Apparently the Maldives had
an increase in water temperature to over 30degrees for a protracted period a few
years ago and it killed off all the coral - I had been wondering why it all
looked white and dead.
Gone
Troppo #2
4/12/99
Coo-eee
Cobbers,
It has been a couple of
months since our last letter and as Xmas fast approaches we thought it a good
time to update our news. Also it might be the last chance until next April, when
we hopefully will be in Israel.
Since our last letter we
have been around the Maldives mostly because we made the mistake of ordering
parts from America and have been waiting for them to arrive for over a
month. We had a visit from Gail's
sister Sue and her husband, David and daughter Edie. We met them at the Airport and then
motored down to the resort where they were staying. As there were no suitable anchorage's
nearby we managed to find an anchorage at the next resort, a Four Seasons super
luxury type owned by HPL who are in turn owned by David's boss Prince Al
Waeed(not sure about the spelling). Small world, heh. So anyway enough name
dropping, we had lots of eats and drinks both on the boat and off and were sorry
to see them go. Sue flew off to
Australia for Xmas before returning to Riyadh. I read a book called Princess about the
lot of women in Saudi Arabia and thought it to be exaggerated until I listened
to Sue's tales which dovetailed in with the book exactly - Pretty scary stuff
and there seems to be little hope of change in the short
term.
Anyway, back to the boat. We
did some minor repainting to one rudder and scrubbed the hulls. We spent some time at another resort
called Laguna to do this. We would work in the mornings and then go snorkeling
or go ashore in afternoon for a drink.
Lovely resort with beautiful reefs all round and some of the rooms are
built out over the water - don't think the idea would work in
Darwin.
Apparently the Maldives had
an increase in water temperature to over 30degrees for a protracted period a few
years ago and it killed off all the coral - I had been wondering why it all
looked white and dead.
Since Sue left we have been
moored next to the island (Hulule) on which the airport is built and catch the
ferry to the Capital of Male to shop and chase the progress of our freight. Last
we heard it had gone as far as Colombo!
You can get most things in Male and the prices are about the same as
Darwin, which is amazing because a lot of the products are Australian or
American. Stephen loves eating but hates shopping so I guess that makes him a
pretty typical Australian male and we have this interesting discussion about how
much I need to buy every time we go to Male - except for the cartons of Tonic
for the G & T's of course. In the Maldivian culture the man of the family
always brings home the bacon and the women cook it (only it is never bacon
because they are Moslem and pork is prohibited food). So each afternoon you see the men at the
fish market bartering for the catch.
Which reminds me that I would kill for a piece of
bacon.
The Maldives is not set up
for Yachties and they have structured their anchorage fees and visa costs so
that they increase rapidly after the first month. You are given permission to go
to resort islands but not inhabited islands. Fat lot of good that is if you want
to experience the Maldivian ways of life first
hand.
If we ever get our freight
we will head off to India for a while before tackling the Red Sea in
January.
So it's best wishes from us
for the Festive season and the new millennium. Stay healthy and give some
thought to meeting us either in the Med or further a field in the
future.
Now that Gail has had her say it is now time to hear from the Captain.
We have met some wonderful
Maldivians, they really are a friendly lot and try to be very helpful. Although
this doesn't mean that you get what you want. We have had trouble with the mail, one
letter sent over two months ago has not arrived, but it was sent from Saudi. It
took a month for a registered letter from Darwin to arrive. We were given the
old post office shuffle when we were trying locate these items, and ended up
accidentally at the desk of the new manager for the Maldives Post. He was very
friendly and had people opening mailbags while we chatted about communications.
Yes, you guessed it he used to work for the Maldive Communications Company. He
gave us his work and home phone numbers and told us to ring if the letters
didn't show soon. The post
seemed to work well, and I am sure our probs were due to the fact that they were
relocating the main post office.
GAIL's freight is a totally different story. We will think long and hard
before we order from the USA again. Fancy routing freight thru as many third
world countries as you possibly can.
By the way this freight consists of one radar unit and one laptop with
case. Greg, in Darwin, managed to get a parcel here to us within two weeks by
post, much better than expensive over-rated Yankee freight companies. The local manager for Pakistan
International Airways is looking into it(mirror it) for us, as his airline is
the carrier, once again we received home and business phone numbers. Very
friendly and helpful but still no freight in sight. By the way his airline doesn't fly here any more so thats
why no freight !!!
We have been thinking hard about our communications needs. While at Cocos
we asked Lyall, my brother in law in Alice, to check out the Magellan Gsc100 for
satellite Email. It proved too costly, as we would have to pay for incoming
characters as well as outgoing. We
think we will end up with an Iridium, but will wait till we can get one without
freighting it, and after we have read all the fine print re costs. Apparently it
can double as a normal mobile phone.
We had a rethink about the need for instant comms when a yacht, that we
have been in contact with since Chagos, was attacked by pirates. The yacht was Aphrodite and Gary the skipper
had slept in and missed a few scheds in the past so Ross, from the yacht YNOT,
and ourselves weren't too worried. We were a bit shocked when we heard a few
days later that he and his family had been attacked. We will be keeping up frequent
radio scheds when we are in the area.
The weather improved for our second month here, but has now turned wet
and windy. Just the sort of wind we need to sail to India, so hope it stays
around for another week. We
actually got the camera out last week and took a few photos, so you may get one
in the post in the future. I am
looking forward to the opportunities of a new country, but sadly we will not
have enough of the readies to do a great deal of exploring. The Maldives are very pretty and I would
recommend them for a holiday, as long as you like resorts and have put aside a
pile of US$. Great place for SCUBA diving.
We heard from a friend on a yacht in Durban(South Africa) that the
catamaran we left Darwin in company with has arrived in Richards Bay, just a few
miles north of him. It was good news as we hadn't heard of them since Chagos.
We are not sure where we will be for Xmas or New Year, probably India in
a pub. I can't keep Gail away from them, she is on an around the world pub
crawl. We had a couple of evenings on a French yacht here and they taught her
how to drink Madagascan rum, with sugar and lemon. Nice stuff but it packs a
punch. Talking of evenings, we have not yet seen a sunset that comes close to
the ones in Darwin, but I suppose we have a long way to go.
Please take extra care over the festive season. Merry Christmas and have a great New
Year.
Thanks to everyone for their help and
support, it is very much appreciated.
Cheers
Gail and Stephen