INDIAN OCEAN JEWELS

WILDLY DIVERGENT SAILING AND CULTURAL EXPERIENCES CHALLENGE AND DELIGHT SASKIA STAINER-HUTCHINS AS SHE ISLAND-HOPS ACROSS THE VAST INDIAN OCEAN

- SASKIA STAINER-HUTCHINS

There’s a saying among sailors that plans are only ever made in the sand at low tide. Sailing the world requires meticulous planning and preparation, but also the ability to go with the flow. In 2024 this was brought into sharp relief when events in the Middle East forced many world cruisers to re-assess and my husband Ross and I were no exception. To explain our plans for the year ahead.

We ended our 2023 cruising year in the yacht haven of Phuket, Thailand – the perfect boat parts and service centre of Asia – with our eyes set on transiting the Suez Canal and entering the Mediterranean. But with the growing conflict in Yemen choking off access to the Red Sea, we made the difficult decision to instead point Mahina Tiare bow south, towards the atolls of Grand Iles via the Maldives and Chagos.

As a result, we spent days assessing a new swirl of weather maps, cruising guides and government websites. These countries are an established route for world cruisers, but perhaps not the most common, as many boats attempting to pass around Africa will take advantage of the trade winds and go to southern Madagascar and Mauritius/Réunion, much further south. Our new route, a detour of grand proportions, would take more miles and be more upwind then other alternatives. Our Maldives agent estimated that just 60 or so private sailing yachts had checked in through the Maldives during our season, with nearly half of them only touching the northernmost island on their way to the Red Sea. We don’t know how accurate that number is, but either way we knew we were experiencing something that very few sailors get to see, and for that reason every day felt like a gift.

THREADING THE NEEDLE