Previously, our anchorages in the Maldives have come from a wonderful person(s) (Jason Trautz – SV YOLO) who cruised this area back in 2015 and so kindly posted on Noonsite cruising information (shore amenities, anchorage details and way points, and cultural insights) for the rest of who has and will be following in his wake. He (or possibly others too who helped him) has dedicated a small part of their lives writing up logged experiences of their crossing of the Indian Ocean. Everyone…and I mean everyone who is now in the Maldives and is crossing the Indian Ocean….knows YOLO’s notes and has used his notes and waypoints to navigate through out these wonderful atolls and lagoons. See below link:
Until now, we have followed YOLO’s waypoints in the Maldives and so far so good. However…I did a bit of research and found an island named Thulhaadhoo that is know for their handmade lacquer but this atoll was not on YOLO’s list of anchorages. Deciding to go to this “island of lacquer” commits us to long day passages and possibly an overnight passage. Do we do it or do we stick to the tried and true anchorages on YOLO’s list of already plotted anchorages?! Well, if you know us…we trump the “known” for the “unknown” (generally speaking). So onward we go…but not alone…we convinced SV Starry Horizons (David and Amy) to come along.
The yellow circles are YOLO’s route. We decided to head west to “uncharted” islands that were not on YOLO’s list/notes.
Early morning on April 11th, we lifted anchor and started to head towards our next anchorage about 40+ miles away…..but holy FISH…we caught 2 within hours of each other…Trevor was a tired boy!
The lucky lure…. 
Another skip jack tuna…but BIGGER!!!! 
The short story: Made Trevor keep it off the boat until we could identify it…turns out it’s a Wahoo..as in”WAHOO!!!!”….maybe 40 pounds? It took Trevor all of about 45 minutes to clean and filet this monster….Nevver caught one of these so well have it for dinner to try it out!
Bodufarufinolhu Island: Way Point #1 – 05 32.7101 N, 072 48.3617 E
….aka “B Island”, this was just a stop over to make a day jump as we head to the “Lacquer Island” but we stayed 2 nights to check out the reefs.
Yeah…lots of coral bommies getting into the anchorage we chose so good light and visibility is needed. I was on the bow while Trevor guided us via our chart plotter and using Google and Bing images to dodge bommies.
Wahoo dinner…of course!
Our first night we saw a water spout…not sure if you can see it in this photo but if you can, it is actually active enough to be striking the sea.
What came to follow was a huge squall around midnight…the wind shifted and we had a lee shore (meaning if we dragged our anchor, we would be headed into a reef)….it finally passed and thankfully we had our anchor alarm set and we held well.
Each ring equates to 9 miles wide! 
still coming….. 
it actually dissipated and was slightly to our port but the wind was still pretty strong.
Bodufarufinolhu Island : Way Point #2 – 05 34.2372 N, 072 49.1410 E
We decided to move to another spot as the water clarity at waypoint #1 was super cloudy and we could barely see the bottom in 30 feet. So we moved about 1 mile.
Trevor steering and me on the bow again…anchored in 45 feet with sand and low coral bottom.
…the water was clear…time to jump in!
Spider Conch…do you see it’s eye?
SV Starry Horizons is a master at technology and they have a way to download prime time TV shows and movies via internet?….no idea how they do it but it’s MAGIC! So on April 14th, we were invited over to watch the first episode of GoT season 8….Trying to stay relevant (LOL).
WINTER IS COMING!!!!
Thulhaadhoo Island: Waypoint – 05 02.7464 N, 072 50.1138 E
The water was smooth as glass… 
But I am not sure what was registering on our sonar…we were supposed to be in 400+ feet of water?! 
Traditional Maldivian fishing vessel. 
The pass was deep enough and the shallowest point we saw was about 15 feet at low tide. We wanted to make sure we had a good path out of the lagoon as we anticipated an early (2 am) departure out of here to our next anchorage in a few days. Anchored in 20+ feet of water with 80 feet of chain with a sand and low coral bottom.
Thulhaadhoo Island is in the Baa Atoll. I didn’t know how diverse Baa Atoll was and if I would of done more “homework” on this atoll, we probably would of made a “B-line” for this atoll and stayed here for a month! It has both culture and water activities (see link to article below): “Eydhafushi Island is famous for textile making and weaving. Thulhaadhoo Island is noted for fishing, and organic lacquer work souvenirs. The women of Kiyaadhoo Island are renowned for their rope making skills, which they spin from dried coconut husk. The rope is still used in constructing traditional homes“.
Additionally, it has a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, declared in June 2011 and first in the Maldives, that experience one of the few places on earth where whale sharks congregate to mate and offers one of the largest gathering of manta rays worldwide know as “cyclone feeding”. Unfortunately, our time here was short but we did see a manta ray that swam between our boats one morning.
Into town of Thulhaadhoo Island in search of the famous lacquer…we had no idea what to expect…
…..defiantly didn’t expect to see these products available in the stores…. but of course…everyone wants to look and feel good no matter where you are in the world!
A quick lunch stop….
As we meandered through town, we were approached by a man who led us through his house and workshop and low and behold…..he makes lacquer crafts!!!!
We could barely communicate with one another and we tried to ask questions regarding the process to learn more about this traditional artwork. Rather than trying to answer us in English, he just sat down and showed us what he was doing on his most recent piece he was working on, a pen. He even presented Trevor with the chance to try it…Trevor declined not knowing if he was going to “ruin” the art. Amy on SV Starry Horizons found this wonderful site (below link) which does an amazing job explaining the craft….very interesting!
The “paint” in it’s flat form ready to be applied to the wood….
We are told this 17 century lacquer industry has been a dying trade. In the Baa Atoll, there are very few resorts to sell these crafts locally, so most of the lacquer pieces are sold to tourists in the capital of Male. However, it is clear to us the skill has been preserved on the island of Thulhaadhoo, possibly the only island it is preserved.
Our precious lacquer pieces. Traditionally, the Maldivian lacquer were “very basic usually a very bright red, yellow and black and traditionally these were made from the juices from trees and insects in the early days”. However, with the commence of trade between in the Middle East, now you can find a variety of colors.
https://backpackmaldives.org/2013/10/11/arts-and-crafts-in-the-islands-thulaadhoo-baa-atoll/
We all want to see some Manta rays and hear (Yolo’s notes) there is a few “cleaning stations” about 60 miles away….it will be an early morning (2 am) for us all so time to get so rest…
Next up….Mantas?! and Male…