MALE’ to HUDHUFUSHI

MALE’ to HUDHUFUSHI

(Contains foul language)

The speed boat was a fantastic piece of equipment and having  prewarned about the two and a half hour journey to the resort, I was waiting anxiously for the boat to start. With a bit of a taste of speed boat travel on Kuala (river) Baram on my way to spend a week in the thick jungles of Sarawak with Ibans, the head hunters back in the year 1985, I took this ride easy to be heavily regretted later, on arrival at the Island Hudufushi. I am supposed to take over the Project Management.

A 5 footer, the pilot of the boat clad in jeans along with 2 helpers, all maldivians looked quite friendly, greeted me on board and I was anxiously waiting and looking forward to this new experience in a modern speed boat with comfortable cushioned seats equipped with a compact toilet. The second mistake I did was to wait until the boat started assuming that I could relieve my bladder on the way. Although I was completely aware of my need to pee during my journey, I delayed it for my bladder to fill, since the facility was there within, which proved to be a bad decision.

The owner of the 60 hectare resort arrived, greeted me and the engine started. No sooner the engine started and the boat sped out of the jetty shit hit the ceiling. The sea seemed to be rough and the boat became a hovercraft and I was certain the boat is flying. Fucking hell the water is supposed to be naturally soft but, the apparently fiber glass boat looked as if it was banging on a bed of steel. Imagine 2 skeletons fucking on a tinned roof and that was exactly what the fibre glass boat was doing on the bed of water.

The boat now turned into a hovercraft occasionally hitting the the water and trust me, it was like hitting a bed of steel. Thank the fucking god who created me with quite a collection of vital organs within my body that could survive these impacts even at my present age of 70. I felt my balls in my mouth and wondered where the fucking hell my heart is. All the organs are getting mixed up like a pack of cards being shuffled just before a game of poker. When I reached for my elbow I touched my tits. I literally jad lost control of my body parts and the messages my brain sends through the fimely built nervous system had suddenly gone crazy.

This mother fucking pilot, even when the boat is flying over the waves was texting with one hand. I am sure he knew the way like the back of his palm and being guided by GPS or OPS or whatever it is, but what is the bloody hurry to text with one hand. I wanted to kill this mother fucker. He was sometimes taking the center of gravity of the machine to ultimate levels by turning the boat to over 45 degrees. It is a boat, a hovercraft,  a sea plane everything you can think of.

Along with the spray of water rushing above the boats roof I felt as if I was in a plane flying through clouds under turbulence. Whatever said and done Yamaha had done a fine job of designing this boat to survive the rigorous conditions this bastard is subjecting the boat to. They should use him to test their future designs as a test pilot who will quite efficiently twist and bend test boats to the ultimate.

When I saw the island on the horizon after subjecting my body to the limit I thought that was it but, the pilot seemed to be steering his boat away from the island instead of heading directly towards it. The sea was not clear all this time. It suddenly became a beautiful blue ocean due to the reduced depth. One could see all the way to the corals very clearly.

No sooner we hit the island I asked the owner why he took the risk of selecting an old codger like me to do this trip to which he simply smiled and said “ I knew you could”.