07 Jun - 15 Jul 2008 Chagos

Indian Ocean

British Indian Ocean Territory

Chagos Archipelago

Salomon Islands

Ile Fouquet

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, northwest of Ile Fouquet, at 24 m depth, on sand and coral.

Click below for an interactive satellite view of our anchorage:

S 05° 20.05' E 072° 15.82'

Enjoying weeks of free, uncivilised and autarkical island life, together with our great friends and seasoned international yotties (i) Elmari & Luki from SY “Skebenga”, many thanks for all the lekker fish and for being great Seffrican buddies, (ii) Judy & Terry from SY “Drifter”, many thanks for all the practical information about Australia's backyard, (iii) Sue & John from SY “Susan Margret”, many thanks for the great English palm-wine recipe and for teaching Konni the therapeutic crab walk, (iv) Joergen from SY “Sea Tramp”, many thanks for the home-cooked but always very reliable white rice, (v) Deena & Jacob  from SY “Crimson Tide”, many thanks for sharing the last toilet paper with us, (vi) Cathy & Jeff from SY “Mirage”, many thanks for teaching how to successfully catch live bait and how to shore-fish for trevally, and Marlyse & Bill from SY “Jenain”, many thanks for one thousand and one friendly turns and for being great buddies, thus having a wonderful time together with many rowdy beach parties and nice mutual cockpit visits: "Here's to the nights we'll never remember with the friends we'll never forget, cheers!"

Birdwatching over land and over water: brown boobies (Sula leucogaster) and red-footed boobies (Sula sula) who observed us from the safety of their colonies in the trees; fairy terns (Sternula nereis) by the hundreds; common noddies (Anous stolidus) who enjoyed producing guano on our elevated pulpit and to whom we developed a love-hate relationship; lesser frigatebirds (Fregata ariel) who harassed and robbed other seabirds high above our anchorage; white-tailed tropicbirds (Phaethon lepturus) who performed the most elegant aerobatics, and last but not least many waders such as whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus) and sandpipers (Scolopacidae) strutting along the beaches.

Fishing for red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) from the swim platform of SY “Kamu II” at anchor, shore-fishing with live bait for trevallies and always trawling a hand line behind the dinghy for little tunas.

Exploring the tiny, uninhabited islets north and south of our anchorage: Ile Mapou  and Ile Sepulture.

Walking through hip-deep water over the outer reef at low tide to the eerie wreck of a grounded and burned-out wooden fishing vessel which had hit the reef a few years ago.

Experiencing at this anchorage heavy squalls from northwest (gusting up to 40 knots and turning this seemingly protected anchorage into a dangerous lee-shore with steep 2 m waves) and from southeast (gusting up to 50 knots over the tree tops) and later scubadiving the wreck of the sunken Canadian sailing yacht (SY “Lasqueti”) on the reef off Ile Fouquet whose anchor had dragged in one of those northwesterly squalls during the southeast trade wind season in 2002.

Having a great farewell potluck party amongst the last five sailing yachts at this anchorage with home-made palm wine and with (i) pasta salad from the UAE, (ii) crab mayonnaise and tuna/potato stew from Germany, (iii) Dutch vegetable curry with fresh sprouts, (iv) Swedish wonder rice and (v) Seffrican coconut bread.




Using up whilst staying in Chagos for three months: 23 kg of flour, 9 kg of sugar, 35 litres of milk (both UHT and powder), 5 kg of pasta, 8 kg of rice, 1 kg of couscous, 3 kg of oats, 11 bottles of tomato ketchup, 5 bottles of chilli-garlic sauce, 8 tins of tuna, 9 tins of sardines, 13 tins of fruit, 3 litres of olive oil, 3 litres of cooking oil, 750 g of Nescafe, 16 rolls of toilet paper, 6 kitchen rolls, 3 cans of insect spray and some more minor stuff.

Click below for more blog posts about subsistence fishing 
02 Feb - 12 Feb 2008 Bombay
16 Jul - 19 Jul 2007 Marsa Fijab
31 Aug - 02 Sep 2006 Marsa Thelemet

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2008 Map Konni & Matt

Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United Kingdom:

 
For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here

15 Apr - 07 Jun 2008 Chagos

Indian Ocean

British Indian Ocean Territory

Chagos Archipelago

Salomon Islands

Ile Boddam

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, E of Ile Boddam, at 8 – 15 m depth, on coral.

Click for satellite views of our anchorages: 

S 05° 21.06' E 072° 12.54'

S 05° 21.15' E 072° 12.53'

S 05° 21.36' E 072° 12.72'

S 05° 21.25' E 072° 12.61'

Anchoring amongst 20 plus international sailing yachts in-between the bommies off Ile Boddam and enjoying a stunning 360-degree view over the spectacular Salomon Atoll with the palm-tree packed beaches of its circle of low-lying paradisiacal tropical islands aka cays, clockwise from Ile Anglaise via Ile de la Passe (“the anchorage of the French”), Ile Mapou, Ile Takamaka (“the anchorage of the people”), Ile Fouquet, Ile Sepulture, Ile Jacobin, Ile du Sel, Ile Poule, Ile Boddam (“the anchorage of the Americans”) all the way to Ile Diable.

Exploring the overgrown ruins of the abandoned settlement on Ile Boddam with (i) the old leper hospital, (ii) the catholic church and (iii) the island cemetery and commemorating the natives of the Salomon Islands who were forced to leave their homes and were expelled to Mauritius when nearby Diego Garcia (leased to the United States by the United Kingdom until 2036 CE, unless renewed) was turned into a cold-war air base for strategic bombers with nuclear weapons on board in the 1960s.

Feasting and surviving on “island fare”: (i) drinking untreated water from an old village well, fresh juice from green coconuts and home-brewed wine from rice with coconuts; (ii) boiling, frying, barbecuing, stewing, marinating, pickling, drying, smoking and making sushi/sashimi from all kind of fish from inside and outside the reefs (e.g. chub, tuna, squirrel fish, grouper, red snapper, rainbow runner, white trevally, wahoo, parrotfish), pigging into grated and whole coconuts in all stages of ripeness, enriching our curries with self-pressed coconut milk, mixing grated coconut into muesli, porridge and bread, turning heart-of-palms (“millionaire’s cabbage”) into fresh salads and boiled vegetables and enjoying coconut sprout (an edible fluff of marshmallow-like consistency) for dessert, and (iii) denying the totally unsubstantiated accusations from some self-righteous cruising nerds that we had lassoed (with a crab sling), boiled (right on the beach, in sea water, for c. 20 minutes), and savoured 20 plus big coconut crabs (with mayonnaise) as being farfetched and idle rumour.

Walking and wading at low tide over the barrier reef between Ile Poule and Ile Boddam and discovering a blackspotted puffer aka blaasop (Arothron nigropunctatus) whose viscera are lethally poisonous and whose flesh is highly valued in Japan, where it is known as fugu and where trained cooks expertly remove the harmful parts before serving this delicacy to discerning gourmets - yummy, yummy.

Keeping permanently a sharp lookout for the unannounced, regular control visits of the bright red Fisheries Patrol Vessel MV “Pacific Marlin” (6th of May 2008, 23rd of May 2008, 4th of June 2008) when the BIOT government agents (a cute HM Revenue/Customs officer, an obese Constable of the British Police, a macho Royal Marines sergeant and a fisheries environmentalist from another planet) would check our passports and permits (in full uniform in the morning) and would entertain us (in mufti in the afternoon) with a great beach BBQ and an unlimited supply of ice-cold (i) Newcastle Brown Ale (“The One and Only”), (ii) Chang Beer (“The Best Selling Thai Beer”), (iii) Miller Lite - All Natural Pilsner (“Best American-Style Light Lager in 2006”), (iv) the always reliable Heineken Lager Beer (“The Original Quality“) and (v) the exotic Corona Extra (“Life has its twist of meaningful moments”) - all on the house, by courtesy of yottie-friendly Captain Bob from New Zealand.

Noticing how after the arrival of a whole flotilla of sailing boats with a new generation of fancy-pants circumnavigators the social life in this priorly anarcho-cruiser's paradise degraded into a boring upper middle-class country club (with a monthly membership fee of GBP 100.-, payable to the BIOT government in London), (i) where the healthy smoking of grass was replaced by unhealthy early morning yoga classes and gymnastics, (ii) where hands-on camaraderie and six-pack driven common sense were replaced by glitterati platitudes and by holier-than-thou eco-political correctness (“Thou shalt not eat coconut crabs!”) and (iii) where the VHF traffic was heavily polluted by trivialities, banalities and hollow compliments.

Listening to the music of the German rock band Rammstein (e.g. "America is wunderbar...") and trying to understand why our fellow yotties from the far side always had to talk to each other (over the radio and face to face) in an unnaturally loud and high-pitched way as if they always had to perform in a soap on cable TV: “Oh-my-God … that-is-sooo-cooool, honey.”

Meeting funny characters amongst the cruisers who were anchoring off Ile Boddam, such as (i) a guy who as a doctor gave regularly medical advise on VHF (without being asked for) and was barely understandable because of his ongoing nervous coughing tic, (ii) a guy who claimed to be a weather guru and communications expert and who delivered on the radio the weather forecast for far-away areas of the Indian Ocean and lost control of his own crew until she deserted him later in East Africa, and (iii) a guy who arrived with an all-female crew of half a dozen young lady-twens on his super yacht and still only had 24 hours to play Robinson with them in paradise before his itinerary forced him to leave (maybe he did not have a permit for any of this).

Moving our ship from Ile Boddam ("the anchorage of the Americans") to Ile Fouqet/Takamaka ("the anchorage of the people”) when the increasing strength of the southeast trade winds made the anchorage off Ile Boddam more and more untenable.

Click below for a summary of this year's travels

2008 Map Konni & Matt

Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from Germany:

 
For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here 
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here 
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here

14 Apr - 15 Apr 2008 Chagos

Indian Ocean

British Indian Ocean Territory

Chagos Archipelago

Salomon Islands

Ile Takamaka

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, west of Ile Takamaka, at 15 m depth, on sand.

Click below for an interactive satellite view of our anchorage:
S 05° 19.94' E 072° 15.85'

Sailing the Indian Ocean from the Maldives to the Chagos Archipelago, (i) watching shoals of smiling bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) course alongside the ship and "surf" the bow wave during the day, (ii) leaving a trail of fire from the stirred up bioluminescence through the black ocean at night, as if the keel were a burning matchstick and the water flammable, and (iii) meeting many fishing boats, but no pirates.

Thinking of our beloved and respected sailing friend and role model Seth in Ashkelon, a real mentsh (who is also still capable to climb his yacht's main mast without outside help), and celebrating his 80th birthday: Mazel Tov and Le Chaim, dear Seth, you are locked in our hearts!

Mourning over our brain-dead autopilot (only later in Phuket did we discover that a dried out capacitor in the Robertson RFC 250 fluxgate compass had caused the malfunction of our autopilot) and applauding to the always extremely reliable, fully mechanical Hydrovane self-steering which rescued us from hand-steering along the whole distance.

Logging the distance of c. 320 nm during four squally days (a relaxed average daily run of only 80 nm) between the most southern of the Maldivian atolls, the Addu Atoll, and the Salomon Islands in the Chagos Archipelago.

 

Eyeballing through the shallow pass into the atoll along a straight line from S 05° 18.36' E 072° 14.42' (the outer waypoint; note that there is a 0.25 nm WSW offset on BA charts, C-Map and Google Earth) to S 05° 18.93' E 072° 14.98' (the inner waypoint) with the sinking sun behind us and still almost bumping into a submerged coral head halfway between the atoll entrance and Ile Takamaka. 

Meeting friendly anchoring yotties: Ming & Frank and their little daughters Carmen and Julie (SY “Constante Singapore”) from Singapore and Tak & Henry (SY “Papa”) from Australia; many thanks, Henry, for the nice welcome gift, a freshly caught trevally for our first breakfast on Chagos!

Click below for more blog posts about sea passages 

11 Sep - 13 Sep 2008 Ao Chalong: wrap-up of passage from Maldives to Thailand

19 Jul - 18 Aug 2008 Gan: wrap-up of passage from Chagos back to Maldives

15 Mar - 16 Mar 2008 Uligamu: wrap-up of passage from Goa to Maldives

02 Feb - 12 Feb 2008 Bombay: wrap-up of passage from Fujairah to India

25 Sep - 27 Sep 2007 Sur: wrap-up of passage through the Gulf of Aden

Click below for a summary of this year's travels

2008 Map Konni & Matt


   Recommended gear - click below for your Amazon order from the United States:

 
For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here