Rise and Shine…it’s 1:30 am on April 18th and we are getting ready to lift anchor. We have about 60 miles to go and want to ensure we arrive at our next anchorage with lots of sunlight directly overhead (preferable between 10am-2pm) to have the best visibility to see coral heads going through the pass to the lagoon. We follow our path out (also at low tide) and get into deeper water with no hiccups!
SV Starry Horizons is literally right behind us (they go much faster than we do) and we navigate into open waters around Goidhoo Atoll and a few lighted (thank goodness) fishing boats. We are soon to approach North Male Atoll but of course are welcomed with a “welcome squall”! We slow down and hove to to let it pass and let the clouds clear as much as possible before attempting the lagoon pass.
SV Starry Horizons go ahead of us through the pass and report back there is plenty of depth to enter the lagoon (15 feet at high-tide and full moon) and so Kimi on the bow and Trevor navigating with Google images, we drop anchor in 40 feet of water, 200 feet of chain in mostly a sand bottom with some coral bommies around.
Boduhithi Island: Waypoint – 04 24.4710 N, 073 21.7263 E
Up until this point, our weather experience in the Maldives has been sunny and variable light winds from the NW-N-NE. However, when we arrived here, it was to become clear, a system was brewing and/or monsoon season was changing or we were just getting that much closer to the equator…..not sure…I am no meteorologist : ) What we did know was that squalls became more the consistent and the wind became stronger (really about 15 knots sustained but gusts were up to the 20’s). This is not good weather for snorkeling!
Big squall…can you see SV Starry Horizons?
We did manage to get in one snorkel but no manta rays to be seen….but lots of unicorn fish
“I poop rainbows” (LOL)
We always find a way to find the silver lining….so we thought we would do a ‘mock’ 4th of July dinner aboard Slow Flight with Starry Horizons, being an American flagged vessel and all…not sure who/where we will be on the REAL 4th of July so thought we would share with fellow Americans the traditional BBQ ribs, chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, corn on the cob, and apple crisp!
We have been saving these ribs for since Australia! 
Chow time! 
Adorable!!!! 
Trevor’s tradiation that he has to fly our nautical American flag for all “4th of July” events (haha)…..Last 4th of July we were in Lizard Island with SV Starry Horizons , SV Henriatta, and others, and the 4th of July before that we were in Huahini, French Polynisa with SV Me Too, SV Fandango, and SV Mysticeti.
Did I mention before that SV Starry Horizons are technical geniuses? Well, they did it again….David basically did all the research and set us up a “virtual” US phone number through the app FreedomPop. Now we can call and receive phone calls without having “international” charges…though we still have to be connected to the internet to use the application…but it’s better than nothing! Thank you David for spending hours of your life you will never get back to getting us connected properly (hugs)!
With the weather the way it was…and Trevor and i were out of data…the only thing left to do was this…
No idea what movie this is…we watched too many to remember!
A bit disappointing that we couldn’t explore and find the mantas, it was time to move onward closer towards the capital city of Male where our water maker parts were being held and get some provisions in a “big” city. So a short 12 mile day hop to the Island of Himmafushi was the plan.
Himmafushi Island: Waypoint – 04 18.5108 N, 073 33.8285 E
aka…”H Island”…. was a more attractive anchorage than the well known and closer Hulhumale Island which is known for being a commercial area and full of boats and mooring lines. We opted for a more “quiet” anchorage at Himmafushi.
Long story short, Amy and David called to arrange for a diesel truck to meet us both at the pier about 2pm. We headed in first to take a look and NO WAY JOSE…..the little boat harbor was full of live aboard boats, fishing boats, and all the mooring lines. Additionally, the chop from the wind waves were coming over the breakwater and it was just too dicey so we turned around and anchored…so did SV Starry Horizons.
The anchorage…it’s a bit rough out there…prepared to get wet on the dinghy ride to shore. The other tour boats come and go and some anchor very close to you….
This stop was more of a work week than play and really was a blur of activity. The plan was to fuel up as much as possible, take ferries into Male to do provisioning and any other shopping we needed to to, and of course fix our water maker! However long it took us to accomplish we would stay here.
Dinghy at the pier: We would park in between these smaller boats and deploy our dinghy anchor to prevent us from rubbing against the concrete pier and the fluctuation of tides.
Found a cute swing…. 
…despite the hustle and bustle…the view was still amazing! 
Get your rest on captain….boat duties are coming!
Himmafushi town was small and cute…..just like any other island we have visited…just add lots of souvenir shops. The North Male atoll where Himmafushi island is located, is a well known surf area and pretty much the only tourists we saw on Himmafushi were surfers!
Headed to the capital city of Male….
The Himmafushi “Fast” ferry… 
The schedule to/from Male. Cost was 100 Rufiyaa ($6.50 usd) per person each way. 
The accommodations were top notch:
Pillows, bottled water, and hand sanitizer.
Amy and David ready for some SHOPPING!
View of Male from the ferry…..a literal wall of “concrete”…I don’t think there is 1 beach on the island of Male and if there is..it is very small!
We literally could not cross the street and had to wait for the traffic to slowly move so we could squeeze between the vehicles…..back to city life! 
Even the harbors were jammed pack! See the 2 guys paddling out to a boat?
Basically we took 3 trips to Male for everything we needed and did a lot of walking!
I did somehow get Trevor to do a bit of sightseeing. For the last 11 months, we have been traveling through countries where the Muslim religion is predominant (besides Thailand and Sri Lanka). Because we are not Muslim, it is generally prohibited for us to enter a mosque. However, in Male, there is a UNESCO heritage site: The Old Friday Mosque, where foreigners could enter if properly dressed. Trevor had to wear a sarong and I (shoulders and legs already covered) had to put my bandanna over my head (glad I had it). See below link of a great write up on the Old Friday Mosque:
https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5812/
Back in Himmafushi….
a little work to get Slow Flight in tip top shape. During our time in Boduhithi Island, our generator’s oil pressure sender went out and every time we would start the generator up, the oil pressure would register at the top of the gauge reading. So our time in Male was prioritized to fixing the water maker and the generator…2 MAJOR things we need! You will never guess it….the first store we walked into (they did have large generators in the window) had a oil pressure sender that would work…..if you are a cruiser…you know that this never happens…we got lucky again!
SV Starry Horizons nor us felt very comfortable putting our boat at the pier at Himmafushi, but did arrange a truck to deliver diesel to the pier so we could fill our jerry cans up…. 
…way better than lugging all the jerry cans to/from the fueling station!
Trevor replaced both membranes on our water maker. We had been running off just 1 membrane since we left Sri Lanka…..
Now, with 2 working membranes, we can make water at double the speed : )
Trevor also replaced the low pressure pump for the water maker…a bigger deal than he had hoped but it got done….(there was a lot of swearing involved so I left him alone…no photos).
….We enjoyed dinners out (pizza!!!) with Amy and David (sadly I have no photos) and game night on SV Starry Horizons with their guest, Gina and Ezekiel, from the Philippines. I believe Ezekiel proposed to Gina while they were visiting Amy and David on SV Starry Horizons…..super cool!
I have no idea what the name of this game is but it’s a mix of Pictionary and Telephone where you have to “guess” what the person draws, then write your guess down, then the next person draws your guess, and so on….this round is what you get with 2 bottles of wine and 6 sick minds (I say it with love people…such a good time we had!)
Ezekiel Word he had to draw…. 
Ezekiel’s drawing…. 
My guess to Ezekiels drawing…. 
Trevor’s drawing of my guess…. 
Amy’s guess of Trevor’s drawing…. 
David’s drawing of Amy’s guess…. 
Gina’s guess of David’s drawing
Unfortunately, when we arrived in Himmafushi, we had heard about the bombings in Sri Lanka. After getting reconnected to internet, we messaged our friends who we had met there to make sure they were ok. It was a huge shock to us and after being there just a month ago, it felt surreal. There is really nothing we can do at this stage in our travels but we sincerely hope for the country to recover quickly and our hearts are heavy with the loss of life.
It’s time to say “see you later” to Amy and David on SV Starry Horizons…we will see you in Chagos…. and their guests, Gina and Ezekiel – it was so great to meet you both and a huge CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Next up…Passage to Addu Atoll (aka Gan): Sailing, Currents, and Crossing the equator (for the 3rd time)…