Loaded !

Getting S/V BeBe loaded onto the transport ship and getting out of Male was a tiny bit of an ordeal.   By far the largest annoyance was listening to the whining of some of the other yachts being transported.  Most of these folks have sailed more than half-way around the world, some visiting 80 countries thus far.  One would think they would have learned to "go with the flow" by now.  Instead, they whined and bitched every time anything changed from anticipated schedule.  Get over it, guys!  

BTW, some people have questioned why we removed the sails and cleared the deck so thoroughly before shipping BeBe.  We believe that yachts that are being transported, especially in the Red Sea, should be prepped as if for a heavy storm or gale.  Think about it.  Winds in the Red Sea are normally from the north and typically average 25 knots, with gusts to 50 knots not unusual.  The ship will be motoring at around 15 knots into the 25 knots or higher winds.  In effect, the yachts on the deck are encountering 40 to 55 knots of wind.  Having recently endured 5 days in winds of 40 to 60 knots, we knew first-hand just how strong that is!!!  Any yacht being transported should be prepped as if to encounter a Cat 1 hurricane.  Also, anything that blows off one yacht will fly into another yacht and cause damage.  Each yacht owner owes it to all the other yacht owners whose boats are on that ship's deck to take all efforts to prevent causing damage to another's boat.

We received a preliminary loading schedule indicating that we would be loaded on a Sunday morning.  I visited the Emirates airline office on a Thursday and booked our flights for the following Monday morning, then visited the agent and got us cleared out with Immigration.  We were working around the Holy Day when everything is closed on Fridays and the airline office which closes both Fridays and Saturdays.  The agent said we had 6 days from the date our passport was stamped to depart the Maldives.  BeBe was scheduled to be loaded on a Sunday morning at 10:00.  Then the agent called on Saturday and said that our 30-day visa would expire on Sunday morning at 11:00.  I played dumb and he got tired of trying to explain the visa situation to me, and he finally agreed that our visas could be extended until our departing flight on Monday morning.  Immigration was granting us a 23-hour extension to our visas----remember, we had already cleared out at this point.  Frankly, I believe the agent was just looking to charge yet another fee.  We later learned that the agent wanted an additional $500 fee to extend visas for 3 days for friends on ESPRIT, plus a penalty fee to Immigration.  What a rip off!!!  They refused to pay the additional agent's fee and instead paid a penalty of $265 to Immigration when they cleared out at the airport.

Then the load master notified us that the entire loading schedule had been revised.  Now we would not be loaded until Monday morning.  We explained the Immigration problem, and were pleasantly surprised when we were hailed on the VHF and told to report to the transport ship at 14:00 on Sunday afternoon.  The first yacht would be loaded at 13:00 and BeBe would be the third yacht loaded on this first day of loading.  We left the anchorage right behind S/V B'SHERET and motored over to the transport ship.

We spent the following 3 hours slowly going in circles around the transport ship while B'SHERET was loaded.  The sea looked totally calm, but there was a swell that rolled the transport ship 3 degrees -- which made the crane cables and slings swing like pendulums.  It was wild!  And it took the full 3 hours to get B'SHERET loaded on the deck.  Next TAPESTRY was loaded.  The load master used different straps to lift TAPESTRY and that seemed to work better, but the waves from all the go-fast speed boats zooming all around the transport ship still caused TAPESTRY to swing wildly.  While TAPESTRY was being loaded, we were tied to the port side of the transport ship at 16:30.  Because of the swinging problem, the load masters were unable to get the yachts as close together as they needed to be in order for all the yachts to fit onto this ship.  This could be a real problem!!!

At 17:30 they were ready to load BeBe when the Port Authority official said they must stop work for the day.  He refused to allow any work after sunset, and the sun was soon to set.   The transport ship was equipped with lights and the crew is accustomed to working through the night.  The load masters requested permission to complete our loading before stopping work for the day, but the Port Authority official stood his ground and refused us to be loaded.  So back to the anchorage for the night.  We were more than a little disappointed, to say the least.  This wrecked our flight bookings, the Istanbul hotel reservations and our Immigration extension.  But there was no point whining about it.  Just accept the changes in plans and move on.  We got online and changed our outbound flight, the local hotel and the Istanbul hotel.

At 08:00 on Monday morning we were back tied next to the transport ship.  The load master decided to lift BeBe with our deck-level lifting points (no lifting straps placed beneath the hull).  This would be the simplest way to lift our yacht since we did not want to deal with removing the triadic stay unless absolutely required to do so.  Our triadic stay is swaged and is static; it does not have turnbuckles to adjust the length.  To remove the triadic stay would involve first loosening the mizzen baby stays and the mizzen back stays, and taking a halyard from the mizzen mast to a forward winch and tilting the mizzen mast forward until the tension on the triadic stay was loosened.  Then Bill would have to go up the mainmast and dis-attach the triadic stay from the main mast.  This is involved and would take a lot of time.

Using the deck-level lifting points would be much simpler.  We simply had to remove the topping lift for the main boom and remove the mainmast back stay -- which has turnbuckles and is a breeze to remove.  These needed to be removed to make space for the crane hook and cables.  Took us less than 10 minutes to accomplish those 2 tasks, then they were ready to lift BeBe.  They used 3 sets of shackles on the starboard side and only 1 set of shackles on the port side.  This, in effect, caused the cables to be longer on the starboard side than on the port side of BeBe.  Remember, the crane was also on the starboard side. This would tilt the yacht slightly to port and prevent the lifting cables from being too tight against the triadic stay.  This process worked fine.  The cable was tight up against the triadic stay and deflected it a slight amount -- sounded terrible -- but later when the cables were removed the triadic stay looked straight and taut as ever.  No harm done.

They lifted BeBe and moved her slowly over the deck next to TAPESTRY.  There was much less swaying and swinging this morning than the previous day when they loaded B'SHERET and TAPESTRY.  They were able to place BeBe less than 1 meter from TAPESTRY.  The load master's goal was to place each yacht no more than 1 meter from each other.  Unfortunately, B'SHERET was 3 to 4 meters from where they wanted her placed; and TAPESTRY was more than 3 meters from where they wanted her placed.  This wasted a lot of deck space.  At this point it appeared that not all of the 16 yachts were going to fit on this deck.  We were terribly afraid that a couple of yachts would not make onto this transport ship.  But it would serve no purpose to say anything to the rest of the yachts waiting to be loaded.

We tidied up BeBe and washed off the grease on the deck from the lifting cables; then climbed down onto the ship's deck with our luggage to await a launch to shore.  While waiting, we watched them load RAVEN -- which was the smoothest and easiest of the 4 yachts loaded thus far.  There was no rolling and swinging and RAVEN was moved easily to exactly the spot where the load masters wanted her placed.  PASSAGE was next to be loaded and was tied to the side of the ship when the loading crew went to lunch.  While they were at lunch the ship started to roll again and the crane began swinging wildly.  The lifting straps had been secured to the ship's deck, but not secured properly.  It was calm one second and the crane was swinging wildly the next second.  The straps were flipping pallets of jack stands all over the deck.  The deck hand on watch radioed for help and 6 men came running up from the lunch room.  It took all 7 of them to gain control of the straps swinging with the crane.  They raised the crane and secured the straps tightly to padeyes on the deck.  No more swinging possible now!

The launch still had not showed up.  Bill spoke with the agent representative on the ship and was told that the agent planned to send only 1 launch at the end of the day to pick up everyone who had been loaded that day.  What!!  So we were supposed to stand in the sun on the ship's deck for another 6 hours?  We spoke with the SevenStar load master and he went ballistic with the agent's rep.  This agency has annoyed many of us for numerous reasons.  Lots of fees and very few services provided.  SevenStar had already had enough of dealing with this agency, and they had only been there a few days.  After telling the agent rep that he was fired and must get off the boat if he didn't get a launch out there immediately, the launch arrived within 10 minutes.  The launch dropped us and the crew of RAVEN back at Huhulmale (airport island).  We grabbed a taxi to the hotel (where our luggage had been sitting since Saturday afternoon).

Then we received a phone call from Emirates saying that we must personally go to the airport and purchase our tickets before 16:00 or we would lose the flights and the special price rate.  We had been able to re-schedule the flights online the previous night after we found out at the last minute that BeBe would not get loaded on Sunday after all.  No problem changing the flight from Monday morning to Tuesday morning -- but now they wanted us to get to the airport immediately and pay for the tickets.  Okay; not a problem.

At the airport on Tuesday morning we ran into RAVEN, PASSAGE, SONGSTER and Sandy from HEARTSONG.  At this point it was doubtful if HEARTSONG would fit onto the transport ship, but Sandy was flying home anyway.  The big topic of conversation was whether all the boats would fit onto the ship.  It was agreed by everyone that there was no way for all 15 yachts to fit on that ship deck as it stood this day.  All the yachts would need to be placed much closer together.  Turns out that is exactly what they did.

We spoke with ESPRIT.  The transport ship had been moved to a wharf over at "garbage island."  ESPRIT was tied alongside.  They were supposed to be loaded at 08:00 but had been told to stand by while the yachts on the deck were re-positioned.  This took most of the day, and then the rest of the loadings went very smoothly.  What a difference being tied to the wharf made!  No more wildly swinging crane in the gentle swell and hard waves of speed boats and ferries.  We do not know if they moved BeBe again or not.  Guess we will find out when we climb aboard the ship when they unload BeBe in Marmaris.

All 16 yachts did get loaded.  However, the loading took 5 days rather than the anticipated 3 days.  Big deal.  All the whiners and complainers should be ashamed of themselves.  Loading safely is the important thing.  Following a preliminary loading schedule would have been pure luck.  Until a yacht is actually loaded onto the transport ship, it is impossible to predict which yacht will be loaded next and exactly where it will be placed.  As I said earlier, learn to go with the flow and quit your bitching.

Flying over the Maldives was very pretty.  It is easy to understand why this is a remote resort paradise.  Also easy to understand why these resorts do not want cruising yachts anchored nearby.  Sort of spoils the exclusivity claims of the resorts when there is a cruising sailboat right in your face.

When the plane reached the coast of Oman, the sky below changed from blue to beige.  Nothing to see but sand.

Flying over the United Arab Emirates toward Dubai was interesting.  Cannot say that it was beautiful, but it was interesting.  The desert changes quite a bit.  Some places were mountains.  Some looked like hard-packed flat sand.  Some places looked like loose-packed sand mountains or large dunes.  And some places looked like an ocean of loose sand. And it all looked very hot!

We could have stayed in Dubai for several days.  It would have cost only an additional airline fee of $21 each for the layover.   And there are a few economical hotels.  But in researching Dubai we did not find anything there of particular interest to either of us.  So our only stop in Dubai was inside the airport.  A modern city in an ancient desert on the coastline of the Persian Gulf.  I would go completely out of my mind living in Dubai.  Glad we skipped visiting there.

We opted to fly onward to Istanbul, which I will relate in another posting.  Since arriving in Turkey we are unable to view any blogging websites.  I can access the Dashboard for this blogger website, but I cannot view even our own blogger website.  Also, photos being uploaded change to strange box characters so photos might not be shown correctly.  Guess that will have to wait until we are in another country and have again have full access.

Winding down our time in Male

Sundowners with friends, a few lunches in Male and that is about all we have done since our last posting. Just nothing much going on here. Unless one enjoys diving there really is nothing to do in the Maldives. The currents are too strong for snorkeling.  There are no interesting sightseeing attractions unless one enjoys visiting mosques.  We have been anchored here since March 12 and are more than ready to get out of here.  

One really good thing is that there are no biting insects here.  None at all.  In the first spot we anchored there were thousands of flies; but within a few days we moved to the northern end of the anchorage and have not seen flies again.  It is really nice to not be bothered by mosquitoes.  Wonder if it is like this all year long or if this is just a seasonal lack of insects.  Bill thinks there are no mosquitoes because of the lack of fresh water on these coral islands.  During the month we have been here it has not rained one drop. 

The crews and customers on the large tour boats routinely throw plastic bottles and plastic bags into the water.  There is so much trash floating through the anchorage daily!  They are ruining this beautiful place.  Since there is nothing here except tourism, one would think the local people would strive to keep it clean in order to encourage future tourism.  But they don't have any understanding of a clean environment.  It really is a shame to see such a lovely place being blemished by trash and debris floating in the sea and collecting on the shores.  

The resorts are pristine, but don't look on the back side of those islands where there are huge piles of trash.

The resort ferries zip through the anchorage back and forth from the resorts to the ferry docks or from the resorts to the dive boats all day long.  It is only a matter of time until someone gets killed -- as has happened in several other places frequented by cruisers.  One of these fast speedboats is going to run over a dinghy or a swimmer if they do not slow down in the anchorage.  

One anchored yacht flagged down a speeding resort ferry a few days ago and asked him to slow down in the designated anchorage area.  The response:  "These are our waters.  You are not welcome here.  You should not come here."  

Wonder if the Minister of Tourism would agree with that sentiment?

We recently saw the local seaplane airport terminal.  Bill was impressed.  That was a first for us.  We had never seen a commercial seaplane airport terminal anywhere else in our travels.  You really would not believe how many seaplanes are here.

Insult the Americans?

"Hi ___________ - Many thanks for your help list of preparations but I am concerned that you have not included removing the ensign.  We feel very strongly that the site (sic) of an American ensign flying from a transported yacht would been seen as a very provocative gesture and would thereby put at risk all the yachts on board.  I think it would be helpful to bear this in mind. - (sender's yacht name omitted to protect their identity)"

This message was emailed to every yacht that will be on the transport ship with us.  Of course, we, and we assume all the other yachts transporting, fully intended to remove our ensigns when our vessels are loaded onto the transport ship.  It makes no sense to subject the flags to the wear and tear of the anticipated heavy winds up the Red Sea.  And the flags really would serve no purpose as our yachts are cargo aboard the transport ship.

However, this message -- emailed to everyone and not just to the one boat that had prepared a list what they planned to do to prep their yacht for transport -- is in extremely poor taste.  In fact, it is downright insulting!  The sender is British, I believe.   

Does he or she honestly think the UK ensign is any more warmly received by the Somali and Yemeni pirates than is the US ensign?  

 

Goodbye Male! Well ---- within a week or 2 -- maybe

Hello again from Male where we are getting closer to the date when our transport ship should arrive (sometime this upcoming week).  This past week we’ve taken advantage of light winds and have begun prepping S/V BeBe for shipping. 

We have made a few trips over to Male.  Last Monday the women from 5 yachts got together for a Ladies Day Out.  Which meant we walked all over the island of Male for several hours and then ate lunch.  We walked from one end of the island to the other, from one side to the other.  There are many ultra-narrow alleyways that are considered streets, but far too narrow for even the most compact automobile.  Perfect for the thousands of motorcycles on this island.  

On one street I noticed a shuttered business.  The signs looked new, but the business was closed.    The name of this shuttered business was "G-Spot" -- which I thought was a very unusual name for a shop in a Muslim country.  Could they have meant something else?  In the window and on the entry door were posted signs that explained why the business was closed.  Guess someone did not think this business was appropriate for a Muslim country after all.

We visited the library and the national museum to see an art exhibit of paintings by a Maldivian woman.  We were surprised at her subject for this collection.  It seemed dark and violent, and several paintings depicted women overpowering men in one manner or another -- such as an obviously female bent knee crushing down upon an obviously male head.  Seemed very controversial for this Muslim nation to allow for a public exhibition.  The one unique trademark for this artist is that she uses coffee in her paintings.   We also visited the clearance agent's office because 1 boat needed additional paperwork completed.  The agent recommended a place for lunch and we followed his recommendation and visited The Food Bank.  This restaurant was nice, somewhat expensive; and the food was nothing to brag about.  I had a seafood salad which turned out to be a small serving of chopped octopus with 2 tiny shrimp, stirred into a sweet spicy sauce and served on a single leaf of lettuce.  Not the best lunch I have eaten but also not the worst.

Another day Bill and I went into Male for a lunch of pizza.  He ordered a Coke and I ordered a Fanta.  There is a Coca-Cola bottling plant on one of the atolls here in the Maldives.  Some of the cruisers have toured the factory -- just to have something to occupy their time.  When our drinks were delivered to the table, Bill and I took one look at the 2 cans and then looked at one another with smiles.  Makes perfect sense though.  All that old equipment worked fine; might as well sell it off somewhere.  And that somewhere turns out to be the Maldives.  When was the last time you saw some of these?


Last Friday evening the anchorage had a dinghy raft-up.  We hadn't done this since July 4, 2008, in Moorea.  It was fun and the foods were yummy and varied.  For those not familiar with a dinghy raft-up, it is exactly what it sounds like.  A group of dinghies go to a designated spot.  One sets an anchor and the rest tie off onto the anchored dinghy, all tightly together.  Then dishes of food are passed from one dinghy to another, round and round, and a good time is had by all.  Each boat brings enough food to share with all present, and each boat brings their own beverages.  Funny thing is that only the 7 American boats in the anchorage participated in this raft-up.  Present were crews from ESPRIT, PASSAGE, RENEGADE, B'SHERET, HEARTSONG, VOYAGER and us.  None of the Brits joined us, nor did the one Swedish yacht who will be transporting.  Maybe they did not understand the concept, although I don't see how any boat could make it this far around the world and not be familiar with a dinghy raft-up.  At any rate, we all enjoyed visiting and chatting while consuming copious amounts of food and drink.  We did this in an area at the northern end of the anchorage but well away from the resort on the tiny island up there.  We all know that we are not allowed into "their" waters.  This was the first time Bill and I had been over there, and it was a lovely shallow area.

It is boring sitting here but at least we are sitting in beautiful surroundings.  People on a few of the boats waiting for transport have been spending their time snorkeling and diving.  This is a divers paradise!  We are told that snorkeling is not worth bothering to do.  Near the surface there is nothing much to see.  And the currents can be dangerous; so if one snorkels, one should hold onto the dinghy painter so as not to be swept out to sea or out into the middle of this huge atoll.  But down deep there is lots of live colorful corals, plenty of varied fish and every type marine life conceivable.   Chay, Katie and Jaimie on ESPRIT have made a number of dives, including night dives.  They said the highlights were a sea turtle right up close and personal, several large eels, a huge puffer fish, and a lion fish, as well as a school of long, needle nosed fish.  

As the days wind down to the transport ship arriving we will continue to get BeBe ready for shipping and the expected 45 knots of wind, green water over the bow of the ship, and sand storms in the Red Sea.  We are taking everything off the deck, pickling the water maker, removing screens, and a myriad of other things to ensure that BeBe arrives in Turkey in good shape. 

The load master will arrive in Male in a few days and we hope to meet with him well before the transport ship finally arrives.  We need to clarify whether he wants us to remove our triadic stay or not.  Amels have lifting points and can be lifted from the top, rather than lifting with straps beneath the hull as is normally required with most yachts.  If the load master is familiar with Amel design and is comfortable with lifting from the lifting points on the side at deck level, then we will not have to remove the triadic stay (piece of wire rigging that runs between the rear mizzen mast and the main mast).  If the load master is not experienced with Amel design, then he will want us to remove the triadic stay.  Removing this stay is not a simple process and Bill hopes to avoid having to do this.  We have talked with one Amel owner who has shipped his yacht 5 times and has always used the lifting points for this process.  So we know it works well as long as the load master is experienced with this technique.

One of our frustrations has been trying to make travel arrangements without a specific date – we can’t make plane or tour reservations until we have a firm load date for BeBe and we won’t have that until the transport ship gets here!  Fortunately, Emirates Airlines has been very accommodating and flexible.   Linda and Michael on B'SHERET negotiated a very reasonable fare of $600 each, Male-Dubai-Istanbul. on Emirates Airlines for all people who are transporting yachts via SevenStar.   As soon as each boat receives its loading time schedule, they should immediately go to the local Emirates office and purchase tickets.  Emirates will allow one change at no charge in case the loading does not go as scheduled.  It is really nice to be dealing with a small local office in a situation like this.  And, thanks to Linda and Michael for negotiating such a great rate!

My boat shipping preparation project for today is to defrost the freezer.  We have finally emptied the freezer.  All those great steaks purchased in Singapore have been consumed, along with a number of bottles from our stash of wine.  Bill has a project above deck.  At least the wind is blowing nicely today to keep us cool as we do these projects.  The past week has been windless and extremely hot and humid.  Today is gorgeous!

The sugar saga continues

Some readers might remember our "sugar" mishaps several months ago.  To recap as briefly as possible, I had bought in Malaysia a very large bag of what I thought was sugar.  It was next to the bags of flour in the baking goods section of a supermarket.   There were no English words printed on the bag; it was next to the flour so I just assumed it was sugar.  When my large canister of sugar was emptied in the normal course of daily cooking, I filled the large canister from the very large bag of "sugar" and sealed the remainder for future use.  While in Thailand I used this "sugar" to make pancakes twice and chocolate pie once and had to throw all away because the taste was disgusting.  Later I used this "sugar" to sweeten one of my rare cups of coffee.  That is when we finally discovered that this "sugar" was salt.

Or so we thought!

While in Cochin we finally used up the last of the pink Himalayan special salt that I had bought last summer when there was no normal cheap salt in the supermarket one day.  I was very glad to see the last of this expensive pink salt that I considered a complete waste of money.  It tasted no different than normal cheap salt.  So I dug out the large bag of the "not-really-sugar-but-think-it-is-salt" and filled both the cooking salt canister and the table salt shaker.  This "salt" looked like slightly larger salt crystals and appeared a bit shiny.  It also left a nasty aftertaste.  This aftertaste reminded me very much of Morton Lite Salt, but it made no sense that a salt substitute would be sold in such huge quantity.  

Within days of beginning to use this "salt" from Malaysia, Bill's feet began to swell.  His poor feet looked like they were about to explode.  He tried massive doses of Vitamin C but that did not help.  We do not have any prescription diuretics onboard.  I had slight swelling but nothing bad.  Bill finally thought maybe he was getting an attack of gout and he took the medication for gout.  That relieved the swelling quite a bit.  We never made the connection between the swelling and our new use of this "salt."  But we were both noticing the strange aftertaste in foods, especially pancakes and fried eggs for some reason; but neither of us mentioned it to the other.  I tried just to  ignore this annoying taste.  Bill didn't want to complain and figured his "taste bugs" (as our grandchildren say)  were just not working well.  Old age, maybe??

Last week we finally discussed this nasty aftertaste.  That is when we realized this started when we began using that huge bag of "salt" from Malaysia.  I opened a newly purchased bag of salt and we compared the appearance and tip-of-finger tasting comparisons.  The new small container was definitely normal cooking/table salt.  The huge bag from Malaysia was not salt.  It tasted very salty but left that nasty aftertaste.  The crystals were slightly larger and longer than normal table salt.  And it had a somewhat shiny appearance.


I emptied the entire bag overboard and washed the vacuum seal bag for another future use, like maybe sealing tubes of Pringles.  Bill then said he had wanted to save some of it and ask our daughter-in-law to test it.  She is a chemical engineer and might have been able to identify what this stuff really was.  It damn sure was not normal salt.  But, too late.  It was all dissolved into the sea before Bill mentioned this idea to me.   We sent her an email describing this substance, and her first guess was potassium.  Wonder if that would explain my headaches?  I thought that was just from the horrible air pollution in India and the stress of waiting on transport since we arrived in Male.  


Bill's feet were back to normal size within 2 days of tossing out this "salt" and going back to real salt for cooking.  Unfortunately, my headaches continue -- probably caused by clipping my thick heavy hair up in an effort to cool off in this very hot and humid climate.


Who knows what we were ingesting.  Shopping in foreign countries sometimes brings surprises.