Sunday 17th April to Sunday 1st May 2022

The cruising south of Malé is, by reputation, more difficult than the northern Maldives. Anchorages are reportedly deeper with longer distances between the atolls and with fewer sheltered places to stop. As the season is getting on the winds are changing from NE to SW, with stronger winds and more chance of squalls. 

Our information on where to anchor safely comes from a variety of sources but largely from other cruisers who have taken the time to record the anchorages they’ve used, with waypoints, depths, shelter etc, and information about the islands, towns and resorts along the way. Most of this is online and gets passed between cruisers by word of mouth or published with links to cruisers’ websites such as Noonsite. The main sources we’ve used are from sailing yachts Mr John, Yolo and Totem. Others produce detailed blogs or vlogs specifically written for other cruisers, or armchair cruisers, to follow and some get a wide readership along with lucrative sponsorship.

We had very little information on our next destination after leaving Crossroads Marina. When I first met Hugh in late 2000 he was just about to go on a two week holiday to the Maldives with his three sons for a two week holiday of sailing and scuba diving. This struck me as rather more interesting than some of the men who I’d met whose every weekend was spent watching motor sports or visiting stately homes. Anyway, Hugh was keen to revisit Rihiveli, the resort where they’d spent a memorable night with a barbecue on the beach, prepared just for them. The resort, under new management by now, initially said no, they didn’t allow yachts in their lagoon (although we were welcome to eat there). They soon relented when I sent them a photo of Vega! We anchored as close to the resort as we safely could but with the wind increasing it felt very exposed and we didn’t feel that it would be safe returning to the boat in the dark in our dinghy. There is always the fear of the outboard failing and being swept out to sea in the dinghy (it happened to friends of ours). They kindly sent out their speedboat to collect us from Vega and to return us after the meal. We enjoyed a mojito and beer on the beach and a relaxed meal in their restaurant whilst Hugh relived some happy memories. 

One of the attractions of this resort were the spinner dolphins that passed by every morning. Several safari boats turned up to drop groups of tourists into the water to swim with the dolphins, who circled the bay quickly with a brief display of leaping and spinning, before heading off, presumably to find some tuna for breakfast. We headed off ourselves soon after, west towards South Ari Atoll, actually finding enough wind for a pleasant, gentle sail for all of the 25 miles there.

South Ari Atoll is renowned for both manta rays and whale sharks all the year round and so this area is full of resorts. In the last ten years guest houses and PADI dive centres have sprouted on several local islands too, attracting the younger and budget holidaymakers and the more serious scuba divers. 

I had been in touch with the South Ari Dive Centre in Dhangethi to arrange diving, hopefully with whale sharks. We anchored in the lagoon to the west of the island and had a wander round town. It was a typical Maldivian village, with its harbour, sandy streets set out on a grid pattern and houses made from coral stone with courtyards behind high walls. It also had a number of dive shops and guest houses and in the harbour dive boats competed for space with fishing boats. There were tourist gift shops selling stuffed toys of whale sharks, whale shark fridge magnets and T-shirts with whale sharks and manta rays on them.

The dive boat picked us up from Vega the next morning and we headed south with three other couples, Redey the dive master, his female dive assistant, the captain and crew.

Within a short period of time they had spotted a whale shark and we were over the side in snorkelling gear, finning like mad to get near it and to follow it briefly, then back to the boat, dive gear on, back over the side and down under the huge fish, looking up at it from below, before it was gone with hardly a flick of the tail. All too brief but despite that it was very exciting to be so close to such a huge creature. 

The second dive was deeper, down to a coral outcrop and pinnacles at 28 metres, a beautiful dive with huge schools of blue striped snappers, reef sharks, some colourful corals, turtles, clownfish hiding in anemones etc.

We motored south that afternoon to the next island down, Dhigurah, where we’d hoped to arrange some more diving the next day, but this didn’t work out so we had a restful time and in the afternoon went ashore to explore. Another local village with guest houses mostly catering to divers and younger tourists. We ate on the rooftop of the Bliss guesthouse, a non-alcoholic mojito (alcohol is completely banned on local islands) then cervice and calamari for starters, Garudhiya, a traditional Maldivian fish dish of chunks of white fish in a watery stock with rice, for our main, followed by a chocolate and caramel pudding.

We needed to move south more quickly now and decided on an overnight sail to the next stop, Veymandhoo, 95 miles south and three atolls down, where we’d arranged to meet up with Endorphin and Hecla. We had a great sail and met up en route with Hecla arriving from Crossroads marina.

Veymandhoo is a small local island, infrequently visited by yachts and rarely by tourists. With some strong winds coming we were glad of the protected lagoon that night as we were hit by torrential rain and strong winds that threatened to drag our anchor. Wandering around the village the next day we met a shopkeeper who’d spent time in Bristol whilst in the merchant navy. The noisy black crows that are ubiquitous throughout the Maldives seemed to find our rigging an attractive perch, despite us repeatedly trying to scare them off and back onto the dilapidated fishing boat we’d tucked in next to.

We spent three nights in Veymandhoo before saying our goodbyes to Endorphin and Hecla who will be moving on more slowly than us. It was another 175nm to Gan, the southernmost island in the Maldives, from where we’d be checking out of the country, so we’d decided on a passage with two nights at sea to ensure we arrived to cross Addoo Atoll in the morning rather than in the dark. Soon after we left a whale came to check us out. The first we knew was a blowing sound from right by our stern. Nothing to see!  A few minutes later the whale appeared, about the length of Vega. It would emerge from beneath the waves, blow, then smoothly glide through the water, showing its dorsal fin, before disappearing. It stayed alongside for about 30 minutes, appearing every few minutes, and then it was gone. Searching through our whale book we think it was a Minke whale. 

The following day it was Hugh’s birthday and as we passed close to the next atoll we got enough phone signal to pick up birthday messages and for phone calls from family and friends. That afternoon we crossed the equator and shared a can of lager with Neptune. The sea-god was clearly displeased by this paltry offering as that night we were hit by heavy rain and winds.  

We entered Addoo atoll soon after daybreak and crossed to Gan, the most southerly island in the Maldives and one of the only three islands in the country where yachts can check in or out of the country. The anchorage in Gan is very small and very shallow, lying between Gan and Feydhoo islands with the causeway and the reef on either side. We  edged in through the narrow channel marked by two posts and just about found space to drop anchor amongst three rather tatty local tour boats and a yacht even smaller than us. We drifted back near to the wall where local guys spent the day fishing and hanging out. The other yacht, Argo, was owned by Joseph and Blanka from Czechia. Their circumnavigation had taken 20 years so far but now they were on their way home via the Red Sea to the Med. Engine problems, similar to ours, just before reaching the Maldives meant they had had to return to Sri Lanka for repairs. They’d missed the right winds for the Red Sea route this year so were in the Maldives, planning to continue on to the Seychelles then Tanzania, before heading up to the Red Sea in early 2023. 

It was a peaceful anchorage, few cars passed along the causeway, the occasional tractor in the evening and, although the airstrip ran behind the causeway, we rarely heard flights. At sunset fruit bats flew between the islands. 

The British had an airbase on Gan, built in the 1950s as a strategic Cold War outpost. It had barracks, a golf course, cinema and all the comforts of home. There was also the RAF airport which is now Gan International Airport with flights to and from Malé. The British built the longest road in the Maldives here, at 16 km, with causeways linking four islands. By 1976 the airfield was no longer needed and so the island was handed back to the Maldivian Government.

As a late birthday treat for Hugh we went for a meal at the nearby Equator Village Resort. We sat on the concrete jetty having our drinks, a beer for Hugh and a proper, alcoholic mojito for me, looking at the rather dismal narrow stretch of sand which passed as the resort’s beach and watching the sunset. It had been built using old RAF buildings, the guests’ rooms converted from former army barracks and the dining room where we had a buffet meal was once the sergeants’ mess. It was definitely the budget end of the Maldivian resort experience. A high wall around it kept out the locals and as we left after our budget meal, the security man at the gate searched our bags. He wasn’t interested in the tuna and bread rolls I’d nicked from the buffet but was checking we weren’t taking any alcohol out to give or sell to the locals. 

With some very strong westerly winds of 30+ knots forecast for 3 or 4 days time in the Southern Maldives we needed to head further south to avoid them. We only had time for a quick look around Gan with Anwar, the agent’s assistant, who took us on a brief tour then on to three supermarkets for provisions, especially fruit and vegetables, as well as to fill up our spare containers with diesel. 

We left the calm waters of the atoll for the open sea on the three day passage to Chagos. Within 5 miles of leaving a large school of dolphins, at least 100, headed towards us from a mile or two away, putting on a great display of leaping and spinning, before suddenly all disappearing, as dolphins do. What a send-off!