After 10 ½ days, our passage from Chagos is over as we dropped our anchor in Madagascar. For our last 24 hours, we enjoyed a Moderate Gale (Beaufort Force 7) directly on our starboard beam accompanied by 4 meter breaking waves. Several of the side windows do not seal against horizontal wind, rain and salt spray, so we look forward to sopping up, rinsing the salt out of some cushions and carpet and drying out…What fun!
This passage, with our short passage from the Maldives to Chagos and our crossing from Langkowi, Malaysia to the Maldives represent about 3400 miles under our keel to cross the Indian Ocean. It is good to have this Ocean behind us. Like the extraction of all four of my wisdom teeth and my first colonoscopy, this crossing is an event which I do not plan to repeat!
The Indian Ocean is big, mean and full of high winds and rough water. The first leg of this crossing (without stabilizers) saw furniture walking across the floor and deck boxes ripped out. The second leg chewed up my coolant pump and sent us limping back to Gan. This last leg was simply rough and uncomfortable and most critical boat systems functioned better than the crew. We ran the final 500 miles without running lights and AIS and did not see (nor were seen by) any pirates.
We are nestled safely in a harbor in the Northwest of Madagascar and finally out of the relentless big, confused seas. We will change engine oil, fix a few items that were too difficult to sort out on passage and generally rest up. We will need to meet the local Malagasy people, get some more diesel fuel and fresh fruit and vegetables and hunt for a glimpse of our first Lemurs. But all that, my Dear readers, will have to wait for tomorrow…
Tom
Posted by SSB
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Solomon Atoll, Chagos
On the short trip from Peros Banhos to Solomon, we trolled a lure. We caught one Bonito after another. We threw back (released live) the first two and then we kept the last one. Coming across the reef pass into Solomon, we also caught a toothy barracuda that we also released.
We anchored in about 60 feet with Cat Mousses in calm waters right off Isle Fouquet. We spent about 4 days there, snorkeling a few wrecks and exploring the islands. The water here was clearer than in Peros Banhos and we hiked the white sand beaches at low tide and drifted in the swift current between two islands.
We found small birds nesting in the protected sand that was islolated from predators on the main islands.
There were 4 boats we could see anchored off Boddom Island about 3 miles to our west, so we weaved our path among the coral heads and joined them.
Boddam is the largest of the Salomon Atoll islands, and was home to the copra plantation workers. Photos from the 60s show an open sward of grass, dotted with a church, hospital, school, homes and copra sheds. Today the buildings are slowly being reclaimed by nature, with strangler figs shrouding buildings and palms colonizing the once open areas. After only 50 years, the village looks like the remains of a lost civilization. The roofless jail cells have lost their doors, but the tiny metal grills remain in place, high on the walls. One remaining piece of stained glass hangs precariously in its window frame.
The cruisers have adapted the buildings for their use and makeshift tables, plastic chairs and volleyball net adorn the camp. Several cruisers had constructed a smoker to smoke the abundant fish and we even tried it out with fish that we caught. It worked OK and we ended up with about a pound of smoked snapper that we vacuum packed for a later day.
There were well-marked trails and we spent one day exploring the island and visited the cemetery and saw numerous enormous coconut crabs.
We had an overheating problem with the genset and it took more than a week of troubleshooting and more bloody knuckles to narrow the problem to the heat exchanger. Tom built a makeshift tube-reamer from some submarine-grade Inconel wire and harmony (and air conditioning) aboard Emily Grace were restored.
Two Italian crews were avid fishermen and would stop by giving away a dingy full of grouper, rainbow runner and yellowfin to the anchored boats. Dropping a baited hook or lure over the side of our anchored home would yield a 20 inch snapper in about 5 minutes…my kind of fishing. We only fished every 2 or 3 days when we needed a meal, but many of the boats fished daily and canned or froze the fish for later.
Emily and Catherine did homeschool in the mornings and spent every afternoon playing and writing stories. It seems that both liked dragons and they wrote 3 fanciful stories about dragons and their quests. Cat Mousses only took Sunday's off school and therefore Saturday night became sleepover night. We stayed at Chagos long enough for 3 sleepovers and the girls hand a grand time.
The weather to our south was unsettled for the first two weeks and 4 to 5 meter waves and high winds made any thoughts of moving on undesirable. Once we saw a calmer window, we decided to leave early even though our entire 4 weeks was not yet over. We decide to keep a SSB net going even though most of the boats were heading to Rodrigues or Mauritius. Our route to Madagascar should be close enough to stay in contact for some of the passage. They will be coming to Madagascar later and they may catch us there or in South Africa.
Several cruisers have told us that Mayotte, a French Island to the west of Madagascar, is nice and we will keep that in mind as we get closer. Mayotte would add another 2 days to our 1500 mile passage so we will decide that when we approach Madagascar.
The snorkeling was quite good here and I leave you with some underwater shots of what we saw.
Tom
We anchored in about 60 feet with Cat Mousses in calm waters right off Isle Fouquet. We spent about 4 days there, snorkeling a few wrecks and exploring the islands. The water here was clearer than in Peros Banhos and we hiked the white sand beaches at low tide and drifted in the swift current between two islands.
We found small birds nesting in the protected sand that was islolated from predators on the main islands.
There were 4 boats we could see anchored off Boddom Island about 3 miles to our west, so we weaved our path among the coral heads and joined them.
Boddam is the largest of the Salomon Atoll islands, and was home to the copra plantation workers. Photos from the 60s show an open sward of grass, dotted with a church, hospital, school, homes and copra sheds. Today the buildings are slowly being reclaimed by nature, with strangler figs shrouding buildings and palms colonizing the once open areas. After only 50 years, the village looks like the remains of a lost civilization. The roofless jail cells have lost their doors, but the tiny metal grills remain in place, high on the walls. One remaining piece of stained glass hangs precariously in its window frame.
The cruisers have adapted the buildings for their use and makeshift tables, plastic chairs and volleyball net adorn the camp. Several cruisers had constructed a smoker to smoke the abundant fish and we even tried it out with fish that we caught. It worked OK and we ended up with about a pound of smoked snapper that we vacuum packed for a later day.
There were well-marked trails and we spent one day exploring the island and visited the cemetery and saw numerous enormous coconut crabs.
We had an overheating problem with the genset and it took more than a week of troubleshooting and more bloody knuckles to narrow the problem to the heat exchanger. Tom built a makeshift tube-reamer from some submarine-grade Inconel wire and harmony (and air conditioning) aboard Emily Grace were restored.
Two Italian crews were avid fishermen and would stop by giving away a dingy full of grouper, rainbow runner and yellowfin to the anchored boats. Dropping a baited hook or lure over the side of our anchored home would yield a 20 inch snapper in about 5 minutes…my kind of fishing. We only fished every 2 or 3 days when we needed a meal, but many of the boats fished daily and canned or froze the fish for later.
Emily and Catherine did homeschool in the mornings and spent every afternoon playing and writing stories. It seems that both liked dragons and they wrote 3 fanciful stories about dragons and their quests. Cat Mousses only took Sunday's off school and therefore Saturday night became sleepover night. We stayed at Chagos long enough for 3 sleepovers and the girls hand a grand time.
The weather to our south was unsettled for the first two weeks and 4 to 5 meter waves and high winds made any thoughts of moving on undesirable. Once we saw a calmer window, we decided to leave early even though our entire 4 weeks was not yet over. We decide to keep a SSB net going even though most of the boats were heading to Rodrigues or Mauritius. Our route to Madagascar should be close enough to stay in contact for some of the passage. They will be coming to Madagascar later and they may catch us there or in South Africa.
Several cruisers have told us that Mayotte, a French Island to the west of Madagascar, is nice and we will keep that in mind as we get closer. Mayotte would add another 2 days to our 1500 mile passage so we will decide that when we approach Madagascar.
The snorkeling was quite good here and I leave you with some underwater shots of what we saw.
Tom
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Chagos and Peros Banhos
The Chagos Archipelago is a little piece of magic about 300nm south of the southernmost of the Maldives. It's officially a British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and most people only know about it from Diego Garcia, the big US military base in the south. The archipelago is over 200nm long north to south but only the 2 northern atolls - Peros Banhos and Salomon - are currently open to cruising yachts. The 2 atolls are fairly close together, with Peros Banhos about 25nm west of Salomon. Peros Banhos, at 14nm across, is several times bigger than Salomon (4nm across) but Salomon is much more tightly enclosed, giving better protection from the winds and seas. Peros Banhos is completely open to the south and east, so its anchorages are only tenable when the winds have some west in them.
Our second passage to Chagos was much better than our first one. We had choppy seas for the first 50 miles but the final 250 were relatively light winds and seas. We made the trip in less than 2 days and arrived at the pass at Peros Banhos just as the sun was rising. The new Lugger coolant pump worked well with no leaks and the Naiad roll stabilizers worked fine as well.
Through the morning haze we saw the BIOT patrol boat anchored just inside. We knew their vessel name was Pacific Marlin so we hailed them on the VHF. They were surprised at our call and based on our shape they thought we might be an illegal fishing boat and told us their fast dingy was already on its way to check us out. Once they checked our name against their permit list, all was well.
The islands surrounding both Peros Banhos and Salomon are lush with coconut palms and a few fine old hardwood takamaka trees. Red footed boobies, noddies and terns all nest on the islands, and large purple brown coconut crabs scuttle about under the leaf litter and on the lower tree trunks. Ashore on both atolls are the ruins of docks, homes and churches once used by the Chagossian people in the early 1960's and before. The surrounding reefs are alive with fish, marine turtles and sharks.
Between the late 1800's and 1965 the Maldives were a British Protectorate that included the Chagos Archipelago. When the tossing off of colonial ties became the in thing in the mid-1960s, the Maldives took their full independence as an ad-Din dynasty sultanate. But as part of the deal they handed the Chagos Archipelago over to the British, who now call it the British Indian Ocean Territory. As for the former residents of the Chagos Archipelago, they got sold out and had to leave their homeland.
The increasingly insolvent British immediately rented the largest of the Chagos Islands, Diego Garcia, to the United States government for a naval base. Of tremendous strategic importance, we're told that the arrival of the United States Navy coincided with the forced departure of all the natives. Because of the base's importance, we're also told that charts of the waters are no longer available.
We decided to proceed to anchor near Ile du Coin on the southern side of the atoll to get some protection from the light SE winds and swell. The BIOT boat did the same and we soon received an invitation for lunch and a private tour of their boat. After anchoring, we lowered the dingy and motored over to enjoy their air conditioned spaces and a nice lunch followed by big scoops of strawberry ice cream. We had just missed a barbecue that they put on once a month for all the cruising boats here and hoped we would be here to enjoy their next one before our 28 days were up.
The next day we went ashore to Ile du Coin and explored the ruins of the copra producing community which used to harvest coconuts on all the islets. The old jetty, the Manager's House, the copra storage building, wells and remnants of a railroad track were among the notable reminders that many people once lived and worked here.
Again, all the Chagos islanders were transported by the British to Mauritius when Diego Garcia was leased to the USA for a large military base. The islanders have recently won a decision in a British court that their removal was unlawful but they have not been allowed to return, except for short visits to the cemeteries.
All day long, schools of bonito around Emily Grace round up schools of small fish into a tight ball. Now the bonito are feeding on them, darting through the ball of fish while Black Naped Terns and Lesser Noddy's squawk overhead and try to dive in for a bite of their own. This is a common occurrence that we were to see several times a day on both atolls.
After two days snorkeling, a catamaran sailed in and we were to meet the crew of Cat Mousses, French Canadians with 4 children aboard. Rene and Dany told us they were over in the Solomon atoll and decided to bring their kids over for a visit.
We hit it off with them, their 3 boys and Catherine who was 12 and quickly bonded with Emily. Rene and his boys are avid fishermen and we shared 3 yellowfin tuna as sushi and also a grouper they caught while trolling.
We stayed for another few days but the water visibility was not as good as we expected and the winds and waves were forecast to increase. We both "upped anchor" and headed to the Solomon atoll. There we hoped to spend the remainder of our 28 day permit. Come along with us, Dear reader as we move on.
Tom
Posted via SSB
Through the morning haze we saw the BIOT patrol boat anchored just inside. We knew their vessel name was Pacific Marlin so we hailed them on the VHF. They were surprised at our call and based on our shape they thought we might be an illegal fishing boat and told us their fast dingy was already on its way to check us out. Once they checked our name against their permit list, all was well.
The islands surrounding both Peros Banhos and Salomon are lush with coconut palms and a few fine old hardwood takamaka trees. Red footed boobies, noddies and terns all nest on the islands, and large purple brown coconut crabs scuttle about under the leaf litter and on the lower tree trunks. Ashore on both atolls are the ruins of docks, homes and churches once used by the Chagossian people in the early 1960's and before. The surrounding reefs are alive with fish, marine turtles and sharks.
Between the late 1800's and 1965 the Maldives were a British Protectorate that included the Chagos Archipelago. When the tossing off of colonial ties became the in thing in the mid-1960s, the Maldives took their full independence as an ad-Din dynasty sultanate. But as part of the deal they handed the Chagos Archipelago over to the British, who now call it the British Indian Ocean Territory. As for the former residents of the Chagos Archipelago, they got sold out and had to leave their homeland.
The increasingly insolvent British immediately rented the largest of the Chagos Islands, Diego Garcia, to the United States government for a naval base. Of tremendous strategic importance, we're told that the arrival of the United States Navy coincided with the forced departure of all the natives. Because of the base's importance, we're also told that charts of the waters are no longer available.
We decided to proceed to anchor near Ile du Coin on the southern side of the atoll to get some protection from the light SE winds and swell. The BIOT boat did the same and we soon received an invitation for lunch and a private tour of their boat. After anchoring, we lowered the dingy and motored over to enjoy their air conditioned spaces and a nice lunch followed by big scoops of strawberry ice cream. We had just missed a barbecue that they put on once a month for all the cruising boats here and hoped we would be here to enjoy their next one before our 28 days were up.
The next day we went ashore to Ile du Coin and explored the ruins of the copra producing community which used to harvest coconuts on all the islets. The old jetty, the Manager's House, the copra storage building, wells and remnants of a railroad track were among the notable reminders that many people once lived and worked here.
Below is the Jetty, both now and in 1963.
Below is the Manager's House, both now and in 1963.
Below is the Church, both now and in 1975.
Again, all the Chagos islanders were transported by the British to Mauritius when Diego Garcia was leased to the USA for a large military base. The islanders have recently won a decision in a British court that their removal was unlawful but they have not been allowed to return, except for short visits to the cemeteries.
All day long, schools of bonito around Emily Grace round up schools of small fish into a tight ball. Now the bonito are feeding on them, darting through the ball of fish while Black Naped Terns and Lesser Noddy's squawk overhead and try to dive in for a bite of their own. This is a common occurrence that we were to see several times a day on both atolls.
After two days snorkeling, a catamaran sailed in and we were to meet the crew of Cat Mousses, French Canadians with 4 children aboard. Rene and Dany told us they were over in the Solomon atoll and decided to bring their kids over for a visit.
We hit it off with them, their 3 boys and Catherine who was 12 and quickly bonded with Emily. Rene and his boys are avid fishermen and we shared 3 yellowfin tuna as sushi and also a grouper they caught while trolling.
We stayed for another few days but the water visibility was not as good as we expected and the winds and waves were forecast to increase. We both "upped anchor" and headed to the Solomon atoll. There we hoped to spend the remainder of our 28 day permit. Come along with us, Dear reader as we move on.
Tom
Posted via SSB
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Underway to Chagos Again!
The coolant pump for the Lugger and the relief valve for the Naiad roll stabilizers finally arrived. It took only 3 days to get from America to Male (Maldives) and it took daily multiple phone calls to get the parts the 300 miles from Male to Gan and those calls took an additional 6 days.
We tackled the coolant pump first. Getting the old one out was a real chore since some bolts were corroded and the spraying coolant had made a mess on the hot engine. Below is a picture of the old pump and the mess. The entire unit weighed about 50 lbs and was a struggle to muscle it around.
It took all three crew in the engine room to hold up the heavy coolant tank while we aligned a gasket and several bolts with the new unit. After much cursing and some bloody knuckles, the new pump was installed. Several bolts and bolt holes were buggered up (technical term there) and Tom had to run a tap and die to clean them up. The job was done right though and all bolts were coated with anti-seize to make the next repair go smoothly. Tom added about 5 gallons of coolant, crossed his fingers and started her up. Everything ran smoothly and there were no leaks. It is nice to have that repair behind us.
The next day, I replaced the relief valve in the Naiads and that repair went quickly and without any dramas. That solved the problem and the system pressure came right up to normal. The relief valve was stuck in the open position thereby dumping all the hydraulic pressure back to the reservoir tank. It will be nice to have our roll stabilizers back for the rest of the Indian Ocean passage. The short trip (300 miles) to Chagos should be fine, but the 1500 mile trip from Chagos to Madagascar is known for being a bumpy ride.
We appreciate the comments, well-wishing and prayers of friends and family. We spent the last of our Rufiyaa on food, fuel and customs fees and pushed off south…once again to Chagos.
Tom
Friday, May 11, 2012
Addu, Maldives and Breakdown in the High Seas
The Addu Atoll is situated about 480 km south of the capitol Male and consists of 6 inhabited and about 27 uninhabited islands. Dams and bridges connect the 4 largest islands and are the largest land connection on the Maldives. The black top road from Gan to Hithadhoo is about 18.5 km. The total population comes to about 30,000 making it the second largest after Male. The Addu Atoll lies south of the equator.
Hithadhoo is the "capital" with about 10,000 inhabitants. There are schools and a hospital. The population lives mostly from fishing; the fish is processed here also.
The British Royal Air Force built an air base here during World War II and expanded it during the hot phase of the Cold War in 1956. They erected dams to connect the surrounding islands. The English trained and hired the Maldivians as service employees, giving them the possibility to earn an income. In 1976, the English relinquished the post and left the Maldives. The Maldivian service personnel moved to Male and the surrounding tourist resorts. Due to their excellent knowledge of the English language, they were very welcome. There is only one accessible tourist resort on the Addu Atoll: - the Equator Village.
We went there several times and enjoyed their all-you-can-eat buffet lunch for about $66 US for all three of us. They also have a fresh water pool and we enjoyed swimming until they told us we would have to pay extra for that. We were surprised since the entire resort only had about 12 guests during this low season.
Tom changed the engine oil and re-attached the bow deck box as we tried to get everything ready within the 7 days we were allowed before we would have to get a $1000 cruising permit. We met Abdula and Mulla who are brothers and own two of the stores here. We placed an order with Mulla for fresh vegetables and fruit and they agreed to deliver them right to our dingy in the boat harbor.
Tom noticed a little antifreeze puddle near where we have a coolant overflow bottle mounted for the main engine. Since he had seen and corrected some small tubing leaks there before, we were not particularly concerned. However upon closer inspection in Gan, he noticed that it looked like a leak near the circulating water (coolant) pump. It was quite a mess since the coolant was dripping on the belt and pulleys and flinging everywhere. Tom could not identify the specific leak source, but assumed that it is the circulating water (coolant) pump. Since the level in the overflow tank was only down about a cup, we decided we would start the passage to Chagos and top up antifreeze into the overflow tank if needed. We hoped this would work until we got to a better port with qualified mechanics to help.
Discussions with Naiad determined that a relief valve was the most likely cause of the Naiads not working, but we had no time to wait for a replacement part to arrive.
So after our 7 days in Gan, we took on 2500 liters of fuel, spent a frantic 2 hours trying to exchange our Maldive money for US dollars, and left for Chagos.
Seas were calm and although we had some rolling, it was much better than the last passage. Just before sunset, Tom was resting and the main engine overheat alarm started screaming. We shut down the main engine and started the 37 HP wing engine while Tom jumped into the 130 degree engine room. He could see the results of the antifreeze leak hitting the belts and slinging around but the overflow tank was still at ¾ full. (Tom later found out that the coolant overflow tank fluid will not flow into a hot engine until after it is shut down and cooling.)
Since we were only 60 miles into our 300 mile trip and qualified help was more than 2000 miles away if we continued south, we made the difficult decision to turn back to north to Gan. The wing engine ran fine but it took us 20 hours to backtrack the 60 miles that had taken us only 10 hours with the main engine. On the trip back, Tom e-mailed Bob Senter (our engine guy) with our SSB radio and we had the replacement part already sourced and waiting to ship before we reached Gan.
We went through the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine dance again and decided to call a different agent for this stay in Gan. By nightfall, Tom had another cell phone sim card and the shipping address for the parts. Just at dusk, Tom called back to the USA that was just waking up and ordered both the replacement coolant pump and Naiad parts.
Time will tell how long it will take to actually receive the shipped parts and whether Tom will be able to repair the items without help. Although this is not the best place for a breakdown, we are all safe and the girls are able to snorkel a bit and finish up home-school lessons. There are enormous bats that fly directly over the harbor that have a 24 inch wingspan and perform for us each dusk and dawn. Tom can rent a motorbike for about $10 to run errands or borrow Abdulas for only the price of a fill-up.
Wish us well Dear readers that these repairs will go quickly and we will soon be back underway.
Tom
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