Hello from the Arabian Sea en-route Oman
Our forced return to the idyllic Maldives to rectify engine overheating issues provided a bonus that outweighed the tech issues (more on those later). We had another 2 days and a night at anchor off Uligamu anchoring in 22 metres of clear water, putting out 50 metres of chain which then saw us drag over a beautiful
reef with at times only 6.5 metres under Musketelle. Previously we had anchored over a big sandy patch. The upshot of this new location was the reef attracted the resident fish life in abundance and whats more the huge Manta Ray also surrounded us too, all seemingly attracted to the hull.
B was the first to be confronted by a Manta in the water as it approached to within 3 metres of her before gliding away. She burst to the surface with a shriek of excitement. P also dove for his first confrontation with these gentle giants albeit not quite as close but very impressive. These creatures of the sea are harmless plankton eaters and simply huge, gliding around gracefully with mouth wide open taking in their microscopic food. The biggest we saw had a fin to fin cross span of about 3 metre and longer wip tale reminding us of a star wars type spaceship. They seemed to circle the lagoon in formation in groups of four or five at times flapping their flippers on the surface to herald their location. We rate our experience with the Manta Ray as up there with the Orangutans and Komodo Dragons. Our one outstanding date is to swim with Doogongs. To top off our enforced stay we had a final great snorkel on the shore reef experiencing the best fish life we have seen anywhere even if the coral reefs in Indo were more colorful.
Our forced return to the idyllic Maldives to rectify engine overheating issues provided a bonus that outweighed the tech issues (more on those later). We had another 2 days and a night at anchor off Uligamu anchoring in 22 metres of clear water, putting out 50 metres of chain which then saw us drag over a beautiful
reef with at times only 6.5 metres under Musketelle. Previously we had anchored over a big sandy patch. The upshot of this new location was the reef attracted the resident fish life in abundance and whats more the huge Manta Ray also surrounded us too, all seemingly attracted to the hull.
B was the first to be confronted by a Manta in the water as it approached to within 3 metres of her before gliding away. She burst to the surface with a shriek of excitement. P also dove for his first confrontation with these gentle giants albeit not quite as close but very impressive. These creatures of the sea are harmless plankton eaters and simply huge, gliding around gracefully with mouth wide open taking in their microscopic food. The biggest we saw had a fin to fin cross span of about 3 metre and longer wip tale reminding us of a star wars type spaceship. They seemed to circle the lagoon in formation in groups of four or five at times flapping their flippers on the surface to herald their location. We rate our experience with the Manta Ray as up there with the Orangutans and Komodo Dragons. Our one outstanding date is to swim with Doogongs. To top off our enforced stay we had a final great snorkel on the shore reef experiencing the best fish life we have seen anywhere even if the coral reefs in Indo were more colorful.
We are back at sea on our way to Salalah Oman having stripped down the complete fresh and saltwater cooling system, replacing the saltwater intake pump impeller and cleaning the heat exchanger thoroughly with vinegar to eliminate growth in the fine copper tubing. Also removed the thermostat and tested it finding ok
but opted not to re-install as we are going to be doing a lot of motoring up the Red Sea in high temperatures and this eliminates a potential problem area. Will re-install when we get to the cooler climes of Europe later this year. We were in a situation where we could not establish what the cause of the overheating problem was so to remove doubt we did everything. Ironically it may all have only been a faulty fanbelt which in situ looked fine and well tensioned. Being less than 6 months old we did not suspect this but on removal noticed multiple cracks so obviously that would have contributed. So we set sail again for Oman and can you believe as we were raising the anchor the Aternator on the main engine decides to die on us leaving our only form of power generation the Generator. We decided to push on regardless. The feeling is the Alternator was
the cause of the excessive heat in the first place sending the temp in the engine compartment way up making it seem as if the whole engine was overheating.
Hope to find an Arab electrical engineer on a camel in Oman. We have the excitement and feeling that our voyage is moving into another new faze. Ahead the land of the Arabs, sandstorms, backshee, deeprooted tensions and thousands of years of upsetting travellers and voyagers transiting their space.
Sailing in the Arabian Sea sounds romantic and exciting...its the same as the Tasman in mid-summer just bluer. Unlike the Tasman there are some current issues up ahead as we prepare for the challenge of transiting the Gulf of Aden. We acknowledge we are going into dangerous waters and understand the risks. 15
countries now have naval hardware in the area to maintain free-flow of maritime trade and we are more confident than last year that we'll get through safely. We have registered with maritime security co-ordination controllers in the UK and Dubai with our Satellite Phone as the key component in our security kit, in addition to VHF/DSC Radio and Single Sideband Radio.
A shipping corridor is operating in the Gulf and we have agreed to follow procedures to maintain contact with the co-ordinators as we transit the corridor. If we suspect we are being approached by unsavory types we set off emergency systems and the coalition forces should have support to us within a certain timeframe. As an extra precaution we will still try to get together with say 3 or 4 other yachts in Salalah for the 300 mile passage through the corridor as there is no doubt of enhanced safety in numbers. We must say the information we have received from the security forces is most comprehensive and extremely
helpful and reassuring...to a point. Enough of the formal.
but opted not to re-install as we are going to be doing a lot of motoring up the Red Sea in high temperatures and this eliminates a potential problem area. Will re-install when we get to the cooler climes of Europe later this year. We were in a situation where we could not establish what the cause of the overheating problem was so to remove doubt we did everything. Ironically it may all have only been a faulty fanbelt which in situ looked fine and well tensioned. Being less than 6 months old we did not suspect this but on removal noticed multiple cracks so obviously that would have contributed. So we set sail again for Oman and can you believe as we were raising the anchor the Aternator on the main engine decides to die on us leaving our only form of power generation the Generator. We decided to push on regardless. The feeling is the Alternator was
the cause of the excessive heat in the first place sending the temp in the engine compartment way up making it seem as if the whole engine was overheating.
Hope to find an Arab electrical engineer on a camel in Oman. We have the excitement and feeling that our voyage is moving into another new faze. Ahead the land of the Arabs, sandstorms, backshee, deeprooted tensions and thousands of years of upsetting travellers and voyagers transiting their space.
Sailing in the Arabian Sea sounds romantic and exciting...its the same as the Tasman in mid-summer just bluer. Unlike the Tasman there are some current issues up ahead as we prepare for the challenge of transiting the Gulf of Aden. We acknowledge we are going into dangerous waters and understand the risks. 15
countries now have naval hardware in the area to maintain free-flow of maritime trade and we are more confident than last year that we'll get through safely. We have registered with maritime security co-ordination controllers in the UK and Dubai with our Satellite Phone as the key component in our security kit, in addition to VHF/DSC Radio and Single Sideband Radio.
A shipping corridor is operating in the Gulf and we have agreed to follow procedures to maintain contact with the co-ordinators as we transit the corridor. If we suspect we are being approached by unsavory types we set off emergency systems and the coalition forces should have support to us within a certain timeframe. As an extra precaution we will still try to get together with say 3 or 4 other yachts in Salalah for the 300 mile passage through the corridor as there is no doubt of enhanced safety in numbers. We must say the information we have received from the security forces is most comprehensive and extremely
helpful and reassuring...to a point. Enough of the formal.
We have been listening in each morning to a loose radio sched of other yachts sailing these waters en-route to Oman etc. We share positions, weather and information. After each sched there is inter-boat chatter if propagation allows. To identify we are moving into less than friendly waters a yacht two days out of Salalah mentioned a local regularly jamming the VHF Ch 16 emergency channel with a less than welcoming singing session that went like this... "F...you, we're coming to rob your boats and slit your throats". Repeated...Nice
stuff. We have obviously discussed some strategies to minimise this happening to us and positions we will take aboard to protect each other. Note: Unfortunately the format on our blog postings get reset by the system after they are posted by us from sea (we dont write them like that) and only when we get ashore to an internet site can we re-edit and tidy up. See older blogs have been re- edited. Also we cannot download digital pics until ashore.
stuff. We have obviously discussed some strategies to minimise this happening to us and positions we will take aboard to protect each other. Note: Unfortunately the format on our blog postings get reset by the system after they are posted by us from sea (we dont write them like that) and only when we get ashore to an internet site can we re-edit and tidy up. See older blogs have been re- edited. Also we cannot download digital pics until ashore.
All for now.
P&B All@Sea
P&B All@Sea
