It was time to move on. We'd spent enough time in this area and we still have to be in Male by April 7 to apply for the next cruising permit.
We prepared to set off but were greeted by very dark skies and the good chance for rain and a blow. We had hoped to be gone before 0800. Instead, we had to wait a while for it to pass. Once gone, and it didn't take too long, we were out of there by 0830. It's a long way--over 40 miles to the next atoll and we knew we needed to be in early enough so we could see the bottom and all it's bommies.
After well over 8 hours of motor sailing(we rolled out the genoa to get some extra power,) we pulled in through the northeast channel into the atoll. It's a big circle with only a small island on the southeast side. The rest is pure reef, some out of the water but most submerged just under the surface. We came in through the channel and turned east and made our way along the edge of the reef missing the bommies and looking at the depth gauge. We pulled into what looked like a nice place and dropped the hook. It landed in sand near the edge of the reef and quickly slid down the side to much deeper water. Up came the anchor and we backed off a bit. Down went the anchor and she bit in just fine. I put of snorkel gear and jumped off the back of the boat to inspect the anchor. She was set just fine BUT, I found a bommie about 40 feet off the starboard side that the top of was less than four feet from the surface. Wrong place! I swam back to Zephyr and up came the anchor again. It's now getting close to 1700 and there is not much chance of seeing the bottom clearly anymore. We moved over again(carefully missing the tall bommie) and dropped the anchor again. She again set just fine. Back in the water I went. Yep, the anchor was dug in nice and deep in the sandy bottom. The bad thing is that when we drifted back, we were right on top of another bommie. At least this one was about 9 feet deep so we wouldn't hit it when we swung on the hook. We were now set at 04 46.231N 073 28.180E for the night with plans to move again in the morning. We just don't like being that close to bommies. They can hurt the bottom of the boat very badly if we smacked one.
We got up this morning and started working on putting together the documets we will need if we are to visit Chagos, a group of islands several hundred miles south of the Maldives. A huge nature preserve where all the inhabitants were moved off many years ago so it could return to it's natural state. We have to apply to England to get permission to visit so we need to get everything in order and off to them as soon as we can. It can take quite a while to get approval.
Once we had those document pretty well taken care of, it was time to move. The bad thing is that it had clouded over and that made it just about impossible to see the bottom. Well, what the heck. Tracy started up the engine and I started pulling up the chain. About half way up, it snagged under a piece of coral and wasn't about to come loose. On came the snorkeling gear and in I went again. I held onto the anchor chain and gave Tracy directions on how to move the boat. She couldn't see me so she would move the boat, run forward, take more directions, run to the cockpit, move the boat, run forward, get more directions, run to the cockpit, move the boat. We finally got it off the bommie by Tracy pulling in the chain as I swam above the anchor watching it come off the bommie. I swam to the back of the boat and got back on board. Raced to the front of the boat and pulled the rest of the chain and anchor on board. I didn't want it getting stuck again. Off to another spot close by.
About 40 minutes later, we dropped again in a nice, very sandy spot not far from where we had spent the night. There looks to be no bommies anywhere near us so we are good and the anchor has set(I jumped in again). Now we are close to the channel to get into the atoll but it's a wide channel and we haven't seen any boats other than small fishing boats use it. Now, back to the documents.