The Maldives (pronounced Maldeeves by the locals)

On 2/22/07 we were towed into the port of Male', The Maldives. The water was a gorgeous emerald color, the atolls obvious to the eye. Palm and banana trees covered the shore of nearby islands, but the island of Male' was a concrete jungle, according to the hip young people we later met. The buildings looked surprisingly modern, colored glass commercial buildings lining the shore with minarets and gold domes towering behind.

We were left in deep water by the tow boat, and we were concerned that we wouldn't have enough anchor chain and rode to hold us for the night until we could get into town the next morning for a new starter battery. We were all feeling a bit anxious to be without engine in a harbor filled with commercial fishing vessels, private dive boats and worst of all, a permanent structure very close to us that housed a small tourist submarine. All night we kept watch to make sure we weren't dragging anchor out towards the sub, though we didn't really know what we'd do if we did. Without an engine, we were helpless except to call the Coast Guard and hope that they'd be able to stop us before we did any damage or were sent back out to sea.

That night we were boarded by about 6 men in military uniform and maybe four others-- customs agents and our agent. I stayed in the cockpit with the military guys, most about 20 years old and very sweet. They were curious, polite and helpful, and I felt very comfortable around them. They all took turns asking The Captain for papers and having him complete forms, then the boat picked them up and they were off. Before they left, one man pushed through the crowd toward the stern and said to me, "sick" before I heard him feeding the fish. Later I realized that was our agent, Abdoulah, who was amazing. Later he helped us get the boat re-checked in after The Captain prematurely checked us out. Sarah and I needed to have our passports stamped "signed off of Boat X" before we could fly out of the country, since our passports had exit stamps in them two weeks before Boat X was to have actually left The Maldives).

Luckily, the next morning we met Jack Ford. He is an American from Long Beach, CA who has been out sailing for many years. He was a ship builder and re-built his boat from the hull up. Jack really knew his stuff, and came aboard to help. He loaned us a starter battery so we could get the engine running. Jack also told some of us crew that with a 20+ year old mainsail, electrical problems and an old engine, he wouldn't tackle the Red Sea. He looked at our electrical system and commented that they were patched together over the years and needed a complete overhaul.

Once the engine finally started, we were able to move to the shallow water at Hulhumale Island, a man-made island that will be the future home to Male' overflow residents. Hulhumale was being constructed because of severe overcrowding on Male', the largest city in the Maldives. Some of the largest dredgers in the world were brought in to crunch up the reef that ringed a small patch of "land" near Male' and pile it up to create the island. It was also constructed two meters above the high tide in order to avoid another wipe out from a Tsunami. The Tsunami of 2005 destroyed the entire waterfront of Male', but was rebuilt very quickly and the architecture is modern and clean. About 80 people throughout the Maldives died in the Tsunami.

From the safe anchorage at Hulhumale we would begin our projects -- buying new house batteries and a starter battery, having a new diesel tank built, getting the mainsail repaired, buying a new generator, filling up with gasoline, and all the other re-provisioning details for the next leg to India. We took the 20-minute ferry to Male' almost everyday, sometimes twice a day for almost everything we needed. It ran every 30 minutes from right next to our dingy dock. At night a giant Manta Ray would pace the ferry building, either attracted to the lights on the ferry building or attracted to the fish that were attracted to the lights.


The view from one of the first buildings on Hulhumale, The Male' Ferry terminal at night, a kid's track meet. The dock we used to get back and forth from Reflections in our dingy.