August / September 2010: After some month of climbing, diving and laziness it was time to make Wild One ready for the big passage back to Europe starting in November. Two month on the hard in Chalong. I changed climbing and diving gear against sanding machine, angle grinder and saw. Fibreglass itching and the beloved epoxy fumes became my new friends. New antifouling and corrected waterline, stainless tiller handles, wooden hatchframes inside, table and cupboard in the midsections of the hulls, watermaker and windgenerator were the main tasks beside various other improvements and finetunning. The time on the hard was not too bad as there were many other “boatbuilders” finishing their dream. Usually everybody met in the evening near Matthias old cat – ugly duck which got an improved nose and back - for some beers and chat about our hard cruising live. Nevertheless I am happy it is over and I am enjoying the reward of the hard work currently in Langkawi. I am looking forward to meet Tracy, Angie and Rainer beginning of November who will be Wild One´s crew for the long passage back to the Chagos Islands and continuing to Southafrica.

Logbook Passage Thailand - Maledives

11-7-2010: leaving Thailand - heading to maldives110sm

11-9-2010: crossing andaman sea 120sm

290 nm west of Phuket; iridium satellite phone is working fine; cought 2 fish.

11-10-2010: shifting wind and weather conditions; wind-forecast up to 30kn; gmx classifies E-Mails from iridium phone as spam; however we keep in touch.150sm
11-11-2010: Position 6°12´N, 90°06´E
11-19-2010: wild one has crossed the equator; too tired for a celebration;

big waves from west; wind is still from the wrong direction; no rain today.

11-23-2010: arrival in Gan - southern island of Maldives.

2 weeks after departure in Phuket, the Indian ocean is crossed now.

11-25-2010: the new main-sail ist being cut in Austria and will hopefully arrive in Maldives whithin a few weeks.

11-28-2010: A few days ago we arrived well in Gan at the Maldives. We had a hard passage against 15 to 30kn of wind against us and from Sri Lanka on also 3kn of current against us which delayed our arrival. Our old mainsail is totally torn which is why we decided to get the new one here at the Maldives at the beginning of December and then stay here and try to offer diving and sailing at the Maldives. We already bought a quite expansive Cruising Permit and would like to stay in the maledivian atolls for at least 3 month.

12-18-2010: We are at the Gaffu Atoll this week and already discovered Paradise, Yesterday we ancored on a little palm island whos few inhabitants never had any tourist visitors before. The colours of the lagoon are incredible! Diving, Surfing - Paradise!

December 2010: Exploring the central Maldives

We sailed as far as Male to pick up Klaus and Natalie who visited us for 2 weeks. Together we discovered super dive spots at the South Male Atoll, the Vavuu Atoll, and the Meemu Atoll. We saw nice shipwrecks and steep drop offs always inhabited with sharks, big groupers and various other sealife. Barbequeing our self caught fish on a nice palm beach became the habit ...

Highlights were a 1m Kingfish we cought on the line when we came out of the Vavuu Atoll, snorkelling with a school of Manta Rays for 30 minutes who showed us loopings only 2 meters away from us and the beer Klaus bought from a diveboat ...

When we did not stay on inhabited spots we chilled out in little fishertowns, were we bought our fruits like Papayas or Bananas directly from the gardens of the inhabitants not from a supermarket.

Now Tracys parents are visiting us and we planned to visit the Hammerhead sharks waiting at the little Rasdhoo Atoll for us ...