Setting Sail For Chagos.

The last shopping has been done today and we bought a lot of vegetables and fruits, but could not find potatoes. I can recommend you to see the documentary "Steeling A Nation" that describe how the UK and USA got rid of the inhabitants of Chagos. Not nice and now there is only an US military base on the biggest atoll and the rest atolls are uninhabited. 

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjNfXK6QpqY  

Today the Ramadan starts and last for a month and it seems they respect well the fasting during daylight.

K&K did the rigging check and a small repair on the Genoa and they are good at these jobs. The rigging was OK, but the Genoa starts to show the 70.000 NM it has sailed. Time to get a new one.

Bananas In Paradise.

The below photo is especially for Gabriel, so he can see how Bananas are grown.

Going To Gan in Addu Atoll.

09.05.2018:

The anchorage became a bit too rough when the wind turned to the North and we got a big swell coming over the reefs. K&K had taken the tender to a small island for a walk and when they returned it was too rough for me to hoist the tender, so it stayed in the water all night protesting with its splashes in the waves.

Passing a small islands.

We have almost not seen any sailing boats since Lisa and Fabio in Uligan on the day we arrived there three weeks ago, but today a catamaran from Canada arrived together with a Sun Odyssey 45 and they anchored close to us.

This morning I was up at 05:30 and after breakfast I hoisted the tender and  we set out sailing inside the Atoll. We had a great sail for almost all the day as the wind was 6-10 kn from westerly direction, whereas outside the reefs the waves and swell were important and uncomfortable, but inside it was calm and a pleasure to sail and to enjoy the wind. We were too late to enter the difficult anchorage before sunset at the southern part of the Atoll, but we managed to get though the pass just as the sun went below the horizon. Outside we got the swell and waves as well as the current, but it was bearable at the beginning. We head for the furthest south Addu Atoll in the Maldives, where the town of Gan is located.

This is how a Squall looks like on the radar. The red is rain.

At 21:21 we crossed the Equator at 073°07.66 E and, as most sailors have done for centuries, we gave a toast to Neptune with some rum and Linje Snaps to thank him for looking so well after us so far and to continue to do so in the future.

By early night on 10.05.2018, the wind is as I write this, about 10 kn from the West and the swell and waves from starboard, so we roll a bit. I set the boom break up to try stopping the sails from banging. We have 39 NM left for Gan and I have calculated our average speed should be 4.7 kn/h to arrive in daylight at the Atoll where the channel is narrow with reefs on both sides and we will need good light to enter.

We had a big 1.5 m swell all night and a 2 kn East going current that is pushing us to the East and slowing us down. In any case we are not really in a hurry and the sunrise was beautiful with hardly any clouds. Nice morning again. We arrived Gan around 12:00 and entered the small anchorage area between the reefs. 

 The view from New Dawn at Gan where we are anchored in 35 meter.

Sunset over Gan.

Another nice sunset over Gan after a torrential shower, with our Italian friends on S/Y Refalo (Amel Super Maramu 2000).

Kolamafushi.

We have had bad weather the last couple of days with strong wind, rain and thunder. Two nights ago, I got only a little sleep as it was blowing, so in the end we left around 08:30 trying to find a suitable and more protected anchorage at the next Atoll to the south. But the sailing conditions were difficult especially since we had a strong cross current running to the East of up to 5 kn. Our progress was slow and it would be dark before we could arrive at the anchorage. Thus, we stayed at sea and head for the next atoll further to the South.

All the night was squally and the current pushed us a lot to the East, so it was impossible to keep our 234° course (T). So we had to find another anchorage on the East side of the Atoll to avoid having to tack against the wind and current. Unfortunately K & K tacked during my sleep and we ended up running right up against the 4-5 kn current. A yacht can’t really sail against such a strong current, but to keep the peace, I only mentioned that I would not have used this tactic. In the end we had to motor during the night to arrive in the anchorage by 10:00 this morning.

This is what happen when one tries to sail against a strong current.

As I write this, we are sailing 7.3 kn through the water, but only 4 kn over the ground and are off the designated course; it became worth later on (see photo above). We are at position 01° 15N; 073° 43 E. We are now getting near the Equator and should cross it just South of the next Atoll and before we get to the furthest South Atoll of the Maldives, where Gan town is located. This will be my third Equatorial crossing since leaving France in 2013. The first one was at the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific, then in Indonesia and now in the Maldives. Friends on S/Y Tehino.Li told me yesterday that they had to get South of 4° S before the East current eased and that is close to the Chagos, so we will have to fight this current for a while longer.

There are at the moment ten yachts in the Chagos anchored in the permitted anchorage area in the Salomon Atoll and several friends are there. It will be nice to see them again, if we can get there in time. Some like S/Y Max (Amel 54), I first met in Shelter Bay Marina in Panama and again the the Marquises, FP, NZ, Malaysia, etc., are there as well.

The generator is still giving us problems and I can’t use it to make fresh water for fear of breaking the water-maker. Knut has spend several hours trying to fix it and managed well, but he is not yet confident that the Hz, RPM and V are correct, as we have no means to measure anything other than the V. The hydraulic is making an worrying noise and I await suggestions from Lewmar in the UK.

Knut suggested we change the watch system and as I am usually flexible with these systems, we adapted a 3 h on and 6 h off system. No fish caught on this trip, but plenty of Dolphins and I noticed a huge Blue Marlin swimming next to us, but did not manage to take a photo in time. At the present anchorage there are Dolphins swimming around us.

We have had an awful sail to Kolamafushi as it took us 48 h to sail 260 NM against a 5 kn East going current, which should have been 120 NM. The anchorage is nice and we might visit the town after some rest.

Knut and I went for a walk in town, which resembles all the other towns we have visited. Again we met nice people and one was a charter captain on a Catamaran and he became our town guide. The photos from our visit are, as follows.

Kolhuvaaiyaafushi Islamd, Maldives.

We had a great wind from the west and had a fast passage, although it rained a lot during the morning. Caught four fish and dumped the two small Tunas and one Mahi Mahi, and a fourth one got away with the lure. Knut is happy that we got these bites, although dinner will not be fish tonight.

We had a walk in town, which looks a bit like most of these towns, but again people are friendly and say hello when we pass them. Here are some of the photos taken this morning.

Knut got in contact with this chap via FB and he turned out to be very friendly and took us for the town visit, helped us getting a mechanic for the generator, some shopping and SIM cards. Very nice of him and he received a New Dawn T-shirt.

And we bought two fish for € 1.62, so we will have fish on the BBQ tonight.

New Dawn at anchor on the outside of the reefs.