Maldives Day 14 - After the storm comes before the storm

August 8, 2021

Unfortunately, the weather this morning is mixed. It's quite windy and the sun hasn't been able to break through the cloud cover yet.

After breakfast, my daughter and husband want to go sailing with Paul from the water sports station.

Since they are supposed to receive a 30-minute briefing, I decide to go to the water sports station later to take photos. Unfortunately, I find out that they have already started sailing with the catamaran. Dagmar shows me where they roughly want to sail. We walk to the pier of the Superior Bungis and see the catamaran circling behind it, then they turn towards Malé and are too far away. I decide to wait on the pier in front of the dive station until they come back.

The sky is getting threateningly dark again. After a while, Dagmar also comes to the pier and hopes that Paul is slowly heading back to the island. She wouldn't like the dark cloud cover - something bigger would be coming towards us again....

Oh no......

We can watch as the clouds move towards us in minutes and get darker and darker. On the horizon, we see the catamaran coming back. They better hurry up now, otherwise we'll all get wet...

The wind picks up, and with a stormy breeze and higher waves, Paul sails back to land with my daughter and husband.

Together, they pull the catamaran out of the water, then we run to the bungalow. The thunderstorm is coming!!!

We just manage to bring all the clothes and towels from the loungers to safety when the sky opens up.

It's pouring down (but it's still warm), so this time I jump into the sea with my husband for a "rain bath".

If the rain didn't feel like needles on my face, it would have been a pleasant experience. So we splash around for a while and then quickly leave the sea. But it was fun!

As quickly as the storm came, it is also over just as quickly this time. Only an hour later, we can lie on the beach again and bask in the sun 😉

After lunch, we attempt to snorkel, but the high waves and rising tide make it challenging. It takes us a while to even reach the first buoy, which shows the way to the reef entrance with a rope. Due to the tide, it's now so deep that none of us can even stand. It's not like our first few days of snorkeling. The water only reached our son's chest back then, and you could stand anywhere in the lagoon. That hasn't been the case for a few days now.

We are swept over by several waves until we finally reach the roof of the reef. However, the waves are so intense here that we can't see anything and can't get to the edge of the reef due to the current.

It's safe to say that snorkeling today is more challenging. We return to the beach a bit faster than usual due to the currents and being tossed around.

Instead, we prefer to jump around in the waves and splash around on the beach.

Afterwards, our son and husband play a round of table tennis and foosball, and then we organize a hermit crab race 😉 and observe the lizards that are moving around in front of our bungalow.

Today, we have our sundowner cocktail on the bungalow lounger and later sit at the front of the beach. But due to the low-hanging clouds, there is no beautiful sunset today.

After dinner, we sit in the sand bar again for some gaming.

My daughter and I briefly browse the souvenir shop and among all the 'MALDIVES' mugs, we spot one with the inscription 'Seychelles' 🤪

My husband returns from the reception and waves the key to the kids' bungalow 😉 Hooray! Someone found it and turned it in. I suspect that we left it behind during the storm when we were playing cards in the sand bar at noon.

Phew, one less worry!

Now we just wish for sun tomorrow, then everything will be perfect!!!

On the way back to the bungalow, we shine our flashlight on the path (like every evening) to avoid stepping on hermit crabs or crabs. When I quickly walk towards the bungalow terrace, I only see something "big" with many legs in the shadow of the flashlight. These moments of terror with these huge black crabs are not good for my arachnophobia....

Exactly one of them has now ended up on our terrace. Amidst the screams of the kids, my husband gently chases away the crab from the terrace. Phew. What a scare!

Our son urgently needs to use the bathroom, so he runs to the toilet before anyone can turn on the light. A scream!

My husband quickly films a huge centipede (?) - in any case, it has significantly more legs than the crab - as it runs through the bathroom in a flash and disappears under the cabinet.... Ewwwwwwwwwwwww......

I won't go into the bathroom without shoes anymore.... 🤪