Monthly Archives: May 2008

Male, Maldives to Port Salalah, Oman Day 1-4

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We left on Sunday evening. On Monday, early in the morning, winds were light and seas were pretty nice overall, despite the fact it was head winds and head seas. By mid-morning, the first of many squalls rolled through. With each squall, there has been a lot of rain and wind, with gusts as high as 38 knots. The squalls sometimes come from the forward port or forward starboard (an angle that hits us in the front right or left corner). In between squalls, winds drop to about 10 12 apparent knots on the nose. Needless to say, as the day has progressed, the seas got progressively bigger, lumpier and confused. Conditions were in the uncomfortable category and we were definitely feeling the washing machine effect. Given that it was almost as uncomfortable in the anchorage, we still think we were better off out here, making forward progress towards calmer weather, than back in the anchorage, waiting for the weather to cooperate.

On Tuesday morning, we found out that a storm has formed Continue reading →

Checking Out and Final Thoughts on the Maldives

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This morning the anchorage was still rolly and miserable, but we bit the bullet and finished getting the boat ready to go. There was no way in hell we would spend another day in such rough conditions. We headed to shore at 1100. We are sad to report that Kosmopolitan’s front tip got caught under the dock just as a wave was smashing into us and Continue reading →

Mast Climbing and Getting Ready to Leave The Maldives

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When we got up in the morning, the wind still hadn’t changed. We didn’t even contemplate re-anchoring in another spot for a couple of reasons. One, we wanted to check out and we needed to be here to do so, and two, if we were to move, we would probably have to pay that $500 fee. At least staying here we may be able to get out of it.

We bit the bullet and got to work on getting ready for sea, despite the rocking. We had originally planned to leave today, but it wasn’t going to happen. There was too much to do between getting the boat ready and errands. Plus, the wind was coming from wrong direction, so it would be a rough ride. The weather forecast still said nice weather with occasional localized storms, so hopefully by tomorrow this crazy “localized storm” will have cleared up and it’ll be a nicer ride.

By late morning, the winds calmed down to the low teens, but it was still rollier than we are comfortable in. Claire from Fafner came over and changed the navigation light for us. She is a brave (or maybe crazy) girl, climbing up there in less than ideal conditions. We thought changing the light bulb would be easy, but it turned out to be something of a puzzle box getting the cover off. After sitting up there in the rocking for a long time and after lot of tries with assorted tools, Claire finally located the hidden magic screw that held the cover in place. The light bulb was quickly changed and the cover replaced. Thank you Claire!

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In the afternoon, Claire and Jeff went to shore. Since Alex and Karen were staying behind, they offered to give us a ride. Even with the calmer winds, the seas were rough. Our first stop was an Internet café we heard had a fast connection, called Shell. They served food, but it was Continue reading →

Getting Fuel and Hulhumale High Winds

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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 Continue reading →

More SCUBA Diving and Sight Seeing in Male

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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 Continue reading →