Kalhunaiboli Reef to Huvafen Fushi

Sailing Past Fancy Places

8th of April

📍 Kalhunaiboli Reef · 005°03.247′N, 073°00.459′E · Baa Atoll (North Maalhosmadulu)

Only God and Booking.com know how much it costs to stay at these places. But I’m sure it makes our daily charge for sailing around the Maldives pale into insignificance.

Miriandhoo is a small island at the southern end of Baa Atoll, handed over entirely to the Westin in 2018. Apparently, this is Marriott’s first property in the Maldives. They have created 70 villas in total: 29 overwater and the rest in the cheaper section, at around 900 USD per night.

We, on the other hand, spent the night at the fully exclusive Kalhunaiboli Reef, just beyond the Westin Island, anchored in 23 metres. Not a soul was to be seen, probably because the wind was a bit on the peaky side. Needless to say, the swimming platform remained unused.

Innafushi

9 – 13th April

📍 Innafushi · 004°52.085′N, 072°52.831′E · Baa Atoll (Goidhoo Atoll)

Continuing our quest south, we stopped at Innafushi – an uninhabited strip of sand and palm a few kilometres west of Goidhoo. It is part of the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and is one of only a handful of atolls where new resort development is, in theory, limited.

There isn’t much to do here apart from plopping yourself in the water to enjoy the sea life and walking around the small island to enjoy the sand. We plopped our anchor into the water in 18 metres.

Anniversary day

10th April

Maria and I celebrate two anniversaries: the date we started seeing each other, and the date we got married. The 10th of April is the first of them, and we have been celebrating that for 28 years so far. And for this one, we went to the beach and did a bit of snorkelling where the locals take tourists.

On the way to another snorkelling spot, we met the crews of Spirit (Kat and Brad) and Picasso (Mike and Daisy). They invited us for lunch on the beach with their kids, but we declined, as we had an anniversary date with Gin and tonic on the deck and sausage casserole. Brad said he would pick up our Whisperpower bits if we want and hold them until we meet again. That was very kind, but he has an Outemer 51 that goes like the clappers, so our chance of meeting up with them would be slim to very lucky.

Boat jobs and the nautical equivalent of domesticity can never be put off too long, even in beautiful places like this. We did the washing, stowed the sailing poles, cleaned the stainless steel, ran the generator, and made some water. The weather was sunny and calm.- perfect conditions for boat work.

But there’s always time for more snorkelling

Huvafen Fushi

14th -17th April

📍 Huvafen Fushi · 004°21.006′N, 073°21.076′E · North Malé Atoll (Kaafu)

Here’s a word salad for you: Huvafen Fushi, the resort, sits on Nakachchafushi island in North Malé Atoll. The resort’s main claim to fame is the world’s first underwater spa. Some of the treatment rooms here are nine metres below the lagoon surface, with floor-to-ceiling windows so that the massagee can look out to the sea. There is also an underground wine cellar with around 6,000 bottles. We have a bilge version with 8 bottles.

We anchored near Huvafen Fushi, at an uninhabited island, after 7 hours of motoring from Innafushi, and immediately got into pegging.

The intention was to snorkel around here, but when we plunged into the water and saw the waterline, we thought the nearby resort guests would be horrified (actually, we were horrified). It became a cleaning mission to remove the grass skirt that had sewn itself to Jamala’s hull. And, while I was there, I also dived in to clean the prop.

We invited Stacey, Brett, Hanno and Rita (the crews of Bella Vita and Eternaut) around for drinks one evening. The rest of the time, we just took it easy and shared the £750-per-night view.

Then, after a couple of days loafing around, we set off again on our travels – onward to Himmafushi.