Singapore to Maldives

So now we are ready to leave Singapore, all of our provisions have been bought and the crew do some final party cramming before the month passage to the med. All 13 crew onboard are ready to spend the next 29 days out in the ocean with only the company of each other, good job they’re all good guys or that could drive you crazy. Once we leave Singapore we head north through the Malacca Strait, then across the Indian Ocean to the Maldives. Here is a little bit of info for you on the strait.

The Malacca Strait The Strait of Malacca is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world, an equivalent of the Suez Canal, or the Panama Canal. The Strait forms the main ship passageway between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, linking three of the world's most populous nations: India, Indonesia and China. Piracy in the Strait has risen in recent years. There were about 25 attacks on vessels in 1994, 220 in 2000, and just over 150 in 2003 (one-third of the global total) Some security specialists say a terrorist group might hijack a large ship, sink it in a shallow point (it is just 25 m deep at its shallowest), and block traffic, slowing shipments and causing economic losses around the world. Another risk is the yearly haze caused by raging bush fires in Sumatra. It can reduce visibility to 200 m, forcing ships to slow down in the busy strait. Some fear it might also give cover to terrorists or pirates.
We braved all of this and started our crossing to the Maldives unscaved. During our Indian Ocean crossing we were blessed with great weather, sea was calm and the sun was shinning- most of the time anyway. We did see some pretty amazing storms heading our way and a few water spouts (these are tornados that sucks up water). Apart from the storms all we saw in the 7 days at sea and the 1915miles we covered was about 10 boats and 2 dolphins, pretty uneventful really. All the crew, as you can imagine, couldn't wait to get off the boat once we reached the Maldives. Now I know that every ones picture of the Maldives is lots of idyllic islands with perfect beaches and pristine sea and your not far wrong, the whole of the Maldives is like this apart from one island, Male. The Maldives consist of 1200 islands and from north to south spans 900km. All of these islands are mainly resorts and they all receive their provisions from the one island of Male, where we were anchored. The crew headed into Male for a walk around once we arrived, the sea around Male is so clear and the whole coast line is a dock with boats loading and unloading cargo, it’s a busy little place. These guys are in the middle of nowhere and they import everything they use from toilet paper to potatoes. We walked around the whole of the island stopping for a juice along the way, no alcohol there due to the strict Muslim regime. We spent the night at anchor then the next day got our snorkeling gear on and headed out to some of the pristine waters and beaches you hear about. The whole crew is now sitting around our table doing final correspondence before we set of for the next leg of our journey.