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.
by Judy Handley | Mar 22, 2010 | Maldives - Addu Atoll, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 147, Year 5: A Lucky Ride
Date: Monday, March 22, 2010
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny, HOT Day with Scattered Clouds
Location: Gan Island, Addu Atoll, Maldives
What a wonderful world! This morning Ed and Lynne of Constance and Mark and I went to shore at 10 am to walk to the next island of Feydoo. No, we cannot walk on water. There is a causeway connecting the islands, so off we went. We got halfway across the causeway when a white van with an aeronautics logo on the side stopped. The driver was Lal from Sri Lanka who is here working here at the airport. He told us to jump in and he would take us where we needed to go. We needed to go to the ATM on the third island of Maradhoo and then back to Feydoo, the second island, to check out the grocery stores and buy a SIM card for the modem that we hope to use to connect us to the internet. Ed was looking for capacitors for his ailing generator. Lal looked at the blown capacitor that Ed brought with him and then the search began. He knew of one place, but he stopped guys on motorbikes along the way showing them the blown capacitor and asking where one could be bought. We went to one store after another and actually found almost matching capacitors. We would never have been able to do this without the help of Lal, so getting a ride from him was lucky indeed. Ed had thought he was going to have to order from Germany, but maybe not. Ed bought one capacitor here and one capacitor there and by noon when everything closes for two hours, we were back on Gan Island with three new capacitors. We said our thanks and farewells to Lal and headed back to our boats to have lunch and get ready for another trip ashore in the afternoon.
At 2 pm we walked across the causeway and up the road along the water on Feydoo. I had called our agent, Mas-ood Saeed, and he had given me directions to a place where we could buy the right kind of SIM card for our computer modem and directions to his office which just happened to be right above the SIM card store. Mark spent way over an hour in the Waytania shop trying to get a SIM card to work in our modem while Ed, Lynne and I went upstairs to gather information from Mas-ood. We found out that fuel here is going to cost almost as much as in India due to a recent increase, but at least we can get fuel and propane cooking gas. So much for traveling 700 miles to get cheaper fuel. It doesn’t exist. Mark had not had good luck in the Waytania shop as the young man could not get our modem working on his computer, but he bought a SIM card for the modem anyway so he could try it on our computer. We made arrangements for the refrigeration guy to come tomorrow and to have the propane tanks picked up to be filled. We will get fuel the next day. We left Masood’s office and walked to the Two Plus One grocery store. It was small but well stocked and I was able to buy canned whole tomatoes, canned mangoes, and order some fresh veggies to be brought to Gan from Male. Male is the center of government in the Maldives and the place to which everything is shipped from the outside world. From there, things are then sent out to the various islands. The owner of Two Plus One just happens to be in Male right now and will bring the veggies back with him. Lucky for us. On the way back to Gan, we stopped at a new store called 3. We wondered if that is a play on Two Plus One, but whatever, we found this store to cater to the tastes of ‘outsiders’. They have lots of things, and even though the prices seem a bit high, we bought a few things there as well.
Mark has spent his whole evening trying to get wifi going one way or another, but so far nothing is working. We have multiple options, so we will report on what works and what doesn’t in tomorrow’s log.
by Judy Handley | Mar 21, 2010 | Maldives - Addu Atoll, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 146, Year 5: Arrival in Addu Atoll
Date: Sunday, March 21, 2010
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny, HOT Day; No Wind
Location: Gan Island, Addu Atoll, Maldives
Latitude: 00 degrees 41.157 minutes SOUTH
Longitude: 073 degrees 08.635 minutes E
Passage Statistics:
496 Miles in 101 Hours
41 Hours Sailing
60 Hours Motoring
Fuel Usage~30 US gallons or 114 liters
3:48 am Crossed the Equator
2:00 pm Anchored Off Gan Island
2:45 pm Coast Guard Boat Brought Officials to Windbird
3:30 pm Coast Guard Boat Left After Checking Us In
4:15 pm Went to Shore to Explore
5:30 pm Back on Windbird
We are south of the equator once again. It will take a bit to get used to writing our latitude with an S instead of an N. We ended up motoring all night and all day today, but we got here safe and sound and had no trouble checking-in. The officials got very concerned when they saw our paperwork that showed we had checked out of Uligan, but when we told them we went to the high seas and then had some mechanical issues that need to be dealt with, they made some phone calls, nodded their heads, and then finished the process. They simply put our last port of call as “high seas” not another port in the Maldives. They were very helpful and efficient and on and off the boat very quickly. And we were very grateful that they let us stay here. Our “mechanical problem” didn’t really happen on the passage, but we used our freezer compressor as the issue and that worked. We have little hope that anything can be done, but there is a man here that is supposed to be a very good refrigeration guy. We will ask him to check out the compressor and see what he thinks. Constance needs to get a capacitor for their gen-set, so that is their “mechanical problem.” So now we will be able to fill our fuel tanks and load up with fresh fruit and veggies before heading off to Chagos. It will take us at least three days to reach Chagos from here and we want to be there no later than April 1, so we will probably spend a week here and then head out.
This is not the idyllic anchorage. There’s no white sand beach, no swaying palm trees, and no pristine water. Instead we are anchored in front of a causeway that connects two islands and watch trucks, cars, and motorbikes crossing. It is a very small anchorage and we are crowded with three sailboats and two tour boats at anchor. Single Malt, a boat we know from the Sail Indonesia Rally two years ago, was here when we arrived. Edi and Eli are also headed to Chagos. So they are one side of us and Constance is on the other. As the tide comes in, it brings LOTS of seaweed and other organic matter with it, so it is not inviting to jump in. But there is supposed to be really nice snorkeling in the pass just yards away, so hopefully we will get in some good snorkeling and enjoy walking or biking the chain of islands connected with causeways. We understand that we might be able to rent bikes at the Equator Village, the resort here, and that would be great fun.
When we went ashore, we went looking for a SIM card for our modem that would allow us to have internet on the boat. We found a little store that sells SIM cards, but they were not familiar with our type of modem. We bought the card which works in our cell phone, but we need to search further to find a way to get internet on the boat. We know it is possible, but we just need to find the right person to help us. So that will be tomorrow’s search.
by Judy Handley | Mar 20, 2010 | Passage to Addu Atoll, Maldives, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 145, Year 5: Passage to Gan, Addu Atoll, Maldives, Day 4
Date: Saturday, March 20, 2010
Weather: Cloudy, then Sunny; Winds NE 5-10 Knots
Latitude: 00 degrees 52.178 minutes N
Longitude: 073 degrees 41.793 minutes E
Miles to Go: 103
We sailed all night again with great winds, but when the sun came up, the winds calmed down. On my early morning watch I had to start the engine and pull in the sails so stop them from slatting and waking Mark up. I figured he needed his sleep and motoring for an hour or two wouldn’t hurt anything. When he got up, we started sailing again and then put up the asymmetrical spinnaker for about three hours. The rest of the day was off and on. We sailed with all sails up, just the main and headsail, wing and wing with the headsail poled out to port, and motored a bit from time to time which gave us a chance to run the watermaker. Now that the sun is getting ready to set, we are motoring once again. Actually the wind is back up to 7-8 knots, but it is right behind us and just not enough to push us forward fast enough. We have 103 miles to go and if we can keep going at 4-5 knots, we will arrive in Gan tomorrow. We will cross the equator sometime during the night. It would be nice if the crossing could coincide with a change of watches, but that is probably asking a little too much. So one of us will have to get up so we can celebrate the crossing together. The seas are still calm, the dolphins come to play, the basil is growing, and life is generally good.
by Judy Handley | Mar 19, 2010 | Passage to Addu Atoll, Maldives, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 144, Year 5: Passage to Gan, Addu Atoll, Maldives, Day 3
Date: Friday, March 19, 2010
Weather: Sunny; Winds ENE 10-15 Knots; Still Hot
Latitude: 02 degrees 58.076 minutes N
Longitude: 073 degrees 49.409 minutes E
Miles to Go: 229
A wish for wind . . . and we got it. We were able to sail for twenty-two straight hours, started the engine to charge the batteries, and will soon be sailing again. We can see that the winds are dying down a bit, but after the sun goes down, they might return. We actually had 20-25 knot winds for part of the night, so we were flying over the calm waters. We are both spending our waking hours reading “passage” books. These aren’t the greatest literature, but they keep your attention and keep you awake when you are on watch. I’m also working on naming photos. So between reading, writing, naming photos, and cooking, the time is passing quickly.
