[Dar Es Salaam - Phuket] Day 23 -- Clear Out

All morning we spent waiting. Mas-ood was supposed to contact us via radio, but no call came from him. Instead another boat seemed to call for harbour control every once in a while but got no answer as well. Friday morning was dead religiously. Around eleven, a french boat passed by our little anchorage and the captain guided them in. We spent the time snorkelling in the little basin and hoping for today's clearance. After lunch, the captain had finally made contact with Mas-ood and they were to leave for the harbour early afternoon, taking the french captain along.
We used the remaining time to wander about Gan Island to find the airport and beside it a great little restaurant with very moderate prices and excellent food and drink. Unfortunately we didn't have much time and needed to hurry through the meal to get back in time to taxi the captain ashore. While he was busy with the formalities in the harbour we walked and waded to a tiny uninhabited island just off the shore and took some pictures of the nearly unspoiled Maldive paradise. We left the plastic bottles and junk that was scattered over parts of the island out of the picture.

We returned before the captain did, but the afternoon was progressing and we wondered if he'd be back in time so we could leave before nightfall. I was tired of waiting after a while and took the dinghy to go ashore, hoping the captain would somehow return ealier like that. And so he did. Just as I touched the little wooden staircase a taxi pulled over and the captain emerged, boarded the dinghy and about ten minutes later we slid through the narrow channel to leave the Maldives behind and sail towards the evening sky.

Before sunset, the sky darkened and rain was approaching. Especially at the equator, those dark rain clouds usually brought gusts of wind with them. We looked at them and remembered the squall the day before we'd reached the atoll. Then it hit us, but this time we were much better prepared and had less sails up. We got plenty of rain and were going at some good speed for a while until the sky cleared again and we went motor-sailing at a nice speed through the night. The wind was shifting and unsteady and sails needed to be shifted frequently, but apart from the it stayed quite calm.

captains log:
1650 off under E, hairy pass with the shit-wheel
up Mizzen + Genoa
2000 get hit by squall, 18kn
plenty of rain, reef mizzen
shift the mizzen + Genoa repeatedly, wind shifting all the time
run nearly downwind
have the current with us