Yesterday, we spent the day doing chores. Eric changed the engine oil on the main engine and repaired the broken bilge pump. It turned out the intake valve inside the pump was broken. Fortunately, we have a rebuild kit on board. We also heard back from American Bow Thruster, who said there wasn’t much we could do about the stabilizer squeaking. Eric also thinks he has figured out the problem with the secondary autopilot. He thinks there is a loose connection somewhere, because the computer seems to lose communication. And to round off the repairs, Eric is now 100% sure that the issue with the inverter is simply a matter of one of the lines of LCD screen going bad and that the inverter itself is fine.
In the evening we had our heroine and Johan over for dinner as a way to thank them both for their hospitality to us. The dinner conversation was once again fascinating and we had a wonderful time with our guests. We have to say that through these two people we have really gained a lot of insight into the culture. Since both of them had to work the next day, it wasn’t a late night. One thing worth mentioning is that school is taught in English, which is why most people’s English is so darn good. The native tongue of the land is called Dhivehi, a derivative of the Indian Sanskirt language. Another item of interest is that neither of them could explain to us the significance of yesterday’s holiday.
Today, Eric went diving with the same dive shop. Christi couldn’t go because her ear was still infected. Both were drift dives along a wall, on the west side of Male near Garbage Island (yes, the dump). The first dive had several neat overhangs with some sort of yellow plant growing on it that sharply contrasted with the dark colors along the reef. There was a very high concentration of fish. Eric saw a sting ray, moray eels, and some sort of fish with enormous orange eyes that he couldn’t find in the fish book. There was a big nose unicorn fish, which is a dark color with purple lines that was actively following one of the divers. Eric got too close to the diver and actually bumped into the fish, scaring it off. The current was slight and everyone moved along very slowly, getting to fully enjoy the scenery around them. The scenery isn’t very different from the sites we described a few days ago. Visibility was good at the first site.
The second dive had much less visibility, but once again, lots of fish and moray eels. There was one really big, fat eel that stood out amongst the rest. And he saw a scorpion fish, which are hard to spot. Towards the end of the dive, the current abruptly switched directions, which he found very strange.
Eric is extremely proud to report that on these dives he was the most efficient with air he has ever been. Back in the early days, he sucked air like crazy, and he has been slowly getting better with the air, and this was the biggest leap he has made yet.
Christi, meanwhile, went to Jade to use the internet. She ran into Peter and chatted with him for a while. She met some fellow cruisers and chatted with them. Then she decided to hit all tourist sites. As she walked along, she noticed that all the flags that had decorated the streets only a couple of days ago were completely gone. Darn it, we missed our chance at a free flag.
Conveniently enough, the tourist sites are all clustered relatively close together on the northwest side of town. The first stop was the Presidential Palace, an attractive two story house sort of along the lines of what you would see in an upscale California neighborhood. It is surrounded by a fence. She didn’t go up and try the gate to see if it was unlocked, but the gate was definitely shut tight and there was no activity whatsoever going on within the grounds, so she assumed it was closed.
The next spot she went to is called Mulee-aage. It was originally built for a prince, and with the end of the monarchy, became the presidential palace until the new one was built. It is a cute one story bungalow painted in red, white and blue. It also looked to be ominously closed.
She went to a historic mosque built in 1656 called Hukuru Miskiiy. There is a big sign in front saying non-Muslims are not allowed. This wasn’t too surprising, since many mosques do not allow non-Muslim visitors, which is why we so rarely comment about visiting a mosque. She peeked over the wall and saw a building that looks a lot like an ancient church with an adjoining graveyard.
Across the street from the Hukuru Miskiiy mosque is the tomb of Abu-al Barakaat, the person credited to converting the Maldives to Islam and a former sultan. The tomb is housed in a small, low blue and white building that looked very closed. Man, talk about striking out!
The next stop was the Sultan’s park, a pretty garden that houses a small national museum in one of the corners. The park was open and the museum was open, too! Finally, success! The entrance fee was around USD$2.50. The smallest bill she had on her is roughly equivalent to USD$40 and they didn’t have enough change, so they sent her away and told her to come back with smaller bills. So close”¦.
The next place listed in the directory is the Islamic Center, directly across the street from the park. This is a large building with the standard dome and minuet in the corners. The sign said non-Muslim visitors welcome when it is not prayer time. Yippee! Like churches, some mosques have ultra fancy decor and some are very plain. This mosque is definitely classy and elegant, and not overly decorated. The steps up to and the area around the sanctuary is all white marble. The windows are covered with matching carved wooden overlays in a repeating 8 pointed star design that lets in plenty of light. The interior of the worship area is located under the dome and is probably four stories high. It is carpeted with a red and black carpet. The décor is mostly some type of Arabic writing in gold. There are stained glass windows high up that cast down a soft light.
Christi chatted with a cleric about the fundamentals of Islam until it was time to meet Eric back at the dive shop. We went to Jade to use the internet and eat a late lunch. We bumped into two cruising couples there. Both had just checked out of the country and were heading off to dinner, so we invited ourselves along, despite the fact that we had just eaten. One of the couples had used the same agent as we had and was complaining bitterly about how the agent had tacked on all kinds of service fees that had not been previously disclosed.
They were also mad about having to pay the new $500 cruising permit fee when they never left the anchorage. They had arrived before the new fee went into effect at the beginning of this month, but had to pay it since they checked out after the fee had been instituted, despite not cruising to anywhere. Fafner had already warned us about this new fee. They had not initially used an agent for check in, though they eventually needed to get one to extend their stay beyond three days. When Fafner checked in, the officials had told them there was a new cruising permit fee of $500 for leaving the designated anchorage. Our agent had not said a word to us about this new fee, so we thought maybe we were exempt because we had contacted the agent well before the beginning of the month to arrange our entry paperwork. But now we wondered if we would have to pay this fee, too?
Our new friends had heard from other private yachts that checked into the country at places other than Male that no cruising permit fee was charged to them, and no agent required, so their fees were quite small. The low cost in the other ports of the Maldives made our new friends even more mad about the permit and agent fees.
The restaurant we went to is called Sala Thai and the food was good. We did not order anything special, it was mostly fun talking with fellow cruisers about their experiences.