2007 - 2 ; Sailing through the Maldives and to Oman.

Male Atoll in the Maldives.

We changed our mind regarding sailing to India next, the currents and the wind would just be too much against us and after all the delays we were just too much behind schedule. So we decided to head west to Oman, but first we went north from Male and did some traveling through the islands. We left Male on March 20, 2 days short of a 4 week stay, which was mostly spent with work on the boat. (Which, as I said before, is what sailors do when they get to an exotic port)? However we also had a lot of good times in this port as I described in the previous story. The town was very pleasant and the people extremely nice, hospitable and helpful. We had a final dinner with the 3 boat mates, who were separating from us.

We were very sad to say goodbye to them; we had some great times together, but I know I’ll see them again in the future. Especially C.J. was sad, but also for another reason. Suzie had attemped an unsuccessful cut on his hair and so C.J. had decided to just shave it all off. Something you really have to get used to in the beginning. It was amazing how pasty a skull looks when it has never been exposed to the sun. He planned to leave it like this for a while, to see if he would get to like it. However, before reaching our next destination he ended up having his hair grow back.


So now it is 3 of us continuing the journey, Max, C.J. and I.
We sailed north through a multitude of Maldivian Islands for 9 wonderful days.
The weather of course was gorgeous, sunny, warm (around 30 C – 90 F) with little wind. Actually too little wind, which means a sail boat can not sail. So we motored all the way. But then there are so many coral reefs and small islands around, that sailing would have been tricky anyway. We had some charts of the area, but no really good ones, because Max had initially not planned on traveling through these islands. So even though it showed us most of the underwater obstacles, not all were marked, and we had to keep a close watch. The ocean colors help a lot. Deep dark blue means plenty deep. Lighter blue is much shallower, keep an eye out! The most gorgeous aqua color was a “no go” for the boat, especially if there were dark areas within. Those signified very shallow rocks and coral. Of course these were also the primo areas to go snorkeling in.

Because we are now with only 3 people we had to rearrange the way we have been doing things on board. On the last trip everyone took turns cooking. Because Max is famous for his ability to cook pasta, but nothing else and C.J. is great with opening cans, I offered to be the primary cook.
The men were very happy to agree to this, even though it meant that they will wash all the dishes and do all the cleaning on the boat. An arrangement that makes me happy just as well.

The first island we stopped was Thulusdoo, also called Coca-Cola Island, because there is a Coca-Cola factory, very obviously painted in Coca-Cola red colors.

The island had a small village with about 1200 people. A few men came to greet us right on arrival. After first taking us to their local little tourist shop, 2 young men appointed themselves as our guides and took us all over the island. There was a boat building facility in the process of making a huge yacht. The streets were very clean covered with beach sand and all the houses were hidden behind stone walls.

They had us visit the local school and introduced us to the head teacher, so he and Max could compare notes about the Maldivian versus American school systems. They took us to a gorgeous beach on an island right next to theirs. where we could watch the sunset and have a view on another island that according to them was used for police training.

Max and C.J. went night fishing with them, Max caught two fish, the others caught zero! Nearby the reef was a protective wall build in the ocean. I snorkeled around it, and surprised a large lobster in its hole in the wall. Several dolphins swam leisurely past me at about 3 meter (10 ft) distance; however they were not interested in having a chat with me and the water was too murky to see them underwater. The next day there was time to just relax, my little inflatable kayak is just the spot for it.
Later 3 locals came with us and all of us went back to the same area. I did see the lobster again, but when we tried to get it, it crawled so far back in its hole, that we could not get to it. The locals showed C.J. how to spear fish the proper way; they caught several large fish and an octopus. Then they invited us for dinner at their place to eat them. The fish tasted good, but as usual in these islands, they were too spicy-hot.



We left Coca Cola Island the next day and we motored for about 4 hours. I guess our bad luck with technical items on the boat had not ended yet, because while I was steering, the automatic pilot sudden stopped. Max and C.J. did everything to get it going again, but to no avail. This was actually quite frustrating, because it was brand new and it was just installed at the beginning of the trip in Thailand. But as convenient as it is, many boats do not have automatic pilots, and we can continue our trip by manual steering until we can get it replaced, somewhere, somehow (not in the Maldives though). We arrived at the resort island of Makunudo, it had a very small and fairly deep anchorage, surrounded by a mean looking reef. But the weather was very calm with no current and with some extra precautions we figured that the boat would be safe. We asked permission at the resort to anchor overnight and to sweeten the deal, we made reservations for dinner. Many of the island resorts are very expensive and they cater to exclusive clientele, therefore often, cruising yachts are not welcome. This place was a cheapy with rooms for only US $ 300 per night.

We went snorkeling on the reef around us. It had probably the best coral we’d seen, it made me think of a Japanese rock/bonsai garden. The sad part is, that I lost the underwater housing for my camera, so I have no pictures to show of the underwater world anymore. There were 3 large turtles feeding, they would look at me, and decide that I was harmless and continue to eat. One swam away at a leisurely pace and I swam with it for quite a while.
Dinner was US $ 25 per person (in a country where you can get a wonderful meal for US $ 5). But we had some nice drinks with it on the patio overlooking the ocean, where we could also keep an eye on the boat.

The island was tiny; it only took maybe 10 minutes to walk around it. It has 30 bungalows, set between tropical trees, each with their own little private beach in front of it.
The next morning we wanted to get a very early start, however we had to wait for enough light for the water colors to show. The early morning light did not show the water colors, so you would know where the reef was located. We motored a big part of the day and in the late afternoon we reached the uninhabited island of Varihuraa.
The water was here deep, so we had to set anchor too close to the reef for comfort.


Kind of scary, but Max always has a solution, so we set out a second anchor, with the use of the dingy. A first-time experience for C.J. and I. We explored the island and fantasized how we would survive here, if we were actually stranded. With all the coconuts, crabs and fish around, we figured that we might keep ourselves alive for a few months….. The coral reef was not that great, but snorkeling here treated us as usually to a large variety of colorful fish and several sting rays and manta rays.

Felivaru island was the next place we visited. Actually we never set foot on land. There was a bad smelling fish factory that we had no desire to visit. Our main reason for coming here was a huge ship wreck lodged on the reef between 2 islands. It sat on the side of the reef, and a large part stuck out above the water. The first wreck I’d ever seen that you could just snorkel around. The whole ship was mostly intact, but the part sticking out of the water was just rusted metal. However under water it had become a piece of art. Colorful coral, yellowish flowers and other growth was all over it and tons of fish had made it their habitat.

March 25th was my birthday, but men being men my ship mates only realized it after I had baked my own birthday cake.

We motored for about 6,5 hours to the island of Dholhiyadhoo, We had been told that is was a wonderful, uninhabited island, full of crab which you could just pick off the beach and bbq. It probably used to be that way, but things change. About 550 construction workers from Bangladesh were very busy converting it into another exclusive resort island. Management showed us the plans for about 200 bungalows, including a presidential suite (for the president’s private use). We were welcome to walk around and observe the construction, but taking pictures was a definite no-no. They were probably afraid to we would carry their secrets with us to the west. No bungalows were finished yet, although we could see the basic construction, work was mostly being done on staff housing in 2 story buildings. Of the western end of the island it was still unspoiled beach and the guys figured that there might still be crab waiting to be caught.

Right! What do you expect with 550 Bangladeshis around? So after an unsuccessful hunt, the men occupied themselves with their own construction project: building sand castles,

while I was reading a book in the shade.
We had my birthday dinner on the good old ship. Before we left Male I had asked the fellows how the propane situation looked. “Oh, the gauge still shows 50 lbs, we have plenty” was the answer. This night was proof that gauges can lie, in the middle of cooking dinner, we ran out of propane. I finished dinner on the stern b.b.q. but it was not a great succes. However we were compensated with a great sunset.

It took 8 hours of motoring to get to the truly uninhabited island of Kudanaagoashi.
It was small and heavily forested in the middle, so you could walk across it. But it was great for a beach walk on the wonderful soft white sand.

Max was finding crabs here, but they were too small to make them worth while cooking,

I found gorgeous little pieces of coral, which would make great little Christmas ornament.

Lack of propane was not a problem tonight as we barbequed hotdogs on a campfire. A half-moon lit up the beach, making it as clear as day light. It was great for an evening walk, which also brought out lots of the little crabs.

Around these northern islands we saw the locals fishing from cute little sail boats. It also shows that some islands are no more than just a sandbar.

On our last day, we passed the Hide-Away Island. The only place in the Maldives where there is a yacht marina. However we had been told that the president’s son-in-law owned this island and had made it into an exclusive and super-expensive resort. Small yachts are not encouraged to go there. We tried to made radio contact and no one bothered to answer.


We decided to continue to Dhidhdhoo, which has a small village of 3500 people. As usual the locals were great. They met us right on arrival. “Yes, we can sell you diesel, yes we have propane and what else can we help you with?” A boat arrived to fill up our diesel tanks (yes, the new diesel tank is doing just fine).

And then they gave me a ride into their village.
There was no way to fill our current empty propane tank, so we did have to buy one of theirs, which has a different fitting. But again, Max would not be Max if he would not find a way to make it fit. They were even able to turn us on to a computer on which we could all check our emails. “Do you get many sail boats here?” we asked. “Well, you are here this year and there was one last year”, was the answer. No wonder so many of the locals came out to see us.

It was time to leave the Maldives. The boat and engine got a total check-over, all loose items were tied down, and the dingy was brought back on deck.
The boat was surrounded by thousands of fish, which I fed 2 loaves of old moldy bread.
Early in the afternoon we were ready to go, compass set at 300 degrees north-west for Oman, our next destination. We passed several more islands, many uninhabited, some with villages, some with resorts. One of the last islands was Uligam where most sail yachts stop and arrange immigration formalities. We had actually been illegal in this country since leaving Male, so we had no desire to stop there as well. The final island we saw was uninhabited and looked very inviting.

But no, we could not stop. On March 28 at 1700 hours (5 pm) we started the next big ocean crossing that will take us across 1235 nautical miles to Oman.

Still there was no wind, so we had to motor again. Because there are no more islands, there are no places to stop overnight, and the boat moves 24 hours per day. Again we had to assign watch duties, but because the auto pilot is broken we also have to be on the helm and steer the boat into the right direction. Since we are only 3 persons now, it translates into 8 hours each. With everyone’s agreement we divided it into 3 hour stretches twice a day and a 2 hour stretch between midnight and 0600, quite doable. My hours became 1800 (6 pm) to 2100 (9 pm) hours, 0200 (2 am) to 0400 (4 am) and 0900 (9 am) to 1200 (12 noon. Which gave me time in between to cook lunch and dinner and leaves me about 4 hours to spend as I please, reading, writing, working on my laptop or if needed, help with some boat repair and maintenance.

The first 4 days we had to motor most of the time, only occasionally there was a light breeze and we would sail for a bit. At this rate the concern was that we would run out of diesel and without wind we would just float around the Indian Ocean.
C.J. calculated that we could reach our destination in 30 days if we could move 1 knot per hour and the current would not pull us in the wrong direction. How much food and how much water do we have? Yes, enough for that month, if we watch our use of it. But what if we can’t get there still? Who will be eaten first??? We did some prayers and dances for the wind gods and they responded by day 5. The wind started picking up and for the next 5 days we had a nice breeze that occasionally became quite stiff. Great sailing weather! However on April 7 the winds died again and the ocean was perfectly flat.
We were still about 200 miles from Oman, but we only had enough diesel left for about 100 miles. There had been several days that we never saw any other boats and the times that we did, they were usually big freighters or tankers, who can not stop for a little sailboat.
But on this day a Pakistani fishing boat passed by.

They did not respond to our radio call, so we motored our boat straight to theirs. They had their long fishing lines floating off their stern. Initially when we saw them only a few guys were on deck, but as we got closer, about 20 of them appeared. They waved us over and appeared quite friendly.

We showed them our diesel tanks and they asked how much we needed. “100 liter”, Max said. That could not be done, but they were willing to give us some. “Whiskey?” (Muslim?? Whiskey?? Hope Allah won't find out about it. ) they asked. Sure enough. We gave them some whiskey, some cigarettes, fresh water, and some Tylenol (Paracetemol); they gave us 14 gallons of diesel (55 liter). When we tried to pay, they refused, they felt that the trade was fair and they gave us a large Tuna fish to boot.
We had a delicious dinner that night. Thanks to our Pakistani friends we could motor again, although we still did not have enough diesel for the remainder of the trip. During the night the winds picked up again and we were able to sail the miles that we were short, before they died again.

C.J. had calculated on the morning of April 6 that Max had reached the exact midway point from San Francisco to San Francisco. We woke him up and presented him with a memento of this event. Max has sailed this boat for 20.000 miles now. The world is 26.000 miles in circumference, but he went quite a bit north and south along the way.

Along the way we had quite a few visits of one of my favorite animals again, the dolphins. A few times they came in huge numbers, at least a hundred and they were just swimming and cavorting around the boat.

What a great sight!!
One of my dreams came through. One day we had turned off the engine, the ocean was perfectly flat and a group of dolphins came swimming up to the boat.
C.J. and I jumped immediately into the water and went swimming with them. I had brought my snorkel and mask and so I had a perfect view of them in the crystal clear water. They were a bit shy and they did not come all the way up to us, but swam around us only a few feet away. Obviously they were very curious about us. They are so graceful under water; it was an experience never to be forgotten.

This trip was very different from the one sailing from Thailand to the Maldives. We had no sudden breakdowns, no emergencies during the nights. Except for some of the worries caused by the wind stills there were no real issues. Because the auto pilot was not working, we had to steer the whole way by hand. But I actually liked it. On the open ocean you have no objects to steer towards. It is amazing how fast you can be going in circles. I trained myself to keep course by various methods: of course there is always the GPS, but occasionally we had too little power for the GPS to work. So I would use the windvane only or I would watch the compass closely when the winds were too variable to watch the windvane. Our crossing started with a half moon, and so we had nice moon light all of the nights, making the watches much easier.

We saw a few flying fish and occasionally birds. Some had to take a rest from their long flight. Mostly we only saw deep blue/purple water and blue skies with a few clouds.

Towards the end of the trip C.J. gave us a sad message. He will leave the boat in Oman. His plan had been to leave from Egypt, but with all the delays that we have had, he is running out of time.

On April 9th we reached Oman very early in the morning. After 12 days of open ocean it was quite exciting to see land again.

We contacted the port by radio and we were directed to the large harbor, which actually lies 6

miles outside the town of Salalah.

We were very surprised to notice that it was a very modern and large port, with huge freight and container ships, that were being loaded with multiple large cranes.

We were directed to a smaller corner of the harbor, where we awaited hassles with immigration and customs. But nothing could be further from the truth. Two customs officers showed up fairly soon after arrival. Way before we expected them, so I was actually just taking a shower as they arrived. They were very friendly and professional, no hint of asking for a bribe, and the formalities were completed in no time. They told us where the immigration office was, it was actually quite a bit of a walk to get there. When we asked a man for directions, he placed us into his car and took us there. Not just that! He introduced us to the immigration officers, then waited until we were finished and took us to the harbor police. All that without asking for anything in return. When he left he showed us where the taxis were stationed. Immigration was also very friendly and professional. "How long do you want to stay?" they asked. "Oh, we don't know exactly, maybe a week". "O.k. here is a month visa, and you can go where ever you like". There was our stamp, again no hint of wanting anything from us. Because we are in a restricted area, we have to show the harbor police our passports each time we go in and out, but they also create no hassle at all.

night time view from the boat.

The country is not cheap, as S.E. Asia is and the taxi was US $ 30 to get into town. But we made a deal with the taxi driver. We can hire him each day for US $ 45 to take us anywhere around town all day long. He was very helpful, we'd tell him what we need and he'd take us to the proper store. We found a store that was able to order a new auto pilot for us, we will get it on Sunday, April 15. Hopefully on that day we can get it installed and leave either that day or the next.

It is quite hot and humid here. The town is open with large, good roads and nice looking beige and white buildings.

This area is very arid , but the taxi driver told us that the nearby mountains are very green and beautiful. Hopefully we'll have a chance to look around the country a bit, before we move on.

Again the people are amazingly friendly and helpful. Where ever we go, they like to talk to us. But there is no staring and no pushiness. More amazing, because it seems that 90 % of the women are covered from head to toe in a black gown, including their faces. Some local women have their faces uncovered, but they do wear a scarf. We did see however 2 teenage girls, who wore western style clothing and did not even wear scarves.

I did wear long pants and short sleeves, but I totally forgot to wear a head scarf. It did not cause any negative reactions. However for the coming days I will wear my hat, so my hair will be covered.

For a while I was alone in the vegetable market. No one hassled, but I did get into a conversation with 2 local men, they also were very pleasant and nice to talk to.

Of course, things as usually are unfair to women. Men either wear western style or the local long gown, but the gowns are mostly white or beige. For the women it is mostly hot black. But they do seem to move around freely, it would sure be interesting to talk to them. The men can legally have 4 wives, although it seems that most of them can not afford it. Our taxi driver told us that he can afford only one wife, but he does have 8 children with her. Poor lady!

On the way back home we stopped off for a while at the Hilton Hotel. It has its private beach along the ocean, with green, green grass between the palm trees. All around are the Westerners in skimpy bathing suits. Talk about different worlds.

Max and I will continue the trip into the Red Sea with just the two of us, but we will miss C.J. sorely. His great company, our talks about outdoor adventures and his knowledge of navigation and electronic equipment. Good luck, C.J., enjoy your further adventures, I know I will see you again!