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).