The Plan: Chagos, The Reality: Addoo
21 May 2014 | Gan Island, Addoo, Maldives
Gan Island, Addoo
Lots of rain and squalls passing through. Picture shows thunderheads building on the horizon.
First night here, we dragged in a squall and our engine wouldn't start - Michael later discovered that it was the solenoid on the starter, so another repair.
Davey, from s/v Smoke (right side of picture), came to the resuce and towed us forward with his dinghy so we were able to deploy another anchor.
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We did leave, as planned, last Saturday from Koodoo Island.
The first 12 hours went well, as we were in the lee of Huvadhu Atoll.
Then the current caught us!
We tried sailing and motor-sailing, but the winds and current had an agenda of their own.
We were being swept too far east - again - so we turned due west and motor-sailed 35 miles to Addoo.
We can't fight the forces of nature. The wind and current are too strong and we were using our precious fuel and being pushed further and further away from where we wanted to go.
Change of plan: go west to Addoo, replenish our fuel and fresh food stores and wait to more favourable winds.
Fuel: -check
Solenoid Repaired: - check
Fresh Food: tomorrow (Friday) - check
Winds: looking good for Friday/Saturday departure - check
We know that eventually we'll get to where we want to go: Chagos, we just hope that it will happen while Peggy and David on s/v Rhythm are still there!
An added bonus in coming to Addoo is that our friends aboard s/v Smoke are here and we'll be leaving here and spending our month in Chagos together!