Onto more islands
18 March 2015 | Some Island I can't pronounce
Partly cloudy
The last few days have been active. The forecasters for it right for a change and we actually had a nice rain storm. One threatened last evening but never materialized. We'd closed up and got all prepared and even moved below decks and nothing happened. Oh well, the cockpit is nice and clean.
We've been having fun with Jason and Karen on Yolo for the last several days including going out for several snorkel trips and even a trash burning on one of the islands. We routinely slit the sides of pop cans and toss overboard when we are well over 600 feet deep(never in an atoll). Paper gets torn up into small pieces and tossed overboard as well. Plastic NEVER gets tossed. It's what we burned yesterday. We made a nice fire pit and gathered some palm fronds and lit her up. Took a while but it was all gone. We even brought a bucket with us to put it out.
Yesterday, we both climbed into our dinghies and went for a snorkel at the island where we were staying. Since there is a small village on it, the bay we were anchored in is quite fished out and most of the coral on the bottom has been shattered or crushed by either the fishermen or the tsunami that came through several years ago. We did find an area that was decent near the entrance to the bay so we all jumped in and attached the dinghy to one of us and did a "drift dive". As we drift along, our dinghy comes right along with us. One side of the bay entry has nice plate coral and the other side has more of the boulder style of coral all split by the devising stakes that mark the entrance to the bay. As for fish, we saw some some times but not a bunch as we watched the fishermen go back and forth across the bay many times during the two days we spent there.
This morning, now that the weather forecast is for a bit lighter winds and less thundershowers, we pulled up our anchors and headed about 10 miles west for Rasfushi Atoll(06 42.740N:072 55.329E. Several of the cruising boats that have been ahead of us have enjoyed the atoll so it's time we saw it too. I'll let you know how it is.
We got to Rasfushi about 1150 and dropped anchor in about 55 feet of water. All around us was much deeper water, some as deep as 105 feet. We got lucky coming in and passed over a nice shallow spot. Now it did drop off a good bit after we passed it so I was quick to get the anchor off the bow and into the water. As it was, I fed out about 230 feet of chain just to make sure we didn't move. We are pretty much surrounded by reef with us being in a channel that cuts through the big sandbar we call an island. Yolo is anchor in much deeper water about 120 yards to our north.
After lunch, we launched Puff and along with Jason and Karen off Yolo in their dinghy, took off to explore the reef. We'd heard from other cruisers that were here a short while ago that this place has a great reef for snorkeling on and they were right. We had a great time time moving along the reef all the while watching large banks of rainstorms pass a couple of miles north of us. Big black nasty looking clouds. With the reefs looking so good, I expect we will be here for several days to take advantage of the beautiful fish and coral.
We are getting close to low tide and can hear the water crashing against the reef to the east of us. Add that to the big clouds--some dark and some beige, and we have a good setting for us to enjoy. To see what is around us, take a look at Google Earth and you will see from our longitude and latitude that we are in the midst of channel through a big sand bank with an island a mile or so away from us. No chance of mosquitos bothering us tonight.
Being anchored in such deep water and having so much chain out(over 220 feet) is unusual for us. With the current running through the channel we are in and even though there is almost no wind, Tracy felt compelled to stay in the cockpit through the night(it's just before 0600). She said she felt safer staying out there. Not sure how her night went but I did hear her moving around from time to time as Zephyrs floor creaks as the boards shift under peoples weight. I'll let you know how her night went. Internet right now appears to be down.
The four of us(Jason, Karen, Tracy and myself) went snorkeling in the morning and then returned to our boats to take off for, well, I can't remember the name and I can't pronounce it any way but we are at 06 36.947N 073 03.927E. It's something like Kulhulhuski or something like that. Don't have a chart with me. Anyway, Yolo took off about an hour before we did and when they got here, Customs told them to pick up a mooring buoy--cost $12US per night. When Yolo got in the harbor, hey guess what? There were no mooring buoys. Not taken buoys, none. OK, they dropped their anchor. Customs didn't like where they dropped it so they had to bring it back up and move. Once settled, all was well. When we got here, about 45 minutes later, we dropped where they told us to and promptly started drifting back on Yolo!! Up came the anchor and we tried somewhere else--twice more before we found a spot where we were not going to hit Yolo or end up on the sandy beach. While we were doing this, Jason and Karen were scoping out the town. To the rest of the world, it's a village but out here, it's a town. Lots of small grocery stores and even shoe stores. By the time we got anchored and Puff launched, Customs had closed for the day even though they knew we were coming. While they were officially closed(it was after 1530), the officers were actually sitting just outside the gate to the compound and came back when we started talking about needing diesel. They told us they needed a letter from our agent. Assad, our agent had tried to fax them a letter but it had come back as undeliverable. I called Assad and he told me about the bad fax. He was sure the number he had was right. Hey, guess what? It was the wrong number. The Customs man gave me the number and I passed it along. Assad had emailed me the letter but I didn't have internet to get it. Assad promised to refax the letter tomorrow. I returned to Zephyr and got our internet dongle and returned and showed the last remaining Customs official(has the night duty) the letter. It cover both Yolo as well as us. Once that was done, Karen, Tracy and I walked into the town looking for fresh veggies. We were told by Assad when we checked in that the typical Maldivian doesn't eat fruits or veggies as there is no farming anywhere on the Maldives and everything to be imported and that can get very expensive. We found an ATM and got money, made arrangements with the local fuel station to have our fuel trucked to the dock tomorrow along with Yolos fuel at 0800. We want to get out of here as soon as we can. They charge $12.00US to be anchored in the small bay. We're now back on Zephyr having some snacks and getting ready for a nice, somewhat quiet night. Tracy is being quite the anti Muslim by sitting here in the cockpit having a Margarita(it's a dry country) as we listen to the evening call to prayer from the local Mosque.