Departed 3 days after arrival for Christmas Is, and were in contact with
Queimarla for the first 3 days, but lost them on the third night. Saw several
whales on this leg, and a few Indonesian fishing boats.
Hope you are well. We are both well and happy. This is an attempt to let you know where we are and how we are faring without having to write MILLIONS of individual letters this will probably take a few days, as it will have to fit in with the demands of Gone Troppo, and the demands of the body for sleep. We are currently sailing up the east side of the Maldives on our way to clear in at their capital, Male, hopefully in two days time. It is the wee hours of the morning and Gail is asleep (hopefully) and I am on watch until 0300 hrs. We currently have a head wind and a strong current against us. All spelling mistakes are Gail’s fault as she is the proofreader and I never make mistakes anyway.
We left Darwin, in company with Queimarla, on the 23/6/99 from the Cullen Bay fuel wharf,
where customs clearance was obtained. We booked the time with customs the previous week, and they
gave us a form that enabled duty free purchase of fuel etc. The clearance was easy, just a matter of
filling out forms. We purchased Gin, Scotch and Rum from Downtown Duty Free, at a special per carton price available only to yachties. $7 per bottle for 750ml Scotch and $9 per bottle for 1125ml Gin, these items were delivered to the boat at the time booked for customs. We left Darwin with a forecast for strong
winds, so had one reef in mainsail.
At 0200hrs the next morning went down to triple reef no jib, and stayed that way all the way to
Ashmore Reef. At this time lost sight of Paul and Barb. Had trouble with loose bolts in rudders, so had to go over the back three times to tighten them. Arrived at Ashmore at sunrise and Queimarla was already at anchor and gave us directions on how to approach the anchorage. Locktighted the rudder bolts and celebrated Barbs birthday on board Gone Troppo with the couple who are the custodians of the reef. Rung Gazza in Darwin on the HF and asked him to purchase two new bolts with nuts and send to Christmas.
He is a great friend and sailor who provides us with wonderful Australian based support. There was one Indonesian fishing boat, and one illegal immigrant boat awaiting destruction there. The night before we left the Navy escorted another illegal immigrant boat in with 52 people on board.
Departed 3 days after arrival for Christmas Is, and were in contact with
Queimarla for the first 3 days, but lost them on the third night. Saw several
whales on this leg, and a few Indonesian fishing boats.
Arrived Christmas at sunrise, radioed police and were told where to grab a mooring. Queimarla arrived a couple of hours later. After clearing in the police gave us a lift to a local restaurant where we all had an excellent lunch. For the meal and a can of coke the cost was $4.20, very good value!! We hired vehicles
and toured the island on a couple of days, had a great time. Christmas Is is a fascinating place, well worth a visit, and where we met some great new friends. A friend (Owen) joined Queimarla at Christmas so they decided to stay an extra few days to show him the island. Paul discovered a crack in the hounds and organised a welder to climb the mast to repair it, so we stayed a bit longer to give them a hand. A very brave welder (a kiwi ) indeed who was actually scared of heights, but who did a great job on a Sunday. We left at noon the day after it was repaired looking forward to seeing Paul and Barb again at Cocos Keeling.
At sunset, 6pm, that night Gail spotted what turned out to be a body in a lifejacket. We were 43nm
from Christmas, with 20-25knots of wind with 2m seas on 2-3m swell. Over the next three hours, in the dark, we managed to find 5 men(alive) and get them aboard, in between fouling stbd prop with flotsam and then port rudder with more of the same. With Gail at the helm and myself playing spot/catch the swimmer in the dark. What a nightmare, right about then we both had had enough of this cruising !! Two guys virtually comatose(one vomiting blood) and the other three not much better, all of them being sick etc etc. They were immigrants from Sri Lanka off of an Indonesian vessel that foundered. 20 people all up and we had accountered for 8, so 12 were still missing.
The boat was a mess and stank like you wouldn’t believe. Our cat made an appearance, took one look at the saloon and disappeared, never saw her again for three days. I did not want to be there either and I am sure Gail would have liked to have disappeared as well. Radioed for help, which was finally received in NZ, and at 0100hrs a freighter arrived nearby and started searching. At 2400hrs the Christmas Is pilot boat was launched with police and doctors on board, they arrived at our location at 0600hrs with the intention of transferring our passengers. This was agreed by all to be impossible in the conditions prevailing so we got to motor back to Christmas. On our way we were contacted by one of our new friends, Noel, who was in a search plane. He offered us accommodation on our return. Arrived 1930hrs and were boarded by police etc before we completed tying up to a mooring. We were given 2 minutes to grab what we needed to take ashore, so while our 5 passengers were transferred Gail grabbed some stuff and I called Paul on the VHF and asked him if he would finish tying up the boat for us. Spent a few hours at the cop shop and were picked up by Noel and Tina. They put us up for the next two nights. They had also picked up Paul, Barb and Owen, so we all had a few drinks and some food, and then Gail and I fell into bed.
Next morning there was a note saying we could use their car and to make ourselves at home. At 0730hrs the police rang wanting us to come back to the station, so that’s where we spent the day. The AFP guys were friendly and considerate, a credit to their force and their community. Answered many calls from the media while we were there. Had another night with Noel and Tina, and the crew from Queimarla joined us for dinner. They had opened up the boat to let it air and had fed the cat during the day. Next day we started the cleanup, and made use of Tina’s’ washing machine. Tina did a Herculean effort in washing cushions and covers. This is a very brief description of the actual drama that will have an everlasting affect on our lives. After sad farewells with our friends on Christmas, Queimarla and Gone Troppo departed for Cocos Keeling in company. We managed to stay together for the entire trip (3 days), and arrived looking forward to a couple of weeks rest.
About 10 miles before Cocos we overtook a Spray Schooner, “Celebo”, it looked magnificent. We met some wonderful people at the anchorage at Direction Is, from all over the world. Every night or two we would meet on the beach under a shelter and have drinks/barby and talk until late. Rob and Helen on Celebo left the following week along with a French yacht, a Kiwi yacht and a German catamaran, “Barracuda”, that was 26 years old. Three days later Celebo was knocked down and then abandoned, Rob and Helen being taken off onto a freighter and returned to Cocos. The cruising community at Direction Is were in shock for a few days. We went and saw Rob and Helen at the hospital on West Is a few days later, they were healthy but definitely still in shock and at a loss. No one left for a while after that. A Brazilian boat arrived, complete with film and sound crew on deck. The boat was Aysso, with the Schurmann family aboard. Wilfredo and Heloisa were filming/photographing/recording items for their internet site, which was being accessed by over 600 schools in the USA and most in Brazil. (www.schurmann.com.br) They had a team of people working around the clock back in Brazil editing their Homepage, and answering questions from the school kids. They are a wonderful couple who had found a way to finance their love of cruising, it was their second circumnavigation. They interviewed us, and we made interview of the month. They put on a lamb on a spit and invited all the yachties, as long as they did not mind being filmed. We stayed just short of 5 weeks at Cocos, it took that long for all of our post to arrive. Cocos was different from Christmas. A friend in Darwin, Greg, managed to obtain and send us an inverter in very short time, needed for the computer. Greg and his wife Lynn have our enduring power of attorney and as a consequence are not only making decisions on their own lives but are also making decisions for ours.
We had ordered spare blades for our wind generator when we were in Christmas, the first time, but they were sent normal mail and did not arrive at Cocos until 7 weeks after they were ordered. When they finally arrived we departed Cocos for Chagos, 29/8/99.
While at Cocos we had done some minor work on the new rudders. At 0500
the first night out of Cocos, one rudder bolt came loose and this caused the
rudder box to break. We recovered the rudder and continued the remaining
distance of 1500nm with one rudder only. Arrived at Salomon Atoll, Chagos,
12/9/99, and anchored near some friends we had made at Cocos. Started work on
rudder box first thing. Two days later Queimarla arrived and 2 days later we
moved to the other side of the atoll to anchor. Enjoyed a pleasant stay at this
anchorage just off the Isle Boddam. Friends on the boat Ynot arrived, and
shortly after they put on a lamb roast for all present. Other boats contributed
other parts of the meal. This dinner was held on Gone Troppo as it turned into a
rainy day and it was the only place all could fit, even though it was a bit cosy
with nine on board. A great late night was had by all, Ross, Sue and Graham from
Ynot, Sue and Hamish from El Kouba, Paul and Barbara from Queimarla, and
ourselves. Much fun at end of night getting into dinghies in strong winds, the
alcohol helped I am sure. Next morning no wind.
Very early next morning Barbara heard a yacht calling for assistance. It was 4 miles from the entrance to the atoll and needed a tow. It was the yacht Mikado, 20 odd tonnes, with three on board, their main engine and auto helm were not working and they were low on food and exhausted. Barbara asked if we would go as no one else was answering. We said OK, but as we were about to release our anchor buoy, Ross came over and said that El Kouba would go as they were heavier and had a stronger motor, beauty we thought. Started fibre glassing rudder box at long last. A few hours later heard Hamish on VHF saying he could not get to Mikado as his motor was over heating. Mikado was now about 10nm from the entrance. They asked if we could go, so we said OK but were putting on last layer of fibreglass and would not be ready to leave for another 30 minutes. Asked Paul to come and give us a hand with the tow. By the time we got to Mikado they were 15nm from the entrance, which was 4nm from our anchorage, and drifting closer to another reef. We connected a tow of about two hundred metres long, and commenced the journey back. It took 10 minutes to get Mikado moving in the right direction. A slow trip back, arrived at the entrance at sunset, Paul climbed the mast and we towed Mikado as far as we dared in the poor light. Asked him to drop anchor where we thought it would be safe, and told him we would complete the tow in the morning. He asked if we could make it late morning as they were in need of sleep, so at 10am next day we woke them up and finished tow. For this he wanted to pay us US$100, but we accepted 3 US$20 notes, one each for Gail, Paul and myself. Every boat managed to find some food they could spare to sell to Mikado. A little boat, Possibilities, from Sydney arrived from Cocos just as we were all getting concerned for them. It is a boat you would expect to see on Darwin harbour not in the middle of the ocean.
Watched with sadness as Queimarla departed as we would not expect to see
them until maybe Germany in a few years time. Left a few days later ourselves
for the Maldives, 4/10/99, hoping to return in the future to this little
paradise.
Had a great sail until we closed the equator, where we found calms and squalls. The squalls came from nowhere and blew at force 7, but did not last more than 1 hour. The eye of one passed over us, very scary as the wind went from force 7 to nothing then back to force 7 from the opposite direction after about 15 seconds. We arrived at Male' on the 10/10/99. Anchored in 40 metres of water then moved when locals signalled us to a better depth, although it was close to a reef and right on the edge of a drop off. Cleared in and had a very long night after our anchor broke free in a squall about midnight. The wind was above 40 knots and the rain was horizontal. This was hectic/dangerous and could fill an entire letter on its own; suffice to say that Gail once again helmed the boat to perfection, missing vessels by inches! Finally re-anchored at 0530hrs, (when we could at last actually see where we were), tired cold and very miserable, in 41 metres of water, with approximately 150 metres of rode out. We weren’t the only ones who had anchor probs that night and the next day. We were supposed to go ashore by 0900hrs and get authority to move around within the Male’ atoll. This appointment was missed due to more bad weather and to being too bloody tired. The bows were nearly going underwater with the waves and the stern was coming completely clear of the water. That night we kept an anchor watch as there was more bad weather. Next day there was a short break in the weather so managed to get the dinghy in the water and get Gail ashore, while I maintained anchor watch. We were both sick of the BLOODY Maldives by this time. Gail managed to perform a mountain of tasks while ashore and returned by water taxi with 90 litres of diesel and 15 of petrol. This meant that we could leave for a protected anchorage as soon as we could get our anchor up. At 0600 hrs the next morning it was calm so we quickly pulled up our anchor and motored for the nearest protected anchorage, right at the end of the airport runway. So here we sit in the rain, watching planes come and go and licking our wounds, of which there are many.
We are in a spot that according to our $52 British Admiralty Chart we could
not possibly get to(dry reef), and 100 metres astern of us is an island that does
not exist. Not only does it exist but it is growing before our eyes. The dredge
is a dredging and the trucks are a trucking sand/coral and the graders are a
grading, the newly planted trees are a growing. I am sure it will make a
wonderful new resort in the very near future. Cullen Bay has nothing on
it!!
The home brew Ginger Beer, Cider and wine is working out well, a definite lifesaver. We have worked out that we now need to purchase the following list of equipment.
RADAR, Electric anchor winch (for depths more than 10 metres), Depth Sounder for helm position, Fog Horn, Laptop Computer, Bigger fenders, Clear windscreen for canopy so we can actually open our eyes when looking forward in squalls, rather than wearing diving masks. All contributions of cash gratefully accepted.
This is definitely a very very brief description of our experiences to date. We have never lived such a full life; there are not enough hours in the day. Cruising is definitely not a holiday, we have aching muscles that we never even knew that we had. Twenty hour days are the norm and 2 hours sleep straight is pure luxury. Not only are we coping but we actually love it and would not change a thing. Well, maybe less excitement would be nice.
Fair winds and following seas,
Stephen and Gail
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