Sailing Maldives to Oman

February 8th 2004 Maldives to Oman
Day 1: (1254 Miles to go)
The Maldives was a good place to rest up after a trying journey from Thailand. It was beautiful and quiet.

After a few weeks it was time to move on.

We left the Maldives on January 31st in 20 to 25 knots of wind right on the nose. We weren’t happy about that but “them’s the breaks”. The only way we could make it around the islands and into the open seas was to motor sail.
“Tehani Li” with Derek & Ariel (Tayana 52’) sailed out with us about 30 minutes behind us. We continued to motor sail for an hour or so to make sure we were well out beyond the breakers. We were sailing with a double reefed main and Genoa and had to fall off about 10 degrees west from the rhumb line, which was direct to Salalah, Oman.
It wasn’t long until I noticed that our Genoa (Big Front Sail) was fraying along the leach line (edge) and threatening to blow apart. This was not good news considering we were having a good time giving “Tehani Li” a hard time catching us. Besides, we were just starting on this passage. There were only a couple of options for us; turn back to the anchorage and sew the sail, or reduce sail and continue. Well we hate going back so we decided to reduce sail. It wasn’t long until “Tehani Li” passed us to windward on a romp.

Soon after the sail problem, Julie announced that we were taking on water and the bilge alarm was going off. Great!! About the same time I realized that I wasn’t feeling so hot, and it had been a long time since we had really bashed to windward on “Free Radical”. Julie was on a rampage to find out where we had the water coming into the boat. She worked hard at pulling everything apart and discovered that our canned goods under the port settee, and our clothing in the portside v-berth were wet with seawater. Not good.
That night we didn’t get a lot of sleep with the rough ride and first night edginess. We were also concerned that this was a high traffic zone for ships moving to the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf.
Day 2: (1096 Miles to go)
The wind and waves had settled down overnight but the wind direction was still not favorable pushing us further west than we wanted to go. Julie continued her relentless search for the incoming seawater. The Captain (Me) continued to feel a little sea sick.
We finally came to the conclusion that the water was coming through the anchor locker, working its way through the caulking, along some wires into the hull stiffeners and into the bilges. We would keep an eye on it but all the canned goods and clothing would have to be rinsed in fresh water when we get into Oman.
That night we spotted 4 ships and a fishing boat on our watches. We had to alter course once to make sure that we didn’t come to close to the monster.

Day 3: (940 Miles to go)
We had been on a broad reach the night before allowing us to get back on our course for Oman. That morning the wind turned back more towards the north forcing us to close reach, and a little rougher sail. That day we read and rested getting caught up on our sleep. At dusk the winds picked up again giving us even rougher seas.
We were able to maintain our course but water was bashing our decks from the larger waves. We had three big waves that actually came right over the dodger into our dingy on the back of the boat. This made the anchor locker leak even more and the bilges filled up more often. One wave managed to make it under our dodger and plastic enclosure managing to splash down the companionway onto Julie sleeping in the aft Cabin. She was not a happy camper. All the bedding had to be changed and the salt water cleaned up.
That night Julie discovered that one section of the bilges was filling up with water from the leaks and was not making it to the main bilge and bilge pump. The connecting hose was plugged between the bilges & unfortunately the inverter was installed over the problem area. We pumped more often that night.

Day 4: (789 Miles to go)
It had settled down a bit and Julie continued to clean our salt splashed cockpit and bedding. I on the other hand was starting to feel a little better and decided to tackle the problem of the blockage in the bilges. I pulled up the inverter and the floor boards while Julie held the heavy inverter out of the way. With the use of a trusty coat hanger the problem areas were cleared and everything put back together. The weather turned much better and the mood on “Free Radical” was on the upswing.
That afternoon I spotted a big fishing boat making a beeline for us. I couldn’t figure what a big wooden fishing boat full of skinny fishermen would want from us, but they were certainly trying to get along side of us. These were about 25 guys and were 500 miles from nowhere and should have been a lot closer to shore somewhere. But they sure seemed a liitle crazy, waving frantically and motioning for us to slow down. They were signaling they wanted water.
They could have wanted to sell fish, bum cigarettes, say hello, but more likely would rob us. I didn’t know, but felt it was better to get the hell out of there. We altered our course 10 degrees to get more wind in the sails and started the motor. Our speed picked up to about 7.5 Knots and we could still go faster if we needed to. We were heading straight into the big waves.

The fishing boat altered course to intercept us, but with its big wide front end it really started to bash into the waves resulting in it slowing down. They waved at us to stop, but here was no way we were going to. After a few minutes they gave up and resumed their original course. Whew!!! After a few minutes we went back to ours too. They probably only wanted cigarettes, but why take the chance….
That night Julie saw only one ship on watch and we decided we were pretty much out of the shipping lanes. Much more relaxing.

Day 5: (637 Miles to go)
Each day Julie reported our position on the SSB radio on the Red Sea Net for safety and security. She also acted as net controller for two days out of the week and helped set the net up along with “Honeymoon”. (8173M worked well)
We had very steady favorable winds all day and a quick calculation told us that we needed to maintain 6.25 knots to get us in to harbour in daylight four days from then. Sails were adjusted to pick up speed and our strategy set. We didn’t want to spend an extra day at sea unless we had to.
More reading and sailing and spaghetti for supper…

Day 6: (460 Miles to go)
Water continues to drain into the bilge from the anchor locker and we dutifully pump it over the side with our manual bilge pump so that the electric pump didn’t cycle on and off as the boat rolls. Life as sea is a like a “Box of Chocolates”, you never know what will break next! I am finally able to help a little more in the galley since I don’t feel sick any more. I am sure sick of putting in and taking out reefs in the main at any time of the night or day.
Although the weather forecast called for 10 knots we had 20 knots so at 3P.M. I put a double reef in the main. We had too much heel and too much speed to feel comfortable sleeping at night. Of course the winds lightened up over night…
Day 7: (314 Miles to go)
I finally shook out the reefs in the main at 8A.M. to give us more speed. Our average speed was 6.6 knots over the last 24 hours but as the day wore on winds became lighter & lighter. Julie made bread and baked some peanut butter cookies while I did work on updating our web site for all you little turkeys who were following our adventures.
That night we fried up some more of the Wahoo fish we had caught on the way to the Maldives. It was served up on a bed of rice in a cereal bowl. Yum. It is easier to eat out of a bowl when the boat is rocking back and forth…
We finally started the engine and motor sailed all that day and over night.

Day 7: (173 Miles to go)
We started seeing ships again as we got closer to Salalah Oman and back into the shipping channels. We continued the motoring. Julie had a discussion on the Radio with the other boats regarding switching times for the morning safety & security check in. We had moved through another two time zones since leaving Thailand so we needed to move the schedules forward. I continued working on the web. The seas flattened right out and the boat was rolling very little, and the sails even stayed filled somehow (full main, full jib and staysail). The sky was clear blue and the horizon seemed endless.
Day 8: (33 Miles to go)
We had 33 miles to go from noon. That meant a little over 6 knots of boat speed would get us in before dark. We were motor sailing and the winds had picked up and coming right on the nose. We were moving at about 5 knots. Solution, motor harder. Wrong!!
As I increased the throttle the engine refused to increase speed over 2000 RPM. We shut down the engine and did a quick change of both the primary and secondary fuel filters. We tried again but the engine refused to push us any faster. We gave up trying to fix the engine. The winds picked up to 25 knots and we got a counter current of 2 knots. Our speed dropped to less than 4 knots. We weren’t going to make it in daylight. Generally we don’t do night entrances to harbors, but, we were tired and the entrance was supposed to be easy. So on we trudged in heavy seas with waves crashing relentlessly over the deck.
As the afternoon wore on the winds turned more east for us and gave us a boost. Soon we were up to 6 knots and back on schedule. As we approached Salalah we had to dodge fish traps which were marked by large jerry cans tied to the traps.
We arrived just in time to get the anchor down before dark. It took three tries at anchoring before we were comfortable we wouldn’t drag or get mixed up in the commercial ship traffic. Julie & were enjoying a sundowner (Adult Beverage) in the dark, when customs arrived to clear us in. It was an easy process and Mohammed handed us a welcoming information list for the Port of Salalah, Sultanate of Oman. Men dressed in white robes…..