After a 17 day passage from Langkawai, round the top of Sumatra and across the Indian Ocean (2000 miles) we arrived in Chagos

Red line denotes our passage in and out

Info' on the Chagos:

Chagos is a British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and has been since 1965 when Chagos was part of the Seychelles Group of Islands.  Seychelles were given independence from Great Britain and Chagos remained British Territory. The group of islands is administered by the British Navy who are stationed on the Island of Diego Garcia.

Chagos consists of six major atolls and a number of reefs and smaller islands in the Chagos Banks which lies just three hundred miles south of the Maldives.

Salomon Atoll an approved anchorage area has11 islands and Ile Boddam where we spent most of our time we found there remnants of the Village church, copra workings and a graveyard that had been abandoned between 1965 -1971 when the British evicted the Chagonians to Mauritius a few thousand miles away. This was done to accommodate the US Navy who would be using the island of Diego Garcia for a US Naval base and needed the islands free of its inhabitants.

Today more than 40 boats arrive in Chagos to anchorages that have been approved by the BIOT to await the South East Trade winds to continue their journey to either East Africa or Madagascar and South Africa.

We Hunkered down in the lee of Ile Boddam, Salomom Islands in the Chagos Archipeligo for two and half months waiting for the Monsoon to turn round and draw the S.E. trades North with them so we could continue on to Seychelles thence to South Africa via Madagascar and Mozambique.

As you can imagine it was a little trying the last few weeks in Chagos playing the waiting game. It was truly a tropical paradise there, birds, fish, exquisite coral, turtles, sharks, white sand beaches, no habitation for hundreds of miles (Gahn in the Maldives) but you can only do so much snorkeling, fishing, and I (Peter) did all of the easy boat chores that can be done while full time on board and only ships supplies to work with (no shops there). So I was classified as truly bored. Getting much better at crosswords though and Joyce became somewhat of a card sharp, wanting to play every night to complete my course in humiliation.

Wrinkles on my kisser bloomed in the constant tropical sun and fitness level plummeted.

So in all we didn’t see a store for three and a half months and Joyce did amazingly well with the provisioning and we had excellent fare for the whole time. We ran out of eggs in the first few weeks, our last onion went into a curry in week six. Taters were long gone. Fortunately still had gin and tonics, though rationed. Lots of fresh baked bread and of course, fresh fish. As you can imagine a Cappuccino and a squishy Danish in a French deli was first on the hit list when we arrive in Seychelles, followed by fresh fruit and a cold beer at the Victoria Yacht Club and for Joyce, burgers, fries and ice cream!     

A real screw up on my part in Chagos was not stowing enough Gasoline for the outboard. The 15 gals I took on was about a quarter of what we could have used so we were boat bound way more than we would have liked (it was over 1/4 mile to shore) and fishing, snorkeling and exploring the other islands became limited.

Joyce managed to fall playing beach Volley ball and badly pulled a tendon in her wrist - week six there. Still can't grip properly and is giving her a lot of pain. A little worrying. Need to get it xray when we get to the Seychelles . Muggins was also on the injury list at Chagos beach hospital with a nasty back compression got riding a dinghy through the surf that left me bed bound for a couple of days and sucking back our stocks of anti inflamatories and painkillers. Got over it after three weeks of painful activity. A real pair of old farts.

Funnily enough in Chagos whilst we were there we had, a retired Doctor and 2 Chiropractors. These guys were great to have around as the beach activities produced some quite interesting injuries.

So after a peaceful 10 weeks in Chagos we departed for the Seychelles a mere 1,000 nautical mile sail.