by Judy Handley | Mar 28, 2010 | Maldives - Addu Atoll, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 153, Year 5: Ready to Head to Chagos
Date: Sunday, March 28, 2010
Weather: Partly Cloudy, No Wind but Rolling Wave
Location: Gan Island, Addu Atoll, Maldives
To me, getting ready to head to Chagos feels a little bit like preparing to drop off the face of the earth for a bit. We are making our last contacts with kids, buying enough food and fuel to last for the next few months, and topping up the propane cooking gas tanks. When I say that there is nothing in Chagos other than coconut trees, bilimbi trees (more about those in a later log), and fish in the water, I really mean it. Except, of course, on the island of Diego Garcia where there is a US military base that is strictly off limits. There will be twenty some cruising boats with permits to anchor in Peros Banhos and Salomon Islands, but other cruisers on boats are the only people we will see until the BIOT boat comes through to check our permits or to invite us aboard their boat for a barbeque dinner. You have to be prepared to be totally self-sufficient. We think we are, but we’ll not really know until we get there and see how it goes.
The really, really good news of the day was that we finally were able to connect with our daughter Heather, her husband Jed, and boys Sam and Jonah very early this morning. For whatever reason, we can only make successful Skype calls in the morning hours. So we got up at 4 am to try and catch Sam and Jonah before their bedtime. We got to also see Jed’s parents, Marti and Donald. They had all been to the National Zoo during the day but still had enough energy for the call. We got to see Jonah stand up all by himself for a few seconds and got to see him happy and giggling. He’s grown up so much since we last saw him in early October. Sam told us about some of the animals he saw at the zoo and gave us the greatest joy by just letting us watch him and Jonah play. On Wednesday we had a great call with Justin, Jo, and Ziggy and now we’ve had our call with Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah. It could be months (South Africa in October) before we get to see them via Skype again. In the meantime, email and phone calls will just have to do, but we are already missing seeing them.
Filling our propane tank through the drip method did actually work. Both of our 20-pound tanks are now full. We have a huge stalk of green bananas hanging from the arch on the back of the boat and all the food storage areas are absolutely full. Mark and Ed spent the morning going to the island of Hithadhoo to check out, so look out Chagos, here we come.
by Judy Handley | Mar 27, 2010 | Maldives - Addu Atoll, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 152, Year 5: Snorkeling and Provisioning
Date: Saturday, March 27, 2010
Weather: Beautiful Day; No Wind
Location: Gan Island, Addu Atoll, Maldives
We started our day by joining an Equator Village Resort snorkeling trip. There are two bright yellow tourist boats that are moored right beside us and when we walked to the resort to join the snorkeling trip, it was one of those boats that picked us up. We headed to the north side of the atoll to a very nice snorkeling site. It was a wide reef top with lots of stony coral, especially table corals. We saw a nice array of fish, a beautiful eel, and a very shy octopus. We were glad that we went.
Once we returned it was time to turn our attention to the details of getting ready to leave. Getting our propane cooking gas tank filled was a number one priority. Our agent, Mas-ood, arranged for someone to pick up the tank and get it filled. It was returned last night and was not even half full. It was explained to us that they only way they can fill our tank here is the drip method. This means hanging one full tank above our empty, connecting the tanks with tubing, and then letting gravity do its thing. Well, the professionals could only get eight pounds of gas in our twenty pound tank. After going back to the bank to get more money, Mark and I went to the little hardware store here on Gan and rented a full tank of propane. After seven hours, a couple of pounds of gas have dripped through the system, but we still have a ways to go. Lynne and I walked across the causeway to Feydoo to visit Two Plus One, the little supermarket we like. We picked up the carrots we bought the other day, and I bought some more limes, some peppers that look like Hungarian Banana peppers, laundry detergent, and razor blades. Nothing is cheap here, but at least some things are available that we weren’t able to get in India (like liquid laundry detergent). We each order a stalk of bananas to be picked up tomorrow and then we started the walk back to the anchorage. We made a quick stop at Supermarket 3 and then back to Gan.
At 5:15 in the late afternoon, we tried giving Heather, Jed, and boys a call on Skype. We just can’t figure out the Skype issue here. Sometimes we have a great connection and other times we just get the “unable to complete your call” message. This evening was one of those times, so we called the telephone instead of the computer and made arrangements to try another call at 7 pm Washington, DC time (4 am here). Lynne had invited Mark and I over for pizza tonight, so promptly at 6 pm we jumped in the dinghy and went over to Constance. It was a fabulous pizza dinner and we enjoyed the time to talk about our upcoming passage to Chagos.
Tomorrow’s big job is getting checked out and then doing the final, final shopping before departing here on Monday morning. Chagos, here we come.
by Judy Handley | Mar 26, 2010 | Maldives - Addu Atoll, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 151, Year 5: The End of the Freezer Story
Date: Friday, March 26, 2010
Weather: Partly Overcast Day with Wind and Sprinkles Early Morning
Location: Gan Island, Addu Atoll, Maldives
Late last we night talked to my sister Patsy and Jean and Ken of Renaissance 2000 (in St. Maarten) via Skype
Snorkeling in the early morning-lots of beautiful fish
Waiting . . .
Waiting . . .
Mid-afternoon Ali and Riyadh arrived to work on the freezer unit.
So it is now 6:30 pm and I am sitting here alone still WAITING. When Ali and Riyadh arrived in mid-afternoon, they hooked everything up with great expectations. The compressor seemed to be working and there appeared to be no leaks, but still the unit did not cool. Then Ali asked where we got the R134A gas that they have been using to charge the system. We said, “India.” And he said, “Corruption-that’s the problem.” Joking or not, we then started wondering whether or not the tank had been refilled with the proper gas. We bought the tank in Thailand and when it was delivered to us it was not unnecessarily heavy. We used the gas on the way to India to try and recharge the failing system and on the first day when the refrigeration guys came to Windbird in Cochin, they used the remaining gas. They then took the tank to get it filled. R134A is written in large letters on the tank and we assume they knew what to get. But this afternoon after having the tank on for quite a long period of time, it did not frost up or even feel cool. That is when Ali wondered aloud if the gas might be the problem. So off they went, Mark in tow, back to the island of Hithadhoo to get their tank of R134A.
It is now 7:30 pm. Mark, Ali, and Riyadh returned, tried their tank of R134A gas and still no freezer. They think the problem has to be the expansion valve because they believe the compressor is working. They would be willing to keep working on this, but Mark and I had decided last night that if it was not working at the end of the day today, we were going to close the case. And that is what we have done. Riyadh didn’t want to give up and he apologized for not being able to get it running. He is a good man and I think eventually he could have figured this out, but we are just so tired of spending day after day doing nothing but focusing on the freezer problem and we just decided enough is enough. When we are on a dock in South Africa we might look into the situation again, but for now we will simply learn to live without a freezer. In fact, like it or not, we already have.
So here’s the plan. We are going to join a resort snorkeling trip in the morning, do our last bit of shopping in the afternoon, and check out on Sunday. Bright and early Monday morning we will be headed to Chagos. How’s that for affirmative action!
by Judy Handley | Mar 25, 2010 | Maldives - Addu Atoll, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 150, Year 5: The Continuing Freezer Story
Date: Thursday, March 25, 2010
Weather: Another Beautiful Day
Location: Gan Island, Addu Atoll, Maldives
A thousand Rufiah is the equivalent of 78 US dollars. We went to the bank on Monday and withdrew 2,000 Rufiah, spent that, and went back yesterday get another 1,000 Rf, spent that, and that meant another looooooong walk back to the bank today. I was planning to go alone, but at the last minute we found out that the refrigeration guys were not coming at 10:30 am but rather at 12 noon. So Mark went with me and started the trek north. Amazingly, once again our Sri Lankan friend Lal drove by and picked us up for part of the trip. But he was not going very far. We then started walking again and a taxi driver tried to convince us that we need to ride with him. But we convinced him that we needed to walk. Just as we were getting ready to cross the causeway to the third island of Maradhoo, the same taxi driver stopped and offered us a free ride to the ATM. His name was Moosa and we were hot and tired and got in. He took us to the bank, was very helpful, and we decided to have him take us back to the second island of Feydoo to a pharmacy. There is a cruiser in the Chagos who is having a very bad back problem and Ed and Lynne’s friends that are there asked them to pick up some medications. They gave us the list since we were going north today, and Moosa took us to the pharmacy and made sure we got the medications we needed. We then walked back to Gan. We got back to Windbird in time to have lunch before the Riyadh and Ali returned with our compressors.
Now for the “freezer story” for today. Basically, they believe both compressors work fine but there is still a problem. So what we think we know is that we spent $1,000 on a new compressor we didn’t need, but still don’t have a freezer. Riyadh thinks there might be a problem in the cold plate, so we removed that and he took it back to his shop. Tomorrow is a holy day here, a non-work day, but Riyadh and Ali left their equipment here and said they would return tomorrow with the cold plate. If things don’t work then, we are going to say that we gave it our best shot and simply forget about having a freezer until we get back to the US.
When the refrigeration team arrived at the dock, Mark went in to pick them up and drop me off for a little Gan Island adventure. I just wanted to walk around the island and see what was there. I also wanted to go to the Post Office to send early birthday presents to Jo and Heather. Prior to 1956, Gan Island was a community of Maldivians. But in 1956 when the British could no longer use Sri Lanka as a base, the British built a Royal Air Force base in Gan. All of the people living on Gan were moved to the next island north, Feydoo. Causeways were built to connect the island of Gan to Feydoo to Maradhoo to Hithadhoo. But then in 1976, the British pulled out leaving Gan as a military base ghost town. Still no one really lives on the island, but many of the barracks are used to house resort employees. The Equator Village, a truly affordable Maldivian resort, is a resort of refitted barracks. The resort has used a mass of tropical plants to hide the fact that the housing is really barracks and they have done a good job of this. I went there to see if we could join one of their daily snorkeling trips and found that we can for $10 US per person. On Saturday we will definitely do this. I found the Post Office and mailed my packages and then headed back to Windbird.
When I arrived, Riyadh was still working hard below and Ali was sitting in the cockpit relaxing. I think his main job is that of an interpreter as he speaks very good English, but Riyadh does most of the work. I learned from Ali that the most beautiful women in Addu Atoll live on the island of Feydoo and the most brilliant men live on Hithadhoo (which is where Ali lives). On the serious side, I learned that young people in this atoll that want to go beyond grade 10 must pass the Cambridge test. It used to be the Oxford, which Ali says was easier, but now it is the Cambridge. You can then go on to grades 11 and 12. If you want to further your education you can either go to the capital of Male and spend about 15,000 Rf ($1,100 US) per month to live or you can go to Sri Lanka and get a higher education for about $300 US per month. So most young people go to ‘Lanka’.
So our saga will continue tomorrow when Riyadh and Ali return. If the freezer system does not work with this newest fix, then we are going to hang it up. In the meantime, we hope to get in an early morning snorkel here in the anchorage and the pass leading in. We are seeing turtles and rays in the anchorage, and locals are diving and coming up with octopus, so there must be something here to see.
We were successful in talking to my sister and brother-in-law via Skype with video tonight, and then we got a call from sailing friends Ken and Jean on Renaissance 2000. They were calling from St. Maarten in the Caribbean. As always, it was great to talk with them and they gave us tips for our upcoming year of cruising. We love the cruiser network.
by Judy Handley | Mar 24, 2010 | Maldives - Addu Atoll, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 149, Year 5: Food, Fuel, and Internet
Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Weather: Another Beautiful Day, Not Quite As Hot
Location: Gan Island, Addu Atoll, Maldives
Food, fuel, and internet. Now what more can a sailor ask for. Good winds and fair seas, I suppose, but we don’t need those for a few days. And a freezer that works, but that is tomorrow’s fun. So for now we are happy. We finally figured out the cheapest and the best way to connect to the internet here and to have a good Skype video connection right in the cockpit. We do have to sit in the cockpit instead of inside the boat, but from up there we have great wifi-some of the time. We can’t figure it out, but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work at all and none of the settings have changed, so we’re not sure what that is about. But if we persist, we know we can have a good Skype call. We called Justin this morning as a test. At first we had trouble getting through, but he switched to Jo’s computer and then we had one of the best connections I think we have ever had. At 8:30 am here, it is 9:30 pm in New Mexico, but Justin, Jo, and Ziggy were all still up and Ziggy was a delight. We had tried earlier to download some video of Ziggy that Justin had posted on his website, but we can’t seem to get video off Picasa or other websites. So Justin sent two of the videos via Skype. That took an hour to two, but now we have lots of Ziggy video to watch in the next few months while we have no internet connection. Heather and Jed posted video of Sam and Jonah on their Picasa site, but we can’t download it. Jed has been under extreme pressure getting a grant written, but that should be done today. Tomorrow they are traveling to Washington, DC, by train, to celebrate Jed’s mother’s birthday. Maybe once they get there, we can connect via Skype and get them to send their videos through Skype as well. So internet is off and on, but at least we have it.
The delivery of diesel fuel happened this afternoon and into the evening. The truck would come and Mark, Ed, and Edi of Single Malt would fill their jerry cans and return to the boats to fill the tanks. The truck would leave and then return, but the wait between returns was quite long so that it was almost dark when the job was finished. Earlier in the day, Lynne of Constance and I had walked to the third island in this chain, Maradhoo, to the ATM to get enough money to pay for fuel. Then we walked back to Feydoo, the second island, to go to Two Plus One to buy limes, ginger, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, razor blades, and a few other items. During our walk to Maradhoo, Lal (our friend from Sri Lanka) picked us up and took us the rest of the way to the bank. On our way back to Feydoo, a car pulled over to tell us that he (the driver) had a supermarket named Two Plus One. We told him that is where we were headed, so he drove us the rest of the way. We made our purchases, talked with a local woman who couldn’t speak English (the staff at Two Plus One interpreted for us) to tell us that we need to stop and spend a lot of time here. We won’t be doing that since we need to get to the Chagos, but even if we did stay here, our movement is so restricted that it wouldn’t be the happy time the woman was indicating. Still, we appreciated her welcome. Lynne and I then hiked back to the anchorage. A little later the fuel run started and is now complete. We still need to get petrol for the dingy, but then we will be ready for take-off.
Mark talked to Ali, one of the refrigeration guys, and he said that they had trouble finding one connector, but that will have it and be here by 10:30 in the morning. We were going to have to take Windbird over to the seawall so we could connect to local power to vacuum the refrigeration system, but late this afternoon Claude and Carmen of Koukouri arrived. They were anchored just in front of us in Cochin and beside us in Uligan, and it was their transformer that we borrowed to have the work done in India. How fortunate that they came in this afternoon. It is now a really crowded little anchorage, but its looking like we all fit just fine. We already have Claude’s transformer onboard and are looking forward to the return of the refrigeration crew. Once that is done, we will be ready to head to Chagos with the other three boats with whom we share this anchorage.
by Judy Handley | Mar 23, 2010 | Maldives - Addu Atoll, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 148, Year 5: Back to the Compressor Problem
Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny, HOT Day; Rain Dribbles
Location: Gan Island, Addu Atoll, Maldives
I need to write a song about the compressor blues. We knew when we left India that we were going to have a refrigeration man here in Addu Atoll take a look at our problem. Today was the day and it was painful to reopen the whole issue. Riyadh and Ali came mid-afternoon and after doing some testing, Riyadh believes both the old and the new compressor are working just fine. They took them back to their shop to put better connectors on both and will return late tomorrow to see if they can get the system running. It is helpful that both these men speak better English than anyone we dealt with in India. When Riyadh pulled out his I-phone to make a call all I could think is that he is making good money. If he can get the system running, we won’t mind paying the price, so we will just have to see what tomorrow brings. By the way, Ali told us that they buy things like I-phones from EBay and pay much less than they would in the shops here. When they order things, the delivery time is one week. Not bad.
Our day started with a re-anchoring routine that went on and on. I woke up at 5 am and took a look around outside. We were WAY too close to Single Malt but I wasn’t sure why. I said something to Mark and he said he thought we were fine. I tried to go back to sleep, but just couldn’t so by 6 am I was up for the day. We had a little rain shower, but certainly not enough rain to clean the grime from our canvas. It just left little runs of black grime from India. When Mark got up, he did decide that we needed to try and re-anchor. The anchorage here is tight and we are between Single Malt and Constance with two tourist boats on one side of us. So we tried another position, and then another, and then another. Finally on the fourth try we think we got it right, so hopefully we won’t have any more close encounters with Single Malt.
The rest of the day was spent trying to get a good connection to the internet. We went to the Youth Cyber Café that is right next to where we take our dinghy when we go ashore. It is air-conditioned and comfortable with three computers and one station for connecting your own laptop, a couple of overstuffed and very comfortable sofas and a TV with CNN, ESPN, and who know what else. Nice little place-but slooooow internet. Mark was trying to upload photos to our website and it took about thirty minutes for just one picture. In the meantime, Ed of Constance had gone to try and return one of the capacitors he bought yesterday and bought a top up card for our modem. When he returned, Mark tried that and the connection was a bit faster, but still frustrating. And VERY expensive. So when we went back to the boat, we tried yet a different system. There is wifi in the anchorage but when we looked at the low signal last night, we didn’t think it would work. Our agent, Mas-ood had printed out instructions on how to get a user name and password for us, so all you do is turn on the computer and log in. Even with the low signal, it works much faster than the modem or the hard-wired computers at the Cyber Café. You pay for it by keeping your cell phone topped up, so it is easy and it is affordable. But the low signal is not looking good for Skype video. And, in fact, Mark has not been able to log into Skype at all so far. We will have to continue this quest tomorrow.
My goal for tomorrow is to try and find out just where we can go snorkeling here to see some of the beautiful soft corals that this area is famous for. We have also asked our agent to have fuel delivered tomorrow. He hasn’t called us back to let us know if that can happen, but if not tomorrow, then the next day. I think Mark has been successful in uploading the underwater photos from Uligan, so if you want to see those go back to Days 140 and 141. Most of the photos from India have also been uploaded.
