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