Category Archives: Cruising Life

Describes an experience regarding the boating lifestyle of our travel.

The Key Rescue Mission

Posted on by
3

The plan for the day was to get an early lunch and do some sightseeing with Mike. Mike was flying out this evening, so once we saw him off, we were going to have a quiet night alone. Karen and Alex from Fafner headed into town with us and joined us for lunch. We ate at a restaurant called Jade Café, a couple blocks down the street from Sea House. We had been told the food is good and the internet is free. Once again there was a large international menu, and the food was definitely better than the other two places we have eaten. Very unique and yummy smoothie and fruit juice flavor combos.

After lunch, the guys stayed and played on the internet while the women went grocery shopping. The market was farther west than we had explored on Friday, but except for a couple fancy government buildings and a park area in front of one of the government buildings, everything looked much the same as we had seen the other day.

They passed a tourist shop where the owner beckoned them in. We had never gotten a Maldives courtesy flag, so Christi asked what on would cost. The two shopkeepers said USD$30.00. The truth was Continue reading →

Diving Magivi Rock and Banana Reef

Posted on by
Reply

This morning, we noticed the Hulhumale ferry terminal was recently decorated with lots and lots of flags. When we got to Male, there were more flags out than yesterday. There were flags of assorted sizes everywhere as far as we could see! We were right on time to the dive shop. The day was overcast and gloomy, and it was raining. There was also quite a bit of wind. We sat in the shop until after 1000, when a truck finally pulled up and we all helped to load the gear on the truck. We walked down the road for a few blocks, where the truck was waiting to be unloaded onto a boat tied to the sea wall.

The first dive site turned out to be very close to the resort we had been rejected from yesterday. The ride out there was rocky and wet from the rain and rough seas. The site is called Magivi Rock. We all geared up and hopped in. After much arguing and insisting, the dive master relented and gave Christi 10 kilos of weight. Christi’s allergies had mildly bothered her all day yesterday, and still continued to bother her this morning. As expected, it was a very slow descent because of the difficulty clearing her ears.

The primary dive site is actually a rock 90 feet under the water, then from the rock you head up a gentle slope with coral up to the surface. The site is really nice. The visibility wasn’t South Pacific phenomenal, but it was pretty good. Definitely better than the Andamans. As soon as we started to descend, we could see there were thousands of little blue fish with sideways looking fins, oddly enough called redtooth triggerfish. Later the dive leader told us they were juveniles, probably only recently hatched.

img_2272-small.JPG

Down at the bottom, we saw a very large Continue reading →

Port Blair to Maldives Days 4-7

Posted on by
Reply

Over the last three days, the winds have continued to be erratic in speed and direction, so the seas pick up, then smooth out, then pick up”¦ and so on. But overall, the ride is still pretty good, even at its roughest. Mike is bored stiff and suffering from internet withdraw, but the good news is that his injuries are healing nicely, probably aided by the fact that he isn’t moving around much. He is so lucky about the good seas. It is very hard to move around the boat in rough water, especially on the stairs. With the difficulty he has bending his knees thanks to his wounds, we don’t know how he could have physically done it if the water were rough.

Also over the last three days, moon has gone from a crescent to nothing. The small/no moon has been bad for visibility, but the flip side is that both the stars and bioluminescence are dazzling without the moonlight to usurp their glory.

On Sunday, we realized Continue reading →

Welcome to Havelock Island, Andaman Islands, India

Posted on by
Reply

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.

imgp3701-small.JPG

imgp1542-small.JPG

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 →