Diving Black coral reef

Went to the Feydhoo Finolhu where there is according to the Tim Godfrey "Dive Maldives" guide the Black Coral reef. Black coral is semi precious and used for jewellery. Weather was excellent and we went to the Island and discovered there is a resort nowadays so we plonked in the drink a bit west of their entrance and swam west. The reef is a vertical wall, not so much coral there but the wall looks more "rocky" like on the outside of an atoll. Saw nothing spectacular except the normal pelagics and we surfaced at the Western end where there is a wreck in the middle on the reef.

BA chart 3323, inset

Walk on Hulhumale'

Kalizma at anchor

Diving under Kalizma

On the 25th morning we tried diving the Furana North divespot but after 2 attempts we just had to admit that the circumstances were not in our favor. The inflowing current was too strong for us to be able to stay at the reef and to do a drift dive without a dive marker was too hazardous as the waters above were so turbulent that the surface boat would have lost our bubbles (and us).

Cathodic anode before

Diving Bandos Island

Went in the NE corner and ventured East with the strong current in the beginning. The visibility was quite good but as the current became less, when we rounded the Island, the visibility deteriorated. At the start we "bumped" into a reef shark, the high light of the dive.

BA chart 3323, inset

Diving Banana reef

As my other deckhand hadn't yet seen Banana reef we went here again. Good dive and lots to see.

BA chart 3323, inset

Diving Club Med corner

We ventured out of the atoll and went for the Club Med Corner, actually the NE end of the Hulhumale' & Hulhule airport Island & reef. It was a nice dive, hardly any current and many things to see. At the end when we came up a huge school of dolphins passed us by and I had still my goggles on so I could watch them below surface for the first time of my life. I think I could even hear them talking in their high-pitched squeaks.

BA chart 3323, inset

Diving Maldive Victory

This day decided to go and dive the Maldive Victory. She was/ is a general cargo ship that sank in full cargo upon arrival Male' in 1981. For divers delight the wreck is still standing upright so it offers a lot to see. I have quoted the Maldives Victory history text below from here.

BA chart 3323, inset

Diving Hulhumale' North

This time went again to the Kudakalhu Channel but on the South side of it on the Hulhumale' Island reef. Went down about in the middle and drifted with the slight current into the atoll. Once inside the visibility turned quite poor but there was some caves, a few of them remarkably big, and lobsters hiding in their holes.

BA chart 3323, inset

Diving Banana reef

Banana reef is named after the shape it presents up from the air. It is totally submerged and a designated nature reserve so the fish life there is quite plentiful. We went down on the NE corner and ventured west.

BA chart 3323, inset

Diving Kudakalhu channel

Here we went on the S side of the Furanafushi Island and swam into the atoll along the Kudakalhu Channel.

BA chart 3323, inset

Diving Furana South

Chartlet from BA chart 3323, inset

Diving S of Banana reef

As an opening dive we decided to do the easy reef south of Banana reef in order to ascertain the equipment is working well as well as we are up to par after a long time on the dry. As agreed we left Kalizma at 0730hrs with all gear onboard.

Unfortunately everything did not go as planned, my dive watch ran out of battery and I forgot my camera on the surface support boat. On the other hand all dive gear was working perfectly.

BA chart 3323, inset

Sojourn on Kalizma

So 14th my vacation was up and I was ordered to fly to Male', Maldives to relieve the Officiating Master from Kalizma for his vacation too. I did not mind going to Kalizma as sitting on Indian Empress for two months in Abu Dhabi can't be better than going to Maldives.

The trip didi not start out very well as I was driving towards Phuket I got a call from office that I had missed my flight. It had been changed from evening to morning flight and I had totally missed the information. What a mess. Anyhow, I got a flight again the same evening and caught it to Kuala Lumpur, there I spent a few hours and flew to Colombo. The KL airport is huge but very quiet, maybe the reason was the late timing, I had a nice Caesar's salad at a restaurant while waiting.

I arrived Colombo in the early morning hours and spent there about 6hrs waiting for the morning flight. I half slept on a row of benches but was always woken up by clattering footsteps when a batch of passengers arrived from who knows where. Thats what you get for missing your flight. When the sun got up soon enough I was in the plane for Male' and a bit later we landed in good order.

The immigration was a breeze and I met Saini on the airport and we sat on the tenderboat to Kalizma in minutes. Kalizma looks the same as before, a bit worn out but that's why she is going in for a face lift in April. She is sitting at anchor north of Hulhule Island next to the Hulhumale' jetty. Then we started the handing over, accounts, current issues, maintenance, local contacts etc.

Colombo airport

Happy New Year 2012

So it was the last day of the year and people were making lots of plans. Some went to night clubs, some for dinner. Our Interior Manager Mike managed to pull some strings and arranged a table for us at the Allure night club for a fraction of the price they were charging as we were being "permanent" residents in the marina. I was staying put onboard as I wanted to blow the horn at midnight so Mike had brought a tub of cold champagne for me to enjoy, eventually I corked it with my Deck Officers as all other crew was ashore except the watch crew.

Jesse & me trying on our tailor made local suits on the eve (we did not wear them outside the ship)

Cruising Croatia

29th departed Tivat for a drift in Kotor Bay, then anchor off Budva.

Kotor Bay is the next fiord inlands from Tivat. There are strict regulations of not allowing washing on ships and also not any other discharges. Most likely due to pollution prevention as the water circulation I suspect is not that fast. In addition they have exorbitant charges for anchoring in place, hence we were drifting as per the advice from our pilot (which also was compulsory).

Sea entrance to Tivat and Kotor, old guard tower

Voyage Italy - Montenegro

On the 24th morning we leave behind the shores of Macaronia. It was a short and hectic visit, not much to write home about but whats done is done.

Stromboli (Copyright John Seach)

Climbing Mount Vesuvius

Art at the roadside

Pompeii

Last time I did not have enough time to discover Pompeii so I decided to join the other crew on their excursion to the ruins.

Climbing Mount Faito

As I had some time on my hands I went ashore for a walk, in flip-flops. I ended up to the cable car and bought a ticket to go up to the top of Mount Faito. While waiting for the scheduled ascent I had an Italian Peroni beer at the station bar. Finally the car came and we inserted ourselves into the "bubble". People could only stand and I was clever enough to go stand in the aft so I could get a good photo shooting view.

Castellammare di Stabia

Back to Italy

We arrived Porto Cervo on the 14th and I had the luck to meet Chelly, an old colleague from m/y Silver. Later in the afternoon we move inside the marina and during the mooring our keel touched a rock on the bottom of the marina. Luckily no damages were discovered when I dived to have a look on the bottom. It was just a matter of shallow water due to weather circumstances.

Mark in Elba

Cruising South of France

On the 10th we departed Monaco for St. Tropez and did the usual morning anchorage at Pampelonne beach and evening in front of the town for two days. On the 12th we moved in front of Juan les Pins and on the 13th we departed for Porto Cervo.

m/y Predator

Sailing the Italian riviera

So 30th July we departed Valletta for Monaco and arrived there on the 1st August early morning and were kept busy by provisions and last minute setups. We moored in the corner next to the cruise line jetty next to Niarchos m/y Atlantis II.

M/y Christina O

BBQ in the country side

Anil had been invited to a BBQ in the Maltese country side and he asked me taggle along. On the menu was rabbit stew and other stuff to eat. We met up with Anil's friend and we drove off to the hills and soon enough we arrived to a country house that was rather rugged. The surroundings were quite rocky too, not difficult to understand how the stonewalls on the Island have come about when clearing land for farming. Food was good although the stew was medium but, overall I did not have anything to complain about a free day in the nature.

Anchor swivel project

Today we had a bit of a project to replace the swivel on the port side anchor. As we were alongside but our bow was overlapping the end of the jetty by some 25m we could not simply lower it down and hoist it onto the pier. 

New swivel