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An estimated distance of 450nm’s, which, all going well should take us a little under four days to navigate.

After a 1,100 nm ocean leg to reach Sri Lanka, it would be easy to let the door swing open for complacency. Yet sailing teaches a hard truth: a 500-metre stretch near shore can prove far more treacherous than a 50 nm open-water passage. Nature’s forces demand respect at every scale—no matter how weary or how close the destination feels.

Saildrives

The “achilles heel” of this catamaran, and indeed any boat with a saildrive propulsion system, is the vulnerability of the saildrive to underwater obstacles. The saildrives on Luna Blu exit through the hull just before the rudders but about one meter aft of the keels. The only protection afforded to the saildrives, asside from their relative structural integrity, are the keels forward of them. If a log were to find its way under the keel and then bounce up and strike the saildrive it would surely cause catastrophic damage. Moreover, it is through the bottom of the saildrives that engine cooling water is drawn. Get some plastic caught around them and cooling water is restricted. They really just hang out the bottom of the boat waiting to be hit by something. I prefer not to think about it too much.

Having sat in water strewn with floating and semi submerged rubbish, I felt it important we stop at the nearby anchorage so I could dive the boat to make sure there was nothing wrapped around the saildrive, or any other fixture hanging off the boats superstructure before we set for the sea!

Weather Routing

The passage from Galle to Uligan involves a series of complex and diverse weather patterns.

After researching forecasts and weather routing predictions, we elected to head south west after leaving Galle, rather than the more direct westerly route. We were in search of a westerly setting current that gave us a 1-2kt push. Once in it, we turned toward the west and patiently waited to exit the wind shadow that the land of Sri Lanka creates this time of year. Frustratingly, as we inched westward as too did the wind shadow.

Much further west than we’d expected, and quite literally instantaneously, we were out of the shadow and into the acceleration zone. Within no more than 30 minutes, the wind had increased to 20kts coming at us from the North to North East. Growing seas, 1m became 2m, then sets were coming at us from the beam at 3 – 3.5m height. They were big seas. But unlike in our passage to Galle, this time the waves were in good, predictable formation, and coming from a single direction. So the boat managed them with relative comfort. This lasted for a full 24hrs until we were now in another shadow, this time created by the Indian mainland. Not as quiet this time there was some wind that allowed some motor sailing as we continued west north west toward Uligan.

Too Close!

In this area, just south of India is a busy commercial shipping lane. To and from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea/Suez Canal, either heading west, or east, they all pass through this little pinch point, so there was much attention being paid to the chart plotter and AIS signals, and VHF radio for anyone nearby that might be calling to alert us of their intentions.

With AIS (Automatic Identification System) you are able to see neighbouring traffic on your chart plotter screen, upto 40nm away. And likewise, traffic is able to see us. On very few occasions do you find yourself needing to alter course or speed to avoid traffic. Commercial ships are generally good at altering course and passing by at a safe distance, and quickly.

Though on one occasion during this particular leg, we could identify a large ship coming at us from a long way astern.

We were heading west, the MV “LV STAR” was coming at us from a west north westerly angle. Paying close attention as he was making ground on us, he wasnt making any noticable adjustments to speed or heading, and at 14kts he was gaining quickly. It was daytime so we now had a visual on the vessel as it continued to gain and continued to show now signs of altering his course. From a distance now of perhaps 2nm’s we were dangerously close to a collision course. We were motor sailing at the time so elected to slow our speed down such that the ship would pass across in front of us, as I suspect was his intention all along. Not long after, the ship did pass in front of us, at a distance of no more than 400m’s. That distance seems a lot, but the ships length is 225m and at 75,000mts carrying capacity, a little more room would have been reccomended. It couldn’t have been a case of him not having seen us, for I could visually see crew on the ships bridge wings waving at us as they crossed in front of us. Perhaps we should have radio’d the ship ensuring he gave us a wide enough berth, but we didnt. In the end, he passed without incident, but it was a reminder to be constantly vigilant in this commercial marina traffic pinch zones.

A full moon and Land Ahoy

In a stark contrast to the passage from Phuket to Sri Lanka where there was no moon at all offering us illumination overnight, this passage was something very different. We had a full moon for the 3 nights, and asside from occasional cloud cover the nights were lit up brilliantly.

For the final 24 hours, the winds were mild enough that we were confident we could leave our code-zero out for the night. Winds abated, but with the aid of a favourable current and the bigger sail set, we were making good speed toward our destination.

The last couple of hours needed engines engahed as winds had all but died out, but before long, and in the early afternoon of the 4th February, Luna Blu crossed the souther point of the island of Uligan located in the northern part of the Maldive archipelago, and then turned up her west coast into a busy little anchorage that was playing host to about ten other yachts who were making a similar passage toward the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea.

Despite the shorter passage, 450nm’s, we had the full spectrum of weather to contend with. We had arrived tired and ready for a good rest. Conditions in the anchorage were excellent, with a light breeze and very flat water. We dropped the anchor in 16m of water, ensured it set, and then turned off engines. We had arrived at Uligamu, Maldives!

Time to celebrate with a few cool crisp tins of lager, and a recounting of tales with neighbouring boats, and then a long long night’s sleep!

We will explore what the Maldives have to offer over the next week or so, but for now, we rest!