A whole three miles today!
29 March 2015 | Hiriyaadhoo
Bill/sunny with rain coming
It's now just about 1100 and we have been busy this morning. After last night mighty blow and rainstorm, we set about checking local forecasts to see if more was coming and sure enough, there is another big one about 100 miles east of us and coming our way. With last nights lightening, we dug out our grounding wire that we attach to one of the shrouds(wires that hold the mast up) so should be get nailed, God forbid, the electricity in the bolt has an easier way of making its way to the water. Hopefully, this might and I do mean might save us some damage to the electronics on board. Maybe yes, and maybe no. Hopefully we won't find out.
We dug down into the forward locker and also brought out the rest of our bridle for our anchor snubber. Normally we use just one ¾" line to a hook make by Mantus, a huge hook that slides on our ⅜" chain to take the strain off the windlass. So, now we have two lines coming off the bow to the hook on our chain. It should make us ride more easily if and when the storm comes.
We had a special treat of blueberry muffins for breakfast. Tracy brought out a packet of mix we bought in Thailand and a short time later, we each had three muffins. It's been quite a while since we had any kind of muffins. Since the oven was already hot, she grabbed another mix and made oatmeal raisin cookies. First cookies made on board since we left Port Townsend in 2008 and they were made then in an effort to keep the inside of the boat warm in the middle of Winter.
We launched Puff and may make an attempt at going ashore. We still have some wind and bumpy seas between here and shore. We will see what it's like after lunch. If the storm comes early, we will just bring Puff back on board and stay safe. Always a safe decision.
Well, we never made it to shore. The skies to the east of us threatened us just about all afternoon with rain and we had a good bit of wind just to keep us on board. By 1700, we'd brought Puff back on board after waiting the entire afternoon for a chance to go ashore. The rains that came about 1830 were light but again washed the salt off Zephyrs decks and dinghy. It sprinkled on and off throughout the evening and night. We had a good bit of lightening during the night making me get up several times just to check to see how far it was from us. The lightening never got really close to us and that's just fine with us.
Last evening, we've been debating where to go next. We've checked just about every source of info on the Maldives and while a good bit has been written, other than we were there and this is what we did, not that many people have written about where to anchor. Now we do have Mr. Johns report and one we downloaded from a Dutch couple and have checked some others including one from one of my readers making notes on all of them and entering them in our chart plotters. The biggest problem is that we need protection from the northeast winds and many of what look like good anchorages don't give us protection from winds from that direction. We pulled up the anchor this morning and moved a whole three miles as the crow flies to another spot along the coast of this atoll. It's called Hiriyaadhoo, with nice sandy beaches and good sandy spots in 5 meters of water. We are currently at 05 24.432N:073 38.493E. If you are following behind us and come here and use this way point as a place to drop, I need to let you know that there is a bommie about 150 feet to the southeast of the anchorage spot. The top of it is just four feet below the surface. Watch your swing. As to what you will find here, well, pristine white sandy beaches stretching for miles and decent coral to snorkel over. While the beaches are pristine, about every 200 feet, someone has cleared a spot in the jungle behind the beach for piles of trash. There are dozens of small little piles of all kinds of trash just behind the beach. Someone has spent a lot of time collecting what has washed ashore. It's a shame they didn't either burn it or somehow get it taken off the island for disposal elsewhere. As for the beaches, a few shells and some pieces of coral can be found but very few shell worth gathering. We looked to some kind of a pathway to the other side of the atoll but could not find one as the jungle is so dense.
By 1400, after our beach walk we heard the distant rumbles of thunder out east of us and saw the big dark clouds gathering for another storm. We brought Puff back to the boat and got her pulled back on board and stowed. If something big should come, we like to be prepared. Once she was all stowed, we then went back in the water and swam over to the coral bommies near the boat. A nice chunk of coral with a good bit of fish and clams to see. Even a big Moray eel and large Puffer fish.
By 1430, the rains showed up with thankfully no lightening. It didn't last long and just gave us enough to clean the decks again but the day isn't over and we're pretty sure more is coming. Tomorrow, off to another atoll.