I don't care what anyone says, we love the Maldives

 

Auto-color in Photoshop gave this a weird look, but it's better than the original, washed out underwater camera coloring.

Before we got to the Maldives, the few recent reports we read were not particularly positive. 'It's expensive.' 'The coral is dead.' 'You can't go where you want.' Of course, the most recent reports were from cruising friends and acquaintances that were here in 2020, which was a bad time for everyone.

 

Dolphins! Photo credit: Michel Luthi of Javerne

 

Likewise, Coronavirus made our visit to Sri Lanka much different than it would otherwise have been. After being personally confined to Galle Port for over four months, having Perry's new paint job ruined by the concrete wall, and being in Galle for ten months longer than we had planned, we probably don't have the fondest possible memories of Sri Lanka, either (but we still liked it overall!).

Another great shot from Javerne.

Maybe that backdrop is the reason we love the Maldives so much. Or maybe it's the white sand beaches, clear water, and tons of fish, rays, sharks, turtles, and dolphins. It's true that most of the coral is dead and that we can't go to most of the inhabited islands, but we're having a great time anyway. Matt's been re-honing his pole-spear fishing skills. Even though his preferred spear tip rusted through and he's been using one that doesn't hold onto the speared fish quite as well, we've been well fed with fresh fish. 

We spent a week in Hulhumale and Male to stock up on fresh provisions and other sundries and wait for a package. One of my least favorite parts of cruising is waiting for boat parts in remote places. And Hulhumale is not where we would choose to spend a lot of time. It's a nice enough city/island but the anchorage is hectic and the water is dirty (it was amazing how much growth was our bottom after just a week). We finally got our package (it took over a month to get here, but we consider ourselves lucky). Of course, Matt installed the new part and it had an issue and didn't work. Good thing our old one still mostly works.
 

This octopus reminded us of those martians/aliens on Sesame Street

We high-tailed it out of the big city as soon as we could and are enjoying snorkeling and swimming again. Our friends Michel and Corinne on Javerne got some great shots of the hundreds of dolphins that frequent our current anchorage and give it the nickname 'Dolphin Anchorage' (also, it's easier to remember than 'Mahaanahuraa').  We enjoyed swimming with them and were able to get much closer (10-15 feet) than normal--probably due to the fact that they are used to the dozens of boats a day that bring tourists to see them up close.

We happened across the octopus pictured above on one of our snorkeling outings.  He was very curious and we got some good video of it here. Octopus seems to be a very popular meal for local fishermen and cruisers alike. Their inquisitive nature (the octopuses, not the people) is probably not helping them in the not-getting-killed department. After seeing My Octopus Teacher, we don't really feel like eating them, much less killing them.

Mark took a picture of this Titan Triggerfish under Perry

 

We have a lot of ground to cover to get to Gan in time to check out and position ourselves for our passage to Chagos (our permit begins May 1 and we don't want to waste any of our allotted four weeks). So we keep moving south, swimming the reefs as we go. If you have ever found yourself wondering what we do all day, boat repair and maintenance are still high on the list (the other day Matt realigned the port engine and replaced a switch for our water maker). It's not all sunshine and the-ocean-is-our-aquarium, but we're not complaining.