2-1-2011
Last week Tracy's and my parents were on board. Super food and Christmas surprises from our parents, a giant dolphin fish (called "dolphin" but it is not a dolphin, dt.: Goldmakrele) whose double hook I got deep into my hand were some specials. Quite hard to remove these things...
But the life time experience so far was a school of hundreds of real dolphins who stayed with us for 2 days on our anchorage in the South Male atoll. They made their loopings only a few meters from the boat and allowed us to snorkel with them for hours. We observed them speeding up under water for there loops and even making love!
22nd of February we have to leave to the Chagos islands - 330 miles South of the Maldives.
People at the Maldives are really fantastic! When we anchored near a little fisherboat the fishers came over and welcomed us on their island with two delicious lobsters. They refused to take any money, gifts or cigarettes we offered them. No crime at all here - just friendliness!
Yet more days in paradise!
This time we discovered the island Kashidoo, which is one of the few islands without an atoll and totally free of tourist resorts. People live from fishing and from their large fruit plantations.
Most stunning, like almost every where else at the Maldives, is the friendliness of the locals. It is particularly astonishing at this island as they do not see many foreigners here. They gave us a nice reception and showed us a historical site and fruit plantations. We bought fruits and vegetables like papayas, bananas, limes and cucumbers right from the field. When we wanted to invite some of our guides for iced coffee in the little restaurant they did not allow us to pay – no chance although we tried hard!
The next day, after a little island run that I so sorely lost to Tracy, we ended up snorkelling with a manta ray for a couple of hours feeding on the plankton around Wild One. Shortly thereafter we were picked up by our new friends for a dive on the outer reef with their little fishing boat. While we dived with two of our local friends the remainder of the group caught five octopus for the little barbeque we made together on their sandy cay. Life is hard in paradise!
February 2011:
Three wonderful months have come to an end. We have stocked up with food and want to sail off to the Chagos Islands, the deserted Island Paradise in the middle of the Indean Ocean. No possibilities for shopping there. Despite of the tiresome buerocracy and the high fees (1000€ for 3 month) the friendly inhabitants, the wonderful islands and lagoons and the amazing under water world of the Maldives will leave unforgetable memories.
2-23-2011:
215 nautical miles to the nearest island
4-4-2011:
1000 miles, 10 days, hardly wind, just water
May 2011:
After our incredible time at the Chagos Islands were the biomass index is 5 times higher than at the Maldives and diving is truly an adventure (see fotos) we arrived at the wonderful Seychelles. Mountains, lots of wild vegetation, superb diving and snorcheling even on the anchorage. Twice a 2m guitarshark slept under our boat. Yesterday we wanted to go to our favourite Divespot at northisland but we were chased away by the coast guard because of the royal honeymoon taking place there...
Comoros Islands are waiting to be discovered!
soon: sailing down Madagascar - a new adventure starts.
We enjoyed the french cheese and wine, the friendly and laid back people, the infrastructure to do various repairs, the climbing on the granite rocks and the great diving on the "passe S". We will not forget the Lewmars (little monkeys) and the countless turtles moving up sandy beaches in the night to deposit their eggs.