Yesterday the fuel barge was supposed to come between 1000 and 1200. The plan was that once we were done fueling, we would go to Male and run all the usual “getting ready for sea” errands. At about 1245, we found out the barge was now going to come between 1600 to 1800 (4 6 pm). There was physically no way we could make it to Male and back in only 3 hours. Sigh. We decided to wander around Hulhumale to see if we could take care of our errands there. We wandered into a restaurant called Food Palace for lunch. The food was good. While there, the chef assured us there were not many facilities on Hulhumale yet, but they were coming. There are currently about 5,000 people on Hulhumale, but it is slated to house 60,000 within the next few years. As of now, we’d have to go to Male for stocking up.

Shortly before 1600, we were back in the dinghy on our way back to Kosmos. We saw the fuel barge at another boat, so we stopped by to ask them about our fuel and they assured us they were coming soon. The fuel barge pulled up behind us about a half hour later. It is a steel mini-tanker. They threw a rope to Eric and he tied them up behind us. Then they handed Eric the hose attached to a rope and he put it in the fuel tank. Then one of the crew jumped aboard to man the pumping. It is one of the nicest and easy fueling experiences we have ever had. We are sad to report that fuel was USD$3.50 per gallon, which is the new winner of most expensive diesel ever. But, of course oil prices are skyrocketing all over the world so we actually did ok.

Once we were done fueling, we went out for dinner and ice cream with the Fafner crew. There is a restaurant and gelato shop called Seagull on Male with good gelato. We got several liters to go. One can never have too much ice cream.

This morning the day started off according to plan. Christi started cooking up a couple dishes with the intention of freezing them for passage food. As soon as she was done, we’d head to Male to run the errands we hadn’t gotten to yesterday. It was yet another gloomy and rainy day, but most of the days here have been.

At about 1300, out of nowhere the wind picked up to 30 -35 knots. We had absolutely no shelter at all from the wind in our anchorage. The seas instantly picked up and all of a sudden it felt like we were at sea in the South Pacific again. Christi doesn’t cook when it is rough, period, so all cooking efforts were instantly abandoned. Surprisingly enough, there wasn’t much rain to go with the wind. The squall passed in about two hours and winds died down to the high teens/low twenties. Even with the reduced wind, it was still incredibly rolly and uncomfortable in the anchorage.

We are actually relieved that we were on board when it happened for a few reasons. One, we were there to deal with any emergency that may arise. There weren’t any, but we would have been a nervous wreck about “what if’s” had we been ashore. We watched other boats drag anchor and have to move to avoid hitting/being hit. It could have just as easily been us. The other reason is because the waves were violently pounding into Hulhumale’s sea wall, breaking over the top of it. Had our dinghy been tied to the sea wall, it would have likely been damaged. And even if the dinghy had been in tact, with the rough water, we’d have a hard time getting from the dinghy onto Kosmos.

Given the situation at the sea wall, we obviously couldn’t go to shore. We checked the weather. Except for a few localized storms, the weather forecast was favorable. This must be a localized storm that will pass quickly. We basically did nothing for the rest of the entire day, figuring there was no point in making the supreme effort to do things in rough seas when it would be calming down soon. But it never did.