BBQ in the country side

Anil had been invited to a BBQ in the Maltese country side and he asked me taggle along. On the menu was rabbit stew and other stuff to eat. We met up with Anil's friend and we drove off to the hills and soon enough we arrived to a country house that was rather rugged. The surroundings were quite rocky too, not difficult to understand how the stonewalls on the Island have come about when clearing land for farming. Food was good although the stew was not that great but I did not have anything to complain about.

BBQ in Sliema

Went in teh eevning to Sliema to meet Diaz and Jasmond and they had whipped together a Vietnamese and Maltese BBQ with Rose' to flush down the good food.

I met several of their friends and had an interesting chat with a guy called John-Paul who was a fisherman. He told me about the relationships of the Italian and Maltese fishermen. There was not much love lost in between them judging of the horror stories he told me about gunfights and murder on the high seas, whether true or not.

After the BBQ we had some ice cream at the local Gelateria.

Huvadhoo atoll

Couple of hours later we enter the Huvadhoo atoll and anchor near the main Island of Tinadhoo. 

Fish drying racks S of Tinadhoo

Small shallow lagoon but gravelly beach

Same again

We reconnoiter the nearby Islands that looks very picturesque from afar but find the beaches pretty mediocre with rough coral gravel at the shores. The lagoons though would make excellent snorkeling grounds with a lot of live coral heads in 1-3 m depth. Unfortunately the entrances are a tad too shallow for our tenders. At one Island we spot multiple fish drying racks for tuna.

Locals going by their daily life

Disappointed in the Islands nearby we head to the nearest Island inside the atoll, Havodigalaa Island. The beaches there have white powdery coral sand beaches and th word goes to setup a beach BBQ there. As we approach the beach we can see a lot of people milling around on the beach and Mr. Siraj, our dive guide, explains that is a public holiday in Maldives and that the people are probably just picnicking here. I am also told the Island is actually a nature reserve for breeding birds that migrate here. From the quick look I get from the beach I can only see a few chicken running around. We are approached by two men that are revealed to be the caretakers of the Island and actually hails from Bengal. Luckily we have on our boat people who are proficient in Bengal and we make immediate friends with them.  

Havodigalaa Island

Picknicking locals

Havodigalaa beach

In the evening the weather spoils the BBQ plans yet again as rainy squalls keeps passing above us.  

Locals heading off

Our agent Shafeeq arranges a local group of Maldivians to play music on the aft deck. They start with golden oldies but soon change their music to traditional songs that involve clapping and a drum with singing together. Quite special performance and everybody enjoyed the beat. They are also accompanied by a young Russian girl and after a short chat I find out she's the girlfriend of one of the guitarists and plans to marry and settle in Maldives, ah the folly of youth and love...

Later some fishing is attempted from aft swimming platform but again with a poor catch.

Diwali celebration

As per Saini's explanation Diwali is in celebration of homecoming of Ram after his exile. Those who want to know more may click this link

Anyway, I decided we'll celebrate the Diwali at Chao Mai beach doing some BBQ and relaxing in Trang province. We set off with me, Jira, Saini and Kalpu with Vivek and Rajaram to join us later.

17th we are busy chasing BBQ items for the Diwali celebration, we already got rockets in advance. Jira's brother N. Thuen ascertains we can fire rockets and do BBQ at Chao Wai Beach so we decide that there is where our celebration will take place. Rest of afternoon is spent guiding Vivek to Trang and he finally arrives shortly after dusk.

The beach itself is huge and very shallow. I waded out several hundred meters and was only ankle deep in the sea. It was low tide at the time so it was not surprising.

After dark we built up a fire from the drift wood on the beach so one could see what one was eating. The menu was squid, shrimp, fish and chicken with spicy Thai dipping sauce and beer of course. This time we had no Kingfisher as we had depleted our stock in the Lumut drydock.

Saini was busy guiding Vivek as he tended to get lost on the Thai highway, eventually he found the way and arrived after dark with Rajaram. They also brought the ghetto blaster so after that it was Indie pop time.

Everybody was enjoying until Saini fired off a volley of rockets. It did not take many minutes for the park wardens to come around and tell us to put out the fire and stop shooting rockets off. Oh well, we put on the car lights and slowly winded down the BBQ and headed for home.

Sunset at Chao Mai Beach On our way back to Khuan Kun we get permission from Jira's father to shoot off all rockets in front of his house the spirit returns to Saini, Raja Ram and Vivek. We arrive there shortly and park & start to offload rockets. Saini & Co start to shoot off a most incredible amount of incendiaries. At times it seems Vivek got an infinite supply in his car trunk but it also showed signs of coming to an end when he whipped out the "badawala" rocket battery. Finally after abt 30min of incessant firing of rockets and the neighborhood awakened we had finished all our stuff. I said I'm going to sleep but Raja Ram said he had not had enough to eat so he needed something to eat, same as Saini and Vivek. I sent N. Thuen to get the guys fed and headed myself for some shuteye...

Captains blog - voyage Phuket- Ko Rawi - Langkawi

We departed Phuket on 12th of Aug for Langkawi. Weather was again fine, only when we got out of cover Ko Yao Yai did we get swell in from the Indian Ocean. We steamed on for the whole day and anchored for the night S of Ko Rawi (Butang group). Next morning we awoke to marvelous surroundings of high Islands covered in lush green and specked with white sandy beaches.

M/y Kalizma in front of Ko Rawi

Ko Rawi

Morning 13th Aug was sunny and spent making a dive around Ko Palai and another on the bay at Western tip of Ko Rawi, we saw a great deal of sea life (puffers) as well as loads of giant clams. The coral here is very nice and unspoiled, also absence of tourists is notable, it might be otherwise during high season of course. At Ko Rawi the coastal cliffs goes straight down to several metres and divers are rocked by wave surge.

Beach had a lot of hermit crabs

Afternoon was partly overcast and spent setting up for a beach barbecue on Ko Rawi and some snorkeling. The coral heads S of Ko Rawi were numerous and colorful. The beach on Ko Rawi had many hermit crabs that were running about everywhere. I took to exploring the Island and found a natural fresh water stream that I followed up to its source, the jungle elsewhere looked impenetrable, consisting of thorny brush and ancient trees.

BBQ

BBQ

The fresh water itself out of the mountain was very cool and refreshing and I took several dips in the streams naturally carved out hollows. Once back at the BBQ it was getting dark and we fired up the grill and enjoyed the sunset accompanied with dinner. When darkness set in petrol lanterns were lit and we sat around joking and telling stories while enjoying some more grilled food. At abt 9pm we packed all gear in the tender and got back onboard for an early night as we needed to haul up anchor in time for us to arrive Langkawi HW.

Seagypsies

14th morning 6am anchor was heaved up and course set for Langkawi. On the way we passed a big congregation of sea gypsies. The weather was overcast and dead calm. We arrived Langkawi at 11am and made fast sb to floating pontoon at Wavemaster shipyard. We had arrived to the purpose of our voyage – 5year class renewal survey and routine maintenance.