Male and Hulumale
31 December 1969 | Period April 8 - April 30
The beginning of SW monsoon arrived about the 3rd week of April
We spent three weeks in Hulumale the anchorage area for cruising boats visiting Male the capital of the Maldives. The anchorage was dominated by dive boats Staff on the dive boats were quite friendly and provided transport to shore with their tenders. In particular the personnel on the Honors.Legacy were very helpful. The use of Petite Ourse's tender was restricted since at the time, Richard was recovering from a sore neck and then it was holed by rubbing against the davits during a large thunderstorm. The inflatable repair delayed our departure from Male by a couple of days.
There was constant boat traffic past our anchor position by barges and boats carrying materials to the land construction north of us. The amount of land built on the coral reef surrounding the Hulumale lagoon expanded dramatically during our stay. There were frequent ferries from Hulumale to Male so getting into the city was quite rapid. What was missing was a protected area to leave a boat's tender. The rumour was that a marina is being built at the north end of the lagoon for cruising boats.
Male is a modern small city of about 150,000 people but with one of the highest population densities in the world. There is no room left on this island and consequently the expansion of Hulumale is being undertaken for population increase. It is modern looking and very compact with a large population of motorcycles making road crossing quite hazardous for the unaware. Some of the specialty import stores provided cheese from Europe and Australia as well as French cookies and biscottes. Although, one of us particularly liked the Maldivian snack food which was a small ball, about 1 cm in diameter, of deep fried batter covering a hot spicy tuna mix. We were also able to find hypalon glue to repair the inflatable in one of the several chandleries in Male and there are several ACE hardware stores.
Photographs from Indonesia have been added to the gallery.