The Maldives ~ Enjoying Paradise!

We've been anchored here off the beautiful Uligan Island in the Maldives for four days now and are enjoying all the peace and tranquillity of island life once again. Blue Moon is sitting in 12 feet of the clearest turquoise water we've seen in a very long time and surrounded by fantastic coral reef bustling with tropical fish. On Monday we took a boat trip with 18 other cruisers to visit some of the other islands in the atoll (as we can't move our own boats) and spent a relaxing day getting to know everyone in the anchorage. Last night the locals arranged a Pot Luck Dinner on the beach where they cooked up a bunch of fresh fish on the BBQ and sang and danced to traditional music.

The Maldivians are extremely friendly people and our agent 'Imad' has done everything possible to make visiting here as smooth and easy as possible. We've been able to buy fuel at $1.20 a liter and water from the village Well is free. There are a few very small shops in the village where you can buy fresh fruit and vegetables and sliced white bread. Checking in and out is really easy and free for the first 72 hours after which you have to hire the agent which costs $20 US for a further 15 days and another $10 when you check out. We plan to stay until Sunday and then head on to Oman...that's if we can pull ourselves away from all the great snorkeling!!

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We made it! ~ At anchor off Uligan island in the Maldives.

Current Position at Anchor: North 07*05'041 East 072*55'161

We are now very happily anchored within the reefs of Ihavandiffulu Atoll behind Uligan island in the far northern Maldives. We spent the last 24 hours motoring as the wind dropped off completely but took the opportunity to run the water maker and made 75 Gallons of fresh water. The islands are really beautiful circled by white sandy beaches and covered in palm trees, not much has changed in the eight years since I was here last except of course two cell phone towers have cropped up! There are 15 other yachts anchored here and we're looking forward to catching up with everyone tomorrow.

Tonight we plan to cook a nice dinner, have a glass of wine and enjoy a great nights sleep...

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Day 11 ~ Thailand to the Maldives: Calm weather at last!

Our current position @ 02:39 GMT: North 06*55'513 East 075*01'805 Course: 274*T Wind: North East 5 knots Miles to go: 124 (hurray)

The weather has changed considerably over the past 24 hours and we've gone from having 30 knots of wind to almost nothing! We had a great sail during the night as the winds decreased to a steady 15 knots and we made great time as we also have a 2 knot current with us. This evening however, the wind has dropped off completely and we finally had to give in and start the engine. Although it's painful to have to burn fuel I have to admit it's a relief to finally get flat calm seas and be able to function normally again. Everything that had flown out of cupboards and off shelves has been put back in place and the boat no longer looks like a battle field! We're looking forward to being able to keep regular 3 hour watches tonight so we can catch up on sleep and make water while we motor to refill the tanks.

Tomorrow we have to break out the fishing rods and start catching some food as we used the last of our fresh meat today. It's been too rough to try before so we're really looking forward to feasting on fresh fish especially as we haven't caught anything since Australia due to the over fishing in Asia...lets just hope we get lucky!

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Passing the Southern Cape of India ~ Blowing a gale!

Current Position @ 02:18 GMT: North 06*28'243 East 077*41'203 Course: 278*T Speed: 7-8 knots

Another exciting day on board Blue Moon as the wind has picked up to a consistently strong 25-30 knots from the North. The waves have doubled their size and are breaking against our hull making a very wet and uncomfortable sail. We've reefed the sails down to almost nothing and are still maintaining speeds around 8 knots as we pass the southern tip of India. We're constantly battling the endless stream of shipping that runs in this area and calling the massive ships on a regular basis to make sure they can see us on their radar, most are friendly and are happy to alter course if neccessary but trying to understand the different accents of the radio operators is pretty confusing...should make for an interesting night!

..282 nautical miles to Uligan in the Maldives!

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Running the Gauntlet ~ Past Sri Lanka.

Current Position @ 01:20 GMT: North 05*57'099 East 080*06.042 Course: 279* With 425nm to the Maldives.

We've had a hair raising 36 hours with squalls bringing winds of 35 knots and a few more near misses with the odd container ship. This morning we started our pass below the south coast of Sri Lanka in the dark and spent frustrating hours avoiding fishing boats looking for hand outs and staying out of the major shipping channel. By the time the sun came up we were finally having a great sail and with a 3 knot current helping us along the way.

To bring tensions on board up to a whole new level this morning however, we had the least expected near collision of all. While looking for obstacles above the water we were suddenly faced with a major one from below. As we sailed ten miles off the coast we spotted a whale bigger than the boat off to our starboard side, while enjoying the sight we were suddenly struck into panic mode as it diverted course and headed straight for us. It then dove down under our hull and appeared to be rising up from below, Jimmy was able to grab the helm and turn us 90 degrees just in time for it surface and slap it's tail with a huge crash right where are stern had been moments before. The whale then continued on the way just as if nothing had happened, why it decided to target us we have no idea but we're thanking our lucky stars we still have our rudder attached and we'll be keeping a better watch in 'all' directions from now on!!

It's now evening and we've left Sri Lanka 10 miles on our stern and are on course for our final run to the Maldives...with just one more Gauntlet to run we have to cross over the shipping channel that runs north up the coast of India. Once again we're doing it at night but with the help of another cruising yacht who have an AIS receiver on board allowing them to track the course of the ships (much like an air traffic controllers screen) it's making it a lot easier for us to avoid a collision. Hopefully tomorrow will bring a more relaxing day and the chance to finally catch up on some sleep!

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Squally Weather!

Current Position at 01:43 GMT: North 06*21'242 East 084*49'833 Course: 266*T Speed: 5.8 Knots

Still having a great sail and keeping the pace up but the weather isn't so nice at night with a lot squalls bringing high winds and rain. We've been really lucky to avoid most of them but spend a lot of time changing course to get out of their way. The seas are confused with two sets of swells coming from different directions but we're now on a port tack making the ride a lot more comfortable and easier to cook meals! We have 192 miles to go to our Way Point off the southern tip of Sri Lanka and should pass by in roughly 32 hours.

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Making good progress!

Current Position @ 11:00 GMT: North 07*03'075 East 089*28'105 Course: 261*T

The winds have been steadily building to around 20 knots so we've been making great time even getting speeds up to 8.5 knots when surfing down waves! The seas have also built so we're rolling around a lot with the sails still winged out on either side but at least the waves our coming from behind so no problems there. Our wind vane is still doing a great job at steering for us so we just have to sit back and keep a look out for ships and fishing boats. We had a near miss today as a tanker was on a direct course for us...we haven't seen anything for four days and then this guy is coming straight for us...luckily Jimmy was able to hail them on the VHF radio and they altered their course to miss us, I guess we have a lot of that to look forward to as we get closer to Sri Lanka!

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Bumpy Bay of Bengal!

Current Position @ 11:30 GMT: North 07*28'297 East 091*48'591 Course: 261*T ~ Averaging 4 knots

We're now crossing the Bay of Bengal and it's pretty uncomfortable with confused seas and not quite enough wind to keep us on track. We have the head sail poled out with the main goose winged on the other side as the winds coming from our stern but finding it difficult to get speeds over 4 knots so we're sliding all over the place. Our wind vane is steering pretty well so at least we're not using up all our power on the auto helm! Weather is pretty grim with lots of squalls around us and just trying to keep out of their way and so far we've been pretty lucky. Otherwise we're doing fine and are finally getting into a good watch pattern, we've had a lot of encounters with dolphins and pilot whales swimming off our bow which has been really great to see again after the baron waters of East Asia...we're back in passage mode!

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Sombrero Channel ~ Nicobar Islands.

Current Position: North 07*41'819 South 093*24.861 Course: 262*T Speed: 4.3 Knots under Motor.

We've just passed through the Sombrero Channel in the Nicobar Islands, a chain of islands running from north to south and owned by India. It's not possible for us to stop for a break here as the islands are only open to Indian nationals although the sight of land is a comfort. We've had a slow day as there's been very little wind and we've been motoring since yesterday afternoon, the weathers been unpredictable and we were drenched in squall that passed by this morning!

Jimmy topped up the Diesel tank this afternoon with 17 gallons from the deck cans, we hold 90 gallons in total the main tank holding 50 and the rest in Jerry cans. It looks like another slow night with no moon so pretty dark with overcast skies...fingers crossed for a little more wind so we can have a break from the engine and no more rain.

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Thailand to the Maldives ~ Day 2

Current Position: North 08*14'00 East 095*15'752 Course: 257*T with 1325 nautical miles to the Maldives @ 10am GMT

We had a great sail last night with 15 knots of wind out of the North which meant just before sunset we we're able to shut down the engine and average 5 knots of speed. This morning the wind died down but we we're still able to maintain a good enough pace to sail until about an hour ago when the wind dropped off completely! So now it's 6pm for us and we're motoring with slightly rolly seas and keeping our eyes on a big rain storm behind us...could be a wet night. We listen in to a radio net every morning with many of the other yachts underway and it sounds like we have a lot of calm weather ahead, fingers crossed the wind will fill back in just enough to save our fuel as we still have a very long way to go!

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Heading West ~ Underway to the Maldives

Current Position: North 08*31'447 East 097*08'020 heading: 261*T @ 4.8knots under full sail.

We've spent the last few days in the Similan islands just 30 miles off the coast of Thailand waiting for enough wind to pick up to sail by. Finally today the breeze kicked in at around 10 knots from the North so dropped our mooring ball around midday and are currently underway to the Maldives. It's been over a year since we've done any long distance sailing and with 1400 miles to go we're feeling a bit rusty. As night closes in we've enjoyed a beautiful sunset with dolphins swimming at our bow and tucked in to a big pot of Chillie...so far so good!

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