Diverging Wakes

Ceilydh anchored in Prickly Bay, Grenada

Crystal Blues and Ceilydh sailed away from Malaysia bound for Sri Lanka within a few days of each other, back in February 2015. Since then our wakes have crossed many times, across both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Onward we sailed, sometimes diverging, other times sharing anchorages, marinas, cultures and each others lives. Last week we sailed overnight from Charlotteville in Tobago to Prickly Bay in Grenada - our last passage together. What great friends and companions the crew of Ceilydh have been.

Crystal Blues anchored out the back in Prickly Bay, Grenada

Diane's work as a writer opened up many interesting opportunities in the countries we visited together. Evan is a naval architect, so there was always a lot of boat talk. Maia blossomed in the time we knew her - changing irreversibly into the beautiful and confident young woman she is today.

It did help that we are all passionate about live music, fine wine and good food. We shared the same simple pleasures when discovering a market where there were more than a few choices for foods we craved. Here in Grenada the five of us roamed around the two world class chandleries, like children in a toy shop, ogling over boat stuff that we had been looking for several countries back. We also shared the same culture shock when anchoring in Prickly Bay, Grenada - looking at the forest of masts in the bay, with even more spilling onto the crowded hardstand.

Most of all we just spent time together. Laughing, cooking, exploring, shopping, swimming, celebrating birthdays, helping each other out along the way. A fine and lasting friendship blossomed across two oceans.

Ceilydh sailed away yesterday to Curacao. Diane, Evan, Maia and the feline bosun Charlie are excited to be slowly heading home to Canada. Crystal Blues remains anchored in Prickly Bay, Grenada, waiting for a few boat parts, before we sail on to Trinidad and haul out. Next year we plan to explore the USA via the inland lakes and waterways.

We remind ourselves how lucky we are to have shared this special time together, for it was a bitter sweet parting. Our wakes may have diverged, but not our hearts - we'll meet these special people again.

Diane, Evan, Maia and Charlie preparing to depart Prickly Bay, Grenada. Maia, we are going to miss your Key Lime Pies!

Indian Ocean Clearance Diving

Can He Touch The Bottom ?  No Way....

On Tuesday night we hooked up on a surface net, where the top rope was directly buoyed on the surface.

I felt it pass under the keel around 9:00pm and then was amazed to see Crystal Blues slow down to a crawl as the line hooked onto the skeg and we started to drag the net to the south.

It was strange to be heeling over, sailing on autopilot, but going absolutely nowhere. As I turned to get the diving gear ready it broke free, assisted by the boat heaving on the light swell that was effecting us at the time. A lucky break.

Then on Friday, Ley noted a small white object trailing the rudder, about half a meter behind the stern. It danced and dived in the water, and got kind of excited when the boat speed hit 8 knots. Having sailed through an area of fishing nets we figured we had something hooked up somewhere under the boat.

Fish Line & Float Trailing Us For Day

Yesterday I took the plunge and swam in the deepest water that I've ever been in - 4,484 meters according to our charts. I must say it was amazing - so perfectly clear that I felt like I could see forever. Crystal Blues was like a toy floating above me in a light blue field. The clarity was at first disorienting, I've never experienced anything like it.

It took only seconds to cut the light line holding a fishing float to our skeg - looks like we hooked up the vertical suspension line on a submerged net, and it broke away from the net as we passed over it.

Passage To The Maldives

Three days in to our passage from Trincolmalee, Sri Lanka, to the Maldives the weather has been kind to us once again. Sunny days, dry weather and just enough wind to sail. As you can see here the sunsets have been beautiful.

All is well on board, the basil is growing like mad and we expect to arrive in Male on Sunday afternoon. Ley has caught no fish, except for the squid and flying fish found dead on the deck this morning.

We have sailed 406 NM and have 259 NM to go. Luckily we have had up to 2 knots of favorable current for the past two days so we covering miles very comfortably.

Travels In Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

Between the old Honda Motorbike and a fairly battered Toyota van we managed to cover a lot of ground here in Sri Lanka.  We never did get to one of the nearby wild life parks, but that didn't prevent us from sharing the roads and tracks with wild elephants, mongoose, peacocks, lizards, squirrels, deer, water buffalo, monkeys of many kinds etc etc.  That's not to mention the thousands of cattle and goats that roam free here and do really own the roads, though the local bus drivers would disagree.

Ancient City of Polonnaruva ruins

Traveling without a local guide is kind of unusual here, and the various historic sites make it a challenge, but Google Maps and an almost infallible 3G network made the navigation simple.

We spent a lot of time on back roads and tracks, and were never without a phone signal.  Even better, we were never without smiles and welcomes from the local people.

In one local town we waded into the river to watch the elephants being scrubbed, ate great local food and generally felt that we were very welcome everywhere.

The historic sites here are plentiful and spectacular, if a little expensive for foreigners to enter. But do pay the money and walk on to see some amazing sights.

Sigiriya - Water Gardens Leading To The Lions Claws

At Sigiriya we climbed the 830 steps (sure I counted them all) to get to the site of the palace.  Having proved to ourselves that we are definitely "getting older", we spent 30 minutes recovering before exploring the palace site.

Perched on top of a monumental chunk of rock, this was certainly a defendable site for a palace.  An amazing perspective on the countryside from up there, a forest of green punctuated with lakes as far as the eye could see.The next 830 steps (down) were very much easier.

From  our base in Trincomalee we were able to travel widely and return to the boat each evening.  Some of the island's attractions, including the national parks, do really require overnight travels, but we were keen to get moving again. 

A collection of our Sri Lankan images can be viewed here.

Sigiriya - Cave Frescoes

So we have refueled and provisioned for the next stage of our journey.  We cleared with customs and immigration yesterday evening, the Navy inspection boat has just departed and the dinghy is in davits ready for the passage.

We'll depart here in an hour or so and sail to Male in the Maldives.  Our transit time should be four to five days.

Sigiriya - fabulous views from the palace on top of the rock.