Beez Neez now Chy Whella

To Hulhudheli

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Thu 16 May 2019 22:57

To Hulhudheli, South Nilanghe Atoll

Tuesday the 14th of May. Our view, my view (everything puffy and sore) and a seaplane bringing in people to the far end of the atoll. Lay-in, backgammon after breakfast for a chnage, usually after lunch. I was beaten hollow. Good. Huh. We had a swim (me one-footed) and a bit of tidying, late lunch and some watching the world go by, well in our case simply enjoying all the different blues between us and the reef, the shore and the gaps between the islands. I was thrashed at Mex Train Doms YAY. Huh and growling.

Engine on at 17:00, engine off half an hour later and the pass behind us. Under just the genoa we had a few minutes galloping along at 6.8 knots but as the sun set so the wind dropped. As we were so far ahead of schedule (to arrive in the morning on Thursday, I was happy to drift along at no more than 1.5 knots, flat calm sea, so Bear had a really good sleep – he needed it after spending ages in the water this morning cleaning Beez and her waterline. As soon as I came off shift at 22:00 I raced to the office and fired up Bear’s trusty old laptop, connected to the sat phone and waited, short pants, fingers crossed. YAY, our amended BIOT Permit arrived. Yehaa, I quietly went up to Bear and whispered Happy Birthday. After having to change our insurance, buy medical insurance and spend countless hours form filling and emailing, I could finally tell Bear he was going to spend twenty-eight days in the world’s last untouched paradise. FANTASTIC NEWS. I wrote a ‘thank you’ email to the lady who deals with Permits and slid into bed happy and with more settled nerves.

Kimi and Trevor aboard Slow Flight have written a really good, informative blog called Unplugging….headed to Chagos! https://svslowflight.com/ about the Permit process and the rules and regulations of being “In Transit” in the British Indian Ocean Territory. There is a link to YouTube documentary called “Stealing a Nation”, about the Chagossians and being removed from there homes.

23:30 the engine went back on, but only just ticking over to keep us on course.

Wednesday the 15th of May. My two to six was unremarkable, meaning quiet and lovely as I listened to my last few lectures on Modern Civilisation by Professor Thomas Noble. 12 knots of wind and I was happy pottering along at 2.5 knots having worked out our arrival time once more. Sunrise early on Bear’s birthday. The skipper didn’t let that fact get in the way of his late morning rest.

I know I still haven’t trimmed his beard, Cecily......, a point brought well and truly home with mango juice staining. After his lunch (he asked for wraps so I did corned beef, egg, cheese, tomato, cucumber and mayo) he tucked into his mangoes and almost needed a shower to put himself back to rights. Gorgeous though, and so lush and juicy. Flat calm, I lost (again) at backgammon, won a few Triominoes (lost a few too) and won handsomely at Rummikub but it’s my birthday........ The requested supper was a cheese and chutney sandwich. That done we settled into our overnight pattern.

I engaged in a bit of cloud-watching at sunset.

Thursday the 16th of May. Quarter to four, five thirty-eight to our rear and a squall cloud to our left.

Islands to our right.

I went to bed leaving Bear with a squall over our left shoulder, rather pretty as a charter boat went under the sunrise clouds.

Bear woke me at eight so I could takes pictures of the pass. First, an island with stilted resort rooms to photograph.

The whole island shows a Mosque (Sunni Muslims), comms towers and new builds.

Beyond the pass entrance, to our far left, an island with just a few small houses.

Beside that island a very modern resort. There are actually seven–star plus resorts in The Maldives, prices from $2000 a night upward.....

For some reason the camera didn’t want to focus. The image on the left shows a pass higher up but Bear had read it can be a bit choppy. The pass we used was fifty metres deep and once in the huge lagoon averaged about forty-six metres. Many islands all around the atoll and dotted in the lagoon.

The classic Bounty advertisement, the leaning coconut tree......

On we went until we finally saw our island on the chartplotter.

To our right the perfect island.

In fact, many perfect island getaways.

Our island was shrouded in rain clouds. We slowed and turned on the radar on. Mmmm, we can wait.

An hour later and the sun put his hat on once more. Bear took us by the first marker. I kept an eye out, watched the chartplotter and Google Earth on Bear’s IPad.

The rest of the markers, we tucked close to the right of the channel, minimum depth below us was 1.4 metres.

Over to our left a darling little islet.

To our right loads of coral.

The final passage marker, further over toward the shore, markers on isolated coral heads.

To our left, we were overtaken by a supply ship. Enthusiastic waves from the crew of this heavily laden working girl - carrying breeze blocks and bottled water.

We anchored in nine metres at 11:30 and away to our left, a tiny crane at rest, guess he keeps the passage dredged.

Our island for as long as the villagers allow us. Not long after we anchored a Police launch zoomed in, slowed at the harbour entrance and zoomed back off again. We waved at various delivery boats and resort builders (on another island nearby) coming home after a long day at six o’clock.