Boatdays 5 and 6
28 April 2010 | Male, The Maldives
30 degrees, cloudy, dark
Shoppingspree before the trip! The skipper is going grazy at the markets for spare parts he might or might not need before we head off! Hydraulic fluid for the systems (the boat can steer it self according to what has been programmed in to the chart plotter, and all the rigs and sails can both be handled manually, or by hydraulics), new batteries (the current ones are not exactly top of the line), 1600 litres of water, and food! Hopefully we can also get 2 cases of some golden liquid brew before we leave :)
Yesterday was a big fat 0 on the "what happened" scale. Staying on the boat, swimming with the fishies (not the mafia kind haha!), reading a book, generally relaxing.
Today however, I found out a couple of things.... Male has left side driving, and the streets are so narrow, they would be classified for pedestrians in Norway :P
The main form of transportation, besides the boats and sea-planes, are scooter. However, there are some cars around (what a BMW X5 is doing here is beyond me though, it can probably drive on only 1 road here).
In any case... Here I was, in a taxi, driving to the other side of the city, and not thinking about left side driving og people on scooters, I opened my door on the right side and BAM!, a guy on a scooter knocked the door in again... After apologizing to the cabdriver, giving him an extra 200 ruufies (about 100 NOK) for the dented door, and shook hands with both him and the scooter driver, I decided to walk around instead. The city isn't after all that big, I figured after a couple of days here.
Anyway, we are leaving tomorrow. The agent has my passport for clearance, and with the purchased food, water and equipment coming to the boat tomorrow, we head off in the afternoon. Next stop, Phuket Thailand!