Maldives Arrival

After our 36 hours of rambunctious sailing from Sri Lanka to past the tip of India the seas went flat and the winds went light. A welcomed sign by all the crew onboard. We arrived near the Maldives on Tuesday afternoon, but too late to make it into the anchorage before dark. So we left up our small sails and had a pleasant overnight sail toward the entrance, making adjustments every once in awhile to slow down. Just before sunrise (as seen above) we turned on the engine and started motoring to our approach.

We anchored next to our friends on Time Bandit, the go-fast catamaran. They arrived on Tues. We are now waiting on our clearance agent to bring out the officials so we can get cleared into the country.

(Just a quick note so I don't leave our reader hanging)

Paul
 

Enroute Maldivs - Day 8 and 9

Well, al good sails must come to an end. We motor for about 4 hours in h lee created by the bottom tip of Sri Lanka. Then the wind filled in, as expected. The GRIB forecast showed the winds getting channelled down the slot created between India and the island of Sri Lanka. GRIBs had 25kts, but closer to 22ks in h section we were crossing.
The last day and half has been some of the most uncomfortable, "why am I here" sailing we have done in the past 10 years of cruising. The winds were steady for awhile at 35-36kts, the illformed seas were 8-10 feet on the beam. We ended turning south of our course a fair amount to stop most of the waves from crashing over the starboard bow and sliding back to the cockpit.
All and all, a most un-fun few days -- it will be interesting how the trip sounds when I tell the story over a beer two weeks from now: fast, rambunctious seas, great passage???
We will arrive at Uligan, Maldives tonight and probably have to wait offshore for most of he night to make a day light entry on our Wednesday.
Day 8 noon-to-noon run 170nm
Day 9 noon-to-noon run 207nm, new record for us!!!!!

--short

----------
Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

Enroute Maldives - Day 7

More ships, more miles long fish nets, good sailing.
All was good till early this morning - still dark. The winds picked up and the shipping traffic was tough to avoid. Too much of the worlds commerce flows through these waters. After dodging a few ships and heading around a net we ended up with the wind blowing 20-25 kts and a little in front of the beam. Making good time and relaxing as a large ship had just passed us as close as they like to get, about 1 mile away. A little while later we get hit with a slap on the bow and a wave launching into our open hatches. Nothing like salt water in your berth for grumpy crew. The wave was the unseen wake from the cargo ship.

Noon to noon run: 175nm


--short

----------
Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

Enroute Maldives - Day 5 and 6

Yesterdays noon-to-noon run was 160nm. It would have been better if we had not had to take a detour around a 14 mils long drift net (or long-line??). We spotted an AIS mark with a fishing vessel name on it plus (3). I wanted to head well north of it, but the winds and currents were not cooperating. So we gybed and headed south. After a little while another AIS target showed up with the same fishing vessel name plus (2). This second one was attached to first and was 9.25 nm apart. Along the way we started to spot new, white egg-shaped floats with black lines tied on and leading directly down. After continuing south a third target showed up with a its name with a (1), another 4.5 miles away. Making for a 14 mile long way to clear cut the oceans. The fishing vessel itself finally showed up on AIS and I tried to hail him on VHF radio. I wanted to see what the path out of this was. After many calls the fishing vessel did not respond. I figure the reason he didn't respond was because he knew the first thing I was going to say was "No Hindi, English".

Next day was a big day. We reached the half way point and I had a shower. Pretty exciting.
162 nm noon-to-noon
--short

----------
Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

Enroute Maldives - Day 3 and 4

Day 3 was a mostly slow day with a noon to noon run of 146 nm.
We did have an interesting encounter with a fishing boat. On the AIS I saw an 85 ft fishing vessel on a course that would take us less than 1/2 mile apart, a little too close for comfort. Watching them for awhile I could see their course was wavering a bit. Five minutes latter I hear a call on he VHF radio from Mountmary An to Georgia. Once I figured out that he was calling us, I responded. His first response to me was "No English, Hindi". I could tell his was going to be a difficult conversation. After a half dozen interactions I heard someone in the background say "Fishing line in water". Which could mean pretty much anything, including we have two miles of long-lines off our stern. We finally agreed to Georgia turning hard to starboard. About 4.5 miles latter we picked up a second AIS that was named Mountmary An Net. Most likely one end of a miles long drift name from the same boat.

Next day was fairly light winds in the morning. This caused us to have turn further north to keep he boat sailing. To deal with this we decided to put the whisker pole up and sail wing-on-wing more closely in the right direction. Lets just say the setting of the pole was typical of a speedy, efficient and graceful foredeck crew on a race boat. After getting it set things ran well for a couple of hours. Then the pole attracted a nasty squall. In came he head sail, reef in the main. Buckets of downpour - you could even call it a Monsoon rain. Winds in the low 30kts.
Squals over, genoa out on the pole again. Sailing well at our destination for a couple more hour. Then a thump and the jam cleat on the pole hat sets the extension length gave way. Roll it in.

Fortunately the winds picked up and turn further north, giving a fast run in the right direction overnight.
Noon-to-noon run 190 nm
--short

----------
Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

Enroute Maldives - Day 2

The winds lightened up last night, making for a slower passage with a better off-watch sleep. We made 135nm noon to noon. Currently we are about 60 miles north of Sumatra. This end of the long island is Aceh Province. Known for it conservative Islam and he devastation from the tsunami a few years back. We are also about 40 miles from Great Necobar Island, the southern most part of the Andaman Islands. Sometime this evening we will leave the Andaman Sea and move into the north Indian Ocean.

Yesterday I took a look on the deck and saw that our port side jack line had chafed all the way through. The jack line is used to clip on our saftey harness if need to go on deck and move forward. he forensic sailing committee is still not sure how this happened.


--short

----------
Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

Enroute Maldive, Day 1

We left Langkawi at 9:30am and motored for an hour and half to get in some decent wind. The winds stayed NE all day at 15kts or so, then picked up most of the night to 15-20 kts. It got pretty rolly last night, offering us a crappy off-watch sleep. We are settling in for the long haul.
A few fishing boats offshore along with some commercial shipping, but not much.

Our fiends on Time Bandit are on the same passage with us. We are talking with them on HF radio in the evening. They are a go fast catamaran, an Outremere 51ft. so they will do a horizon job on us soon.

Noon to noon run 162 nm

--short

----------
Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

Crossing the Indian Ocean. Day -1

 We've gotten most of the tasks ticked off our list, including going up the mast for an inspection. Here's a view of Kuah Harbour from 65 feet up in the air. The rest of the items on the list can get thrown away as we grow new, more pressing, maintenance projects from actually being on passage.

The boat is heavier than she has ever been. Full fuel, full water, extra petrol (gasoline for you foreigners) for the outboard, and food for 3 to 6 months.  The diesel weighs over 1,100 pounds, the water over 1,600 pounds. We probably have at least 500 pounds of snacks onboard 😁

If you are like me, your geography of the Indian Ocean is probably pretty weak. Of course, I have an excuse. I graduated high school in Florida. 

The basic plan for this passage is to leave Langkawi, Malaysia, pass over Sumatra, under Sri Lanka and make landfall in Uligan, Maldives. Uligan is at the very top of the Maldives.  We will then take our time travelling down the Maldives island chain. Then leave to sail to the uninhabited Chagos islands. These are currently owned by the UK and managed by British Indian Ocean Trust (BIOT). After a few weeks there we will continue onto the Seychelles.

The passage from Langkawi to Uligan, Maldives should be about 1,650 nm (nautical miles) and take us 10 to 14 days in Georgia.

Well that's the plan at least. In Covid season you really can't be sure of much. Crossing the Indian Ocean is tricky enough timing wise, without having to deal with countries shutting down because of Covid. Right now we can enter the Maldives, we have a permit for Chagos and pre-permission to go to the Seychelles.

In a typical year boats leave Malaysia in December and head to Thailand. Then sometime in January or early February leave for Sri Lanka and then onto the Maldives. The north Indian Ocean is odd in that its cyclone season has two peaks. Jan and Feb are low cyclone months and also the strongest SE Monsoon time. This monsoon brings SE winds, making the trip across toward the west possible. The other monsoon is the SW Monsoon with its corresponding SW winds. These monsoons were well know to the Arab traders who could easily travel back and forth.

Thailand and Sri Lanka being shut now rules them out for stopovers.

We will update our position while on passage most nights. You can view it here

https://farkwar.com/boats/georgia 

Or see the same thing at the bottom of our blog (which you probably know how to get to as you are reading it now)

svjeorgia.blogspot.com

In addition, I will upload some, short text only blogs along the way.

We cleared out of Langkawi this morning: Port Authority, Customs and Immigration. That gives us 24 hours to get sailing. (Cruisers note: Port Authority required in-date boat insurance to clear out. The immigration guy told us to tell our friends that Malaysia isn't ready for cruises yet.)

Wishing ourselves Fairwinds and Clean diesel.

Paul