Realdo

Had the chance to walk around in another quaint small village pretty high up in the Ligurian mountains. The village was pretty well maintained albeit the restaurant was closed for the day. Water was running everywhere and the way of old was still left to be seen with a rubbish chute down the mountain where it ended maybe 50m or more down below on the slope. Only met 2 residents and I assume another 2 tourists so it was very quiet. The two residents were avid mountain bikers and said the worldchampion had been about recently.

Pieve di Teco

This day I went for a Sunday outing to Pieve di Teco in the hopes of seeing the antique market.  We drove there at first via the coast through Imperia and up the valley. 

Local bridge

Glori

Went for a walk in the village of Glori, this time the weather was a bit uncertain so didn't walk over the mountain. 

Local orchid

Cartagena

Had the chance to visit Cartagena and see the sights there. In the center are great monuments of Roman heritage as well as on the waterfront there is the naval shipyard of Navantia and a Naval museum with displays of the Spanish highlights as well as their first submarine. Very recommendable city to visit. Just outside the city is an informal settlement on naval land where people have erected "summer houses". The Navy tolerates them as long as they're not built further or any more land is occupied.

Cartagena center onwards

Vacation in Philippines p2

 As we had returned from Malaysia the traffic and people got really heave so were kind of confined to Calatagan and only scootered around to beaches etc.

Calatagan market lighting

Trip to Malaysia

As I was in Philippines for a short time I decided to go visit my Malaysian friends in Lumut area. The trip started a bit roughly with us spending a day in Singapore and in evening taking the overnight bus to Sitiawan. It was not bad but the AC in the bus was freezing and I hadn't packed any long-sleeved clothes so ended up huddling all night whilst dog-napping. Whilst in Lumut we got taken around all the nice restaurants serving different Chinese cuisine as well other ethnic groups. Always nice to visit Malaysia for food. Below are some pictures from the few days spent there.

911 MB, not Porsche ;)

Visit to Philippines

Having told my previous employ to keep their show I left for the Philippines for some R&R. Flew from Singapore to Manila and spent a few days there to renew my medical, it was tough, took me 2 days of tests but finally I got 2 years. Really need to lose some weight in order to avoid this in future. After Manila went south to Calatagan and visited places nearby, Balayan town, Taal volcano lake, Batangas balisong shops and so on. Below are pictures of some highlights of the trip until I had to fly to Vietnam for my next job.

Handover completed to Capt Sean

Vacation in Thailand

Having stepped off my last yacht for good I decided to stay for awhile as it was winter in Europe and I was in no hurry back to find another job. I also thought that maybe there would be gigs to do on some small yacht lacking a skipper. Anyway, ended up renting a scooter and rediscovering Phuket as it had been 10+ years since I was here last. Below are pictures of some locations I ended going to...

Yacht Haven marina

Rome

Pictures from my trip to Rome, pretty amazing city...

Captain's Blog Feb/ Mar 2012

My vacation had been spent and I was instructed to go to Maldives and relieve Saini for vacation before returning back to Indian Empress. Kalizma was sitting at anchorage in Hulhumale' together with m/y Linse and there was a skeleton crew maintaining both boats.

Chartlet of Maldives courtesy of worldatlas.com

Diving South of Banana reef

This was my last dive for this tour in Maldives as I'm flying to Abu Dhabi to take over as Master on Indian Empress so I need some surface time to be able to fly. To make it special I decided to do a night dive. Had all gear in the boat by sunset and off we went to check out Banana reef. The rising tide was still several knots too strong to do the dive at this location so we decided to go back a step down south and do it the next reef. At least there it looked to be no current.

BA chart 3323

Diving Club Med corner

This morning we saw there was a strong ingoing tide on Kudakalhi Channel so we decided to do a drift dive from the corner into the atoll as we had not yet dived this particular segment of the Club Med corner. We went an ample distance along the Ocean side of the reef to gear up and once ready we simultaneously jumped in at 10m depth. 

BA chart 3323

Diving Furana South

My diving days are soon over for awhile as I'm due to return back to Indian Empress in a few days. This morning decided to revisit the Furana south site and we started well inside the Kudakalhi Channel as the current was slightly outflowing. Earlier diveboats had tied a white canister to the reef as a marker so we tied up there and geared up. Down we went just South of the Full Moon Maldives resorts lagoon and started heading East.

BA chart 3323

Diving reef West of Aarah Island

For this mornings dive we chose to go to an unnamed reef West of the Aarah Island. There are 2 reefs next to each other and in between there is a narrow channel. Once you get there on the spot you realize the channel is not so narrow, it is rather several hundred meters wide.

BA chart 3323

Diving Nassimo thila

This morning we headed North for Nassimo Thila that was awarded four stars by Tim Godfrey back in the day when he wrote the book and is lauded as the best "thila" in North Male' atoll. The weather was a bit choppy and we jumped ourselves to the divesite that is next to Lankanfinolhu Island. The Island houses the swanky "Paradise" resort next to the "Soneva Gili" resort on the Lankanfushi Island (1000+ USD/ night).

BA chart 3323

Diving Kuda Haa

Looking at divesites Tim Godfrey have mapped out in his good book I settled to go to the Kuda Haa "thila" as it was the only one we had not yet visited. It was as far as Lion's Head at Thilafushi but a bit more north inside the atoll, just next to the Giraavaru Island. The reef is actually 8m underwater so finding it without a positioning system is not the easiest task. Actually we found it by seeing fish jumping out of water, it was a bit windy and waves were abt 50cm high so one could see the reef only when you were next to it.

BA chart 3323

Diving Lion's head

BA chart 3323

Diving Club Med corner

My deckhand Pardeep had not been here and we decided to revisit this site. This time though we swam South instead of inside the atoll so we started near the corner. We weren't disappointed, met with Napoleon Wrasse & turtles plus the host of the small fish in the coral garden. I must have seen the biggest grouper ever in my life when I peeked under a rock formation, it sat there for awhile until it noticed it was observed and then it hid better out of sight. I managed to get a picture but it is obscured by the soldierfish, if you look closely you can see the eyes and mouth in the dark background...

BA chart 3323, inset

Diving Hans Hass place

As we had tallied through the closest dive sites we ventured now a bit further afield, not going overboard but staying inside Male' atoll. We headed southwest from our anchorage towards Viligili Island and next to it is a reef named Gulhi Falhu. It is now being reclaimed from the West. In the middle of the reef on the Ocean side is the "Hans Hass" diving spot that is designated as a protected area. When I was in Maldives earlier my local guide told me that this will house the existing industries on Male' and they will be relocated on Gulhi Falhu.

Anyway, we arrived again early morning and found another dive boat there already but there is aplenty at sea so we made ourselves ready and jumped in. The current was against us and a bit heavier than expected but to agree with the diveplan we kept on going West as instructed our surface boat. There was plenty of pelagics, saw also a Napoleon Wrasse in the distance but the most impressive sight was the overhangs, especially the last one that when I looked under it it gave the impression of a cathedral.

BA chart 3323

Diving off Hulhule

As we were running out of dive sites close by we decided to give Hulhule a go even-though Tim Godfrey had awarded the site only one star in his guide book. Off we went a bit NE of the entrance to the atoll and headed south. There was no current to mention about but I could feel the wave surge down to 20m. The surroundings were rocky and I could see a lot of groupers hiding under the formations. We swam along and just about when we were about to ascend as we were down on air to 50bars I saw something in the distance. After a few seconds a school of Humphead parrotfish appeared with some ten fish in the school. These huge fish were very shy and did not come close, I managed to get off a few shots but then we had to go up. Definitely the highlight of the dive.

BA chart 3323, inset