We are anchored just off the north-west end of Hulhumale. I came across this article about Huhumale’ which explains a great deal about what we saw there.

New Maldives Island Rises From The Depths

By Simon Gardner

12-14-4

HULHUMALE, Maldives (Reuters) – Life can be cramped when you live on a remote cluster of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean, so the Maldives has plumped for a novel if seemingly extreme solution — build a new island from scratch.

Emerging from the sea where a turquoise lagoon used to sit, man-made Hulhumale is springing to life as an overflow to the congested capital, Male, a short boat ride away.

Around 1,500 people now live in a first cluster of housing erected on the 465-acre island, a giant building site to which the government hopes around 15 percent of the country’s 300,000 mostly Sunni Muslim inhabitants will opt to migrate over the next 15 years.

Hulhumale is already the size of Male island, and will more than double in area once a second phase of land reclamation due to begin over the next decade is complete.

"The reason for the whole project is because of the land shortage in Male," said Mohamed Shahid of the Hulhumale Development Unit, who is overseeing the project. "We’ve taken a shallow lagoon and created a totally new piece of land."

"Within the next 5-10 years we will have more than 30,000 people living here, and by 2020, our target is to have 50,000 people living in this land area," he added.

By the time the project is finished, 40 years from now, the new island will be able to house up to 153,000 people, more than 50 percent of the Maldives’ current population.

The vast, flat, barren rectangle is a far cry from the rest of the Maldives’ nearly 1,200 tiny palm-fringed islands, most of them a few hundred meters across at most.

The 200 inhabited islands are home on average to just a few hundred people or house luxury tourist resorts which offer some of South Asia’s most expensive holiday accommodation.

The Maldivians have doubled the surface area of Male island using land reclamation techniques, but have now reached a natural limit. Male has been built out to the edge of the surrounding reef, beyond which the ocean floor drops away steeply.

Male, which is 1.25 miles long and 800 meters (half a mile) wide and home to 75,000 people, is bursting at the seams. The streets of white-washed houses are heavily built up, living conditions often cramped and areas of communal open space sparse.

Hulhumale, joined to a nearby island that houses the Maldives’ international airport by a narrow causeway, offers the chance literally to start from scratch.

A NEW BEGINNING

A grid of brand new roads has already been laid out like a mesh of airport runways, dividing a wasteland formed from bleached, dead coral and sand churned up from the lagoon floor into plots for eventual construction.

There is not much in the way of recreation or nightlife, and the only way to reach Male is by ferry or speedboat, yet new residents are happy to get away from traffic and crowds.

"I have lived here for six months. It’s very pretty, there is fresh air and very few people," said 15-year-old Viyaam Ali, who moved to Hulhumale from the small southern island of Thinadhoo.

"It’s just like a village. I like it very much," he added, strolling to one of just a handful of shops now open on the island. His father is one of Hulhumale’s first taxi drivers.

A few palm trees have been transplanted from elsewhere in the archipelago, which is dotted across 500 miles of sea off the toe of India and is a favorite honeymoon destination boasting some of the world’s best scuba-diving.

"The atmosphere is very good, but the transport is very difficult," said 23-year-old travel agent Aminath Maastha as she stepped off the ferry from Male.

"If I had a choice between Male and here, I would obviously choose here," she added, looking out over the newborn island.

The project began in 1997 and is being completed in stages because costs run into hundreds of millions of dollars. It has cost $63 million so far for reclamation and buildings.

"In the second phase, we will incorporate an existing island as well, which is currently operating as a prominent resort," Shahid said. "They have been given another island as compensation so within the next 5-10 years we will take up that island as well when we expand this landmass."

Male residents are being given priority for land and home purchases, and President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s government is offering real estate at a 40 percent discount to prices in the capital as an incentive.

Gayoom has spent much of his 26 years in power warning of the dangers that global warming, erosion and shifting weather patterns pose to low-lying island nations like his own. Hulhumale is being built 2 meters above sea level — a meter higher than Male — as a safeguard.

"We still face the threat of sea level rise," Gayoom told Reuters in an interview. "There is encroachment of the sea on many islands, there is erosion of our beaches."

"We think is sufficient for the time being. Of course we can’t foresee 50-60 years from now," he added. "For the foreseeable future it will be enough."

Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle. jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=7062947

Apartments on Hulhumale’ which didn’t appear to have air conditioning.

We also saw several schools and a large mosque.

More apartments being built.

Bags of cement; maybe some that we had seen on our walk around the back of Male’ for all of the apartment construction on Hulhumale’.

Hulhumale’ has a few hotels along the beach at the back of the island.

I might be tempted to swim at the beach though I’m not sure what to wear given the Islamic culture. There was a sign saying “No Bikinis” at the beach. I have a one piece that even has a bit of a skirt, but the local women swim covered from head to toe…. Guess we’ll skip the beach.

Small hotel across from the beach. We have to stay somewhere the night DoraMac is loaded. Maybe here.

Some men sitting by the beach.

The River Café on Hulhumale”

Randal and I went exploring on Hulhumale’ one afternoon. We stopped at the River Café for some ice cream. I asked if they had Friday hours (lots of business close on Friday) and they said yes, from 7 am until 1 am. On Friday, I asked again to make sure and they said yes. So Friday we went with Linda and Michael and Bill and Judy. We dinghyed to shore and walked the 20 minutes around the island passed the hotel and beach and over to the next street to the Café. There was a big CLOSED sign on the door. I was surprised enough to just knock on the door. A sweet young man answered and said they were closed. “Closed,” I asked! He said “Closed, from noon to 1:30 pm.” “But you told me you were open from 7 am until 1 am,” I said. He told me to wait, checked with someone else and then invited us all in and they made us lunch! It was all very good, though Randal’s beef burger was pretty tiny. I had a tuna burger that was great. Others had the chicken submarine sandwich. And the prices were better than in Male’. That’s the thing with Male’ and Hulhumale’, you are never sure when shops are open. Some close on Fridays, some open but close for an hour or two during lunch time…though it seems quite odd to us that a restaurant would close for those hours. The other day several of us went over to Male’ and after lunch went our separate ways. About 3 pm Randal, Suze (from Voyager) and I were eating some ice scream at Scoop when Linda (From B’Sheret) called and I told her to join us. Two minutes later they were locking the door and turning people away. We guessed they were closed for prayer time. I told them I had just told a friend to meet us. When she came they let her in and got her some ice cream too. I guess they make allowances for Westerners!

Randal, Michael, Linda drinking the catsup, Bill, Judy and our kind waiter.

After lunch we went to the small grocery shops which were open. I’m addicted to canned tropical style fruit salad so bought some. Then we walked across the street to the “big” grocery store but had to wait 10 minutes until they reopened at 1:30pm. I bought a small frozen chicken, some eggs, and yogurt that needs no refrigeration. We had brought a cooler because I didn’t want to chance the chicken defrosting while we walked back to the dock and then drove back to the boat. It is amazing how much time getting food seems to take. But we’re lucky since we have a freezer so can stock up a bit. Many boats don’t but they have learned to live with what they have. We will have to clean out everything from both the freezer and the refrigerator to ship DoraMac. If we have perishables left over, hopefully there will be some boats here not being shipped so we can give them our food. Some cruisers are going south around Africa.

Ru

DoraMac

Yesterday, Saturday, Randal and I went to Male’ just to go for a walk. We can only stay on the boat for so long before we eat everything in sight or nap too much. We get up about 6 am, eat a small breakfast, check email, check the world and the Red Sox, listen to the morning network to see what’s up with all of the cruisers, and then we’re done. It’s then about 10 a.m. It’s too hot to be too motivated for boat projects and other than repairing the dinghy, again, there’s not so much that needs to be done until we get our loading date. Then we need to take down the “front sail” and all of the canvas for shipping. We’ll have to clean out the refrigerator and freezer and pack away any breakables. So far we still don’t know though the projected date is the first week in April.

So yesterday we took the slightly leaking dinghy to shore and then the ferry to Male’. Our first stop was lunch at a small café I’d discovered while waiting for Randal to get a shave during an earlier trip to town. The waiter had been very kind to me and their cake was pretty good. I had a salad and Randal had fish and chips. The fish was actually tuna which they sell by the ton here.

We sat right on the sidewalk but no one tried to sell us anything as had been the case in India and the Philippines.

Not much of a crowd, but we tend to get up early so eat lunch early.

I like it because the waiter is very kind, the bathroom is clean and I felt comfortable when I was here alone. Many cafes and restaurants are for men only so I always check to see if there are women eating too. The first time I came by myself I saw a woman sitting inside so I knew it was ok. Also, if the restaurant has the word Family in its name, women can go in. Sometimes the restaurant has two halves and one is for men only.

Then we started our walk keeping the water always to our left, the goal being to walk all around the island.

Usually we come to Male’ and spend our time up where all of the buildings are. This was the first time we walked away from the business center of Male’.

This is part of a Scout awareness campaign which seems to be a fairly big thing on Male’ with an office in town.

Gumby’s cousin and the far end of the island so we turned right.

Just before this was a beach where young men were surfing in the small waves. The beach was full of dead coral pieces that looked like skulls or bowling balls because of the holes.

Along the water there had been built some barriers for a swimming area.

The female swimmers were covered from head to toe but that doesn’t keep them out of the water. The concrete barrier looks like some kind of weird marine species.

They also had created a lap area with race platforms.

This “pool” was just down from a busy commercial boat area, but the water was quite clean and we saw small, colorful fish. I could smell the diesel from all of the commercial boats but I guess people who use this pool and swimming area are used to it.

Male’ power plant just across the road from the pool.

They have to generate all of their power and get rid of all of their trash. The trash dump is also just down the street from the pool. On Hulhumale’ there is a water desalinization plant where they make drinking water.

All along the way were commercial boats. Randal guesses that most are used in servicing the 192 inhabited island and 97 resorts of the Maldives. (There are 1,190 altogether.)

Assigned parking spots

The garbage dump.

Not sure if all of this trash is generated on Male’ or shipped in from the inhabited islands to be disposed of. It didn’t smell terrible but you were aware of a smell. Of course we contribute a small bag each day we go ashore. There are trash cans just across from where we tie the dinghy.

Male prison. Supposedly Male’ is holding 19 pirates, some whose skiffs drifted there with the men out of power, food, and water.

This boat must belong to the CocaCola bottling plant on Hulhumale’.

Thousands of bags of cement which you see by the hundreds on Hulhumale’. Lots of construction on Hulhumale’.

I had asked this man what was in the bags. He told me cement and then asked for his photo to be taken.

Beer isn’t sold on Male’, but it is available at the resorts which is where these empty barrels had come from. They said San Miguel which is a beer Randal bought in the Philippines. Actually he bought San Miguel Light.

Driving school students were driving around in this training area.

We were hot and tired and stopped at a waterside restaurant for a drink. Randal had a banana milkshake and I had a mixed fruit drink. Both were really good. I could taste pineapple and banana in mine.

The average temperature is in the high 70s and the mean humidity is usually about 80%. That obviously must factor in the rainy season. Our thermometer inside the pilot house, out of the sun says 86. April starts the beginning of rainy season. I hope it’s late this year. Riding in a dinghy in the rain isn’t so fun.

It was a really lovely spot and we’ll have to go back for lunch.

Then it was back out on the street as we walked along the front side of Male’ back to the ferry terminal.

It took us about 2 hours of picture-taking walking to circumambulate Male’. Randal guesses from the info we could find that the perimeter of Male’ is about 4 miles. We caught the ferry back to Hulhumale’ and then took our even leakier dinghy back to the boat. Male’ is small, but every time we go we see new streets. I still want to go to the art museum and the library. I just wish there was a marina on Male’ or Hulhumale so that we could just step on shore and skip the dinghy part.

http://www.indian-ocean-island.com/maldives-hotels-resorts/about-maldives.php is quite a good website to learn about the Maldives

  Randal and I went to Male yesterday to buy additional fenders for the boat and some cheese and frozen chicken. 

Small frozen chicken was 1200 grams (2.6 lbs) and cheddar cheese 250 grams (1/2 lb) was 108 rufiyaa ($8.43 !!!) in one shop.  Two ears of corn, and small amounts of Gouda, Mozzarella and Edam cheeses were 161 rufiyaa ($12.50) in Fantasy Super Market.  The corn was the most expensive because I didn’t pay attention.  Either it cost a fortune or they overcharged, but it was imported from Thailand!  I think I saw 5 rufiyaa when it was 50 rufiyaa.  I won’t make that mistake again, yikes!

Gouda = $4.69 per pound; Mozzarella $5.61 per pound and Edam = $4.97 per pound.  I have no idea how expensive that is.  Some places cheese is exorbitant.  On Langkawi, the cheese wasn’t so expensive so we bought lots but it’s gone.  Now it’s either "fish or famine" to paraphrase a phrase.  But our cheapish tuna wasn’t so great.  We’ll try something else next time.

We walked into and very quickly out of some of the souvenir shops just to see.  I tried on a rather nice woven hat but it was $50 so maybe it was made from some fantastic sun-resistant material though it didn’t say so on the non-existent label.  A small plastic pen shaped like a seahorse was $28!  Who buys this stuff!  The shops were empty and I’m not the least bit surprised.  And even if you want to buy something, you never know when the shops will be open.  Everything is closed on Friday and many on Saturday.  During the week they close for an hour or 2 for lunch and/or prayer but whether it’s 12-1, 12-2, or something else is hard to know until you show up at the door.  And then many just say CLOSED so you’re not sure when they open. 

  Our transport ship seems to have become delayed.  Last we heard the ship is in Taiwan.  Its next stop is Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam and then it will  go on to Singapore to pick up the cradle materials that will be used to hold all of our boats.  So now we’re looking at its arrival here to be about the first week in April.  The good news is that Rashid, our not so great agent here in the Maldives has left the agency that is helping us.  So now maybe we’ll have someone who knows what he is doing and cares to do it.  Checking out and paying the anchorage fees gets a bit tricky so a local agent is at times, helpful.  But we’re lucky, yachts in Oman are waiting for their transport ship that is chained to some dock somewhere because its owners are bankrupt!  So just being a bit bored, much too hot and somewhat frustrated, we really can’t complain, too much. 

  But soon it will be BASEBALL SEASON and I can fill 2 or 3 hours following the Red Sox games on my computer.  It’s a simulated game, but that’s ok.  And it will eat up tons of Internet time, but that’s ok too.

So that’s what’s happening here.

Ru

March 21, 2011

Hulhule Island Male, Maldives

Hi All

Randal and I have done a bit of exploring on Male and yesterday found the marine supply and general hardware stores. That’s his kind of shopping. Meanwhile I still can’t find a shop that sells barrettes that can hold thick, curly hair. I’ll keep looking. Yesterday on the ferry a cruiser asked if I wanted to know about the salon she had found. I explained that even though I look like I need one, I am trying to grow my hair which in hot weather is really uncomfortable. I can’t get to Turkey and colder weather soon enough! Not sure when that will be. Our transport ship is in Taiwan. From there it will go to Singapore and then come here. Its arrival is predicted for the end of the month. Then it will take several days to load all of the boats. So hopefully by the first week in April we’ll be on our way. I know this looks like paradise, but we really are just anchored here waiting. We could pay $400 for a cruising permit and go off to see some of the small islands that make up the Maldives, but that’s just too much money for too short a time. And we’re just not inspired enough to do it. I think we are just a bit “cruised out” and just want to sit here calmly and wait. As long as we get off the boat every other day, it’s ok. And Male is a fun place to walk and just going for lunch makes a half day outing. There is an Asian Football Championship game to be played here the last week in March and we’ll probably go see it. I don’t really care but Randal wants to and there is a huge carnival to support deaf education that same day.

An island transport ferry.

We take the dinghy to shore here at Hulhule and catch a similar ferry for the 5 rufiyaa, 15 minute ride to Male. The ferries have been full each time we’ve been on it. Partly because the back 1/3 is parking space for motorbikes and an occasional bicycle. But we can’t take ours because we’ve no way to get it ashore on the dinghy and there’s really no need since we can pretty much walk anywhere we want to go.

These sisters were with more family members on the ferry going to Hulhule for a beach outing.

The young woman on the right was entertaining the small family members by blowing giant bubbles with her gum. She works as a customer service person at a Male hotel. You can see her flag bandanna that Randal had given her.

A favorite place for cruisers to eat, but lots of locals do too.

Could be Roanoke, VA.

The restaurant was built around this tree which goes up through the second floor too.

The second floor is the smoking section so we eat downstairs.

Another attraction of the Seagull.

The Seagull food is very “western.” You can get a Caesar salad or a chicken/cheese wrap. That’s a nice switch sometimes form the Asian spices. The prices are higher, but more for the drinks than the food. No alcohol is served on Male. The resorts serve it and so does the big hotel near the airport on Hulhule according to cruiser chatter. But it’s like $3 or $5 for a beer! We stocked up in Langkawi for the Red Sea passage so we are set. I’d rather have ice cream. With the hot weather and spicy food, it seems an essential.

A two scoop cone!

We’d eaten lunch hours before so stopped back for a rest and some ice cream. I wanted a one scoop cone. Only two scoop cones were sold so I got two scoops. But since we were staying to eat, the cone came in a dish. It reminded me of the ice cream clown my friend Martha had in Japan. There you pointed to a picture of a meal. Martha picked hers so she could have the ice cream clown. Problem was the entire meal, everything in the picture, came together at the same time. But at least hers had a face on it. I shoved one ball in and ate that and then gave up and ate the second from the bowl. Actually it was frozen yogurt and pretty good. But it was really one scoop too many. Next time I try the Zuppa Inglese whatever that is.

Lots of motorbikes here and they seem to race up the streets as if they are in Monte Carlo.

Lots of satellite dishes here.

A small mosque on the corner.

Shady shabby chic.

It’s all still new enough that it’s “shabby chic” rather than “run down.”

Once you get away from the waterfront and its open spaces, things start getting crammed together.

Lots of apartment buildings.

A variety of architectural styles just next to each other.

All levels of educational opportunities.

Tall buildings, short building, mosques….everything together.

Yesterday Randal and I walked down a narrow street with tall buildings on both sides and trees along the way and it was 10 degrees cooler, like walking in a canyon.

Communications dish exhibited at the National Museum.

Gumby! Not really but it’s what I saw and I have no idea what it really is.

Male auto collision repair shop!

Collision repair was the common language.

Ru

Doramac

Welcome to sunny, calm, no pirates in the anchorage, Male! You have no idea how nice not having to think about pirates is. Even on our passage from Cochin, though a route believed to be safe from pirates, I was looking over my shoulder during every one of my night watches and even during the day at times. Our second evening we scared ourselves when two large cargo ships came quite close. Luckily it was during Randal’s watch so I didn’t have to guess what to do. And I might not have interpreted the blob on the radar as anything more than an echo of the brightly lit cargo ship that showed up on our AIS, the Asian Emperor. But Randal could see a dark blob not far from the Asian Empress. No lights and no AIS. The Asian Empress tried to make contact VHS contact with the dark blob, but no luck. Everyone passed everyone and finally the Asian Empress told the dark blob to turn on its lights since there were no pirates in the area. (In pirate areas everyone travels in the dark with radar and AIS turned off so they will be less noticeable to pirates who might be monitoring on their electronic equipment. And ship lights show up miles away, especially big ship lights.) Randal and I were quite spooked and started looking for small skiffs that pirate “mother ships” (what an insult to the word mother!) send out. Obviously there were none or I wouldn’t be writing this; another horrid thought! Next watch a medium large ship came along with its lights on but no AIS which is odd. But from its shape Randal guesses it might have been a military ship since they don’t broadcast an AIS message. That was a comforting thought. Maybe the big ship had let the military know about the creepy dark blob. But from then on, I just wanted to get here and be done. Every watch seemed to take hours and hours, and though each watch is 3 hours, they can pass fast especially when worry free and interrupted by the lights from some freighters or fishing boats. But from then on, we saw nothing, not one ship of any kind because we were no longer near the shipping lanes. That’s great any other time but this passage I would have welcomed the freighter traffic. Even during the day time hours we saw nothing. The sun was shining, our Paravane fish kept us from rolling in the swells. It should all have been lovely. (As I type this we have the single side band radio turned on and are listening to the “morning net” during which everyone on the boats in the anchorage may call in and share information or ask questions. We heard that the Blue Water Rally boats, who Quest had been a member of, are now going to transport all of their boats. People are also discussing getting last minute rooms when the boats are finally loaded and how to get to the airport for early flights, when we can finally make reservations, because the ferry doesn’t run before 7:30 am or something along those lines. It’s all very interesting and informative.)

So here we are in the Maldives off Hulhule Island. We arrived yesterday morning at sunrise and waited to be checked into Male. There was a bit of miscommunications so the agent helping all of the boats in our group and the marine officials didn’t get to us until about 11:30. But they were very professional and quick and young enough to enjoy the lollipops that I gave them. Didn’t have to “pay them off with cigarettes or alcohol or chocolate; they just did their jobs and left. When they left we pulled up anchor and motored over to the anchorage off Hulhule Island, got things settled, had a visit from ‘Nita and Bud from Passage who loaned us 20 rufiyaa (12.8 = $1) for the ferry from Hulhule to Male. It costs 4 rufiyaa per ticket to go to Male and 5 rufiyaa to come back. We set out from DoraMac on our dinghy, tied up at the wharf and just made it with no minutes to spare as we caught the 3pm ferry to Male so we could go to an ATM, get our phone and computer SIM cards and look around a bit. (Hulhule sounded like U lu when I asked someone; Ulumale ferry was what I heard and realized that the male part was Male and Ulu was the name of the island we were starting from so we would know how to bet back to our dinghy.) There are two phone services here on Male but we were warned to get the Dhiraagu so we did. Of course it wouldn’t work… So they sent us a few blocks to the mobile phone service center and a brilliant and lovely young woman made it all work. By then it was time to go back to the dinghy so we’ll have to wait to go exploring in Male where everything must be flown in so is pretty expensive. We caught the ferry from Male with less time to spare than from Hulhule but they actually hold the ferry if they see someone madly rushing to buy a ticket which is very nice! I made Randal an especially delicious dinner of instant mashed potatoes mixed with tuna and “tinned” peas. The Brits say tinned and it sounds so much better than canned. Anyway Randal loved it and for dessert had a chocolate topped and filled donut from a Male bakery. We had a very quiet night to start to catch up on the sleep we missed during the passage. Today we’re back to Male and I’ll start taking some photos.

Flags flying during our passage.

We left up our flag and Red Sox banner and ran the whole time with lights on as well as our radar and AIS.

Our view looking north.

Ruth and I arrived safely at the Male, Maldives check in anchorage Tuesday March 15th at 7:50 AM after a calm passage.

04 10.13N

73 29.70E

TIME: GMT +5.5 12:00 NOON

POSITION: 05 51.52N 074 22.77E

SOG: 6.1 KNOTS AT REDUCED RPM

COG: 203

WIND: OVER THE BOAT, 9 KNOTS OUT OF 290 DEGREES

SEAS: ONE METER

SKIES: SCATTERED CLOUDS, MOSTLY SUNNY

TEMP: 30C 86F

TO DESTINATION: 116 NM

ETA MALE 0722 TUESDAY 15TH

ONBOARD: RUTH & RANDAL JOHNSON

COMMENTS: ALL IS GOOD ONBOARD. I HAVE FISHING GEAR OUT BUT NO FISH YET.

TIME: GMT +5.5 12:00 NOON

POSITION: 06 08 04.11N 075 20.80E

SOG: 6.2 KNOTS AT REDUCED RPM

COG: 203

WIND: OVER THE BOAT, 10 KNOTS OUT OF 280 DEGREES

SEAS: ONE HALF METER

SKIES: SCATTERED CLOUDS, MOSTLY SUNNY

TEMP: 30C 86F

DISTANCE MADE GOOD: LAST

TO DESTINATION: 260 NM

ETA MALE 0600 TUESDAY 15TH

ONBOARD: RUTH & RANDAL JOHNSON

COMMENTS: THERE IS A POD OF DOLPHIN SURROUNDING THE BOAT AND RUTH IS ON THE BOW ENJOYING THE SHOW, AND THEY’RE PUTTING ON ONE.

ALL IS WELL.

Ruth and I will be departing the marina here at Cochin this afternoon, Saturday the 12th, at 3:00 PM local time. At six knots this would put us in Male at 8:00 AM Tuesday the 15th.

I will start sending noon reports tomorrow. The seas are predicted to be nearly flat at less than a meter and winds less than 8 knots.

We just got word this morning that the transport ship will not be arriving in Male until the 30th or 31st. That will put us being loaded the first three days of April but I’m not holding my breath as it may be extended again. I understand that one of the fleet of carriers the transport company uses has filed for bankruptcy and their ships have been chained to the dock where they landed.

Looks like this shipping business needs as much planning and adjusting as passages on our own bottom.

Hi All,

  We will soon be setting off for Male in the Maldives.  There we will load up DoraMac onto a transport ship.  When that is done we will fly to Istanbul and await notification as to when the transport ship will arrive in Marmaris, Turkey.  We will have only our small Acer Netbook with us so I have to email through the web Yahoo.  Lots of the emails I sent from my web Yahoo account bounced back to me. Your servers must have thought it was SPAM.   So while we travel to the Maldives, from the Maldives to Istanbul and around Turkey waiting for DoraMac to arrive in Marmaris, Turkey sometime in April,  I will post to our website only.  I probably won’t be posting much since I have no idea what kind of connections we will have in the Maldives or while we travel around Turkey, but I will take lots of photos so you won’t miss anything.  When I finally get back to my big computer I’ll email and let you know if I posted anything just to remind you.

I am certainly looking forward to the cooler weather in Istanbul, that’s for sure.  You can still email me and when I have Internet access I will check email. 

Ru

ps Brian, I couldn’t get the Outlook on the ACER to work and then somehow I made it all go away!