06°48'235N 074°46'319E
Well - I didn't quite use all forms of transport to arrive in the Maldives
but after a 12 hour journey it started to feel that way. Typically traffic
out of Mirdiff was appalling so the "plenty of time" to get to the airport
was well needed. Still, the new terminal is pretty efficient so after
getting the sail 'cling filmed" to allow it in the hold and taking a deep
breath as the luggage was weighed in (20.5kg!!) all that was left was a
quick wander of the terminal shops (nothing inspiring and no money to boot
made it a short visit!) then it was boarding time to what appeared to be a
pretty new Emirates plane headed to Maldives via Sri Lanka. Reasonable food
and half decent movies passed the time - along with an unedited copy of
Cosmopolitan( No marker pens throughout! ) and 3 and a quarter hours later
we were landing in Colombo. Onward passengers to Maldives were not allowed
to disembark so I can't claim to have seen anything of the place other than
a large roller shutter garage door for some airport vehicle or other. Not
the most scenic of views - oh and it was pitch black! After an hour's wait
and another 1hour to Male - I arrived early hours and quickly cleared
customs and was actually early for my domestic flight leaving at 3.30am.
I checked in and was told to wait outside under the gate was open - a little
humid and not unpleasant, I later discovered that had I ventured inside I
could have passed the time watching Sky News in air conditioning! But
still - it all seemed to run smoothly as did the flight to Hanimadhoo. My
speed boat driver was meant to be waiting for me at Hanimadhoo but there was
no one around - and of course this was the time my mobile refused to connect
with Bryan or the agent so I ended up in the Supervisors office and with the
use of his mobile was soon passed over the speed b oat driver and in pitch
darkness still we set out for Uligan.
The sun had just risen when we arrived 45 mins later and I was so busy
trying to take in the new sights of the atol islands that I had actually
passed Aroha at anchor and hadn't even noticed! Bryan was already heading
inshore in the dinghy and we met up on the beach a few minutes later - at
least once I recognised the Robinson Crusoe look alike! At least 3 weeks
beard growth made for a fetching disguise - and one of the first tasks on
board was the christen the hair clippers that were part of Bryan's shopping
list to remove what he himself had described as "face fungus".
We had a few hours to kill before the customs and immigration island office
would be open to allow me to finally board the boat after reams and reams of
paperwork were completed - giving us enough time for Bryan to give me the
insiders tour of the island and the Island's mosquitos enough time to feast
their little hearts out on me! They even managed to bite me in 3 places
"through" my trousers! And I am now sporting a very fetching swollen eye
where a large blighter had bitten my eye! And this was after dousing myself
in repellent! All a great decoy for Bryan - they seem to much prefer me!
Finally - we were off -anchor and dinghy lifting done - and here we are now
a good hundred or so miles from the Maldives and a ¼ of the way to Sri
Lanka. We have just finished lunch - interrupted by a huge pod of Dolphins -
there were so many it was impossible to count. They played in the boats
wake for while before disappearing again. Last night was uneventful - wind
is no more than 10kts and mainly from west on our starboard. A distant
thunder storm stayed exactly that way. I am not sure that I have caught up
on my lost night's sleep but it is good to be finally underway.
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