and “Jackster” - we've temporarily split from the rally because we’re all more interested in diving than the rather boring island visits.  Dave and Jacqui from “Jackster” invited everyone over for sun-downers.

6 April 2017   Hulhudhelee Dekunu to Kadufushi, Kolhumadulu Atoll  
We’re all keen to re-join the rally in three days’ time, so we upped anchor and headed 25 miles south.  When we left, the weather was unsettled with large rain clouds around, so it was a bit nerve wracking feeling our way out of the reef in the poor light.  Once under way, we were able to sail, but after ten minutes a squall hit us, making us put in a quick reef; and then the wind backed by 30 degrees, forcing us to turn on the engine.

It settled down after half an hour and we were able to sail again, which was nice.  We exited the south channel of the atoll and headed across to Kolhumadulu Atoll, reading our books and chilling out.  Then a squall sneaked up on us and we had such a strong gust that the boat broached, heeled over to 50 degrees and veered upwind.  We both scrabbled for the main sheet, but Glenys was faster, dumping the mainsail and restoring a bit of order.  

After a frantic bit of reefing, we were soon back on course with 25 knot winds.  I then noticed that our fishing line was now wrapped around our wind generator, which is eight foot above our deck, so we must have heeled a lot.  It took ages to untangle it all.

We arrived in Kadufushi, via the nearby pass, without any more traumas and anchored at 02°31.26N 072°58.61E in 14 metres on sand, but between lots and lots of small reefs.  Our anchor is in a nice big patch of sand, but after we’d put out 50 metres of chain, we’d backed over the edge of a large reef patch.  I jumped in the water and I estimate that the shallowest part of the reef is 4 metres, so with our 2 metre draft, we should be okay.  The anchor is well buried in sand, so after putting some fenders on the chain, I feel fairly comfortable.

The anchorage is pleasant, tucked behind a long reef and there’s a pretty island about ¾ mile away, so we grabbed our snorkelling gear and headed for land.  It's a small deserted island, with a white sand beach and a few coconut palms.  I guess that it would be a dream destination for most people, but we just had a cursory look for shells, didn’t find any, so ten minutes later we were off snorkelling.

There’s a narrow pass next to the island, but there was a strong out-going current, so we looked for a more settled place.  We jumped in the water just south of the island, but sadly the coral was all dead and there weren’t many fish.  By this time, there was a nasty squall line building upwind, so we headed back to Alba and snorkelled on our “House Reef”, which is surprisingly good.  A huge 5 foot  Barracuda spotted us and came over to check us out, but didn’t come any closer than 20 metres. 

The squall hit us mid-afternoon, with 25 knot winds for a few hours, so we hunkered down and worried about the reef behind us.  Fortunately, it calmed down in the evening and we had steady 10-15 knot winds all night.

7 April 2017   Kadufushi, Kolhumadulu Atoll  
The rest of the rally is travelling down to the south of this atoll, planning to get to a village called Veymandhoo tomorrow, so we decided to stay here for the day and travel down tomorrow as well.  There’s a dive called Marea Kandu at 02°31.711E 72°58.056, which is on the outside corner of the pass.  We briefly considered doing the dive this morning, but with the 15 knot NW wind, we felt that the waves and conditions could be a bit gnarly for our small dinghies.  I think that it might be good in settled conditions though…  

Glenys did some serious spring cleaning in the boat and I was totally lazy, filling two dive tanks and then going for two dives on our House Reef.  I had a fabulous time.  I know that you’re not supposed to dive by yourself, but it’s bliss for a photographer.  Normally I’m under pressure to keep moving by my dive buddies, but this morning I spent 20 minutes in one spot, photographing a nudibranch from various angles and changing the strobe lighting.  I’m not sure of the name of the creature, but it was some kind of Chromodoris.

I sloped off for another hour long dive in the afternoon.  I couldn’t find any more nudibranchs, but I took macro photographs of Coral Polyps and found a stunning clam.  It was only 1½” long, but through my macro lens, the colours and the detail of the eyes & tiny tentacles was amazing.

Our mini fleet went ashore to the deserted island for sundowners, which was nice apart from the terns dive-bombing us to protect their nests.  They’re only small birds, but are quite scary when they zoom a couple of feet past your ear screeching (and they have very sharp looking beaks…)

8 April 2017   Kadufushi to Veymandhoo, Kolhumadulu Atoll  
We’ve been living on Alba for exactly six years today, so I worked out a few statistics.  In the past twelve months, we’ve sailed 4,369 nautical miles bringing our total to 31,339 since we moved aboard.  We’re now at 73 degrees of longitude, meaning that we’ve done 63% of our circum-navigation.  

In the last year, we’ve run the engine for 523 hours, which at 5 knots equates to 2,618 miles and means that we’ve spent 60% of our time motoring.  This is a horrible statistic, but we didn’t do much sailing in Malaysia and Thailand and since Sri Lanka, the winds have been light to non-existent.  Hopefully, we’ll be sailing more for the rest of our Indian Ocean Crossing.

It was a lovely day with a light 6-12 knot wind on our starboard quarter, so I dragged out our asymmetrical spinnaker.  We haven’t used it since we laid the new teak deck over a year ago.  When I went to fit the short bowsprit, I couldn’t lock it in place because the bracket bolted to the deck was at the wrong angle.  It took me half an hour to remove it and pack it out with some washers.  Once we had the spinnaker up, we had a fabulous sail for a few hours, sliding through the calm waters at 4-6 knots in the light winds.

We arrived at the anchorage at Veymandhoo in the middle of the afternoon.  Fortunately, there was good sunlight, so we were able to see the tiny channel through the reef at 02°11.4634 N 073°05.4404 E.  Although it’s quite deep with at least 4 metres of water, it’s very narrow and “Hokulea” who are a 10 metre wide catamaran couldn’t get through into the anchorage.  We anchored at 02°11.34N 073°05.29E in a clear patch of sand in 7 metres depth.  There are a lot of shallow bommies about, so I’m glad that we had good light.

After snorkelling to check the anchor, we had a quiet afternoon and then went over to “Atea” who hosted a sundowner party for the whole fleet of about 20 people.  It was a quite a crowd on their small 45 foot monohull.

9 April 2017   Veymandhoo, Kolhumadulu Atoll  
It was a bit of a bouncy night.  The reef surrounding the anchorage doesn’t give much protection and the remorseless south-east swell came rolling over making us pitch a lot.  “Atea” hosted a planning meeting for the rally boats.   Most of us have had enough of the welcoming events at the villages and want to spend a week in more isolated anchorages and get some snorkelling and diving done.  We cancelled the next two stops and will spend a week chilling out in the North Huvadhoo Atoll. 

Just before lunch, Glenys and I went ashore to buy some petrol and provisions.  The petrol was simple because there is a fuel store next to the dock in the small fishing harbour.  Glenys bought a few vegetables and some soft drinks to go with our rum.  The village has about 1,000 inhabitants and as usual the streets are hard packed sand.  

The Maldivian people are very reserved and the women are all dressed in dull coloured, full length gowns with head scarves.  To my western eye, they all look pretty miserable - a huge contrast to the colourful joyful people that we saw on the small islands in Polynesia.  Everyone in the Maldives is Muslim - it’s an enforced religion.  I guess that I’d be miserable if I had to pray five times a day and had to wear sweltering, full length clothes and scarves.

There were no restaurants, other than a gloomy looking café full of men, so we abandoned the idea of eating out for lunch and returned back to Alba.  It was an unpleasant afternoon in the 2 foot wind waves - not my favourite anchorage.

In the late afternoon, we went ashore for a welcome event.  We were given a drinking coconut and sat for 30 minutes watching a group of young men sing traditional songs accompanied by three drums.  Meanwhile, the women of the village kept a distance from the event huddled together in a glum cluster of robes and hijabs.  We didn’t bother to go on the tour of the village.

10 April 2017   Veymandhoo to Kunahandhoo, Hadhohunmathee Atoll  
After breakfast, we pulled up the anchor and had a good sail down to next atoll, which has the unpronounceable name of Hadhohunmathee Atoll .  We entered the atoll through a narrow pass at 01°54.93N 073°14.44E, which was very pretty with a couple of deserted islands.  After a further ten mile sail through the atoll, we arrived at the small village of Kunahandhoo, which has a narrow channel leading to the small fishing harbour.  

There are two passes through shallow reefs to be negotiated at 01°48.02N 073°22.26E and 01°47.67N 073°22.21E, neither of which are very clear on Google Earth.  However, they are both marked by short poles, so we were able to get into the anchorage without any traumas.  We anchored at 01°47.42N 073°22.10E in 10 metres on good holding sand.   Again it’s not a very well protected anchorage in these strong west winds, so we were pitching - we’ve decided to move on tomorrow.

11 April 2017   Kunahandhoo to  Koolamafushi, North Huvadhoo Atoll  
The alarm went off at 05:30 and, with over 60 miles to go, we were pulling up the anchor at 06:00, just as the sun peeked over the horizon.  “Jackster” was first off the blocks and motored towards the first pass, then suddenly stopped as they hit a shallow patch of reef.  They backed off and circled around, while we motored towards the pass.  I must admit to a little chuckle and I was looking forward to pulling Dave’s leg about going aground.

I was on the bow and Glenys was on the helm as we approached the markers for the pass. We’d had at least 4 metres of water when we came in the previous day, so I wasn’t overly concerned.  Unfortunately, we passed very close to the starboard pole and (you guessed it) we came to a grinding halt as we hit the same shallow spot that had caught “Jackster”.  In the poor light, I’d only spotted the shallow coral a few seconds before we hit, so Glenys had no time to react to my frantic instructions to turn to port.

We backed off, circled and went through again, but this time favouring the port side of the channel.  Following us,  “Jackster” and “Ngalawa” made it through safely, but interestingly “Luna Blue” hit the same spot when they came through 10 minutes later.  Call ourselves Ocean Voyagers - 3 out of the 4 yachts went aground…

After checking the bilges to make sure that we weren’t sinking, we headed out to sea and started to sail.  Unfortunately, the wind was too southerly for us to hold the rhumb line and there were 2 metre waves against us, so if we tried to point too high then we were stopped by the waves.  We knew that we had to maintain at least five knots to be able to make landfall before sunset, so we had to put the engine on and spent the whole day bashing into the waves and the 15 knot wind.

It was very unpleasant, particularly because we had a ½ to 1 knot current against us for the last 25 miles.  Despite leaving at 06:00, we only just made it to Koolamafushi before sunset.  Fortunately, the pass at 00°51.99N 073°10.89E, is ½ mile wide and at least 15 metres deep, so entry in the fading light was safe.  We anchored at 00°50.77N 073°11.18E in 17 metres of sand.

In retrospect, it would have been a much more pleasant trip if we’d travelled overnight - without the pressure of maintaining a 5.0 knot average, we could have sailed rather than motoring.  The highlight of the day was catching a large Dorado - the first one for ages.

12 April 2017   Koolamafushi, North Huvadhoo Atoll  
It was very rolly last night with a two foot swell coming around the corner through the pass, but we decided to stay for the day with the rest of the fleet.   We went snorkelling in the morning close to the island to the north of the anchorage - not particularly inspiring with lots of dead coral, but some live coral hanging on.  There wasn’t a great variety of sea life, but a large shoal of Parrotfish gave some interest.

We spent the afternoon pottering about on-board.  I ran the water-maker, but after half an hour, the damn generator started hunting again and stalled the water-maker pump.  I still think that the problem is loose contacts on the fuel pump relay, but I couldn’t motivate myself to do any work on the hot generator. 

It was Eric’s birthday, so we were all invited over to “Hokulea” to help him celebrate.

13 April 2017   Koolamafushi to  Lhossah, North Huvadhoo Atoll  
We were woken up last night by someone shouting “Hello” outside our boat.   Dragging ourselves out of bed, we found a local guy in a 5 metre long, heavy, fibreglass boat hanging onto our port side.  He didn’t speak much English, so there was much confusion for five minutes, especially because he had a horrible piece of rusty steel bar sticking out from the side of his boat, which would have gouged our topsides, if I didn’t keep telling him to fend off.

We eventually gathered that he had been fishing along the shallow reef using a long pole to punt about.  The strong wind and current had pushed him out to sea.  He had no engine, no paddle and no rudder on the boat, so he was lucky to get blown into us otherwise goodness knows where he would have ended up.

I situations like this I’m always worried about our safety.  Was this a scam to steal my dinghy and outboard?  However, the guy looked exhausted and scared, so I lowered my dinghy and started to tow him to the shallow water.  It was a struggle because his boat had no rudder and he seemed very clueless, not knowing what to do.  I eventually got him to lengthen the tow rope and attach it to his bow, but his boat still veered around making progress slow.

I’d taken the portable VHF radio and while talking to Glenys about our progress, she had the good idea to take the guy to “Zangra” and get assistance from Haneef, the Maldivian rally coordinator.  I was hoping that we’d find out more about what was going on, but the fisherman only spoke a local dialect, which even Haneef found difficult to understand.  We dropped the fisherman off close to the beach and he looked very relieved.

It was another rolly night, so we decided to move a couple of miles further south to Lhossah Island.  We anchored at 00°49.39N 073°12.25E in 8 metres depth on sand between flat coral reefs that were at least five metres deep.  It’s a lovely spot with a long island with palm trees, a white sand beach and there's dolphins swimming around the anchorage.  I tried several times to get close and swim with them but as soon as I went within 20 metres, they just sank below the surface and re-appeared 50 metres away.  The island gives good protection from the south-west winds, but the damn swell was still rolling into the anchorage.  By mid-afternoon, most of the fleet had anchored close by.

We spent most of the day snorkelling on the reefs around the anchorage, which were surprisingly good with 50% live coral and plenty of fish.   At the moment, there’s an established pattern to the weather with clear sunny mornings, but by lunchtime the clouds build up and the afternoon has rain squalls - this afternoon, we had a squall giving us 30 knot winds for a while. 

14 April 2017   Lhossah to Fenfuttaa, North Huvadhoo Atoll  
The persistent rolling is annoying, so we sailed ten miles south to an isolated reef that is west of an island called Fenfuttaa.  We anchored at 00°43.184N 073°15.04E in 18 metres of water amongst deep coral patches, so I put a couple of fenders onto our chain to lift the chain.

As soon as we’d checked the anchor, we went snorkelling on a pinnacle to the south of the anchorage at 00°43.11N 073°15.14E.  It was very nice rising from the seabed at 20 metres to within 1 metre of the surface.  The coral was very healthy with only half of it dead...

After lunch, I ran the water-maker and filled two scuba dive tanks ready to do a dive on the pinnacle tomorrow morning - surprisingly the generator ran for 90 minutes without a problem.  Later in the afternoon, we went for a snorkel on another pinnacle to the NE of where we’re anchored.  It was similar to the other pinnacle, but the coral on top wasn’t as colourful.

We invited all the boats in the anchorage for sundowners - “Jackster”, “Luna Blue” and “Ngalawa”.  Depressingly, we finished off the last four of our beers with no prospect of buying any more until we get to Rodrigues in June.   Fortunately, we still have four bottles of rum, one bottle of gin and 12 litres of wine, which should keep us going for 6 weeks, unless we keep partying every night… 

15 April 2017   Fenfuttaa, North Huvadhoo Atoll  
The coral on the two pinnacles looked so good that we did two scuba dives with Dave and Jacqui from “Jackster”.   They were both good dives circling around the pinnacles starting at 20 metres and working our way up.  The visibility was good at one side of the pinnacle, but had more sediment on the other side - I guess that it depends on the tidal current direction.  On both dives we had very little current making it nice and relaxing.  The pinnacles are at 00°43.11N 073°15.14E and 00°42.65N 073°15.29E, but I suspect that most of the shallow-topped pinnacles would be good.  

In the evening, we were all invited over to “Ngalawa” for sundowners.

16 April 2017   Fenfuttaa to Fulangi, North Huvadhoo Atoll  
Every morning, John from “Atea” hosts a radio net, announcing a weather forecast and holding a discussion about the various plans for the rally boats.  John said that the westerly winds are coming to an end and the winds are starting to back around to the south.  The rally finishes at Gan, which is 90 miles south of our current position, so a few boats have decided to take advantage of the favourable winds and have headed south to sail to Gan tomorrow.

I’ve looked at the weather and think that the southerly winds will probably be very light and in seven days will be back to light westerly.  Once we get to Gan, we’ll be provisioning and then waiting for a good weather window to sail 300 miles to Chagos.   Looking at the GRIB files it seems that there will be light and variable winds on that passage for the next two weeks, so we’re biding our time and want to spend more time in this atoll snorkelling and diving.

We upped anchor and motor-sailed eight miles around to Fulangi.  It’s very similar to the last anchorage, but the water is deeper at 24 metres.  We anchored at 00°40.33N 073°11.44E, but some of the other boats anchored just south of the island in 10 metres.  I didn’t like the look of that spot because you’d be anchored amongst a lot of coral and if the wind picks up from the south-west there would be a ¾ mile fetch and more wind waves.

We went for a snorkel in the afternoon on an interesting reef at 00°40.56N 073°11.41E.  It’s a long thin shallow reef that fringes a small 10 metre deep lagoon.  It would be nice to anchor in there, but the fringing reef is too shallow to cross in a sailboat.  We had a quiet night in.

17 April 2017   Fulangi, North Huvadhoo Atoll  
We went for a dive with “Jackster” on a pinnacle about 100 metres to the south of where we’re anchored.  It was disappointing and not as good as the pinnacles in the previous anchorage, with most of the shallow coral being bleached and dead.  At depth, the coral was in a much worse condition and there wasn’t as much sea life.  I’m quite amazed by the difference in the condition of these reefs, which are only six miles apart.

In the afternoon, we went for a snorkel in the pass to the north of the anchorage.  There was a strong current in the pass itself, but we found that there was no current on the edge of a reef at 00°40.92N 073°12.66E.  The sea bed sloped away at about 45 degrees and the coral was mostly dead, but the water was incredibly clear. The highlight was a Spotted Eagle Ray which came swimming out of the depths to have a look at us, passing a few metres below me.

18 April 2017   Fulangi, North Huvadhoo Atoll  
The dive yesterday was so mediocre that we couldn’t be bothered to fill the scuba tanks today.  Instead, we went for a snorkel in the pass to the west of us (00°40.02N 073°11.09E), but the slope was about 30 degrees and the coral was mostly dead, especially at the shallower snorkelling depths.  Again the visibility was amazing, but the sea-life was uninteresting apart from a shoal of large Sleek Unicornfish that kept swimming very close to me as dived down.

After 20 minutes, we gave up and went back to the reef next to the anchorage, which again was very interesting, with lots of nooks and crannies to explore.  There’s plenty of fish and in particular, the Maldive Anemonefish seem to thrive here.

We had a very lazy afternoon, reading and having a nap.  Glenys has started to make a batch of homebrew ginger beer - we’re hoping that she can make it alcoholic to replace our depleted beer stocks.  The alcohol situation is getting critical, so we’ve started to ration ourselves - if we have wine with dinner, we’re allowing ourselves a maximum of ½ bottle per night.

19 April 2017   Fulangi to Meradhoo, North Huvadhoo Atoll
After a couple of nights in Fulagi, we felt like a bit of a change, so we motor-sailed around to another isolated reef, this one near to Meradhoo Island which houses the Jumeirah Dhevanafushi resort.  We tried to find a shallow anchorage near to the reef, but gave up because there were too many bommies and the depth was still 16-20 metres.  Eventually, we dropped the anchor at 00°36.29N 073°05.50E in 24 metres of water.  

The resort doesn’t look anything special - just another small island with some wooden hotel rooms on stilts over the water.  I was therefore astounded to find that it costs $2,000USD per night for a double room.  The price apparently includes breakfast and free wifi - it had better be a damn good breakfast…  Other sample costs are $ 50US for a beef steak and $150US for a massage - all prices subjects to 10% service charge and tax, of course.  What are they on?

We did another dive on a pinnacle near the anchorage with Jacqui from “Jackster”, but it was very poor, with hardly any sea-life.  In the evening, we invited Dave and Jacqui from “Jackster over for sun-downers.

20 April 2017   Fulangi to Thinadhoo, North Huvadhoo Atoll
It was time to get some provisions, so we motored to Thinadhoo, where we went through an easy boat pass and anchored in 8 metres of water at 00°31.98N 073°00.22E.  There are four other rally yachts in the anchorage - “Jackster”, “Atea”, “Barbara Ann” and “Relax”.

Our fuel was getting low, so as soon as we’d settled, I poured the diesel from our three jerry cans into main tank, so that we now have about 180 litres in the fuel tank, which will be enough to get us the 100 miles to Gan.  

This is a busy fishing port with lots of fishing boats coming alongside to get ice and fill-up with diesel from fuel trucks.  I was thinking of refuelling here, but we will still have to refuel before we leave Gan, so I can’t be bothered to do it twice.  A couple of the other boats refuelled here without any problems.

We went ashore just before noon and found a small restaurant called “The Happy Hour Café”, just two blocks back from the sea front.   They didn’t speak any English, but the place looked clean and they had a menu with English and Maldivian, so we chose to have some Kothu Roshi Chicken.  It was very similar to the dish that we had in Sri Lanka made from chopped pancake - spicy and very filling.  The café owner entertained us by doing some impressive close-up magic - making cigarettes and coins disappear.

After stuffing ourselves with lunch, we walked around in the beating sun, but it’s just another sleepy town - albeit much bigger than the villages with many shops scattered around.  All of the towns and villages that we've visited so far have a very rectangular street layout and there seems to be some social engineering happening.  The smaller islands seem to have a maximum of 1000 people and a single school, whereas the larger islands have new blocks of flats.  Are they moving excess people from smaller islands? 

There’s even a chandlers, where “Jackster” managed to find a 24V Jabsco water pump.  We stocked up with enough provisions to last a couple of weeks and escaped back to the boat, where we collapsed in the heat.

The Ginger Beer that Glenys made has come out very well, but there's a lot of sediment in it, so she's trying a slightly different recipe.  Sediment or not, it goes very well with rum to make a Dark and Stormy.

21 April 2017   Thinadhoo to Fulangi Reef, North Huvadhoo Atoll
The anchorage in Thinadhoo is good, but it’s hot and we’re unable to swim, so we pulled up our anchor and headed back north to investigate a couple of anchorages that looked good on Google Earth.   

We first dropped the anchor at 00°35.00N 073°03.14E in 18 metres between coral patches.  It looked like a nice spot, but was exposed to the south and the 10 knot south winds were kicking up some wind waves. We decided that if the wind increased, it would be uncomfortable, so we ran away.

An hour later, we slowly edged our way between a couple of shallow reefs (at 00°37.215N 073°06.346E) and dropped the anchor at 00°37.26N 073°06.28E in a small 80 metre diameter patch of sand close to the protecting reef.  I’m calling this Fulangi Reef - it’s a fabulous spot, totally surrounded by reef and good holding in sand in 12 metres depth.  We dropped the anchor closer to the south reef and then placed another anchor slightly behind us to the north, just in case the wind backs to the north in a squall. 

As usual, we were soon off snorkelling and tried a couple of places.  The reef to the south-east of the was unimpressive, with lots of silt on the dead coral.  We then went to the west of the anchorage and anchored on the inside of the reef, where we found that we could just swim over the reef into the channel, which was much more interesting. 

We spotted a turtle and two octopuses who were in neighbouring holes.  As we dived down, they rapidly changed colours and shrank down into their holes.  I’m guessing that they were mates because one kept sneaking a tentacle over to touch the other one, which was cute.

22 April 2017   Fulangi Reef, North Huvadhoo Atoll
In these light south winds, this is a beautiful anchorage, so we stayed another day.  In the morning, we went snorkelling in the pass at 00°37.34N 073°05.82E.  At less than 20 metres, the whole pass is quite shallow and the water was so clear that we could see over to the other side of the channel.  Fortunately, we arrived at slack water (just before high water) - I would think that the current is wicked in full flood. 

The coral was mostly dead, but there were thousands of parrotfish gathered together for spawning.  This was a spectacular event, with dozens of males rushing about following a female, who would shoot vertically towards the surface and then dart back down.  At the top of this very fast dash, a cloud of eggs and sperm is released.  We watched them for an hour and the water slowly became more and more cloudy as presumably millions of eggs were released.  Unfortunately, the dashing about was just too fast for me to capture on camera.

This spawning event hadn’t gone unnoticed by other fish and there were large black snappers swimming around gulping in the cloudy water, obviously enjoying a treat of caviar. Meanwhile, a few Blacktip Reef Sharks were cruising about and large groupers were lurking, both waiting for an unwary parrotfish.

In the afternoon, we went out to a Thila (pinnacle) about a mile east of the anchorage at 00°37.33N 073°07.25E.  The coral was in better condition than other places with about 30% alive and the water was fairly clear despite being in the atoll.  In the shallows on the east side, there were scores of anemones loaded with Maldive Anemonefish.   The west side had a steep slope and some interesting fish.  

We came across a very friendly Hawksbill Turtle resting on the coral at about ten metres, who seemed unconcerned when we dived down close to it.  I must have approached within one metre with my camera and took some good pictures.  After we had dived down a couple of times, it swam up to the surface for some air and then went back to a nearby spot, so we let it in peace.  

23 April 2017   Fulangi Reef  to Boduhuttaa, South Huvadhoo Atoll
We’re now 100 miles north of Gan, which is the southern-most point of the Maldives and is the port where we’ll clear out.  For the past few days, I’ve been monitoring the weather forecasts looking for a possible weather window to sail from Gan to Chagos, which is a 300 mile passage - two or three nights.  

There are two main forecasting models - GFS and ECMWF, which unfortunately show completely different winds on the route for the next two weeks.  GFS shows a constant 10 knot west wind from 26th to 29th April, whereas ECMWF shows light, variable winds for the same period.  Both models show light to variable winds for the second week.  The problem seems to be that Gan and Chagos are just south of the Equator and under the influence of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).  This is an area of unsettled weather about 300 miles wide, which is very difficult to predict and is subject to squalls and zones of no wind.

Using GFS GRIBS and my qtVlm routing software, I think that the 27th April might be a good day to depart for Chagos, but the GRIB forecasts are normally only reliable for a three day forecast, so I need to wait a couple of days to see if the west winds form as predicted.  This leaves us with a dilemma because we are still 100 miles from Gan and have to give two days’ notice to get our clearance papers.  Also we need to provision and get diesel.  So with all this in mind, we decided to leave the beautiful Fulangi Reef anchorage and head south, probably sailing/motoring to Gan tomorrow.  

The 25 miles trip down to Boduhuttaa was a boring motor in nil wind conditions and a glassy calm sea.  We anchored at 00°11.91N 073°12.85E in 4.5 metres on sand.  The sandy shelf is about 80 metres wide and shallows very slowly - it’s a nice spot, with three small, deserted islands in front of us.  

We both spent an hour cleaning the hull in the afternoon.  There was a lot of green slime and hundreds of small barnacles, which we knocked off.  I cleaned the propeller which only had green slime.  The Jotun Seaforce 90 antifoul paint has only been on for four months, so it’s a bit annoying to have barnacles already.

I re-checked the weather forecast in the evening and the weather window still looks good on the 27th April, so we’re going to go down to Gan tomorrow and will make a final decision on our departure date tomorrow evening.  It takes a few days to get a revised Cruising Permit for Chagos, so I’ve sent off a request to BIOT to get our dates changed to start on the 29th April - I can always change it again if we leave later. 

24 April 2017   Boduhuttaa to Gan, Addoo Atoll
The alarm went off at 05:00 and we pulled up the anchor before the sun came over the horizon.  We motored out of the south pass and into a long, smooth swell coming from the south-east, which was causing impressive waves to break on the reef either side of the pass.  The wind was from the south -west, so it was 20-30 degrees off our starboard bow and meant that we had to motor-sail, but it was a light 5-8 knot wind with no big waves to stop us.

Around 08:00, we crossed the Equator for the third time on our circumnavigation. There are longstanding traditions and ceremonies to thank the god Poseidon and to wish for luck. In the past we’ve shared a tot of alcohol with Poseidon, but being so early in the morning, we had simple ceremony involving a glass of orange juice and a biscuit.  We’re now in the southern hemisphere again.

We had a very uneventful ten hour trip, and arrived at Gan at four o’clock.  Most of the other rally boats are already here, so there was no room in the small, shallow harbour next to the causeway.  We spent 15 minutes, looking for some where to anchor, but it’s all incredibly deep.  Eric on “Hokulea” suggested that we anchor next to them on a sandy spit at the entrance to the small harbour.  We had two attempts at anchoring in 17 metres, but dragged both times.

Finally, we anchored at 00°41.06S 073°08.77E in 10 metres depth and the anchor bit well.  We’re not in an ideal position, being very close to “Hokulea” and in the entrance channel to the small harbour, but there’s not much else we can do other than anchoring in 30 metres, which is a serious challenge because we only have 60 metres of chain.

In the evening, we went to the Equator Resort, which serves cold beer at $4US for a large can - luxury!  We tied our dinghy up to the iron ladders next to the Coast Guard dock in the small boat harbour and then walked a few hundred metres to the resort entrance.  We had to sign in as guests at the gate, but everyone was very friendly.

Most of the other cruisers were at the bar, so it was good to catch-up with everyone.  Three of the boats are trying to get outward clearance and sail to Chagos, but there have been some problems and, after waiting for 5 days, they still haven’t been cleared out.     

Many people have paid money to the rally for their clearance, but the rally organisers haven't paid the relevant government fees, so people have been waiting a long time to leave.  There's now a worry that the rally organisers have spent all the money on something else and can't afford to pay the fees.  I’ve been dealing directly with the agents and haven't paid anything to the rally, so I'm hoping that we'll get away quickly.

25 April 2017   Gan, Addoo Atoll
I checked the weather forecast and found that the two models (GFS and ECMWF) still don’t agree, but the GFS Model shows 10 knot west winds on the 27th and the ECMWF shows light, variable winds, so we’ve decided to clear out and leave on the 27th.  At worst, we’ll have to motor the 280 miles to Chagos.

After breakfast, we tied the dinghy up to the Coast Guard dock and walked a kilometre into town.  Gan is a small town, but there are several small supermarkets and vegetable shops, so Glenys was able to buy most of the provisions on her list.  The biggest supermarket is called S3 Mart and is located on the sea front opposite the petrol station in the town’s main harbour.

While Glenys was in the supermarket, I walked down the road to the office of Masood, our local agent in Gan.  I handed over our documents including passports and paid the balance of our clearance fees. In total, we’ve paid $1,067US for our 38 day stay – at 38US per day, it’s one of the most expensive places that we’ve visited (I think that only the Galapagos was more expensive).

Masood told me that he would have the clearance completed by tomorrow afternoon, which was good news.  He was a bit cagey about the exact reasons for the delays with the rally clearances, but told me that they (Real Sea Hawks) were trying to help the cruisers, but they couldn’t do anything until the rally did their side of the administration.

We left four big bags of shopping at the S3 supermart and walked back to the dinghy, stopping at a few small supermarkets and greengrocers to add to the provisions.  Back at the dinghy, we zipped into the town harbour and picked up the groceries from the 3S supermart.  In retrospect, it’s a lot easier to tie the dinghy in the town harbour rather than walking from the Coast Guard dock.

After lunch back on the boat, we pottered about – Glenys stowed her provisions and I ran the water- maker.  Glenys defrosted her fridge because the freezer compartment was heavily blocked up with ice.  It takes ages to melt the ice and we resorted to using a hair dryer to speed up the process.

In the evening, we were all at the Equator Resort.  “Luna Blue” left this morning in a huff, without any clearance papers, but “Hokulea” and “Ngalawa” received their documents today, so they leave in the morning.  Most people stayed for dinner – chicken curry and cold beer – bring it on...

26 April 2017   Gan, Addoo Atoll
Our mission today was to get our clearance documentation and refuel at the petrol station in the town harbour.  On our AIS, we could see that “Jackster” and “Relax” would be arriving in the anchorage at about 10:00, so we waited until they were anchored, so that we didn’t lose our lovely shallow anchorage spot – very sneaky...

As we entered the town harbour, a local tourist boat followed us in; roared past us; turned about 2 metres in front of our bow and went onto the fuel dock.  We had to wait for ten minutes while they refuelled - obviously the “quick and the dead” applies here.  It took great restraint not to give him “the finger”...

Once we were on the fuel dock, we then had to wait for 30 minutes while they refuelled two large coaches.  We were then given the diesel hose, but nothing came out – they’d run out of diesel!  It took 1½ hours for the fuel bowser to arrive and to transfer the fuel to the station’s tanks, then another 15 minutes to fill our tanks.  We didn’t get back to the anchorage until 13:00.

While we were on the fuel dock, Masood had brought over our clearance documentation, so we spent the afternoon, tidying up and getting ready for sea.  We’ll won’t be able to access the internet for 6 weeks, so we finished off a few admin chores.

In the evening, we all went to the Equator Resort.....

27 April 2017   Gan to Chagos (Day 1)
A squall passed through in the middle of the night with strong winds, forcing me out of bed to check that we weren’t swinging into the reef. All was well, but I didn’t get much more sleep before the alarm went off at 05:30.  I checked the weather and the two forecasting models still don’t agree, but GFS shows 10 knot west winds.  The local weather forecast from Accuweather showed thunder storms for the next two days, but we decided that the forecasts were good enough to leave.

We stowed the dinghy on deck; prepared for sea and by 06:50 we were on our way.  After motoring out of the southern pass, we were able to sail, but the wind had more south than forecast, so we were hard on the wind and only able to lay a course over the ground of 170 degrees – 30 degrees off our rhumb line of 200 degrees.  There’s a very strong 1 to 2 knot east setting current, which is giving us 20 degrees leeway – we’re steering 190 degrees, but only achieving 170 degrees over the ground.

We bumbled south in the light winds and sunny skies, then a huge squall system appeared from the south-west and remorselessly headed for us.  By starting the engine and speeding up, I managed to avoid the first rain squall, but the second one hit us with a vengeance. The wind veered by 30 degrees, which allowed us to steer a better course, but it quickly picked up to over 30 knots with torrential rain.  

We ran downwind while I put two reefs in the main and then came back on course, which was a tough beat upwind.  A couple of times, the wind became so strong that I was forced to run downwind again to ease the pressure on the sails.  We had a horrible hour before the skies brightened and the wind dropped to 20 knots.  The winds and seas were terribly confused for the next 30 minutes, so we motor sailed to maintain our momentum, but gradually, the sun came out and things settled down, so we were able to turn the engine off.

After lunch, the wind stayed at 15 knots from the west allowing us to sail on a course of 200 degrees over the ground – we were 8 miles downwind of the rhumb line, but at least we were heading towards our destination. Glenys took advantage of the settled conditions to make dinner – she normally makes two meals before we leave port, so she’s kicking herself because she didn’t bother this time.  

We were both expecting light wind conditions with a lot of motoring, so this nasty squally weather was a bit of a shock – perhaps we should have taken more notice of the local Accuweather forecast, which predicted thunderstorms, and delayed our departure for a day.

I went to bed for my afternoon off-watch nap leaving Glenys motor-sailing, slowly edging back towards the rhumb line.  When I got up 90 minutes later, the wind had backed by 45 degrees and another huge squall system was bearing down on us.  We headed south-east to try to get out of the way and were able to turn off the engine as the wind increased.  Fortunately, we managed to out-run the  squall system and then the wind gradually veered, so that we could steer almost south. Our track since leaving Gan looks like the weaving of a drunken sailor.

The skies looked better as we ate our dinner, with no signs of squall systems nearby, but the skies were overcast and unsettled.  We had a spectacular sunset with the sun going down behind towering clouds causing a couple of impressive rays of light streaming into the sky.  

As darkness fell, a Red-footed Booby land on our solar panels.  This happened a lot in the Pacific Ocean, but we haven’t had one for ages.  They see our 6ft * 6ft solar panels as a perfect landing platform.  While it’s nice to see birds really close up, we end up with hard-crusted guano all over the solar panels and it’s a devil to clean off.  Our friend was not for moving, so after he snapped at my hand a couple of times, I gently prodded him off with a pole.

At the start of my 7-10 watch, the wind backed and dropped to less than 10 knots, forcing us nearly south-east, so I started the engine and headed back south, motoring directly into the 8 knot wind and waves – very, very frustrating.  At least we were heading towards Chagos albeit at 4 knots to conserve fuel.  The stars came out at about 21:00, but with no moon it was a dark night. 

28 April 2017   Gan to Chagos (Day 2)
At dawn, we were greeted by lovely blue skies and fluffy white clouds, but the winds had dropped to 6 knots – we’re definitely in the Doldrums now.  We had a go at sailing, but we were forced 40 degrees off course and our boat speed dropped to less than 2 knots, so it was back to motoring on a SSW course directly towards Chagos.  We’ve had a poor start to the passage, only doing 108 miles in 24 hours.  With 180 miles to go, we’ve resigned ourselves to three nights at sea.  

One of my major concerns is that we only have 500 litres of fuel on board and we won’t be able to buy any more until we get to Rodrigues, which is 1,200 miles and six weeks away.  I have figures for our engine fuel consumption and know that we use more fuel if the engine revs are higher, so I grabbed my calculator and worked out what our ideal engine revs should be for the remainder of this passage.

At 08:00 on Friday, we have 170 miles to go:

Running the engine at 2,000 rpm means that we’ve got a chance at arriving tomorrow afternoon, but there will be pressure on us to maintain 5.3 knots and if anything goes wrong, then we risk having to heave-to on Saturday night.  If we go at 1,800 rpm then we’ll arrive at night and have to heave-to. So, the best plan is to run the engine at 1,500 rpm, which will get us there early on Sunday morning and will use less fuel.  Another advantage is that if the wind picks up enough, we’ll have time to sail slowly and save even more fuel.

After breakfast, we picked up the AIS signal from “Atea” who were 14 miles away. I tried calling them on the VHF radio, but didn’t get an answer.  They’ve been having problems with their radio, so we altered course to intercept them.  Around midday, we were within 4 miles of them and were able to chat via their portable VHF radio.  

They left 12 hours before us, but with 1,200 miles to go to the Seychelles, they’ve been conserving fuel and sailing whenever they can. They managed to miss the nasty squalls that we had yesterday, so they’ve had a comfortable if slow passage so far.  They’re heading south-west past Chagos looking for the south-east trade winds to take them west.  We wished them well on the remaining 1,100 miles and turned back on course for Chagos.

It was a hot, boring day motoring at 4 knots in very calm seas. By the late afternoon, we were surrounded by large squalls and at one point, took a 50 degree detour to skirt a 6 mile long system.  Fortunately, it fizzled out and didn’t give us any strong winds, but we kept the radar on as night fell, so that we could try to spot any still lurking about. 

We had a very quiet night – motoring and motoring.  It was very dark, but there were lots of stars around with a few big cloud systems occasionally becoming visible as they were lit by lightning flashes.  I flicked the radar on a few times, but there wasn’t any rain within 48 miles.

29 April 2017   Gan to Chagos (Day 3)
As the sun came up, Glenys was faced with a dark wall of cloud ahead of us.  Alarmed, she switched on the radar, which revealed a massive squall system 12 miles wide and 3 miles deep.  We were heading for the middle of it, so she turned 90 degrees to starboard; headed west and at 06:30 dragged me out of bed for moral support.  

We kept an eye on the radar and it took us an hour to skirt around the huge system, keeping it two miles from our port side.  The wind never rose above 18 knots, but we could see bolts of lightning in the squall, so we were very glad that we’d managed to keep our distance.  It was interesting to watch the squall system on the radar – it dissipated rather than moved away.

By 08:00, we were out of danger and heading south towards Chagos again.  The weather remained overcast with grim looking clouds dotted about, but there wasn’t any rain and the wind gradually settled down to south-east at 8 knots – by 10:00 we were actually sailing, albeit at only 3 knots.  By this time, we only had 50 miles to go, so there wasn’t any hurry. 

The sun came out at noon and the rest of the day was very pleasant with 6-12 knot south-east winds - it was nice to be sailing again. We hooked a fish in the afternoon, but the fishing line snapped and the fish took the lure before I could get to the rod.  I didn’t have the reel clutch very tight, so I don’t know what happened – I’m worried that the no-brand 50lb line that I bought in Male is no good.

The Chagos Archipelago is part of the British Indian Ocean Territories (BIOT), who only allow cruising boats to anchor in two atolls – Peros Banhos and the Salomon Islands.  The anchorages permitted in Peros Banhos are on the west and south sides of the atoll and don’t look particularly protected from the prevailing south east winds, whereas the Salomon Islands atoll offers protection from all directions.

We were hoping to visit both atolls, but we’ve decided to head directly to the Salomon Islands because we have south-east winds & swell and the weather is unsettled with strong squalls.  At sunset, we were only 30 miles from the entrance into the Salomon Island atoll, so we reefed the sails and bumbled along at 3 knots.

The wind dropped at 20:30, so I turned on the engine and we motored slowly until 01:00, when we hove-to about 5 miles from the Salomon Islands atoll.

30 April 2017   Gan to Chagos (Day 4)
Dawn was lovely, with blues skies, fluffy white clouds and 8 knots of wind from the south-east.   At 07:00, we started to sail slowly towards the entrance into the Salomon Islands Atoll, intending to enter around 10:00 when the sun would be high in the sky, giving us good visibility of the many coral reefs in the atoll. 

Unfortunately, by 08:00, a huge black line of clouds approached us from the north-west.   Looking on the radar, we could see that the squall system stretched ten miles either side of us, so there was no escaping it.  An hour later, when the front was a couple of miles away, we turned north-west, motoring away from Chagos and headed directly into the storm.

It wasn’t too bad, we rolled away all of the sails and motored into the wind, which didn’t get much above 25 knots.  Using the radar, we were able to steer a course between the heaviest rain patches and we only experienced light rain. At 0930, we turned around and approached the pass into the atoll, but the skies were still overcast, so we hung about outside for a further 30 minutes.

By 11:00, it had brightened up  little, so we finally crossed the bar at 05°18.490S 072°14.510E, which was easy even in the poor light that we had - the minimum depth was 6 metres at low tide.  As we motored across the atoll, it was difficult to see the shallow reefs in the flat light, but the Navionics charts are pretty accurate.  “Luna Bu”, “Hokulea” and “Ngalawa” were already anchored off Ile Fouquet, so we headed over there.  

We looked at an anchorage on a sandy patch at 05°20.66S 072°15.43E, but the depth dropped below 3 metres very quickly and we felt that there wasn’t enough swinging room for our 2 metre draft.  The other boats were anchored in 20 metres a long way offshore and we like to be anchored in shallower water, so after carefully checking the depths, we finally anchored on a sand bar next to Ile Fouquet at 05°19.97S 072°15.86E in 5 metres depth.  It’s a pretty spot and our anchor slammed into the soft white sand. 

The 80 hour passage was more difficult than expected, mostly because of the very changeable conditions around the many squalls - we found it difficult to relax, constantly watching out for wind shifts in front of bad weather.  We motored for 52 hours and used about 100 litres of diesel, so we have 3/4 of a tank left for the onward journey to Rodrigues in a few weeks' time, which is a relief.  

Glenys rustled up Bacon & Grilled Tomatoes butties for lunch and then we both had a nap to catch up on some sleep.  We had an early night, looking forward to exploring the Chagos islands and reefs over the next four weeks.

There are more photos in our Photo Album section.