Crossing the Arabian Sea

Maldives and Yemen

Sea Fever Journal

By Wendy Catlin                                    

29 March 1999

It is 0200 hours. I am on my night watch and the sea is so calm you can see the stars reflected in the water even though the moon is almost full. We have traveled 1100 miles, crossing the Arabian Sea and we are in our seventeenth day at sea.

We depart Galle Harbour, Sri Lanka on 11 March heading for the northern islands of Maldives. The trip is about 400+ miles and will take us 4-5 days. We are fully fueled and provisioned and all looks good. Our weather is very fine but not as much wind as we had hoped. This means we have to use the engine, which in turn uses valuable fuel. But all goes well. We had a little fish following us for many days, which we named "Trailer". It was just under the stern in the wake of the propeller. Trailer had white and black vertical stripes around its body looking much like a reef fish. We decided it was hitch hiking to the Maldives…wanted a change of scenery from Sri Lanka. We found it amazing that that this fish could follow us at 5 knots day after day. How did it eat??

The Maldives is an independent country made up of a chain of atolls, islands made up from coral reefs. The highest altitude of any of the islands is 3 meters…a little over nine feet! It is feared with the global warming and a rising sea level, the Maldives will disappear early in the next century. The population is Muslim, fairly strict. The government wants to protect the culture from western influence, so visitors are restricted to visiting resorts or specified islands.

We arrived 16 March at the Maldivian Island of Uleguma, the second most northern of the chain. We find three other yachts at anchor here, which is great after being on our own for several days.

This island welcomes yachties and is one of the few islands that westerners are allowed to visit. There is a population of 400, 150 of which are children. This very isolated spot seems like an island paradise, crystal clear water, white sand and lazy fishing boats.

A very courteous group of customs officials (very young men) come to meet us on the boat to check us in to their island. After filling out all the necessary paperwork, they very nicely inform us of the ground rules …no alcoholic beverages on shore, women must dress with knees and shoulders covered, no locals on the boat, any gifts must be approved.

Rob and Bob go ashore to find out about fuel and to check out the village. They are immediately met by two people, both vying for their business. One is the ex chief of the village and the other is the Judge. They gave business to both, but it become obvious that the Judge has the power in this village. Politics, you cannot get away from it!

We have arrived in time to participate in a barbeque on shore. Yacht "Tilleman" has arranged this and some of the locals will be there. This is a great opportunity for a bit of cultural exchange. The Judge, the customs men and some of the young men and boys join us. All speak very good English and welcome the chance to practice the language.

While everyone is playing a game or two, I decide to take a snorkel. Rob soon joins me and off we go. The fish life is rich, but the coral is dead, has been for about two years. No one seems to know what has happened to it…global warming, bleaching or what? We did see a lot of crown of thorns (a hearty sea star that gobbles up coral polyps) which may have contributed to the demise. At one time the coral here must have been magnificent. But now it looks like a garden that has not been watered for a long time…no color at all. The good news is that there is a thriving fish community.

We saw many species of reef fish, a family of huge painted crays, large eels, many surgeonfish, triggerfish and damsels. Species lacking are the polyp eaters such as butterfly fish. All in all, it was a very interesting snorkel, which we enjoyed very much.

We rejoined the group for a yummy evening meal on the beach and interesting conversation with the local men.

The next day, Rob and Bob got fuel and after all that work, we went for another snorkel. Visibility was fantastic. We saw a good number of turtles resting on the reef below us. The islands here are perfect for their nesting, so it is not surprising that there are many here. Again, we saw lots of reef fish of all sizes, but very little live coral.

I went ashore with Rob to meet the Judge, go to the post office and arrange to do some laundry at the local well. All the women of the village were sweeping the ground (sand) to clear the leaves, which had fallen in the village common area. Apparently they do this every Thursday. The village houses are made of coral bits cemented together and the streets are of white sand. There are no vehicles here, nor is there electricity. Some residents have generators. There is a village generator, but it is broken. People are friendly, but the women are very shy making any contact difficult. Our main contact was a young man of fourteen years, who spoke very good English and was able to answer most of our questions. I never did get his name! It was too difficult to understand.

We departed this lovely island after three days, stopping at another island (uninhabited) not far away for an exploration snorkel and beach walk. Bob was first in the water and immediately spotted two giant manta rays. These large graceful creatures are a sight to behold. They glide and circle through the water propelled by large pectoral fins that look like wings. They feed by using large cephalic lobes to funnel plankton and small fish into their cavernous mouth. As they move through the water together it reminds me of a ballet.

About ten percent of the coral was live here. Bob also spotted a group of spotted eagle rays flying in perfect formation. He was quite impressed! He then went ashore to explore on his own finding many beautiful cowry shells.

Rob and I went ashore to explore the island a bit. The tide was low, so we were able to walk all the way around. Along the shore, we spotted lots of crabs which ran away from us into the sea, hermit crabs always going somewhere, a large heron type bird (I have not identified it yet) two crows and a leopard shark. We also discovered a small eel hiding among the rocks. Rob bent over to look at it and the eel jumped up out of the water to take a nip out of Rob’s foot! Needless to say, Rob jumped too and fortunately did not get bitten.

It was getting close to sunset and time for us to be on our way. We head back to the boat and set sail to cross the Indian Ocean. As we upped anchor, a pod of dolphins went by not to far away from us. We left this island thinking it a magical place and feeling well spirited for our long journey ahead.

Our crossing of the Indian Ocean is 1850 nautical miles (2000 land miles). We hope to average at least 100 miles a day, so the journey will be 18 to 20 days, no land in sight. I hope the crossings we have done to date have prepared me for being at sea for this length of time.

Yacht "Anja K" who we met in the Maldives has a family of four on board, Don, Anja, son Keith age 14 and daughter Katherine, age 11. They are doing the crossing the same time as we are. Our boats travel at similar speed, so we will accompany each other through to Aden. We will contact each other each morning and evening to make sure all is well on board. This is a good feeling to know we are not out here totally alone.

After two days, we lost sight of Anja K as we took a north-westerly route. They seemed to prefer a westerly route, heading north later on in the voyage. We were hoping to find more wind once we crossed 10 degrees latitude. The weather has been perfect, almost too perfect at times, as we do not have enough wind for sailing. We have had to run the engine about 30% of the time. Can you imagine being out in the middle of the ocean and not a breath of wind??

Since we crossed ten degrees latitude, we have noticed and welcomed a drop in the humidity, which feels wonderful! It is a lot cooler at night, enough to put on a long sleeve shirt.

We all settle in to our watch routines, four hours on, eight hours off. Cooking meals is shared. Rob always has an insurmountable list of jobs to be done, so there is no chance of getting bored of nothing to do. Still there is much sleeping, reading, cooking and just looking at the sea throughout each day and night.

Night watches are 2000 to midnight / midnight to 0400 / 0400 to 0800. We rotate these times between the three of us. Each watch has its own special feature…but the main show is the stars of the night sky and the bioluminescence of the sea. Each seems to be a reflection of the other. The moonrise, moon set and the phase of its cycle becomes very familiar. Sunrise brings the texture of the sea to light giving a clue as to what the day ahead will bring.

We see that our fish "Trailer" is still with us!! Maybe these fish are having a global relay, this one being tagged in the Maldives! But actually, I figured out the mystery with a bit of research. This is not a reef fish at all. It lives in the open ocean and follows large pelagic fish, such as sharks, hoping to catch a bit of the food left from a feed. It is called a pilot fish and so far we have had three of them. They think Sea Fever is a shark I guess!

The engine has been working perfectly except for a broken alternator belt due to loosened alternator mounts. Rob and Bob fixed it right away, so no problem. While underway, they do routine maintenance such as changing oil, cleaning fuel filters, checking for oil leaks. This baby is putting in a lot of time and needs to be well taken care of!

We have installed a water maker, which is a challenge to get working properly. It took forty hours to fill the small forward tank, which holds 250 liters. Our fresh fruits and vegetables lasted for a good two weeks. I was worried I did not get enough, but if I had more it would have spoiled. We now will start on canned food, pasta and rice. This takes some creative cooking! We are out of store bought bread, so I have started to bake bread about every two days. The "boys" really like this.

One day, the sea was so calm it was like glass. There was not a breath of wind. This is the best viewing conditions for seeing dolphins, whales and anything else out there that swims on the surface. And sure enough, we saw huge schools of dolphins in the distance, jumping, spinning and feeding. We also had many smallish whales about. We think some were false killer whales and some pilot whales, but we do not have a positive identification. We see a lot of flying fish. These little critters can fly about fifty yards for up to 13 seconds. They are trying to escape something that wants to eat them.

We rejoin Anja K as we are entering the Gulf of Aden. Only 500 nm to go to Aden. We are quite close to each other and meet up to take photos of each other’s boats with the light wind sails up. It is exciting to see them again. They throw over some chocolate chip cookies for us. Nice treat!

The Gulf of Aden is just north of the Horn of Africa and leads to the Red Sea. We have been getting news via the net from boats ahead of us. Apparently, Aden is not allowing British passport people on shore except for fuel, water and provisions. So many people are going to Djibouti.

Farther up the Red Sea, a boat was arrested/detained by the authorities in the country of Eritrea. The reason is not clear to us at this stage. One boat was shot at while at anchor. Needless to say, he left right away. Another yacht hit a reef, crew needed to be lifted out by helicopter. Apparently the boat is salvageable.

I think going through the Red Sea will be like an adventure board game with dangers, safe passages, heavy/light winds, and villains. I hope we get the right cards!

1 April ~ Sea Fever had a Fool’s Day Race with Anja K. The finish line was at sunset. She passed us two hours before the deadline using her secret weapon Spinnaker (we do not have one of those!) But we kept trying to catch up! Trophies will be awarded at next meeting.

2 April ~ We are having a perfect down wind sail through the Gulf of Aden. We have not had to use the engine for at least 30 hours. This is fantastic!

We hope to reach Aden on Saturday or early Sunday.

I finish this part of the journal on 02 April 99

Gulf of Aden

Lat: 12° 48’ North Long: 47° 00’ East

P.S.

03 April @ 1350hrs ~ We have land in sight! Will be at anchor in Aden harbor, Yemen, by 1800 hrs. We have traveled 1765 nmiles. It has been twenty-two days since we departed the Maldives. It has been a really good voyage!