Uligamu to Khuludhufushi, The Maldives

We left Sri Lanka on the last day of our visa and headed south around the bottom of the island on the way to Uligan/Uligamu, The Maldives.  We stopped in the calm waters off the south of the island and took a deep-ocean swim.  I noticed when we stopped that there was a line trailing from our transom--we'd caught a line on the prop and I had to get in to get it free.  Nothing like snorkeling in 10,000 feet of water!  Here I am holding the tangle of line I got off the prop.

Still ocean that reflects the full moon across the water.  Pretty.  And pretty calm for the ocean waters.  We had to motor the entire way to the Maldives as there was no wind to be found.

We arrived in Uligan/Uligamu, The Maldives and anchored next to Pipistrelle here.  You can see the light color aqua which is sand, and the dark is coral.  Not a lot of room to put an anchor here.

  A patch of sand next to the coral was our anchor spot--Beautiful, clean, clear water for a change!

Jason patching a small hole on the underside of our dinghy so we can use it in the Maldives instead of the aluminum one.  OTIS (our dinghy's name) is on his last legs.

The view of Uligan from our anchorage spot.

Our agent, Assad, in Uligan.  He was so friendly and helpful.  So nice after Sri Lanka where everyone seemed to have an ulterior motive for being nice.

The street in Uligan.  So clean and tidy, also a nice change!

Coca Cola is popular here as there is a bottling plant further down the chain.  Our agent bought us all a cold drink as a welcome.

Karen sitting in one of the string chairs we saw around town.  Simple design that is pretty comfy.

A tiny island we anchored off of just south of Uligan.  We didn't go ashore, but a man came out of the growth and yelled at us to "Go away!"  We ignored him but left the next morning.  We think the nearby resort island must use this for guests to play Robinson Crusoe or such.

These neon blue fish seem to come in big schools and like to look at the boat.

The fancy resort gets it guests by fast boat or seaplane.  You can see a seaplane parked offshore here.  It became a common sight around the Maldives.

Jason getting the fuel jugs ready to refill.  Fuel was cheaper up here than in the city of Male, further south, as there is a fuel import depot nearby.  After more than a week of motoring, we were going to need to load up.

One of our anchorages inside an atoll.  The dark spot is a coral bommie and we needed to leave room to not snag our anchor on it or swing into it in a wind or current shift.  Sometimes there are lots of bommies and we just have to pray we don't get caught in them.

A local fishing boat.  These would drop off snorkelers and floating crates and ropes and the guys would snorkel around a coral bommie in a lagoon.  We don't know what they were looking for or getting as we never got a good view of a net being hauled in or what they took out of the baskets.  The locals here didn't come up to the yachts and we had little/no interaction with them other than waving to each other as they passed by.

Tracy and Bill off of Zephyr, from Denver, Colorado.  We buddy boated with them through much of the Maldives.  We never saw another yacht once we left Uligamu.

The beach edge at Khuludhufushi.  The other side leads to the local boat harbor, but we were directed to the empty, new 'international harbour'.

The 'international harbor' at Khuludhufushi.  We anchored just off the wall and took the dinghy in to town.  We had to climb out onto those big black fenders to get onto the concrete wharf as they have no ladders in place anywhere on the wharf and they didn't want us to climb out over the rocks or use the beach.  We had to pass through the security gate here at the port.

The beach and the breakwater at the corner of the port.  Such pretty water and the locals came down to swim here.  We ordered a truckload of diesel fuel and we picked up veges and some groceries here, as well as topped off our internet and phone cards for use further down the chain.  We almost camped out in the ATM kiosk as it was the coolest place in town with its air-conditioned space.