Almost All Cleared In

 

You are required to use an agent when clearing into the Maldives. Probably just as well, given the amount of paperwork. The agent came out to our boat with 37 pages of documents for us to sign and use our boat stamp on. We are still waiting on our Cruising permit, which maybe here today. Even with a Cruising Permit we are very limited on where we can actually go in the Maldives. They divide the islands up into 3, somewhat unnatural, categories. Inhabited, Uninhabited and Resort. We are allowed to go to any Uninhabited island. We are allowed to go to a Resort island if we get permission from the resort prior to arrival. We are allowed to go to an Inhabited island if it has an airstrip, a guest house and we get local permission. The Maldives are not really interested in having tourists mix with locals. It is a conservative, Islamist country.

The country has around 400,000 inhabitants, most concentrated on two islands, Addu and Male. The islands are flat and low. Low enough to be concerned with sea levels rising. The highest point in the country is the 8th tee on the golf course in Villingi Island. It is about 15 feet (5 m) above sea level. The majority of the land is just a few feet above high tide.

As you can see above, the shell collecting has begun. Including a couple of nice Cowries from the Indian Ocean.

The water is warm and clear here. Its really nice to be able jump in anytime and see some decent fish, a few corals and even smaller Giant Clams.

There are 6 boats here at Uligan now. Three of them are leaving (or just left) to head up the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The others will cruise the Maldives. One just came in from Dubai. Our agent, Asad, setup a beach dinner on a small, uninhabited island nearby for all the cruisers. It was good to meet the crowd: Swedes, Australians, Scots, South African, French, and US (us). 

Paul