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
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
This morning, Eric realized that our primary bilge pump wasn’t working. Ooops. The good news is that we would be in to shore very soon, where it would be much easier to fix. Only a small amount of water leaks from the shaft as the boat is running, so it is really not a big deal. And we are not planning to spring any leaks. Even if we did we have another automatic bilge pump and a manual pump.
We could see land at around 1100. Like the Tuomotus, the islands are small and low, barely poking out above the water. The islands appear to be randomly scattered, which is a sharp contrast to the Tuomotus, where the islands are generally are congregated together into a clear ring shape. Though scattered, the islands here are pretty close together, and it doesn’t take much imagination to see this cluster of little islands were once one big island.
Our destination was the island of Male (pronounced Mall-ay). As we got closer, we were kind of shocked by how built up Male is. We were expecting it to look like the Tuomotus, with a small village and little houses spread out beyond the village. From what we could see, it looked like most of the buildings were between three and ten stories high, and incredibly densely packed. It looks like any mid-size city center anywhere in the world, except maybe with prettier scenery surrounding it. We knew Male has an area of only 1.7 square kilometers with a population of 130,000, so we should have been expecting it to be built up. Logically speaking, to get that many people in such a small space, it would have to be.
As was recommended from several different sources, we Continue reading
As planned, this morning we rolled out of bed and pulled up anchor, heading back to Port Blair to check out. We had smooth seas and arrived a little before 1000. When we got to shore, the same cab driver was waiting. We negotiated an “all day” price, then asked him how many hours “all day” included. In his mind “all day” is 4 hours. We wish we had thought to ask about hours last time he picked us up. It would have saved us all from an uncomfortable situation at the end of the day.
We were at the Port Captain’s office by 1030 to check out. Check out was slow but easy, with fees running about USD$15. Stop two was Customs. No one was around, but just as we were leaving someone appeared and went and got the customs supervisor for us. Check out was easy and only took a few minutes. We were on a roll! We got to Immigration, where they told us to make copies of a certain form and that they would meet us at the jetty at 1700 (5:30pm). Hmmm”¦. Maybe the roll had just ended.
From there we got lunch at Annapurna. This time we all tried Thalis, which are set meals. Within a minute or two of ordering, we each got a plate with a cracker, two tortilla style rotis, and several little silver cups filled with assorted foods.
Most of the dishes in the cups were similar to ones we have tried before, but there were a few new ones. Unfortunately, we have no names. There was some sort of dhal (curried lentil) dish that was really delicious. It has mustard, onion, and green chili in it. There was a second kind of Continue reading
First thing this morning we set of for Havelock Island, where the amazing diving is supposed to be. The wind was on our nose and we were in head seas. We felt like we were on a hobby horse, but it wasn’t bad, just a little bouncy.
We pulled up to Radha Nagar beach (known as anchorage #7) on the middle of the west side of the island around 1400 (2:00 pm). It looks just like what you would expect a South Pacific Island to look like. The water is a clear turquoise and there is a long white sand beach with jungle behind it. It is stunning.
We situated Kosmos, got Kosmopolitan down and headed to shore. Beach landings are always tricky. You have to carefully time it so the wave brings you in, then you have to jump out fast and pull the dinghy on the sand before the wave sucks the dinghy back into the ocean. Eric is getting to be pretty good at the landings these days. Fortunately, there were no rocks at all and the beach is an incredibly soft, fine sand, which made the landing painless. We dragged the dinghy up to the edge of the jungle and tied her to a tree. The birds were happily singing away. This is the nicest beach we have seen yet. There were several people playing on the shore, so we headed their direction, figuring they could point us to the road. No need to ask the road became evident as we got close to it.
On one side of the road is a small hotel that consists of several weird little domes. The other side is lined with a dozen or so small lean to shacks made of wooden planks with corrugated metal roofs. They look like they are all small restaurants. As we started on the road Continue reading