LEAVING THE MALDIVES
Saturday 03 February, 2007 – 12:41
Today we head for Djibouti, a small independent republic at the bottom of the Red Sea, heavily supported by the French. Its about 2000 miles from Male (pronounced Marlee) and should take about 12 days – subject to fair wind and sea conditions. The last 1000 miles we do in small convoy groups, to provide mutual support through the potentially dangerous waters of Somalia and Aden, where there has been pirate attacks in recent years.
We have all enjoyed our stay in The Maldives, although we do seem to spend a lot of time checking in and out of the country and fixing things on the boat. As all cruisers will tell you – cruising is about traveling to exotic locations to repair and maintain your boat. But we still managed to visit some really good resorts from the budget to the very expensive – The Taj resorts charges $6000 US for one night accommodation. That’s for the presidential suite. They get quite a few celebs, the most recent being Tom Cruise. It was good to anchor off the island knowing it wasn’t costing us anything!! We got some excellent diving in. The visibility and fish life is amazing. The water is the colour of turquoise, emerald and azure all mixed together and the fish are every colour under the sun. It really is a lovely country and once again the natives are very friendly and helpful.