Male , Maldives 17th September 415.06 N 7331.23E
arkouda
barry latchford
Tue 18 Sep 2007 11:52
Uligamu ? a real boon being able to check in at the far north of the
chain, then cruise slowly down. Made a very quick passage from Salalah,
wind on the port quarter all the way, sailing non-stop and hardly used any
diesel, averaging nearly 8 knots so can?t be bad.
Then slowly down the unpronounceable attols, overnighting off Dholhivadhoo
island in South Milahunmadulu attol (I did warn you about the
unpronouncability!) great beaches and snorkelling off near-pristine coral
(which escaped the bleaching elsewhere) then a very fast overnight ? again
great winds on the port beam - to Rashdoo Attol where, glory be, there was
a resort with beer hooorah! Really nice island, super F&B manager Daniel
who gave us a great deal for breakfast. So we stayed two nights; mainly so
we could have breakfast again.
Arrived in Male today, which has changed somewhat since Erik the Viking
was here 14 years ago (?I can?t recognise anything, there were only about
20 cars on the island when I was here!?) Male is sadly becoming just
another scrubby 3rd world town, full of motorbikes. I try to like it ? I
like 3rd world towns after all ? but this a town without the redeeming
feature of a bar, except at the airport. And we?re in Ramadan, so
everything closes most of the day. Hmmmm.
Tomorrow is shopping day, diesel, grub, fish, fruit, bits and bobs and so
on (but no alcohol of course) then we plan to overnight off Club Med ?
which does have a bar - in Kud Kalhi and then set off at first direct for
Thailand, non-stop. At the rate we?re going, we may just make it by the
beginning of October.
Maentime, comms a bit of a bore, satellite email don?t work, global SIM
won?t cover Male or next leg, so we?re nearly down to the carrier pigeon
(unless we eat it first)
I think we?re all looking forward to arriving in Phuket, for all the
usual, and of course carnal, reasons. Save us a few cold ones!