MALE, MALDIVES

MALE, MALDIVES

APRIL 5-21, 2016

Male is a shock to most cruising yachts after a long passage from Malaysia, Thailand or Sri Lanka.  The intensity of waterborne traffic is incredible.  There are more ferries, small cargo boats and sundry other craft plying these waters than we have seen anywhere else.  Added to that there are about 150 international and local flights arriving daily.  It’s a busy place!  Most of the tourists that arrive in the Maldives are booking onto “live-aboard” dive boats.  The remainder are the rich and famous that seek seclusion at resorts in the outlying atolls.  They arrive on international flights and are whisked away via seaplanes to very expensive and exclusive resorts.  Many of the resorts have leased the atolls so they are private and not welcoming to anyone other than their clients.  Paparazzi cannot gain access to the exclusivity and remoteness of these resorts.

Nothing is grown or produced on Male.  It is hub central for the other two hundred inhabited atolls (there are 1200 atolls in the Maldives).  Everything is imported from other countries.  Western food can be found in abundance along with produce from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and USA.  The country is very Islamic and prayers are called out five times a day; businesses shut down for twenty minutes to worship.  There is no alcohol allowed for Maldivians.  To be caught drinking in public is subject to a six month jail sentence.  The government is a dictatorship run by wealthy families.  The first,  last and only democratically elected president was expelled by a coup d’état and jailed.  Presently, he is in England undergoing medical treatment.

There just isn’t much here that excites me.  It all comes down to anchoring in remote atolls and diving/snorkeling the reefs.  The weather is unpredictable with frequent squalls.  It’s the hottest most humid place we have ever been.  If there is no wind it becomes a misery.  Everyday Phyllis and I take the ferry from our anchorage in Hulumale (04-13.266’ N; 72-32.138 E) into Male.  It’s a twenty minute ferry boat ride and cheap ($0.33 US).  These ferries run continuously 24/7.  We find A/C stores and restaurants to beat the heat; sad, but true.  We will try to get out of here as soon as possible.  On our voyage here from Sri Lanka, the fresh water pump on the Beta 50 engine developed a small leak. I am having another one sent from the UK as a backup.  Strangely enough, the fresh water pump has stopped leaking for the moment.  That is the only thing keeping us in “Hell-hole-Male”; I’m referring to the anchorage and not the Capitol.

The fresh water pump is, finally, delivered to the boat on April 20 and we make preparations to sail to Addoo (00-35.0’ S; 73-09.2’E) , the most southern atoll in the Maldivian group.  We depart from Hulumale anchorage on April 21, 2016 @ 1130 hrs.

The Maldives stretch some 800 nm from the North to the South.  There are three major population centers and a multitude of lesser villages.  Ulligan is in the North; Male (the Capitol) is in the center; Addoo is in the South.  The atolls are sparsely populated and have been subject to being ruled by foreign powers in their quest for the spice and silk trade of SE Asia.  The Portuguese stand out as being the most hated and cruel: looting, rape, murder, torture, and an attempt to convert the Islamic population to Christianity stand out in the annals of the Maldivians.  No foreign power was more hated.

I went to the National Museum in Male and learned a little of the history.  The atolls were ruled by a Sultanate and various Sultans.  The most profound influence was the conversion of one of the Sultans  to Islam around 1268 AD.  Since that time, the population and state religion is Islamic.  There seems to be some kind of Mosque Management system in place.  The actual “call to prayer” is sung out over loud speakers by an “live Imam” and not a recording as found in most other places.  The women are very conservatively dressed with all the younger girsl covering their head with a “hajab” and many of the older married women wearing the full “chadora” with or without veil; most do not wear a veil.  The coloring of most Maldivians is South Indian.  I have been told that they are a mixture of Indian, Arabic, Persian and various conquerors.  The language is, indeed, strange.  A look at a Maldivian map shows that the words are very long and difficult to pronounce.  The Maldivian script is written from right to left, as is the Arabic one, but is not at all attractive.  As a result of reading the Koran, most educated Maldivians can speak and read Arabic.  They are receptive to tourists, because that is where the money comes from, but not overly friendly.  Standing in a queue, a Maldivian gives no quarter.  The least hesitation invites someone pushing his way in.  The same goes for boarding ferries or public transportation.  They are not polite in the Western way but neither are they rude.  This all changes when it comes to those working in the tourist industry.  In the end, we are the infidels.

I find nothing outstanding with Maldivian architecture.  On atolls that, mostly, rise no more than ten feet above the sea level, too many storms and tsunamis have destroyed that which came before.  The country is very modern with utilitarian design.  Even the mosques are quite simple in their design.  If global warming continues, many of the atolls will have to be evacuated.  I see evidence that the Maldivians are preparing for this by building higher seawalls and barriers.  They have lots of heavy equipment to do this and one sees pipelines and seawalls going up everywhere. On a very personal level, I would not come back here.