At last having spent over a month in Galle we departed on 24th February for the 430-mile trip to Male in the Maldives.
The wind was light, so we motored for the first day and a half until I noticed the Racor light but unfortunately too late to prevent the failure of the engine, due to water in the fuel. Before this happened, we had spotted a whale to port and had had dolphins to play with us whilst we avoided what seemed like to be hundreds of fishing boats. We made the most of what little wind we had whilst I stripped and cleaned the fuel injector pump, using vast quantities of WD-40 and happily declared the engine fixed. Sarah wrote into the log ‘clever, clever captain Colin’ which must be the first (and last) time she made such an entry! However, there was still clearly a problem and so we varied the engine speed regularly to try to ensure that we did not have the problem of not being able to change the power setting, that we had experienced in the Pacific.
Four days after leaving Galle, we were directed to anchor in 22m off Male to await clearance and because of the current, I had to put 80 metres of chain out. Once we had been cleared, we had to pick it all up again using the starboard main winch, as it had not been possible to repair the damage to the windlass whilst we were in Sri Lanka. This exercise took us an hour and a half before we could move to Hulule lagoon adjacent to the airport, to await the arrival of Annabel and Wilfie.
Parco arrived in ‘Nautibuoytoo’ a few days later having escaped from Gaul by parting with nearly US$7000 and not a good word to say about Tango shipping. Unfortunately, his arrival in Male at the anchorage to clear into the Maldives resulted in his anchor becoming snagged, and so he decided to drop all of his chain with the intention of engaging a diver to recover it. This could only be achieved in slack water, as the current was fierce, and indeed it never was recovered.
To our surprise when we met up with him in Hulule lagoon, he had two extra crew form Sri Lanka. One was very familiar because Batu was a Tuk-Tuk driver and had ferried us around Galle for the best part of a month. The other was Kasun who was Marlin’s eldest son. The plan was to introduce them to yachting and to help them broaden their horizons so that they might make more of their lives than would otherwise be the case.
Once again, we were forced to engage an Agent. This was so we would be able to visit other destinations in the Maldives group and obtain an exit clearance when we left. The agent was in a sleazy office in Mali and took US$100 off us to do practically nothing.
Mali had very little to offer us. We found the atmosphere intimidating because of the evident imposition of strict Islamic law. There were no smiles from the women because you could not see their faces. There were no smiles from the men, probably because they couldn't see the women. However, we were able to obtain some spares here and we enjoyed the local cuisine even though no alcohol was served.
Once Annabel and Wilfie had arrived and we had picked them up from the airport we did a short hop to Guraidhoo and anchored off the resort in beautifully clear waters, where we stayed for a few days. Annabel and Wilf quickly settled in, and we used a paddling pool in the cockpit for Wilf's bath. Annabel and I went snorkelling to marvel at the vibrant colours of the corals and the multitude and variety of sea life under water. After returning to Hulule lagoon to stock up on supplies we popped across to Velassaru, where we stayed until it was time for Annabel and Wilf to go home.
Sarah decided that she would go home with them, and they all departed on 16th March to leave me on my own for a while. I stayed put in the lagoon for the next ten days and observed all the yachts that had arrived on the TT Rally (Thailand to Turkey), planning to route up to the Red Sea. In their case, they had been contacted by the Joint Piracy Coordination Centre in an attempt to dissuade them from attempting the trip as they would be seriously risking their lives. As a result, most of the yachts decided to abandon the trip and were waiting for a vessel to ship them to the Mediterranean. They had to wait 3 months. Meanwhile, Paco and I arranged to visit the Chagos Islands. This entailed parting with £100 and getting permission from the British Indian Ocean Territory office in London, to allow us to stay for a period of three weeks in just two of the islands.
However, I was now on a mission because I had undertaken to visit Gan, where Tony, Sarah’s brother -in-law, had been stationed for nine months on an unaccompanied posting shortly after he and Joanna were married. So, I set off at the end of March and decided that I would route east of, and outside the atolls because it was 320 miles. It was going to take me three days, and I thought that sailing between the atolls would likely be challenging unless I anchored each night.
At 1000 on 30th March Moonbeam returned to the Southern Hemisphere once more, and later that day I anchored and rafted alongside ‘Nautibuoytoo’ in Gan. There followed a busy period finding all of the buildings that Tony would have been familiar with so that I could take photos to send to Jo. The area had been turned into a resort with the old officer’s mess being the main restaurant, and the only place serving alcohol. Many of the other buildings still showed evidence that they belonged to the Royal Air Force. This included the camp Cinema and the BFPO post office among many others.
Tony had been in charge of the signal station that was on the next island in the chain, Fonadhoo. Since that time a causeway had been constructed and I was able to walk and identify where he was stationed and although his quarters had been demolished the antenna was still in use.
A week in Gan, was long enough to be able to create a disc with all of the photographs I had taken to send to Jo from the Post Office, which was the first letter from this BFPO for many a long year. On 7th April, I moved to the fuel wharf to top up the tank and departed just before sunset to route towards the Solomon Islands, in the Chagos Archipelago. I was chasing Paco but with no chance of catching him. The wind held steady for the first 48-hours and then dropped away to become light and variable, so I lay a hull to give myself three- or four-hours uninterrupted sleep, during the night, as I was in no hurry to arrive. However, when I did make landfall in the afternoon of the 10th, I was well rested, but the visibility was too poor for entry through the reef, so I passed the night just drifting around north-west of the entrance and waited until the morning.
Paco came out in his dinghy and delivered Batu to provide help in spotting coral heads which are known as bommies which were littered all over the place on the route down to anchor off Ile Boddam, where I spent the next two weeks before moving to Ile Fouguet.
This period proved to be a spectacular lesson with regard to the success of fishery protection in a marine conservation area. The clearance that had been obtained from the British Indian Ocean Territories provided for visiting yachts to fish for no more than they could eat. This was because the entire Chagos Archipelago was a marine conservation area, and no commercial fishing was allowed. Sadly, the entire 56 km² of this marine park was patrolled by just one fishery protection vessel chartered from Jardine’s and based in Hong Kong where it was undergoing maintenance.
Now it is not an exaggeration that when we went fishing outside the reef, you could trail a safety pin and a tuna would leap on it, followed very quickly by a shark if it wasn't landed soon enough. The ocean was absolutely teeming with fish. What a contrast to how we found the Pacific Ocean!
Some rough and ready tables had been set up on the shoreline on a small spit, for the purpose of cleaning the catch. As soon as anyone approached the table, dozens of small (about a metre long) black tip sharks would appear alongside the spit in anticipation of an easy meal. This was in spite of there being only half a dozen or so yachts in the bay. This small piece of land by the tables was home to hundreds if not thousands of hermit crabs which scuffled away as soon as they saw anyone. Above there were a great number of coconuts on the palms that shielded the area. Although being told not to, when we left Batu and Kasun on the shore whilst we went fishing, Batu was persuaded to climb one of the palms to harvest some coconuts. However, sadly when we returned to the shore, it was to find that he had fallen out of the tree and hurt his leg. Fortunately, there was a doctor on one of the boats in the bay, who examined his leg and thought that it probably was not broken. However, upon reaching Mauritius and visiting the hospital, the x-ray clearly showed that it was. It must have been a very uncomfortable transit from Chagos to Mauritius!
One morning I was looking towards the entrance through the reef and saw a yacht sailing through the entrance, in spite of the obvious danger of doing so. However, it turned out that ‘Zebedee’ did not have an engine. Alan was a vet who spent a couple of months in the UK every year, to fund his circumnavigation and his crew was a woman that he had picked up in New Zealand. They were great fun, but I don't think it unfair to describe Alan as something of a maverick. He had commissioned the building of his boat in Newfoundland but insisted that there would be no through-hull fittings and that the only means of propulsion would be by sail. And here they were in the Chagos Islands-brilliant! We would see them from time to time over the coming months until we parted company in Saint Helena.
Towards the end of our stay, we had a visit from British Indian Ocean Territories fishery protection. This turned out to be a rib crewed by officers and ratings of the British Royal Navy. They visited each yacht in turn to inspect the clearance papers and stamp passports. The senior officer, a Lieutenant was female, and in conversation turned out that she was the most popular person on Diego Garcia which is where the crew was based. This was undoubtedly because 1. she was the only female on the island and 2. the naval base was a British Naval mess that served alcohol. The attraction for the American personnel stationed there was obvious!
It was now time to leave this magical place to set off for Mauritius 1250 miles away. Having cleared the reef off Ile Fouguet, I set course in order to make sure that I made landfall in time for Sarah’s arrival.
The trip started uneventfully, but within two days the wind died completely and whilst running the engine I discovered that the throttle was stuck at 2000 rpm, just as had occurred in the Pacific. Yet again, it was a problem with the fuel injection pump, which was not responding to the throttle control. I decided that it was best to just leave it and accept that the engine would run at this speed in either forward or reverse provided of course I stopped it in between. Thereafter the wind picked up and I was able to set sail and with only two or three ships passing within 20 miles of my position much of the rest of the journey was uneventful. I was able to sleep for 20 or 40 minutes at a time in the cockpit, and happily the autopilot behaved as it should. Throughout the trip the radar and AIS warning systems worked well. And with only 300 miles to run I was only 47 miles behind ‘Nautibuoytoo’.
Approaching Mauritius in the early morning of 5th May, I recognised that parking Moonbeam with my engine problem was going to be somewhat of a challenge. I knew that I was required to moor up on the Customs wharf, so I called up Paco to see if he and John could help, which of course they did. Once cleared and again with their help I moved to the Caudan marina just below the Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel that I used to stay in when I was flying, and where Moonbeam would stay for the following couple of months.
I picked up my hire car and drove Paco and John down to the Le Paradis hotel in Le Morne, which is in the south-west corner of the island, and was where I learned to dive many years ago. The hotel has a number of restaurants and is spread out over quite a large area with its own golf course and can only be described as absolutely delightful. We had lunch here so that I could book a room for Sarah's arrival on the ninth, so we could celebrate my birthday here for a few days.