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

 

 

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

Abandoned Resort

 

We spent a week in the atoll known to cruisers as the Abandoned Resort - Dholhiyadhoo to the locals. (anchored at 05*59.543N, 73*13.315 E in 38ft sand). The resort was never actually finished after investors dumped in 10's of millions of dollars. It is now bank owned. I suspect it was casualty of 2008/2009 financial crash. One of the nice things about this destination is that we can go ashore and walk the island. So far pretty much all of the inhabited islands have been off limits to us. The island has two Bangladeshi caretakers who spoke little English but were friendly enough and made it clear we were welcome to come ashore when we wanted.

I don't usually include videos in the blog -- they suck up too much bandwidth, but here's some drone shots from our buddy boat Time Bandit of the abandoned resort. By the way, for us$50 million you can buy the island, the atoll waters and what's left of the buildings.

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Having spent a lot of years cruising the tropical regions of the Caribbean, South Pacific, Asia and the Indian Ocean we've seen a lot of coral reefs. In many places we've seen areas of dead reef, but there's always been enough healthy, colorful reef close by that we could ignore the dead part. You just can't deny it in the Maldives. The coral bleaching that is caused by ocean water heating is everywhere. The Indian Ocean has been subject to a number of heating events that have decimated the reefs. Think Global Climate Change. The last big heating event was in 2015-2016. It has left huge areas of the reef's corals to be turned into dead, grey rubble. If you are interested in some of the technical details, here is a very technical article on the coral bleaching in Chagos, about mid-Indian Ocean Coral bleaching impacts from back-to-back 2015–2016 thermal anomalies in the remote central Indian Ocean

 

To go along with the coral bleaching the plastic trash on the beaches is overwhelming at times. This picture is of fishing gear remains.  If this was all there was on the shorelines it wouldn't be too bad. Every beach that faces the ocean side is covered with plastic bottles, along with lots of glass ones, and other plastic trash. The glass will eventually break up, have its corners rounded by erosion and then be turned into jewelry by aging hippies. The plastic is pretty much forever, it breaks down into microparticles and becomes part of the biome-- permanently.

Left sandals(Jandals for Australians, Flip-flops for Floridians) and plastic bottles as far as you can see.

While I'm on an environmental rant might as well address ocean water rising. The Maldives islands are rarely more than a few feet above the high tide mark. Above you can see some locals who stopped at this sandy beach in the early morning to collect sand. The bags are stacked on the boat as it sits low in the water. Basically they are sacrificing this small, uninhabited island to shore up another, populated island. You see this small time movement of sand ala over the islands. At times you see it on an industrial scale with large diggers loading barges. 

We are currently anchored in front of a resort that is closed for remodeling. Remodeling includes bringing in huge mounds of sand in.

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To finish this blog on a more upbeat tone, how about a Unicorn (fish)? 

Some reef struggling to provide color.

And the ever present weather we deal with. It's thunderstorm season! 

Paul