00:41.18S 73:08.65E
We arrived in Gan at almost exactly 1pm today and are now at anchor in the designated anchorage in a small harbour near the Equator Beach Resort. We reached our first sight of Maldivian land just as the sun rose this morning - just in time as the myriad of lights we were encountering on the first island we saw were quite confusing.
We have been waiting for customs and immigration to clear us in for the last couple of hours and it is a little on the
warm side at 32 degrees and 67% humidity. Though we have not yet gone ashore, we are literally a few metres from the harbour wall so plan on heading onto land as soon as the formalities are completed. It is amazing how pieces of paper need signing!
The overnight sail was tiring, with a fair bit of rain on the way - well it is monsoon season, but the seas remained fairly flat and with next to no wind so we motor sailed pretty much all night. The harbour is reasonably well sheltered and we are in just 5meters of water which is great news since we can anchor with the chain and no rope, and no coral beneath us either, so we should be good and secure. I dived to check the anchor and it appears to have bitten in the sandy sea bed. The turtle we spotted as I entered the water clearly didn't fancy a swimming mate once I was in and was no where to be seen. A quick check under the rest of the boat and all appears to be well. There are 2 other boats anchored here. One is called Aventurer and the captain is Chris and his wife Mary who were really helpful giving us "directions" as we navigated into the narrow anchorage channel.
I can report that despite Dr Dolittles statement to the contrary, there is no red line at the equator. It was very dark admittedly, but even after the glass of celebratory vintage champagne, I was still seeing no lines, circles or floating elephants. We crossed the equator just after midnight and Bryan immediately felt closer to the green green grass of New Zealand once we were officially in the 'south".
After all that rain, the boat is sparkling clean. We managed to capture a bucket and a half of free rain water and it has been added to our depleting water supplies on board so we can be squeaky clean too.
Both Bryan and I have declared ourselves clear of Swine Fever - though confess I wouldn't know what symptoms to expect if I had it. There are 5 officials onboard, not quite sure what each of them do but all seems to be going ok and hopefully we will step foot on dry land very soon. Can't see it being a late night though - 6 days and nights is feeling like it is taking its toll - I do believe coffee will be my 'friend"!!
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