Coca Cola Island and the Big City

 We finally made it to an inhabited island where, with a bit of work and begging, we were allowed to go ashore. Thulusdhoo is a half hour ferry ride north of the country's capital, Male. Cruisers sometimes refer to it as the Coca Cola Island, as they can't pronounce it anyway and it has the country's only Coca Cola bottling plant. The plant is supposed to be the only Coke plant that uses exclusively reverse osmosis water. The island supports about 1,900 people and is a hotspot in non-Covid season for the backpacker surfing crowd. There are two nice breaks, Hens and Coke, just outside the cut.

(not my picture, it was small when we were there: http://www.cokesbeach.com/surfing-thulusdhoo-maldives/)

We didn't actually anchor at the Coca Cola Island. We went in a small cut just north of it to a decent anchorage in front of a resort being remodeled (4*23.02N, 73*39.925E, 35 feet in sand).

First thing I did was get a cold one

While one of the many local island cats watched me

Kind of a self-explanatory sign

It looked like most people got around by walking or motorbike, but I liked this classic bicycle.

The traditional boats in the Maldives have this high, back curving bow. The outboard is not so traditional.

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Next we headed into Hulhumale. This is the manmade island built to help deal with the overflow conditions in the capital, Male. It is non-stop construction of residential high-rises and along with some parks. We're back to wearing facemasks and being extra careful around the locals. Many of the locals are pretty leery of us when it comes to contagion. The Maldives has had a medium amount of Covid-19, with the majority in the populated areas of the country, which means Male. They've done an excellent job of getting out vaccines in the last couple of months and the greater Male area case load is starting to decline.

This is the China Friendship Bridge that connects Male and Hulhumale. Built and partly funded by China.

And Male itself

The fishing fleet tied up in Hulhumale

The airport runway ends at the harbour entrance

The dinghy dock. You have to use an anchor to hold your dinghy away from the dock, as it is in constant use for loading and unloading.

And just in case tourists are not aware of the social mores here, a quick, multi-lingual reminder

Shopping and provisioning is good in Hulhumale. Most all of the fresh fruit and vegetables are flown in from Sri Lanka, with the eggs coming from India and the oranges from Egypt.

You can get most anything you need here -- perhaps more than what you need from this Covid-19 Essentials store.

We got to eat out a number of times in Hulhumale, which was a treat. But more important was a surprise party for Chris' birthday on our buddy boat, Time Bandit, with Stuart and Anne along with Michael and Priscilla from Hylite

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Deep down inside almost all of us are the same

Paul