On 20 September 2020, I left Dubai Marina, where I had been staying for 3 months, on a solo boat trip to the Maldives.
Crossing the Arabian Sea from Dubai to the Maldives is about 1,700 nautical miles (3,150 kilometers) and requires 16 days of uninterrupted sailing day and night, which is the most difficult sailing task I have faced so far.
From Dubai to Maldives
And the distance is not the hardest.
I suddenly started a high fever at the beginning of the departure, and I did not get better for three days, with headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and no appetite, and it was very risky to carry the sailing task for more than half a month in such a state. But I don't have time to wait for my condition to get better, and the wind direction in the North Indian Ocean will change from October, from the clockwise circulation of the summer wind to the reverse, which is completely contrary to my course, and if I do not seize this last window of time, I will have to wait until next year.
Wind conditions in the North Indian Ocean
Darkest hours
I first used 4 days and 4 nights to sail more than 400 nautical miles from Dubai to Oman to complete the final supply, and then set off on the afternoon of the 25th to officially start crossing the Arabian Sea. The voyage is divided into two sections, the first of which goes in the direction of India, reaches the vertex and turns south, using the monsoon to advance towards the Maldives.
The first section was the most difficult, almost against the wind, and the situation in the Persian Gulf was very different from that in the Gulf of Oman before, and after only more than 20 hours out of Oman, I felt that the loss of physical strength was worse than the days and nights in the Gulf of Oman. It is expected that the next 96 hours will be such a high-intensity, high-confrontation state.
Very tiring after a night of sailing
I wanted to save my physical strength as much as possible, but from 1 o'clock at night, the wind and waves were particularly large, and I did not sleep all night. The next morning, the deck was soaked by the tide, and there lay on the ground a flying fish that had cooled out.
When I first arrived in Egypt, I picked up a flying fish that crashed into a boat on the way out of the sea, and I thought it was very novel. The flying fish was beautiful, covered in shiny blue scales, and its wings were as big and delicate as butterflies, unlike this small, malnourished look.
Flying fish of the Egyptian Red Sea
There are so many flying fish in the Indian Ocean that they often fly by in groups on the surface of the sea. Therefore, the plot in "The Fantasy Drift of the Young Pi" is real. I picked up the fish and threw it back into the sea to make breakfast for my dolphin friends.
Flying fish in the Arabian Sea
The body is still very uncomfortable. Dabai was driving on the autopilot, and I rested on the side of the ship, trying to digest the discomfort as much as possible. The sky ahead is covered with dark clouds, but the clouds are not too thick, and it is not known whether thunderstorms will form later. Hopefully the sun will come out and disperse them.
Dark clouds pile up ahead
As far as I know, there are only two kinds of people who sail long distances like me, one is backed up by a professional team, and the other is a professional seafarer with experience in sailing events, and I, neither of which counts. Why did I do this in the first place, and now?
There were no lights in the cabin, quiet and dark; The sun didn't come out either, and the sea was overcast and empty. It was the second day in the Indian Ocean, and there were at least 6 or 7 nights of such intensity.
First stay up to the fold, after the bend is a tailwind or crosswind run, the situation will be better.
The second flying fish fell on the deck, and I threw it back into the sea, and then went into the cabin to get food. Lazy to cook, open a box of self-heating hot pot, and stimulate the nerves with spicy taste. In fact, during the voyage, the appetite will be greatly reduced, and every time I stay in one place for a long time and gain weight, I rely on the sea to regain weight.
* * *
On the afternoon of the 3rd day of crossing the Indian Ocean, Dabai encountered a huge swarm of dolphins. Dolphins weren't so many at the beginning, perhaps hearing the roar of the engines and being drawn in from a dozen to the last hundred. They chase flying fish all over the sea, staged a super lively hunt. The flying fish were driven to panic, flapped their wings and flew out of the water, and then fell back into the sea like raindrops.
Encountering dolphins on a voyage is always exhilarating, because they seem so happy that no matter how depressed the mood can be dissipated.
Encounter dolphins
In addition to dolphins, I have two friends – the Seabird Brothers. They've been following me since they set sail, and now they're more than 200 nautical miles (more than 400 kilometers) offshore, and they still come over every day to say hello to me. With these little creatures to accompany you, sailing is not so lonely.
Asuka Brothers
There are also people at sea – occasionally you can come across one or two fishing boats from the deep sea. However, I don't want to encounter any boats during normal sailing, because this is too risky for me, especially small speedboats, and nine times out of ten, they are not good.
These deep-sea fishing boats attract schools of fish by light, so the brightness is very strong, and at night they are like artificial suns on the open sea, and it is difficult to imagine what it would be like for people to stay on them.
A deep-sea fishing boat at night
As I approached the equator, the winds became weaker and weaker, and after entering the deep sea above 4,000 meters, there was almost no wind, so I injected spare oil into the tank. Halfway through the voyage, 850 nautical miles remaining.
Come on
After experiencing the noise of dolphins, the feeling of desertion is even more unbearable. Sailing is indeed a very big test of physical and mental fitness, recalling the partners who sailed with me: Lao Gu, who accompanied me to the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, Nick who crossed the Bay of Biscay together, and Xiao Liu who wandered with me in the Middle East for more than 3 months before getting off the ship... Almost everyone has gone through the process from excitement to fear, to collapse, and then to pick up confidence little by little and start tinkering, and then collapse and then repair, and finally reach a more balanced "let him go" state, which is the so-called "pendulum".
And Lao Gu in the Baltic Sea
Yet they were all just passengers, and as a captain and a sailor, I had a lot more to think about, which is why sailing really requires a very strong mind to be able to adapt. There is nothing on the vast sea, you don't know what will happen in the next second, how the weather will change, you can survive all by the unkillful grace of the sea, and all by the fact that nature has rewarded you with a little breathing space to be able to pass. There is never a conquest of the sea at sea, only the sea keeps you alive, the sea makes you pass, nothing more.
Do it and cherish it.
Fantastic sunrise at sea
After cooking a bowl of frozen dumplings for dinner, he found a small passenger on board, a petrel. How could such a small bird fly to a depth of six or seven hundred kilometers offshore? Even my two seabird brothers may have given up.
I let it fly in and out of the cabin without disturbing it. The birds of the sea are not afraid of people, and they use the occasional ship as a temporary island to rest, rest enough and fly to do their own thing.
Petrels
Lonely and empty
On day 5, the sun came out.
The long-lost sunlight broke through the airtight clouds and illuminated the sea ahead like a quilt, while the clouds were still thick behind me. Resting well during the night, my body recovered most of the time, and I made myself a cup of coffee to refresh.
Out of the sun
In the distance behind the right side of the great white, a colorful beam of light flashed on the surface of a sea, and after observing it for half a day, I didn't know what it was. The light slowly extended, and only in the background of the dark clouds did it see that it was a rainbow, and I almost thought that I had hit some miracle. It turned out that the rainbow was formed in this way, and a divine light rose from the sea and plunged straight into the clouds.
There was a little wind, and I quickly raised the sails that had been idle for two days, but the wind stopped again in less than ten minutes, so I had to restart the engine that had just stopped firing.
There's no wind
For sailing ships, the power of the engine is very small, and it is generally only used in inbound and outbound and windless situations. Every time I push the engine lever, I fantasize about feeling the push back, but it doesn't — thank goodness as long as it doesn't jump out.
So what kind of situation is the jump? For example, I have encountered two times before the propeller was entangled, causing the engine to fail to work, and I had to go into the water to rescue it. It's just that there are companions on both ships, I can grab the cable and venture off the ship, but this time I am the only one on the ship, floating in the deep sea far from any piece of land, once I encounter a jump, the plane cannot be rescued, and the coast guard cannot be contacted. So as long as the engine doesn't have problems, even if it is as slow as a donkey pulling a cart, it is a matter of gratitude.
In the Bay of Biscay in Europe, the engine was entangled
Nothing to do, I found a SLR to take some pictures of flying fish, and as a result, these flying fish usually left wave right wave endlessly, just before I found the camera are still very active, this time all the flags are gone. I sat on the starboard side with my camera and waited, and then I saw a small group on the starboard side, and then changed to the starboard side to continue waiting, and sat dry for 20 minutes, without moving.
Why? There is no wind, there is no flying fish, there is really nothing to be desired!
Shoot flying fish
The two seabird brothers, who had disappeared for more than a day, flew back at this time, circled around the great white a few times, said hello to me, and then flew away again. I think it's amazing that there is no land in a radius of thousands of kilometers, they never sleep on the boat, where did they go at night? You can also come and meet me every day. These must be two birds of dignity who will not casually spend the night in someone else's boat.
Seabird Brothers visit
People often ask me on the Internet: Do you feel empty, lonely and cold when you sail alone? The problem is clearly not large enough.
Every day I sit in the sea of stars, watch the sun rise little by little, and watch the sun fall little by little, watching the stars twinkle and jellyfish glow, how can it be empty?
I can sing with dolphins, I can see flying fish chasing on the surface of the sea, seabirds soaring in the air, I can see all kinds of magical creatures except crabs, how can I be lonely?
Cold is even more outrageous. I have quilts, I have military coats, I have little cotton jackets, will I be cold? Joke.
Never mind! The flying fish don't come out, the dolphins ignore me, let's eat. After eating and sleeping, I finished the day. Perfect.
I poured all the remaining frozen dumplings into the pot and cooked them into a pot of dumpling porridge. Ay...... What's not to do, I can't eat the first place!
Dumpling porridge
Make a phone call to say goodbye
On the first day of October, I woke up to see a brilliant rainbow hanging in the sky, rising from the sea, streaking high across the sky, and the other end hidden in the light, which was the first time I had seen a rainbow so closely. If you drive the boat over, will it enter the brilliant light?
Unexpectedly, however, this almost became the last beauty I had ever seen in my life.
Rainbow on the sea
Radar often raises alarms during navigation, and observation screens can see large areas of unknown objects approaching. These are not actually boats, but thick clouds, usually accompanied by rainfall. I had reached the deepest region of the Indian Ocean, with a water depth of nearly 5,000 meters and at least 500 kilometers from the nearest landmass, and radar showed no ships for a radius of 24 nautical miles.
Radar showed no vessels
The sea is very calm, and the great white is slowly driving forward under the thrust of the engine. I sat at the bow of the boat and watched the rainbow for a while, then turned on the music to get ready to start the day's schedule. Just then, a speedboat sped toward me from a distance, and against a background that was almost stationary, it was like the only object moving.
Be a pirate!
My blood was clotting all over my body. Reacting, I quickly grabbed the fishing gun closest to me, then ran out of the cabin and grabbed body armor, daggers, and finger tigers and threw them on the deck. I hunched down and climbed out of the cabin, hiding behind the table and taking a quick glance at the surface of the sea—the speedboat was gone again.
Self-defense equipment
Leaning down and looking around, I didn't see the fast-moving white dot again, and I plucked up the courage to pick up the telescope to further confirm that, fortunately, I didn't face the fierce face of the pirate.
I could see a relatively large fishing boat in the distance, which should be the kind of deep-sea fishing boat I had seen before, and there was a white boat some distance away from it, and I wasn't sure if it was the one I had just seen. Neither boat was facing me anymore, and the dinghy seemed to be pulling the net.
The luminous object on the left side of the fishing boat is the dinghy
My hands and legs were shaking uncontrollably, my heart was beating fast, I pushed the engine to 2,000 rpm and sped away from them.
Radar showed they hadn't leaned over again, and after confirming it was a false alarm, I slumped to the ground. There was a similar situation in the previous voyage from Sudan to Djibouti, when many fishermen drove small boats near the side of the boat and asked me and Liu for cigarettes and alcohol, and there was no such thing on board, so we gave them all the drinks, and I thought I would not be there.
Although these fishermen did not act excessively, until they leave completely, you will never know whether you are in a fatal danger or a false alarm.
Encounter fishermen who want alcohol and tobacco in the Djibouti section
The dinghy was only about 1 nautical mile away from me, there was no wind, and I couldn't beat him anyway. Ordinary boats like ours can't be equipped with weapons, and there are only a few fishing guns on board, which I put in various convenient locations, and the rest is a kitchen knife. If the other party is really a pirate, he can only crash into him at full speed with the big white.
A good morning, suddenly made such a state, in an instant I really thought a lot, prepared so many things, ready to make a phone call goodbye...
There was no trace of those ships on the surface of the sea, and they had escaped a disaster.
flee
Arrival in the Maldives
On the penultimate day, dolphin friends came to see me again. It should have entered the windless zone, and the sea was as calm as a swimming pool. I stopped the engine to refuel, and the dolphins gathered around in pairs, swimming gently around the great white, and from time to time turning over their bellies to sprinkle. They stayed by the boat and didn't walk, and I tried to resist the urge to jump into the sea and swim with them.
Dolphins squawk
After refueling, I started the engine and continued to hurry, and the dolphins also accelerated with the boat, leading the way ahead. I waited until they had had enough to play and go home before going into the cabin to prepare breakfast. Suddenly missing the congee side dishes in my hometown, I cooked a pot of peeled egg porridge with salted duck eggs, tofu milk, canned tempeh fish and my own mixed radish squeezed vegetables. Sometimes eating a meal seriously is also a very healing thing.
At 6 a.m. on October 6, at the moment when the sun rises, the first small island appears in view. White sandy beaches, lush green vegetation, and the bluer and more translucent waters under the boat than jewels. I have finally managed to reach the lost wonderland of the Maldives.
Arrival in the Maldives
Leaving the deep sea of more than 5,000 meters into the island reef area of more than 30 meters, the white sand and black rocks under the water are clearly recognizable. 16 days and nights, no internet, no social networking, the whole world seemed to come to a standstill, I thought several times that I would really die at sea, but in the end, I survived. The beach, the green trees, the human civilization are waving at me!
Will I be the first Chinese to sail alone across the Indian Ocean to the Maldives?
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