This failure is all the more galling because it should have been picked up in Thailand when we came out of the water to have the whole propshaft assembly looked at. I did not push hard enough for the bearing to be checked properly. Similarly with the issue of the corroded exhaust manifold - we knew there was an issue with loss of coolant but I took a normal engine cooling water temperature reading at face vale and should have pressed for more investigation. As a result of both issues we arrived in Chagos later than planned and have now left earlier than planned - one week to enjoy instead of four. Once again this is not the cruising we had planned and our litany of boat problems continues. Maybe we have not been realistic. We should have anticipated that our relatively new boat would take a lot of wear and tear and has reached the point at which ongoing maintenance and replacement of equipment is part and parcel of sailing. I will now assume that any original equipment that hasn’t failed already is on the point of doing so.

Still, our short period in Chagos was eventful for another reason also. We moved anchorage to Ile Boddam where a community of cruisers used to gather each year and is the site of the now ruined  settlement where the Chagosians lived and worked the coconut plantations. On the first afternoon there we went ashore and found everything very overgrown and neglected, as we might have expected. Imagine our surprise therefore when, the following morning, six men appeared on the beach and started to wave a white flag to attract our attention! Initially discretion took the better part of valour and an email exchange with Caradoc, the senior fishery patrol officer, told us not to engage with men on behalf of the BIOT authorities. However, those on shore were persistent in their efforts and three of them started to wade and swim across the coral towards us. Rather than have them swim out to the boat we took the dinghy, along with food and water, and met the three advance guard out on the coral shallows. The first thing that struck us was how wonderful the coral is! We’ve never seen such abundant and colourful hard coral in such shallow water. Blue, green, purple, yellow, white. When trying not to ground the outboard motor your focus is down rather than across! The three men turned out to be fishermen and there were 14 in total on the island, their vessel having grounded on the reef the day before. Their boat was the MajaMalan from xxxxx. We took the food and water to the beach and met up with the six there. They were understandably desperate for us to contact the Indian authorities and we were able to assure them that we had contacted “the authorities” and help would be coming. They were undoubtedly fishing illegally and so might be less keen to know we had been in touch with the BIOT authorities, although they might well have known that the one fisheries patrol vessel was laid up in the Maldives undergoing repair! Anyway they were very grateful and friendly and we left them on good terms.

The rest of that day there was email correspondence between us and what seemed to be half the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. A rescue mission was being planned involving the Royal Marines and our advice was sought on the approaches to the island for rescue craft. We were being put forward as the link for communication with the fishermen despite explaining that we had to leave the following morning with our own boat issue to deal with. Also the wreck was on the other side of the island and we were in no position to go over there to relay messages.

The following morning, and the day of our departure, we were amazed to see three fishing boats drifting past the end of the island on the seaward side of the reef. We informed BIOT and assumed one of the boats may have been pulled off the reef as it seemed to be drifting whereas the other two were clearly under power. We would update BIOT when on the west side of the island later afternoon.

Before leaving the anchorage I packed the failed bearing with grease and we slowly and gently motored across the lagoon and between the shallow patches of coral, sailing when favourably angled to the wind. Helpfully the plotter was playing up and only updating our position intermittently. This nearly got us into trouble retracing our route through the reef and it required Annie on the bow to guide us.

Once outside the atoll and heading west we could see four fishing vessels in the lee of the islands and one still aground on the reef at Ile Boddam. We couldn’t know if everyone had been taken off the stricken vessel but none of the other vessels was in attendance and one was leaving so we sincerely hoped they had been. We informed BIOT who seemed relieved that a rescue mission was no longer required. Apparently some Sri Lankans had been rescued under similar circumstances recently and that could have been from the wrecked vessel we had walked to on Ile Fouquet. A few miles further on and we came across another fishing vessel. For a supposedly protected marine reserve it seems there is a fishing free for all at the moment.

When looking at the plastic washed up on nearly every beach we visit you can group the waste into three broad categories - flip flop shoes, drinks bottles and other containers, and fishing gear (nets, lines, floats). It’s the flip flop sandals that amaze us and so many are childrens’. Sadly Chagos is no exception and so the influence of people is very evident. The vegetation is dominated by palm trees that must be a relic of the former plantations. Sea birds and particularly red footed boobies roost in the trees that aren’t palm and so less palm trees might mean more birds? Nevertheless they are very special and we wish we could have spent more time there. Whether the Chagosians ever get back there to live remains to be seen but how they would support themselves and what impact they would have on the environment make for interesting speculation.