Neptune's Tribute and Fauci's Ouchy

I'm not all that a superstitious person but when it comes possibly staying on the good side of those that control the ocean, I'm not going to take any chances. We crossed the equator, for the third time, heading North to South as we worked our way down the Maldives chain. This means we have one more time to cross the equator before we make it back to North America. Above is a shot for the Captain 

 

And the required shot for Neptune

Here's our Latitude and Longitude just as we crossed to the southern hemisphere. The .013 degrees is 79 feet past the equator. We went from a nice Spring day to a nice Fall day. It didn't really feel much colder. I knew to take the picture because I could feel the bump as we crossed over the equatorial line.

As we arrived at the next atoll, Addu, we were greeted by a large pod of dolphins while going through the cut.

One of the reasons we left our last anchorage early was because we had a possibility to get a Covid vaccination. When we were up in one of the northern atolls we met a local who was traveling island to island promoting Home Stay Tourism. This is tourism that involves the locals on the island instead of the large, planned and isolated resorts. He was interesting and enjoyed discussing his work. He mentioned h was friends with the Mayo of Addu and said he could help us get into a vaccination clinic there. A couple of days after we arrived and had contacted the Mayor, he messaged us that we should go to the clinic between 9 and 10 pm that night. 

Above is the clinic when we arrived at around 8:45pm. They were handing out numbers and told we had to get an appointment and come back latter. We mentioned that the Mayor told us to show up tonight. Instantly we they handed us our numbers and should us where to sit. There were probably 60 people waiting by about 9:30pm. The clinic was at night because we are in the month of Ramadan, where the faithful do not eat or drink during daylight hours.

 

By 10:30 pm we had our first jabs of Covishield. Covishield is the Indian manufactured version of AstraZenica. 

The way Covishield works is a little different than the other vaccines, such as the mRna vaccines in the US. After about 7 to 10 days this small shield show up. When walking around potential infectious people you hold it in front of you for partial protection. A few weeks after you get a second dose the shield gets much larger, much more protective and takes two hands to hold.

We are anchored in Gan, one of the towns in the Addu Atoll. The British were here just after World War II. They put in a long airstrip right next to our anchorage. They added bridges between the islands that connected the main towns. The main use of the RAF Gan was as a staging post for bombers, fighters and transports enroute to the Far East Air Force based in Singapore. Today Gan airport has a few passenger flights and is used by military and private jets as a cross Indian Ocean refueling stop. We watched a noisy, Australian C-130 take off for the Seychelles after refueling the other day. Gan is covered with old base housing and building in various states of disrepair. The old Officers Club is now the Equator Resort.

The anchorage is apparently also in the flight path of hundreds of Fruit Bats. We see them every evening.

RAF Gan supported flying boats too, such as this Short Sunderland RAF patrol bomber.

 

As usual when we get to civilization we start our project list. Here's the boat boy refueling in the midday sun. We have a few weeks to kill before our permit to enter Chagos is valid. As soon as we are allowed in we will start our passage to Chagos in the British Indian Ocean Territory. More on this next time.

Paul  

Some Live Coral!

 

Well we finally came across some reefs with some healthy coral. Its strange because we are now much closer to the equator where you would think ocean temperature warming would be worse. Perhaps the corals here have had more time to acclimatize to the warm temperatures. The reefs we've been on seem have more wave and current action, which also might cause cooler water to rise from the depths. Either way, we're pleased.

It was fun to show up at this anchorage and catch up the catamaran 'Perry' with Matt, Jen and their two boys, Mark and Conrad. We first met Perry in the Marquesas in French Polynesia. The last time we saw them was six years ago in Tonga. We were all on a Melbourne based boat 'Miss Behaving', doing a snorkel into the underwater caves there. Their boys have grown a lot!

The first island we stopped at with good corals was Lhassa near the top of the Huvadhu Atoll. (anchor at 00*49.34N, 073*12.299E). Nice anchorage in 32 ft sand among coral bommies. It's a little rolly with a small swell making its way in from the outer reef.

Parrot fish, the ones responsible for creating much of the sand. While snorkeling you can hear them as they crunch on the coral with their tough, parrot like mouths, biting off chunks coral and algae. They grind up the inedible calcium-carbonate reef material in their guts and then excrete sand. If you've ever felt the sand between your toes on a Hawaiian beach -- that was parrot fish poop.

This is a clutch of hermit crabs having a delicious afternoon meal of a washed up coconut. Not the parrotfish poop in the background.

Everybody knows the scientific name for this fish hanging in a protective anemone: Nemo

A little better view of Nemo's home, AKA Clown Fish

Nice to see a turtle flick by.

A sting ray having a lazy ay in the parrot fish's sand (aren't you glad I didn't say poop again?)

Moorish Idol

A Swollen Phyllidia nudibranch, aout 3 inches long. Basically a good looking, underwater sea slug, or more scientifically a shelless mollusk.

Then we moved down the atoll to the small island, uninhabited island of Fulangi. The island is in the upper center, we are anchored at the red pointer and the diving reefs all along the cut on he right with the yellow line. (Anchor position 0*40.794N,073*12.072E in 44ft, sand, along with some bommies) This puts us 40 miles north of the equator.

The island from our anchor spot

Even more healthy coral. I was going to photoshop this dark green and claim it was broccoli.

Nice reefscape with lots of live coral, with Chris diving down to give you some size perspective.

Most dives we saw turtles.

This is not a great shot, but I thought it was interesting. The turtle is sitting on he bottom in about 25-30 feet of water just keeping an eye on me as I swim down.

Lots of fish, most home schooling due to the pandemic.

A white tipped reef shark swims by us for a look.. This is first one we've seen here. We usually see black-tipped reef sharks. 

He was curious and kept near us for awhile. He probably thought we were fishing and he/she might get the spoils.

Clark's Anemonefish, similar to the Clown Fish Nemo, but lives among a slightly different anemone.

I was tying to get another reefscape shot when this parrot fish jumped in front for a cameo shot.

Everyday Chris was visited by these reef squid off the back of our swimstep. 

This is Chris' transport to the reef and dinghy driver.

Paul