We arrived at the marina. It's a fancy resort marina with a few resorts, beach club, shops and restaurants. Quite a huge contrast to all the places we've visited so far in the Maldives. We came here because Grant had to fly to Hong Kong and China for just over a week to handle various work business. 

Before Grant flew out, we had an intense all-day boat cleaning day. All hands on deck. Even little Azania was helping with scrubbing decks and oiling the teak dining table. 

During the week at the marina, the girls did school, played on their device, went to beach club and watched movies every night. The girls were complaining that there were no other kids to play with and they were bored. Indeed it's been a while since we came across a family boat with kids. The best fun we had was when we had the tallest sand ice-cream cone competition. 

One morning as I was checking our pantry in our bedroom bilges (under the floor), I noticed there's a lot of water. A water leak! We opened up our bed and found that the water heater pipe has burst. Kids and I had an hour video call with Captain to troubleshoot by emptying out the tank, turning off the water heater and taping the pipe. Good for now until Captain returns. 

Grant had a totally intense trip to China. In 8 days, he visited Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Hong Kong, Zhengzhou, Haikou and back to Hong Kong. There was bad weather in southern China and every flight he flew was delayed by hours. Almost missed the connecting flight back to the Maldives. At the same time, he was also helping out our HK captain who had a serious medical emergency. We were all very happy when he came home.

The day before we left the marina, the Henry family arrived from France to spend holidays onboard Arabella for 9 days. Luc did MBA with Grant at University of Cape Town and stayed great friends since then. Luc and Karin have two daughters, Nathalie (15yos) and Sofia (10yos). Arabella and Alex were super excited to meet them and they hit it off immediately. Karin, Nathalie and Sofia all said they felt a bit seasick while we were docked at the marina in calm flat water. This is the first time they've ever stayed on a boat.  O dear! We were quite worried...