Happy St. Paddy's Day!!

Chay, Katie & Jamie on S/V ESPIRIT invited us to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with them.   

Irish stew and green beer bread, accompanied by green beer, of course!   

The stew was delicious.  First time I have eaten stew with cabbage in it.  It has been a long time since any of us has tasted stew; it isn't something one normally thinks about cooking in the hot tropics.   

Luckily it wasn't all that hot last evening as the northeast winds that should have arrived in December are finally here.  We all thoroughly enjoyed the Irish stew and beer bread.  I let the other 3 adults enjoy their green beer as I never touch beer regardless of its color.

I baked a lemon cake and Katie let me borrow some green food coloring for the frosting.  So we had a green desert to top off our meal to celebrate St. Paddy.


Notice the wall on the shore behind Bill and Chay.  We are anchored in the only place allowed in Male, which is on the northwest side of the island of Hulhumale.  The island of Male has a stone or concrete wall built up higher than this one.  The wall completely surrounds the entire island of Male; their effort to try and keep the sea from washing completely over the island.  This wall on Hulhumale does not go completely around this island yet, but in time it will also encircle this island.  All of the Maldives are atolls -- which are the remaining edges of coral, some sand filled to create actual small islands, that once surrounded the edges of volcanoes that have sunk back into the sea.  

The Maldives are sinking.  It is a geological fact.  One might wish to blame the rising water on increasing sea levels due to global warming.  But the fact is the atolls are the final stage of sinking volcanoes.  It is estimated that many of the Maldivian islands will be uninhabitable and under water by the end of this century.  

Better hurry if you want to vacation in this beautiful paradise.  The coral cannot grow fast enough to maintain these fragile low-lying islands.