Filed January 27, 2009 at 9:06 am under Boating by Administrator
We arrived here on 25th January after 10 days at sea- a really good, fast and comfortable passage. The entrance to the atoll was quite scary, with big surf only opening up to a clear channel close to the reef, and we were glad of our maxsea charts. Inside there was still quite a chop, and anchoring outside the harbour was very bumpy, luckily a fisherman told us not to worry about the entrance, which looked shallow, and we finally anchored inside. The atoll is beautiful, clean, with white pristine sand and lots of tropical trees and plants. The people are incredibly nice, everyone says hello, and want to help us with things. Now we are anchored in a nice, safe harbour between Gan and Feydoo islands. The water is completely clean, and we have swum every day so far, although there was a big squall last night with rain and high winds, then it was overcast all day with a bit of drizzle some of the time. The Maldivians say it is unusual for this time of year.
Sheva is fine, although she is a bit fed up that she can’t go for a walk- we tried to explain to her that there are no dogs allowed here, but she doesn’t really believe us, and thinks we are just getting too lazy to take her in the kayak!
Prices here are good, a bit more than India but still very reasonable, and the restaurants are good, with both Indian style and western food, served in a very aesthetic way. Canned goods are also good, much better than India, and fuel is much cheaper than India. I have put some more photos in the album, go in and have a look!
Filed January 14, 2009 at 6:29 am under Boating by Administrator
Just a last update before we leave. We have received our Chagos permit, thank goodness, and are planning a slow, relaxed cruise past the Maldives up to Chagos. We may stop in Addu atoll, the last atoll before Chagos, depending on our schedule, but if not, we will be out of touch until we get our satellite phone, hopefully in April, fromEnglish friends who will bring it out to us. We leave tomorrow, and already have our exit stamp and clearance certificate. We have stocked up on all kinds of staples, and have 20 kilos of potatoes and onions, a bushel of bananas and several pineapples. Today we will get some little watermelons, and cigarettes for Sri Lankan fishermen! We have 1000 litres of water, some beer, although we keep drinking it all, and a crate of cola. This has to last 3 months, but on Chagos there is water for washing and also some rainfall, so that should be ok.
Thanks to everyone who has sent us emails, it is really nice to hear from everyone, and those of you who are in Israel… we hope for the best and keep up to date with the news, keep safe!
There are some new pictures in the album, by the way.
Filed January 6, 2009 at 12:38 am under Boating by Administrator
We have had a good time in Cochin, done lots of work getting Chasamba looking and feeling like an ocean going yacht again, but now we are nearly ready to leave. We have added another fuel tank, and now have 400 litres capacity, changed the propellor to one with better pitch, fixed the hydraulic steering, fixed broken stanchions, changed one shroud which was showing signs of wear, fixed the swim platform and painted the topsides. We now have our name painted on the stern! And a shark mouth, which is too small for my taste, on the bow! We have enlarged the battery banks by 100 amphours too, although some of the batteries are getting old and will probably fail soon.
We have enjoyed the food here, and the prices of course, with a good mutton biriani costing about 1.5 pounds sterling for two people. ( Biriani is a rice dish, and comes as a big heap of tasty, buttery rice covering hunks of whatever meat you want, and little dishes of salad and pickle on the side). The spices are incredible, and contrary to our expectations we haven’t had any stomach problems despite eating and drinking at local restaurants. The fish is also good here, and we have bought lovely mackerel and baked them with garlic and ghee- great!
There are lots of cruisers here, 15 boats today, but most are thinking of moving on, some in our direction and some up the Red Sea. We will miss them, it has been a nice community here, with Christmas and New Year celebrations and lots of booze! Some we hope to meet up with again, either in Chagos or in Thailand, but most we will probably never see again- that is one of the special things about cruising, meeting people and then saying goodbye so soon.
We will leave on about the 15th of January, and head for the last island of the Maldives, hoping that the situation in Israel won’t affect our reception. The dog doesn’t help either, as they don’t like dogs at all. Oh well, we will just hope for the best! After that we will hopefully head for Chagos, although it is proving to be very difficult to get permission, and quite expensive. It is one of our oldest dreams though, and we won’t give up easily! So far we have filled out three different forms, given an undertaking to agree to be removed by the army(? ) if we can’t move ourselves, done travel insurance to cover airlifting for medical treatment, arranged a bank transfer of mooring fees….. does anyone have a feeling they really don’t want visitors?
After Chagos, where we hope to be for two months, we will wander up to Sri Lanka, arriving some time in May, and after a month there its off to Thailand for a bit of a rest, hopefully for 6 months. That is the plan! We should have a satellite phone soon, we have bought one in England and Rachel and Paul of Lynn Rival will bring it out to us, meeting us in Chagos hopefully. It is a Thuraya, which SHOULD have coverage there, but no certainty. If we can get the occasional email out and get weather information thats all we really need. Thanks Mum and Dad, by the way, thats where my birthday money went!
After a lot of hacker attacks, some of which caused us to have to remove all the photos from the site, I have moved all our photos to photobucket.com, there is a link at the right side of the page which should lead straight to the album- go in and have a look!
