0:45.72N 73:26.01E
Helen writes...The planned early departure from Gadhdhoo
Harbour nearly went belly up when we awoke to find what we thought should be
mid tide was actually low tide. One of
the downsides of sailing in the Maldives we have discovered is the lack of tide
tables, and depth data near shore. We
had set the alarm for 5.30am hoping for mid tide but found it was actually low
- and were then weighing our options to wait for high tide or check the depths
ourselves to make sure we could make it safely out of the harbour without
grounding. We decided to opt for the
latter and set out in the dinghy with our own lead weight (dinghy anchor on
length of rope) and circled the harbour entrance. We reckoned we should have at least 3 metres
so decided to set off for our next destination – Vilingili in the north east of
the Huvadoo Atoll (approx. 25 miles).
The passage was smooth and uneventful and we arrived at
Vilingili around lunchtime, heading into the harbour that we could see
marked. The Vilingili harbour was much
bigger than the Gadhdhoo harbour so anchoring was much easier though the
harbour itself did seem quite busy with big fishing boats moving in and
out. Within an hour of us arriving one
of the larger boats was on the way out and we found we had dropped anchor on
top of one of their lines. As we raised
the anchor to release their rope we decided to go to stern to the harbour wall
as we did in Gandhdhoo. Unfortunately, we timed this just as a rain squall blew
in bringing with it stronger winds and a change of wind direction. Not good!! We ended up getting a considerable amount of help from the local
fisherman, including a couple who came on board to help us take up a mooring
line rather than re-anchoring since we were getting blown around and getting
much too close to comfort to some of the other boats in the harbour.
After what seemed like an eternity we were ended up with the
stern to the harbour wall, well secured and two lines off the front – just as
the heavens finally opened and soaked us to the skin. Sighs of relief all round – and settled in
for the night. Or so we thought...around
4pm the islands customs officials paid us a visit. Bryan had gone ashore with our papers to
prove we had permission for inter atoll sailing etc, with me watching from the
boat. Next thing I see is Bryan getting
on the back of one of the customs guys motorbike and him being taken off
somewhere. Uh oh!! Maybe he was being taken to cells! He came back some 30 mins later and it turned
out that we were in the spot of a local dhoni (passenger boat) and would have
to move. He had gone with the customs
guy to see another harbour just 5 mins from where we were and had been told we
had permission to anchor and would be “safer” for us. He also claimed it had 8 metres depth, which
we did find hard to believe. With less
than an hour to night fall we set off again. The new harbour had just over 3 metres depth, not the 8 we had been
promised, but had much smaller boats in and seemed far more sheltered. We set the anchor again, and breathed yet
another sigh of relief that we had made it before the sun went down.
The next morning we woke early and headed onshore to see
what Vilingili had to offer. We are quickly realising that each island
seems to have a very different character. Gan seemed warm and welcoming and seemed to take us “foreigners” in
their stride. Foammulah we were treated
with a little more suspicion, and though friendly enough, the locals kept their
distance. Gadhdhoo seemed to have a
larger older population and seemed to treat us with more suspicion and the
locals kept their distance. Vilingili
seems to have a larger younger population and many of these younger locals will
approach us seeming keen to know where we are from etc.
We walked for ages trying to find a strong WIFI signal as we
are both now actively job seeking from a far. We ended up in a local fisherman’s cafe, pleasant enough with a good
signal and cold coke. We had only been
sitting for 5 mins when a fight broke out with 2 of the waiters. It was broken up after a few minutes by an
irate and very vocal older man who cracked a plastic chair over one of the guys
to stop him fighting. Our waiter, a
cheerful and really pleasant man, seemed to be the victim in the piece. We don’t know the reason for the fight, but think
we were somehow involved as heads kept being nodded in our direction and the
word customer repeated several times. The police were called and seemed just to want to give the waiters a
telling off – quite took me back to a Friday night out in the North East when I
was a student!!
With the excitement of the fight over, we headed to a small
sports stadium where we were told there was a tournament to be played of a
local “cultural sport”. Even several
streets from the stadium we could hear the cheering, shouting and drum bashing
of the excited crowd. The game turned
out to be a mix of tennis and catch. Its
local name is Bashee and consists of 2 teams of women either side of a tennis
net. One team are fielding and the other
team take it in turns to stand with their backs to the opposition and hit a
tennis ball over the net. We can only
assume that visitors came ashore many moons ago with one tennis racket and no
instructions on how to play tennis!! We
watched for 20 mins or so, and by the time we were ready to leave the players
were getting very agitated and letting loose with their emotions on the referee
who seemed to have made a poor line call – echos of some of the football chants
I have heard about referees in UK football matches came to mind, but thought it
unwise to teach to the locals!
