Hello everybody.
Some of you may be receiving multiple copies of this, and some of you are, no doubt, new recipients. I neglected to mention in my last cliffhanger, that my computer blew up in Hurghada. As a result, I got a new one with Windows 7 which does not come with a mail program. After interminable fiddling, I got something working, but it was a real travail to upload stuff from Yahoo including my address book, contacts, whatever, that had the distribution list for my witty repartee. I really didn't keep the Yahoo contacts well up to date and the old list was lost, forever. So---if I need to eliminate or change your address, please let me know.
So, for you newcomers, we last left you on our way to the Suez canal. We arrived fairly early at Port Suez Yacht Club, the staging area for yachts transiting the canal, and got some help tying up to the bow and stern moorings they use. We had contacted our agent, Felix, by phone, on the way in, and everything, unlike in Panama, proceeded at warp speed with the measurer coming out with the agent almost immediately. The agent handles paperwork, while the measurer uses some arcane system to come up with the tonnage of your boat which is the basis on which they charge you. The tonnage is not the weight but rather a measure of the tonnage cargo capacity of the vessel. This system was devised 150 years ago when yachts didn't do the canal. They can really screw you (and this was Egypt), so one of our cruising guides had a method of estimating the number. Complicated, obscure and difficult, I came up with something like $700. Suez is a lot cheaper than Panama, maybe because there are no locks. Anyway, I'm not sure if they came back that afternoon or the next morning, but the number was under $400--a major win in my view. That evening we went out to a local hotel that actually had alcohol in their bar, with a few of the others waiting to transit. Drinks expensive, beer barely affordable, but we celebrated our departure from the Red Sea.
Scheduled to leave the next morning for Ismailia, a mandatory stop for yachts about halfway through the canal, things pretty much went off without a hitch. Three or four of us were going, and the pilots showed up pretty much on time--around 9 AM after the northbound freighter convoy. The canal runs sort of one way, northbound in the morning, south in the afternoon. The canal itself is about 100 miles so we hit Ismailia mid afternoon. The fun starts when the pilot goes to leave the boat. You are expected to tip them--pay baksheesh. In fact, Ismailia had to be the capitol of Baksheesh, as even the guards at the gate wanted tipping. Anyway, we had a very pleasant and respectful pilot so I gave him 100 Egyptian pounds (LE), about $18. The going rate is LE50, but I had used all my smaller bills that morning, and the guy was good, helping moor the boat, handling lines, etc. However, it seems no matter how much you tip, they always want more. Our guy was pretty harmless asking for bus fare back to Port Suez, but one boat was asked to give their $500 binoculars (they didn't). I did not have any more pounds, and the guy finally accepted it. You tie up there with the bow tied to one of their buoys and the stern tied to the wharf which is well fendered. $21/night, but water and power are free. Ismailia is a fairly large town with a strong colonial flavor. Even in ancient times, there were canals from the Nile to there as it is on a large lake. We planned on an extended stop to travel.
On a bummer note, one of our friend's boat was still there, and they had left Hurghada almost a month before us, so I was immediately concerned. Turned out the guy had what was thought to be a mild heart attack, but on review in Austria is more serious. In any event, they had arranged for some guys we know to take the boat up to Ashkelon where we are now, but the idiot Egyptians, for some reason--looking for major baksheesh or whatever--forced the guy to finish the canal transit himself. The latest word is the heart attack was more severe than they thought but the extra hassle including an obnoxious pilot did not help the situation.
Anyway, as you veterans know, there is always a "go to" guy in these ports, and Mohamed, the cab driver, was the guy here. Since this is a port in transit, it is closed off for customs purposes, and they have immigration as well--hence the baksheesh every time you came and went. While the boat was cleared out in Port Suez, we needed to keep our immigration status open to see the pyramids. We had no intention of personally checking out in Port Said and paying more fees as Israel doesn't care. Turned out we were actually staying beyond our sell by date, but immigration, surprisingly, was cool about it. In spite of paying for 90 day visas, we had only been stamped in for 30 days and were exceeding that. But--apparently there is a 14 day grace period. Who knows?? Unbelievable bureaucracy there, but the guy didn't ask for money!!!!!!!!!!!! Back to Mohamed. He can get you cheap diesel at the local price, drive you around and act as a tour guide for the pyramids. We hired him to take us to Cairo and the next day to do the pyramids with us and drive us back. He seems unique among Egyptians, pricing his services reasonably and not having his hand out all the time. As a result he got an extra big tip from me. The other idiots should take lessons. However, he did try to convert Rose to Islam while I was napping on the way back.
As for my ongoing saga with the boat parts, FedEx was undistinguished once again. We finally got them released from Cairo customs who, you will recall, I believe was looking for baksheesh. Unbelievably, after all the delays, the duty was still LE1260--about $250 on a $600 shipment. I has specifically asked if there would be problems about delivering to Ismailia, as Felix had indicated there might be, but was assured no problem. Okay, eat shit and die--I needed the damn parts. I'll pay and have it done with. So they deliver the parts down to the guard station at the waterfront, and the guards won't let me take it in. Something about another clearance from customs. I threw a Donald duck temper tantrum--in retrospect probably not the wisest thing to do with a guy with an AK47--refusing to even consider more baksheesh. Back and forth in Arabic between FedEx guys and the guards. Yada, yada, yada. After about an hour of this, I told FedEx to get it released or give me my money back and send the packages back. Finally, the head cop trying to get by to go home, called someone and some lowly customs guy came down to look at the package for 2 minutes, and they allowed me to take it in. Then, the customs guy had the nerve to follow me to the boat and ask me to sign some other stuff. If there was any alternative, I would never use FedEx again. Of course, they summarily dismissed my request for a refund!!! A-holes!!!!!!!!!
The good news is that now that I've installed the new VHF antenna, which went off without a hitch, I am getting my usual 30-40 mile range, and, from Egypt, there is some weird radio propagation and range increased on the AIS to 200 miles--I'd been lucky to get six. Fun watching the icons for 100's of ships approaching the canal. Yes, I am easily amused these days. Also easily replaced a few other parts that were chafing ropes, etc.
Having done my work, it was time for playing and going to Cairo for the museum and the pyramids. We checked Lonely Planet which was fairly unenthusiastic about the 3 star hotels except for one, The Victoria. 5 star amenities at 3 star prices (about $40/night). A little bit out of the way but excellent value; Tripadvisor confirmed this assessment. Nope. True it was only a short cab ride away from the museum, but the neighborhood was all commercial--all hardware and mechanical for that matter. I could have bought any type of tool and gear up to 100 kilowatt generators, but there was nothing but this for blocks--we're not sure how many, but at least four--around. No restaurants, no bars. That was okay as the hotel has a decent menu. Nope. They messed up Rose's dinner and just shrugged when she complained. The room was okay but small, but none of that would have garnered a complaint except the price had gone up from the expected $40 to $70 and there was no hot water in the morning. Then the guy refused a break on the price and accused me of lying about the water. Took a trip back to the room to prove him wrong. Another tantrum generated no results. I think Egyptians are so used to screwing people they are immune to being yelled at.
Now for the good stuff. The Egyptian museum was awesome. I'd seen the King Tut stuff in Chicago when it toured years ago, but this was the entire stash--almost an entire floor. The info we garnered on the cruise was very helpful as we walked through the various stages of Egyptian civilization from about 3000 BC on.
The next day, bright and early, after a crappy hotel breakfast, Mohamed picked us up. Now we've all seen the movies with the pyramids out in the middle of nowhere, and, I think in the Spy Who Loved Me, they even commented on being stranded out there. Nope. On the west side, it's true there is desert for miles, but they abut the west side of Cairo like a suburb. A 15 minute ride from our hotel. They are magnificent, and I am more than ever convinced that aliens had to build them. There is some recent evidence that the Sphinx is 10,000 years old which would also change the dating of the pyramids to a time when there was a more tropical climate on the Nile, and no known civilization to build them. Whatever. Very, very cool as was the sphinx. We even took a camel ride around--one of the pics is attached as we have pretty good internet right now--and have some awesome pictures. This is suitable for enlargement and framing, but there will be a license fee.
So we were back at the harbor by about 3 and decided to hang out one more day before leaving. We still needed to do some shopping, and the captain needed a haircut. All we needed to do was notify Felix that we wanted to go. The only fly in the ointment is if a warship is going through, they delay any private yachts. Sure enough, we had a French warship come through, and our departure was delayed until about 11:30. Actually that worked out okay as we were planning on departing the canal and sailing straight to Ashkelon Israel about 120 miles away, so that timing got us into Israel at the right time. We had a jerk off demanding pilot, but I just got rid of my remaining pounds--about 90--figuring it would keep him off my back. No luck. I could tell he wasn't happy with the baksheesh, and then he asked me for cigarettes. Still having 4 cartons of Bingos left from Malaysia, I tossed, not threw, him a pack but he took offence and threw them back. Probably wanted Marlboros. It would have helped if Rose hadn't loudly asked me if I was going to give him cigarettes; the guy was probably expecting a carton. I need to keep Rose away from these guys!! I was able to end the crap by demanding my money back in response to which he beat a hasty exit!!! You can not believe the feeling of relief and exhilaration Rose and I experienced on departing Egypt and finally making it into the Med.
In typical fashion, we had little or wrong direction wind for the trip to Israel. you need to steer a somewhat indirect course to stay well off the Gaza Strip and you need to check in with the Israeli navy about 40 miles out. Well, the navy was having some comms problems and conducting some training as well. In addition, I guess they check your info several times to root out undesirables, but it was ridiculous. Really no harm, but they must have checked us 10 times with the same name, rank, serial number stuff, and then, a few miles out, a gunboat buzzed us at about 30 knots and actually made such a large wake some stuff rocked off the shelves and broke. Then they called for the same old info. However, this was the real deal, and the boat bristled with armament so, once again, we grinned and bore it!! Arrival at Ashkelon resulted in several more searches and paperwork, but, all-in-all not too bad with everyone very friendly and us happy to be back in the first world--although it will take some getting used to first world prices!!!
So, we've been hanging out here for a week just chilling and exploring. Right now I'm waiting for the mechanic to check out my oil leak and tomorrow we'll start touring around with a trip to Jerusalem, on which we'll report next time. That's if we're still alive. Apparently, last year some rockets got lobbed over this way from Gaza, and we've heard what sounds like some bombing going on this PM. Offsetting that was the hot topless chick in the little power boat behind us. I say what's a few rockets? I think we'll stay--no sense letting those terrorists scare us off!
Cheers for now
Tim & Rose
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Back to Civilization May 15 2010
Hi all.
Writing this as we start our transit of the Suez Canal. The Red Sea, the worst 1,000 miles we've seen is finally behind us. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We left you in the aptly named Foul Bay, just south of Egypt hoping for a favorable wind shift. Nah, of course not. Our weather window gone, limping along with one engine and a torn jib into 25 knot headwinds, we were making about 1-1.5 knots which turned our 3 day trip into 4 1/2 and required the ever popular night entry into a new strange port--there was no way we were going to spend another night out after being beaten up so long. Fortunately, we had a previously used "track" on the chart plotter and the port control guys were helpful giving us additional directions, so we tied up at the customs dock in Port Ghalib (PG) at about 8:30 PM. The guys work 24 hours so someone came down and took some of our paperwork, and we left it that we would spend the night on their dock and finish in the morning. What a relief. As an indicator of how rotten the passage up was, when we arrived we looked, and there was Charlie on the dock. This is the same Charlie who has never, ever been off the boat, even with other cats around on the dock in other marinas!!!!
The next morning we finished check-in with the usual payments, and the marina helped us over to a Med-moor spot. PG is relatively new so it was a bit of a travail to get water hooked up, but by mid day we had power, water and the all important wifi, although the latter was better used at one of the free sites at the restaurants. We also got SIM cards, and arranged for a mechanic to look at the continuing oil leak. The marina is mainly a dive resort and the entire area is still under construction as well as a "town", but it really is simply an oasis out in the desert with nothing else around. In the marina complex were several hotels and condos as well as a Pizza Hut and TGIF and a few other restaurants. Beer, outside of happy hour 2 fers, was ridiculous and spirits prohibitively expensive, but at least you could get a drink in a Muslim country.
Older and much wiser, we wanted to wait for a good weather window for the 110 mile trip to Hurghada, but the engine problem forced us to miss the one over that weekend. We did have a few days, however, to catch up with some old friends who had been ahead of us, and a new crowd came in from the south on the same window that the others left on. It took about another week for the weather to be okay and we enjoyed just lolling around. The guy supposedly fixed the engine and I ran it for 4 hours with no apparent loss of oil. Yahoo!!! Egypt has the same fuel deal as all the other Arab countries--one price for locals and one for outsiders. But, we heard the price in Hurghada was even higher, so we bit the bullet, fueled up at US$.88/liter and left PG 10 days after arrival at about 9 AM. While the weather wasn't awful, neither was it suitable for an easy sail up to Hurghada, so we happily pulled into the very well protected harbor at 9 the next morning. Once again there were several people we know, but they come and go based on their own schedules--some pressured by having to meet people in the Med somewhere--and we enjoyed catching up with a whole new crowd from past travels.
Hurghada is at the foot of the Gulf of Suez about 180 miles from the canal. It is the Egyptian Riviera, and hotels stretch for miles along the coast both north and south. Once again, the desert pretty much comes right up to the water. The marina is right in the center of it all with the usual tourist traps/souvenir shops, etc. I have to admit, however, there are some good deals. I bought a really nice soft sheepskin backpack for about $35 and the replica watches seem to be better and cheaper that the others we've seen. This was another Med-moor but the height and configuration of the dock as well as the future moorings in the Med convinced us a paserelle was in order--that's gangplank for you landlubbers. A real paserelle would be about $2,000, so I bought an aluminum ladder and rigged up a proper footing for it for about $75. Not beautiful, but it works pretty well. How stupid not to have thought of it in Thailand and had a nice one made for cents on the dollar.
We had planned to visit Cairo, the pyramids and Luxor from here but were convinced by others to wait for Cairo 'til we got to Ismailia which is much closer. We did book an awesome 4 day 3 night Nile River cruise starting in Luxor and ending in Aswan. Unlike our Mekong River cruise at triple the cost, this one exceeded our expectations in every respect except the cost of drinks on the ship which was ridiculous. In Luxor, highlights were the Temple of Kharnak and the Valley of the Kings where Tut's and about 61 other pharaohs' tombs are--blazing hot but worth the experience. Stopped at several other temples on the way to Aswan and saw the totally unimpressive Aswan High dam the Russians built. Some other guys went farther south to Abu Simbel where, I'm sure you will recall, they dismantled and reassembled some famous temples, etc. that the lake created by the dam would have flooded and covered. The cabins were very large, really like hotel rooms, and the food was quite good, although all buffet. With our Hurghada purchased wifi card we could even do email and a bit of weather surfing. I now have about ten of these things because every country we visit claims their wifi stick will work everywhere else. "Just put in a new SIM card", they say. Right. It's just like a locked cell phone. Fortunately, these days, in most place it's very cheap for a new one and SIM cards are a dime a dozen. We were surprised at how narrow the Nile, one of the world's great rivers, really was. Overall, we give the cruise a 10 although the 8 hour drive back to Hurghada was tiresome. We left Charlie with a nice Swiss/Italian woman who boards animals out in the desert. It was a nice spot but he's been very affectionate since then. He had his own private apartment, fairly spacious, but we guess he didn't like speaking Arabic or something. Our tour of Cairo, etc. will be fairly short term so we're thinking of leaving him on board for that.
You all know the Egyptians love their coffee, so when our percolators crapped out one would think it would be no problem getting a stovetop percolator or French press--appliances here are 220 and the boat is 110 volt. We spent considerable effort looking but no dice. Hoping to find something in Cairo, but have ordered an electric one from home as well for later delivery. Speaking of deliveries, FedEx has done it again. Prior to arrival in Hurghada, I asked the marina about duty free importation. Most countries allow that if you are a "yacht in transit", which we are. The manager told me as long as the package was marked that way it shouldn't be a problem, so I ordered some essentials like the new VHF antenna and a new halyard as well as some other stuff--about $650 in all. So first of all, in comes my mail from Lizzie--no hold up there, but FedEx just accepted customs $100 duty assessment even though it was only mail and a few boxes of candy worth maybe $50 at the outside. In the meantime, the marina then told me that to get the stuff duty free I would need an agent to the tune of $150-200 so I opted to let the West Marine stuff come in as regular stuff. After all, it's total value was less than the imputed value of Lizzie's. So the boat stuff first got held up for 10 days in London due to the volcano but finally arrived Cairo on the 22nd. To make this story tolerably short, suffice it to say that FedEx basically did nothing to clear it and I still don't have it and they won't give me a refund. I'll get it in Ismailia, I guess, but half the problem is FedEx just sat on it and didn't call me, and the other half, I surmise, is customs is used to getting packages cleared by an agent who is willing to pay baksheesh, and I didn't have one so they kept coming up with excuses to delay clearance. Fortunately, from here on out I will have an in at FedEx as Lizzie has just gotten a job there with a big raise and 75% discount. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!! And speaking of kids, Joey is temporarily gainfully employed delivering a yacht to Hong Kong. Up in the air after that.
Not wanting to delay departure to Suez any longer and with a favorable weather pattern, we left Hurghada sans FedEx, on Friday. Stopped about 25 miles out for the night at one of the nicest anchorages we've had in the Red Sea and sailed through the following night to arrive Suez yesterday, Sunday. We had already arranged an agent who got us measured (need that to figure the fees) and cleared so here we are Monday midday about halfway through. We'll be stopping shortly and do our remaining touring before finishing the canal and heading over to Israel. And, oh yes, the oil leak is still there. It'll have to wait for Israel. Think I'll give a third country's mechanics a shot at fixing it!!!
Writing this as we start our transit of the Suez Canal. The Red Sea, the worst 1,000 miles we've seen is finally behind us. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We left you in the aptly named Foul Bay, just south of Egypt hoping for a favorable wind shift. Nah, of course not. Our weather window gone, limping along with one engine and a torn jib into 25 knot headwinds, we were making about 1-1.5 knots which turned our 3 day trip into 4 1/2 and required the ever popular night entry into a new strange port--there was no way we were going to spend another night out after being beaten up so long. Fortunately, we had a previously used "track" on the chart plotter and the port control guys were helpful giving us additional directions, so we tied up at the customs dock in Port Ghalib (PG) at about 8:30 PM. The guys work 24 hours so someone came down and took some of our paperwork, and we left it that we would spend the night on their dock and finish in the morning. What a relief. As an indicator of how rotten the passage up was, when we arrived we looked, and there was Charlie on the dock. This is the same Charlie who has never, ever been off the boat, even with other cats around on the dock in other marinas!!!!
The next morning we finished check-in with the usual payments, and the marina helped us over to a Med-moor spot. PG is relatively new so it was a bit of a travail to get water hooked up, but by mid day we had power, water and the all important wifi, although the latter was better used at one of the free sites at the restaurants. We also got SIM cards, and arranged for a mechanic to look at the continuing oil leak. The marina is mainly a dive resort and the entire area is still under construction as well as a "town", but it really is simply an oasis out in the desert with nothing else around. In the marina complex were several hotels and condos as well as a Pizza Hut and TGIF and a few other restaurants. Beer, outside of happy hour 2 fers, was ridiculous and spirits prohibitively expensive, but at least you could get a drink in a Muslim country.
Older and much wiser, we wanted to wait for a good weather window for the 110 mile trip to Hurghada, but the engine problem forced us to miss the one over that weekend. We did have a few days, however, to catch up with some old friends who had been ahead of us, and a new crowd came in from the south on the same window that the others left on. It took about another week for the weather to be okay and we enjoyed just lolling around. The guy supposedly fixed the engine and I ran it for 4 hours with no apparent loss of oil. Yahoo!!! Egypt has the same fuel deal as all the other Arab countries--one price for locals and one for outsiders. But, we heard the price in Hurghada was even higher, so we bit the bullet, fueled up at US$.88/liter and left PG 10 days after arrival at about 9 AM. While the weather wasn't awful, neither was it suitable for an easy sail up to Hurghada, so we happily pulled into the very well protected harbor at 9 the next morning. Once again there were several people we know, but they come and go based on their own schedules--some pressured by having to meet people in the Med somewhere--and we enjoyed catching up with a whole new crowd from past travels.
Hurghada is at the foot of the Gulf of Suez about 180 miles from the canal. It is the Egyptian Riviera, and hotels stretch for miles along the coast both north and south. Once again, the desert pretty much comes right up to the water. The marina is right in the center of it all with the usual tourist traps/souvenir shops, etc. I have to admit, however, there are some good deals. I bought a really nice soft sheepskin backpack for about $35 and the replica watches seem to be better and cheaper that the others we've seen. This was another Med-moor but the height and configuration of the dock as well as the future moorings in the Med convinced us a paserelle was in order--that's gangplank for you landlubbers. A real paserelle would be about $2,000, so I bought an aluminum ladder and rigged up a proper footing for it for about $75. Not beautiful, but it works pretty well. How stupid not to have thought of it in Thailand and had a nice one made for cents on the dollar.
We had planned to visit Cairo, the pyramids and Luxor from here but were convinced by others to wait for Cairo 'til we got to Ismailia which is much closer. We did book an awesome 4 day 3 night Nile River cruise starting in Luxor and ending in Aswan. Unlike our Mekong River cruise at triple the cost, this one exceeded our expectations in every respect except the cost of drinks on the ship which was ridiculous. In Luxor, highlights were the Temple of Kharnak and the Valley of the Kings where Tut's and about 61 other pharaohs' tombs are--blazing hot but worth the experience. Stopped at several other temples on the way to Aswan and saw the totally unimpressive Aswan High dam the Russians built. Some other guys went farther south to Abu Simbel where, I'm sure you will recall, they dismantled and reassembled some famous temples, etc. that the lake created by the dam would have flooded and covered. The cabins were very large, really like hotel rooms, and the food was quite good, although all buffet. With our Hurghada purchased wifi card we could even do email and a bit of weather surfing. I now have about ten of these things because every country we visit claims their wifi stick will work everywhere else. "Just put in a new SIM card", they say. Right. It's just like a locked cell phone. Fortunately, these days, in most place it's very cheap for a new one and SIM cards are a dime a dozen. We were surprised at how narrow the Nile, one of the world's great rivers, really was. Overall, we give the cruise a 10 although the 8 hour drive back to Hurghada was tiresome. We left Charlie with a nice Swiss/Italian woman who boards animals out in the desert. It was a nice spot but he's been very affectionate since then. He had his own private apartment, fairly spacious, but we guess he didn't like speaking Arabic or something. Our tour of Cairo, etc. will be fairly short term so we're thinking of leaving him on board for that.
You all know the Egyptians love their coffee, so when our percolators crapped out one would think it would be no problem getting a stovetop percolator or French press--appliances here are 220 and the boat is 110 volt. We spent considerable effort looking but no dice. Hoping to find something in Cairo, but have ordered an electric one from home as well for later delivery. Speaking of deliveries, FedEx has done it again. Prior to arrival in Hurghada, I asked the marina about duty free importation. Most countries allow that if you are a "yacht in transit", which we are. The manager told me as long as the package was marked that way it shouldn't be a problem, so I ordered some essentials like the new VHF antenna and a new halyard as well as some other stuff--about $650 in all. So first of all, in comes my mail from Lizzie--no hold up there, but FedEx just accepted customs $100 duty assessment even though it was only mail and a few boxes of candy worth maybe $50 at the outside. In the meantime, the marina then told me that to get the stuff duty free I would need an agent to the tune of $150-200 so I opted to let the West Marine stuff come in as regular stuff. After all, it's total value was less than the imputed value of Lizzie's. So the boat stuff first got held up for 10 days in London due to the volcano but finally arrived Cairo on the 22nd. To make this story tolerably short, suffice it to say that FedEx basically did nothing to clear it and I still don't have it and they won't give me a refund. I'll get it in Ismailia, I guess, but half the problem is FedEx just sat on it and didn't call me, and the other half, I surmise, is customs is used to getting packages cleared by an agent who is willing to pay baksheesh, and I didn't have one so they kept coming up with excuses to delay clearance. Fortunately, from here on out I will have an in at FedEx as Lizzie has just gotten a job there with a big raise and 75% discount. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!! And speaking of kids, Joey is temporarily gainfully employed delivering a yacht to Hong Kong. Up in the air after that.
Not wanting to delay departure to Suez any longer and with a favorable weather pattern, we left Hurghada sans FedEx, on Friday. Stopped about 25 miles out for the night at one of the nicest anchorages we've had in the Red Sea and sailed through the following night to arrive Suez yesterday, Sunday. We had already arranged an agent who got us measured (need that to figure the fees) and cleared so here we are Monday midday about halfway through. We'll be stopping shortly and do our remaining touring before finishing the canal and heading over to Israel. And, oh yes, the oil leak is still there. It'll have to wait for Israel. Think I'll give a third country's mechanics a shot at fixing it!!!
Okay, enough for now. Please be tantalized as our next instalment will describe our trip up the canal to Ismailia and our vist to Cairo and the Pyramids. Totally cool, fer sure dudes and dudettes. We're leaving tomorrow for Ashkelon, Israel.
Cheers
Tim & Rose
Up & Up & Up the red sea April 5 2010
Hello everyone.
The saga continues. I'm starting this on the midnight watch as we sail up Foul Bay and cross into Egypt. We're on the second of probably a three nighter. This is, of course, after we vowed to cut these marathon sails out after days and days of it just getting to the Red Sea. Unfortunately, we were planning on some kind of normal weather, but that is not what you get in the Red Sea. The choices are to take advantage of a good "weather window" where the northerlies are light or have moved more south OR you can bash into 25-30 knot winds and choppy 2-3 meter seas. Even if both motors were working (more on that later) we can only make about 3 or 4 knots in those unfavorable conditions. SO--the rule of thumb is get while the getting is good which is why we are sailing as fast and far as we we can with favorable conditions. (Monday 7PM--so much for favorable conditions. In spite of all the forecasts, the wind has strengthened out of the northwest--our direction of travel. Since we're already committed, we are just bashing into it and going only 2-3 knots. Oh well, we've been in LOTS worse; this is just slow and boring!!) On to the news update.
So, we left you a couple of weeks ago (gosh, our letters are getting more frequent now that we have lots more to bore you with) at Port Smyth on Shummi island awaiting the arrival of a whole fleet of yachties. Well, about 6 or 7 boats arrived that afternoon, and it was one guy's birthday so naturally that called for a beach party. It was highly amusing. It was BYO, but everyone brought snacks and someone had a fish to grill up. I got to use up what few fireworks Joey had left me, and one of the girls was pretty good on the guitar so we had a hootenanny. Wow, in 12 years, this is the first time I've actually done one of these even though all the articles say this happens all the time. It was pretty good though, until one of the women relieved the guitar player for the sing-along. She was one of those people who think they're great, but can't carry a tune. Think of the worst ever American Idol audition and you'll have some idea. Of course, the festivities were further disrupted when the awful singer's husband fell over backwards trying to sit down. It's no wonder he gets that loaded if she sings all the time for him!! Anyway, by that time it was way past cruisers' midnight (9PM) so we packed it in.
The next day was an easy 30 miles over to Massawa for the anxiously anticipated trip into the mountains to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. Someone we had run into years ago that had done 3 circumnavigations ranked it as a top three highlight. A little bit of Italy, dare I say Rome, in the mountains of Africa. More on this later. A couple of boats we knew were in the port which is the largest on the Red Sea. Officials made me tie up to a concrete dock which was a bear to get back off of, and immigration was off on a ship somewhere so check in wasn't complete 'til the next day. Except for the dock and long walk it was one of the easier ones. Next day after check in, we went to the other immigration office to get visas--necessary to visit Asmara--and to the tourism bureau for travel permits. The "go to" guy in Massawa is Mike and he arranged our transport to Asmara which we were sharing with the two guys on Quo Vadis. Massawa is sort of bombed out and interestingly, Mike's cafe is in the old Italian embassy, but, by and large, the place looks like Beirut. One of the guys decided to stay and watch the boats so there was only the 3 of us. Good thing as we had a tiny cab and it's a 3 hour drive. Solomon, our driver, was okay and had something going on the side up there so when we met up with him the next day to return, the cab had a bunch on stuff in the trunk. He got rid of that but then disappeared for about an hour instead of meeting us at the "recycling" market which is a bunch of people making whatever they can out of old tires, sheet metal, etc. This is really a poor country as was evident in the restaurants which were out of meat and stuff like that. While our room was good and really cheap, the trip was a bust. We had all these expectations and the place was really just a dump--no good Italian food, no designer cloths stores, no nothing, really!!. On top of that Rose and I got the Prophet's plague back. I guess African food just does not agree with us, but the pounds are flowing off!! The one saving grace was the beautiful drive up through the mountains to get there. Lots of photo ops!!
By the time we got back, the fleet from Port Smyth had arrived and already done the visas and travel permits. Well what could we do? Couldn't tell them it sucked after they all just spent $100 or so to go. So we all agreed to keep quiet--they actually thought there was a Carre Four up there--HAH! We haven't seen them since the trip as we left the next day and they haven't caught up. We had our first real case of Baksheesh on check out. The immigration/customs officer comes to the boat to make sure you don't have stowaways. Gift? says he. What? says I. $10, says he. Cigarettes say I. Settled on 2 packs. Still suffering from the plague, but wanting to escape before the other crowd got back from Asmara, we took off for Abu Sheik, about 30 miles away. Like all the anchorages so far, this was wide open behind some mud flats, and we had to beat into the wind to get there.
So our choices, given the lovely weather here, were to sit in this crappy anchorage, go another 30 miles to the next crappy anchorage and sit there, or gut it out and head off overnight to a decent place up north--nothing in between. It took us 36 hours to make the next anchorage only 160 miles away in the Shubuk channel, just south of Suakin in Sudan. This was actually fairly picturesque and well sheltered; a lagoon full of flamingos was right in front of us. We actually had a ratty gunboat with about 20 irregulars (un-uniformed) stop by to check our papers. They had a big machine gun and the requisite AK47s, but I doubt they had any ammo--another very poor country. One guy spoke fairly good English and they politely checked our papers and then left--no baksheesh--we were amazed. During the night the main halyard had broken, shattering the sheave and going down inside the mast. AND, the old bugaboo oil problem happened again. Some of you--one I know for sure--will recall that three years ago the bolts holding the high pressure water maker pump sheared off. Since those same bolts also hold the backing plate for the oil pump on the starboard engine, the oil simply goes into the bilge and the engine alarm goes off. Yep, same deal and I'm betting the guys in Penang didn't tighten the bolts properly when they worked on the pump. Anyway, after 2 gallons of oil into the bilge, the light went on and, sure enough, same problem. This meant a long trip to Suakin as the wind was against us again even though it was only 40 miles.
Arrival was easy enough and while Suakin isn't an official port of entry, the "go to" man, Mohamed, clears you in and gets fuel, etc. Our friends on Dreamkeeeper were there as was Joost, the guy who led the convoy. A great weather window was coming up and they were leaving Friday. Fortunately, we arrived on Wed, and with really very little effort and Dreamkeepers help, on Thursday we got the halyard squared away. Mohamed cleared us in, got us 750 liters of fuel (which I got him to lug and dump in the tank) and arranged a mechanic.
The mechanic was a bit thick and wanted to take the back half of the motor out to drill out the broken bolts. Then he decide 2 would do it (originally 4) and using a nail and hammer somehow got another bolt in--One hadn't sheared in the first place. So at 5 or so, we filled up the oil and cranked up the engine while he proclaimed all was well. Yeah right. Shut down the engine after an hour, checked the oil. Empty. Called Mohamed, but tomorrow was Friday (Arabs) so the guy couldn't come 'til 3. No worries as we were going into town--Port Sudan--anyway to do internet (had 3 more giant emails I needed to clear and am happy to report none were from this group!!) and get veggies, bread, etc. Everything, Mohamed assured us, would be open even though it was Friday (Muslim country, you know). Nope, and the cabbie kept getting lost. Anyway, we ended up at a really nice hotel for internet and had lunch there followed by the veggie market and "supermarket", then back to Suakin. Suakin used to be a major port and a lot of cool buildings are on a small fortress island by the anchorage, BUT, they built everything out of coral and the buildings just fell down so it is a big jumble and no one has the money to try to reconstruct anything.
This time, I had all the tools out for the mechanic--electric drill, screw extractor, tap and die set. He worked all afternoon and I can't say I know how he did it, but he got the four bolts in. We cranked it up, waited, looked, and he declared it fixed. Nope, but I don't know why. When I checked the bolts and the bracket everything looked good and tight so I think he must have screwed up the gasket or left a hose loose or something. Anyway, we still had an allegedly 4 day weather window so the one engine wouldn't be a problem. Which brings us to now. Window closed, one engine, putting along at 3 knots turning a three day trip into four and getting bounced unpleasantly around. All the weather stuff still points to a favorable wind shift so, with luck, we might get in tomorrow to
Port Ghalib, Egypt where we can get the motor repaired properly.
We have to say neither of us are liking the Red Sea at all. We just want to get to Egypt and do some touring. So far the coast has been pretty much stark desert with extreme poverty and decaying cities. And, of course, no internet. I feel like Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin!!
Cheers and a belated happy Easter to you all from Rose and me.
Tim & Rose
P.S. I'm sure you all anxiously await and study our little stories, but we're still waiting to hear from someone what the poorest country in the world is behind Eritrea.
The saga continues. I'm starting this on the midnight watch as we sail up Foul Bay and cross into Egypt. We're on the second of probably a three nighter. This is, of course, after we vowed to cut these marathon sails out after days and days of it just getting to the Red Sea. Unfortunately, we were planning on some kind of normal weather, but that is not what you get in the Red Sea. The choices are to take advantage of a good "weather window" where the northerlies are light or have moved more south OR you can bash into 25-30 knot winds and choppy 2-3 meter seas. Even if both motors were working (more on that later) we can only make about 3 or 4 knots in those unfavorable conditions. SO--the rule of thumb is get while the getting is good which is why we are sailing as fast and far as we we can with favorable conditions. (Monday 7PM--so much for favorable conditions. In spite of all the forecasts, the wind has strengthened out of the northwest--our direction of travel. Since we're already committed, we are just bashing into it and going only 2-3 knots. Oh well, we've been in LOTS worse; this is just slow and boring!!) On to the news update.
So, we left you a couple of weeks ago (gosh, our letters are getting more frequent now that we have lots more to bore you with) at Port Smyth on Shummi island awaiting the arrival of a whole fleet of yachties. Well, about 6 or 7 boats arrived that afternoon, and it was one guy's birthday so naturally that called for a beach party. It was highly amusing. It was BYO, but everyone brought snacks and someone had a fish to grill up. I got to use up what few fireworks Joey had left me, and one of the girls was pretty good on the guitar so we had a hootenanny. Wow, in 12 years, this is the first time I've actually done one of these even though all the articles say this happens all the time. It was pretty good though, until one of the women relieved the guitar player for the sing-along. She was one of those people who think they're great, but can't carry a tune. Think of the worst ever American Idol audition and you'll have some idea. Of course, the festivities were further disrupted when the awful singer's husband fell over backwards trying to sit down. It's no wonder he gets that loaded if she sings all the time for him!! Anyway, by that time it was way past cruisers' midnight (9PM) so we packed it in.
The next day was an easy 30 miles over to Massawa for the anxiously anticipated trip into the mountains to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. Someone we had run into years ago that had done 3 circumnavigations ranked it as a top three highlight. A little bit of Italy, dare I say Rome, in the mountains of Africa. More on this later. A couple of boats we knew were in the port which is the largest on the Red Sea. Officials made me tie up to a concrete dock which was a bear to get back off of, and immigration was off on a ship somewhere so check in wasn't complete 'til the next day. Except for the dock and long walk it was one of the easier ones. Next day after check in, we went to the other immigration office to get visas--necessary to visit Asmara--and to the tourism bureau for travel permits. The "go to" guy in Massawa is Mike and he arranged our transport to Asmara which we were sharing with the two guys on Quo Vadis. Massawa is sort of bombed out and interestingly, Mike's cafe is in the old Italian embassy, but, by and large, the place looks like Beirut. One of the guys decided to stay and watch the boats so there was only the 3 of us. Good thing as we had a tiny cab and it's a 3 hour drive. Solomon, our driver, was okay and had something going on the side up there so when we met up with him the next day to return, the cab had a bunch on stuff in the trunk. He got rid of that but then disappeared for about an hour instead of meeting us at the "recycling" market which is a bunch of people making whatever they can out of old tires, sheet metal, etc. This is really a poor country as was evident in the restaurants which were out of meat and stuff like that. While our room was good and really cheap, the trip was a bust. We had all these expectations and the place was really just a dump--no good Italian food, no designer cloths stores, no nothing, really!!. On top of that Rose and I got the Prophet's plague back. I guess African food just does not agree with us, but the pounds are flowing off!! The one saving grace was the beautiful drive up through the mountains to get there. Lots of photo ops!!
By the time we got back, the fleet from Port Smyth had arrived and already done the visas and travel permits. Well what could we do? Couldn't tell them it sucked after they all just spent $100 or so to go. So we all agreed to keep quiet--they actually thought there was a Carre Four up there--HAH! We haven't seen them since the trip as we left the next day and they haven't caught up. We had our first real case of Baksheesh on check out. The immigration/customs officer comes to the boat to make sure you don't have stowaways. Gift? says he. What? says I. $10, says he. Cigarettes say I. Settled on 2 packs. Still suffering from the plague, but wanting to escape before the other crowd got back from Asmara, we took off for Abu Sheik, about 30 miles away. Like all the anchorages so far, this was wide open behind some mud flats, and we had to beat into the wind to get there.
So our choices, given the lovely weather here, were to sit in this crappy anchorage, go another 30 miles to the next crappy anchorage and sit there, or gut it out and head off overnight to a decent place up north--nothing in between. It took us 36 hours to make the next anchorage only 160 miles away in the Shubuk channel, just south of Suakin in Sudan. This was actually fairly picturesque and well sheltered; a lagoon full of flamingos was right in front of us. We actually had a ratty gunboat with about 20 irregulars (un-uniformed) stop by to check our papers. They had a big machine gun and the requisite AK47s, but I doubt they had any ammo--another very poor country. One guy spoke fairly good English and they politely checked our papers and then left--no baksheesh--we were amazed. During the night the main halyard had broken, shattering the sheave and going down inside the mast. AND, the old bugaboo oil problem happened again. Some of you--one I know for sure--will recall that three years ago the bolts holding the high pressure water maker pump sheared off. Since those same bolts also hold the backing plate for the oil pump on the starboard engine, the oil simply goes into the bilge and the engine alarm goes off. Yep, same deal and I'm betting the guys in Penang didn't tighten the bolts properly when they worked on the pump. Anyway, after 2 gallons of oil into the bilge, the light went on and, sure enough, same problem. This meant a long trip to Suakin as the wind was against us again even though it was only 40 miles.
Arrival was easy enough and while Suakin isn't an official port of entry, the "go to" man, Mohamed, clears you in and gets fuel, etc. Our friends on Dreamkeeeper were there as was Joost, the guy who led the convoy. A great weather window was coming up and they were leaving Friday. Fortunately, we arrived on Wed, and with really very little effort and Dreamkeepers help, on Thursday we got the halyard squared away. Mohamed cleared us in, got us 750 liters of fuel (which I got him to lug and dump in the tank) and arranged a mechanic.
The mechanic was a bit thick and wanted to take the back half of the motor out to drill out the broken bolts. Then he decide 2 would do it (originally 4) and using a nail and hammer somehow got another bolt in--One hadn't sheared in the first place. So at 5 or so, we filled up the oil and cranked up the engine while he proclaimed all was well. Yeah right. Shut down the engine after an hour, checked the oil. Empty. Called Mohamed, but tomorrow was Friday (Arabs) so the guy couldn't come 'til 3. No worries as we were going into town--Port Sudan--anyway to do internet (had 3 more giant emails I needed to clear and am happy to report none were from this group!!) and get veggies, bread, etc. Everything, Mohamed assured us, would be open even though it was Friday (Muslim country, you know). Nope, and the cabbie kept getting lost. Anyway, we ended up at a really nice hotel for internet and had lunch there followed by the veggie market and "supermarket", then back to Suakin. Suakin used to be a major port and a lot of cool buildings are on a small fortress island by the anchorage, BUT, they built everything out of coral and the buildings just fell down so it is a big jumble and no one has the money to try to reconstruct anything.
This time, I had all the tools out for the mechanic--electric drill, screw extractor, tap and die set. He worked all afternoon and I can't say I know how he did it, but he got the four bolts in. We cranked it up, waited, looked, and he declared it fixed. Nope, but I don't know why. When I checked the bolts and the bracket everything looked good and tight so I think he must have screwed up the gasket or left a hose loose or something. Anyway, we still had an allegedly 4 day weather window so the one engine wouldn't be a problem. Which brings us to now. Window closed, one engine, putting along at 3 knots turning a three day trip into four and getting bounced unpleasantly around. All the weather stuff still points to a favorable wind shift so, with luck, we might get in tomorrow to
Port Ghalib, Egypt where we can get the motor repaired properly.
We have to say neither of us are liking the Red Sea at all. We just want to get to Egypt and do some touring. So far the coast has been pretty much stark desert with extreme poverty and decaying cities. And, of course, no internet. I feel like Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin!!
Cheers and a belated happy Easter to you all from Rose and me.
Tim & Rose
P.S. I'm sure you all anxiously await and study our little stories, but we're still waiting to hear from someone what the poorest country in the world is behind Eritrea.
Convoy March 8 2010
Well folks, if you never hear from us again you'll know this email was in
error. However, fortunately, we are only 30 miles or so from the relative
safety of Aden, Yemen--yes, safe in the place where they bombed the Cole!!
Our
coalition contacts informed us yesterday that we had fortuitously picked a
great time for our transit--good weather for us, bad for the pirates and
activity generally away from our route. Just thought we'd let everyone know
we're okay and we'll send a confirm as soon as we arrive.
T & R
error. However, fortunately, we are only 30 miles or so from the relative
safety of Aden, Yemen--yes, safe in the place where they bombed the Cole!!
Our
coalition contacts informed us yesterday that we had fortuitously picked a
great time for our transit--good weather for us, bad for the pirates and
activity generally away from our route. Just thought we'd let everyone know
we're okay and we'll send a confirm as soon as we arrive.
T & R
Cochrin and Passage to Oman March 1 2010
Hello all.
It's been a chock full couple of weeks so be forewarned; this will be a
longy. Writing this at sea four days out of Cochin.
First things first. Our passage so far has been with light winds and calm
seas. Just today, we've finally had enough wind out of the right direction
to actually turn off the motors and truly sail. Slower going than we'd
like, but between the distance and a nasty 1 knot current against us, we
probably do not have enough fuel to motor all the way. So, except when
we're charging the batteries, we are coasting along at between four and six
knots. Only 1,000 miles and about 8 days to go. As it turned out, we burned 900 liters of fuel and good wind the last couple of days saved us.
Second, nothing new to report about Rose. Her condition remains good and
all her blood tests are okay. Her back is bothering her but that has nothing to do with the other condition.
Back to Cochin--It is dirty there. Rose claimed, when we left, that the boat
had never been that filthy. It was very clean when we arrived from the salt
water bashing we took on the way, but that didn't last. It's been nice and
calm at sea, and we can make water to wash with now that we've left so it's getting
better, but it really needs a good pressure washing. So you will no doubt recall there
were several items of repair necessary. Thank God we were at this little
"boatyard" so the men could come and go. Notice the quotes. The yard had a
rough concrete dock and one set of rails to haul boats as well as a couple
of sheds. The place was a wreck as the new English owner had been gone six months, but
he started to get things cleaned up while we were there. The whole
operation was only about 100 feet, if that, wide, but it was separated from
the street by a high opaque fence and actually had a live-in watchman who
sort of came with the place when the new owner bought it. Spoke no English
and locked us out a couple of times and even locked us in one morning when
he got coffee!! It took about three days to get water (well water not
really drinkable but good for everything else) and electricity. What with
the good security, power supply for the refrigeration and easy access for
someone to look after Charlie, we were still glad we chose this place over
the anchorage. Everyone else was across the channel at a place called the
Bolgatty anchorage, on anchor-no shore power, no clean water to make water
and at a "resort" that didn't even have a proper bar. We discovered this
when we met Freebird for Sunday brunch at the resort--allegedly one of the
best in Cochin!!! We, on the other hand, were at Fort Cochi, the tourist
center of the area, and, while it still wasn't easy to find a place to get a
real drink, there were loads of good restaurants, plenty of shopping and lots
to do and see. We were actually on a narrow road across from the Muslim
orphanage (very handy when telling the "auto-rickshaw" drivers where to take
us) in a warehouse district with all sorts of spice markets. Rarely ate on
board as the food was so cheap and good. The auto-rickshaws are sort of
rickshaws with the motorcycle sort of built in. You have to be there to
understand, but they are dirt cheap--about $.60 to the main tourist area
about 2 or 3 k away.
We wanted to do some inland exploring, but, first, we needed to get repairs
underway and sorted out. This proved to be a nightmare. To make a long
story short, surprisingly, there is a big language problem, and I am
convinced that Indians were born short of a full deck. For instance, the
freezer guys kept trying to work on the wrong unit in spite of me showing
them. I almost gave up when I checked on their progress in the engine room
and found they had started to dismantle the SCUBA compressor instead of
working on the freezer compressor. Outboard guys came and swore I had an
electrical problem and they would send an electrician the next day. Next
day 2 more guys show up and tell me they are mechanics and I need an
electrician. Then, when we were away--yes, we did get away--nothing got
done and we were getting close to departure. I became suicidal, but it all
worked out in the end and we got everything fixed for really little money.
The one exception was the VHF. Tried a new connector, but still only have
about 7 miles range (should be 30) which is a nuisance and affects AIS
reception as well. Will need a new antenna in Oman. What are the chances
of that??!!
So, having thought we had everything under control, we booked a trip to
Mysore, site of a huge palace and some other interesting stuff. We, if we
had more time or the inclination, could have done a longer tea plantation,
national park type of thing, but we had pretty much already done that stuff
elsewhere and Rose wanted to see Mysore. We, especially Rose, also like to
take trains so we can see the countryside. The only problem is there is no
direct train from Cochin to Mysore--you have to go about 800 k to Bangalore
then get another train south for 2 hours to Mysore. Loads of security and guys with Uzis as a result of the Mumbai bombings, we guessed. No problem, as we had
air-conditioned sleeper tickets for the 13 hour first leg and first class the
next day to Mysore. It was pretty amusing, but hard on the bottom as the
seats on the sleeper are really long benches with padding about the
thickness of an exercise mat. We took a morning train so we'd have
daylight, but the windows were so dirty and scratchy, photos were
impossible. Then there was "fartman", one of our compartment mates. Holy mackerel!! For
thirteen hours!!!??? They did serve food--not too good, and buckets,
literally, of sweet coffee and tea (cha) au lait--pretty good for 5 rupees a
cup--$.10.
The only rip-off we experienced was on arrival in Bangalore at about 8:30 at
night. We had to spend the night there due to the train schedule. Some
guy, and this is typical all over, approached as as we disembarked, asking
if we needed a taxi. Sure we said, but it turned out he wasn't a metered
taxi and had no clue where our hotel was. While we negotiated the price
down, an hour and 800 rupees later after several stops to ask for
directions, we finally arrived at the hotel--about 15 minutes and 250 rupees from the
station if they knew where they were going. Rose was sure we were going to
be mugged or worse as along the way we took some pretty spooky back roads.
Anyway, the hotel ($30) turned out to be a very pleasant surprise and we
grabbed a quick room service snack before bed. The layout was sort of a
suite thing with 2 bedrooms off a common sitting area. Breakfast, included,
was also via room service and we were fairly leisurely as the train to
Mysore was at 11. We had really great seats and free bottled water on the 2 hour
journey down, and the station was about 15 minutes away from our hotel
there. The Ginger Hotel was one of a chain and a pretty basic Holiday Inn
type place, but it was in a good location and had a legitimate coffee shop
with really good coffees and pastries. The hotel dining was less than
splendid and was all buffet. We only did breakfast and ate out the rest of
the time. I did manage to squeeze in an Ayurvedic massage where they use
tons of oil including your scalp and, in this case, a steam bath afterwards.
This is the only kind of massage we saw in India, and you get, and must
have, a shower afterward. They use sandalwood oil which supposedly has
therapeutic value.
We arrived on a Sunday and lucked out because they light up this palace on
Sunday night--admission free--and holidays only. They use 97,000 bulbs.
Yes, this is a huge palace. So we did that and had some snacks at a place
across from the palace, then back to the hotel to rest up for the big
sightseeing day tomorrow. After breakfast, Monday, we headed off back to
the palace and spent a couple of hours touring it. The rate for Indians is
R20 but R200 for "foreign tourist". Really amazing when you consider this
type of thing was still being constructed in the early 1900's and that the
Rajah or whatever was a fairly minor guy. Man, they had it made. After
lunch, we wandered around and went to the local outdoor market where Rose
bought a bunch of oils, like Jasmine, amber and some others. Used as bases
for perfume and all sorts of medicinal stuff, even mosquito repellent. It
was getting to be a long day, but we wanted to see the art museum in the
same general area and off we went. It was a quick run through and on our
way out we ran into Samile, who solicited us for the rickshaw ride back to
the Ginger. We also worked out a deal with him (it had been our plan right
along to get someone to "show us around") to do a tour the next day. There
is a holy Hindu mountain nearby with great views and a big temple--"one of
the 8 most holy mountains in India" So Tuesday, we did the temple with a
million hawkers around, saw the holy bull, hit the post office and a "real"
grocery store to get snacks for the train trip home, stopped in several
stores looking for the the right kind of wood box for the salon table
(didn't find one), and, finally, went to a real oil factory since the guys
in the market, according to Samile, water theirs down. Bought a bunch more oil. We were done
about 2 (that's when I got the massage) and thought we arranged with
Samile to pick us up for a ride to dinner--he'd done that the night before.
He must have been pissed off that I didn't give him enough money (gave him the agreed amount plus 20%)for the
tour as he never showed up. We never did exactly figure him out as he
always had someone else drive the rickshaw and he just came along. Anyway,
while pissed off about no ride to dinner, the story has a happy ending as
we ordered out for pizza and it was pretty good.
The next day, we took the 11 AM train back to Bangalore--not as nice as the
one on the trip down and a 3 PM train back to Cochin which arrived at about
2:30 AM. We had a nice family in our compartment this time with a cute
little girl and had loaded up on snacks to avoid the train food.
Unfortunately, this one didn't have the coffee and tea guys so we had to
settle for the water we brought with us. Nazar met us at the train for the
40 minute trip home--longggg day.
I've already expounded on being suicidal when, waking the next day, I found
nothing was really fixed. Spent most of that day arranging workmen while
Rose went shopping. I also had 3 parcels coming in via FedEx with parts,
mail and sundries. FedEx has not distinguished themselves this time and has
summarily dismissed my demands for restitution. First they claimed the
address was incorrect resulting in a 2 week delay in delivery. Then they
screwed up with customs--normally yachts in transit are duty free--resulting
in $300 in duties. Then they refused to give me the packages even though
someone was in the office on Friday because it was a holiday. A real bummer
and expensive to boot, but there's very little we can do as DHL has been
equally horrible.
Entertainment wise, we filled the weekend, after finally getting the FedEx
and Rose getting her hair cut and colored even more blond, with a
traditional dance show on Saturday with elaborate costumes and makeup--one
of those must do things. Sunday, Valentines day, we took an all day tour
of the "backwater" so named as it is a series of tidal estuaries about 45
minutes outside Cochin. You take a bus to the boat and are then poled--no
motors--around the channels and lakes and get a traditional lunch which
wasn't too bad, returning about 5 PM. Met some nice people including an
Englishmen with a 70 foot canal barge--definitely need to keep in touch
with him.!!! Monday was provisioning day for Rose and Checkout day for
Tim--takes hours. A final dinner out at a pretty good Italian place and off
we went at 7 on Tuesday. We're back to motoring and the prospects of
decent wind are not good, so who knows when we'll arrive because sooner or
later the engine has to go off and the sails take over. This morning there
was absolutely no wind, but it seems at night things pick up. If we can
just sail 8 hours a day or so we can make it on the fuel we have. Keeping
our fingers crossed. Oh, a final note. A couple of days ago we sailed
right through a school of fish so I thought I might as well put a line out.
Took a while to get a lure set, etc., but I didn't even have the line
deployed before a nice tuna hit it. Unfortunately, once I landed it, I
didn't have a tail noose set and the damn thing threw the hook and got away
before I could tie it down. Probably will update this as we go along and
send it on arrival in Oman.
Sunday Feb 21. Well something had to happen. I've just finished lugging
and siphoning 6 jerry jugs of fuel--we're almost halfway and have about 600
liters left--180 still in jugs, so we might make it as there is no wind and
none forecast for a few days. Since I was already grubby, I checked and
topped up the starboard engine oil--we've been mostly running that one as it
has fewer hours than the other. While checking on a leaking deck shower on
that side as well, I noticed the steering cables were quite loose. This has
happened before and isn't a big deal to tighten. HOWEVER, when I checked
under the helm, lo and behold, one of the cables on that side had broken.
Bummer. What are the odds of repairing that in Salalah. Fortunately, each
side has independent steering so we're okay--just no backup. Keeping
fingers crossed.
Tues. Motor on the autopilot has crapped. Working well enough as I write
to limp the last three days in to Oman, but getting a repair or replacement
is a problem as we're only there 5 days before the pirate alley convoy
departs. On the bright side, we had a 50-100 strong pod of very large
dolphin swim with us today--twice!! Awesome. Also had a green flash at
sunset according to Rose. I really didn't see anything different!!
Thurs. Tired of fiddling constantly with autopilot which doesn't seem to
want to hold a course as the sprocket keeps slipping so the "brain" doesn't
realize the wheel hasn't turned. Whatever--at least I know what I mean.
Anyway, for this very eventuality, I had purchased a "wheel pilot". While
this is designed for a boat about 34% lighter, I figured it would work in
light air and calm seas. It was about 20% of the cost of a full autopilot
backup so I thought it was worth a try. However, when push came to shove,
I was leery about turning it on. Given our luck lately, who knows what
could happen. Hallelujah, it works!! No more tending the wheel. Still
working on getting a new drive unit to Salalah, but haven't heard anything
today and we are running out of time.
As for pirates, there was a "suspicious incident" with a freighter about 150 miles NW of our position around the weekend, so we ran dark and took the radar reflector down for the rest of the trip. This worked okay until we passed near a legitimate ship who, while no doubt having us on radar that close, decided to teach us a lesson and came damn close. After that, we turned the lights back on near shipping traffic. Not that we were paranoid, but about 50 miles out of Salalah, a ship appeared on the AIS receiver (which provides details about the ship, it's course and closest point of approach) which was supposedly only 168 feet, of "other" description and bound for Somalia. The guy was stalking us!!! and our course wasn't the way to Somalia. Are the pirates getting smart and faking being a real ship to get close to their victims? Flashed him with the green laser to get him to move off which seemed to just piss him off and he got to about 1/4 mile off before veering away behind us. This was over about an hour period so we were quite nervous. With the VHF really not working, we had no way to call on local shipping or the authorities to assist us if it had been a pirate.
Okay, just to finish off as this is getting long, we arrived at dawn on
Sat., and check in was a breeze with the able assistance of our Omani "go to
guy", Mohammed. Holiday weekend as it is the celebration of the real
Mohammed's birthday. Our phone number here is 968 977 85179. For some
reason, they've blocked Skype!!! We haven't done much touring as time has
been spent arranging repairs, lugging very heavy jerry jugs of fuel and
cleaning. Good group here waiting for the convoy to Aden--about 20 boats,
and there is a western style bar/restaurant called the Oasis which is
outstanding and our yachtie hangout. As for repairs, they are pulling the
steering cable today and have a new one coming in from Dubai; VHF antenna
due in today. In spite of the protestations of the NZ dealer that amateurs
couldn't possibly service the pilot drive, the guy here seems to have fixed
it. This is a $2,500 drive motor and they used plastic gears. One was
stripped causing the problem and the Omanis replaced it with SS steel.
Worked in port. Sea trials when we leave. Keep your fingers crossed. The
Omanis are super friendly and, surprisingly (to us, at least), their English
is the best we've seen in quite a few countries!! The anchorage is quite
crowded and one of the Dubai sheiks is in with yacht, support ship and 3rd ship
with toys. Port control keeps making us poor yachties move so they have
more room to maneuver!! Going to try to do a bit of touring today. There's
a good museum and some archeological sites. Apparently out in the desert we
have Job's tomb and the Virgin Mary's father's tomb. I, for one, was not
aware that we knew who Mary's father was, but it's here, nonetheless. So
far, really enjoying Oman and regret not having more time. Not nearly as
cheap as where we've been but not outrageous either. Nice to have a change
of venue.
Cheers to you all. Will let everyone know when we've passed the danger
zone!!
Tim & Rose
It's been a chock full couple of weeks so be forewarned; this will be a
longy. Writing this at sea four days out of Cochin.
First things first. Our passage so far has been with light winds and calm
seas. Just today, we've finally had enough wind out of the right direction
to actually turn off the motors and truly sail. Slower going than we'd
like, but between the distance and a nasty 1 knot current against us, we
probably do not have enough fuel to motor all the way. So, except when
we're charging the batteries, we are coasting along at between four and six
knots. Only 1,000 miles and about 8 days to go. As it turned out, we burned 900 liters of fuel and good wind the last couple of days saved us.
Second, nothing new to report about Rose. Her condition remains good and
all her blood tests are okay. Her back is bothering her but that has nothing to do with the other condition.
Back to Cochin--It is dirty there. Rose claimed, when we left, that the boat
had never been that filthy. It was very clean when we arrived from the salt
water bashing we took on the way, but that didn't last. It's been nice and
calm at sea, and we can make water to wash with now that we've left so it's getting
better, but it really needs a good pressure washing. So you will no doubt recall there
were several items of repair necessary. Thank God we were at this little
"boatyard" so the men could come and go. Notice the quotes. The yard had a
rough concrete dock and one set of rails to haul boats as well as a couple
of sheds. The place was a wreck as the new English owner had been gone six months, but
he started to get things cleaned up while we were there. The whole
operation was only about 100 feet, if that, wide, but it was separated from
the street by a high opaque fence and actually had a live-in watchman who
sort of came with the place when the new owner bought it. Spoke no English
and locked us out a couple of times and even locked us in one morning when
he got coffee!! It took about three days to get water (well water not
really drinkable but good for everything else) and electricity. What with
the good security, power supply for the refrigeration and easy access for
someone to look after Charlie, we were still glad we chose this place over
the anchorage. Everyone else was across the channel at a place called the
Bolgatty anchorage, on anchor-no shore power, no clean water to make water
and at a "resort" that didn't even have a proper bar. We discovered this
when we met Freebird for Sunday brunch at the resort--allegedly one of the
best in Cochin!!! We, on the other hand, were at Fort Cochi, the tourist
center of the area, and, while it still wasn't easy to find a place to get a
real drink, there were loads of good restaurants, plenty of shopping and lots
to do and see. We were actually on a narrow road across from the Muslim
orphanage (very handy when telling the "auto-rickshaw" drivers where to take
us) in a warehouse district with all sorts of spice markets. Rarely ate on
board as the food was so cheap and good. The auto-rickshaws are sort of
rickshaws with the motorcycle sort of built in. You have to be there to
understand, but they are dirt cheap--about $.60 to the main tourist area
about 2 or 3 k away.
We wanted to do some inland exploring, but, first, we needed to get repairs
underway and sorted out. This proved to be a nightmare. To make a long
story short, surprisingly, there is a big language problem, and I am
convinced that Indians were born short of a full deck. For instance, the
freezer guys kept trying to work on the wrong unit in spite of me showing
them. I almost gave up when I checked on their progress in the engine room
and found they had started to dismantle the SCUBA compressor instead of
working on the freezer compressor. Outboard guys came and swore I had an
electrical problem and they would send an electrician the next day. Next
day 2 more guys show up and tell me they are mechanics and I need an
electrician. Then, when we were away--yes, we did get away--nothing got
done and we were getting close to departure. I became suicidal, but it all
worked out in the end and we got everything fixed for really little money.
The one exception was the VHF. Tried a new connector, but still only have
about 7 miles range (should be 30) which is a nuisance and affects AIS
reception as well. Will need a new antenna in Oman. What are the chances
of that??!!
So, having thought we had everything under control, we booked a trip to
Mysore, site of a huge palace and some other interesting stuff. We, if we
had more time or the inclination, could have done a longer tea plantation,
national park type of thing, but we had pretty much already done that stuff
elsewhere and Rose wanted to see Mysore. We, especially Rose, also like to
take trains so we can see the countryside. The only problem is there is no
direct train from Cochin to Mysore--you have to go about 800 k to Bangalore
then get another train south for 2 hours to Mysore. Loads of security and guys with Uzis as a result of the Mumbai bombings, we guessed. No problem, as we had
air-conditioned sleeper tickets for the 13 hour first leg and first class the
next day to Mysore. It was pretty amusing, but hard on the bottom as the
seats on the sleeper are really long benches with padding about the
thickness of an exercise mat. We took a morning train so we'd have
daylight, but the windows were so dirty and scratchy, photos were
impossible. Then there was "fartman", one of our compartment mates. Holy mackerel!! For
thirteen hours!!!??? They did serve food--not too good, and buckets,
literally, of sweet coffee and tea (cha) au lait--pretty good for 5 rupees a
cup--$.10.
The only rip-off we experienced was on arrival in Bangalore at about 8:30 at
night. We had to spend the night there due to the train schedule. Some
guy, and this is typical all over, approached as as we disembarked, asking
if we needed a taxi. Sure we said, but it turned out he wasn't a metered
taxi and had no clue where our hotel was. While we negotiated the price
down, an hour and 800 rupees later after several stops to ask for
directions, we finally arrived at the hotel--about 15 minutes and 250 rupees from the
station if they knew where they were going. Rose was sure we were going to
be mugged or worse as along the way we took some pretty spooky back roads.
Anyway, the hotel ($30) turned out to be a very pleasant surprise and we
grabbed a quick room service snack before bed. The layout was sort of a
suite thing with 2 bedrooms off a common sitting area. Breakfast, included,
was also via room service and we were fairly leisurely as the train to
Mysore was at 11. We had really great seats and free bottled water on the 2 hour
journey down, and the station was about 15 minutes away from our hotel
there. The Ginger Hotel was one of a chain and a pretty basic Holiday Inn
type place, but it was in a good location and had a legitimate coffee shop
with really good coffees and pastries. The hotel dining was less than
splendid and was all buffet. We only did breakfast and ate out the rest of
the time. I did manage to squeeze in an Ayurvedic massage where they use
tons of oil including your scalp and, in this case, a steam bath afterwards.
This is the only kind of massage we saw in India, and you get, and must
have, a shower afterward. They use sandalwood oil which supposedly has
therapeutic value.
We arrived on a Sunday and lucked out because they light up this palace on
Sunday night--admission free--and holidays only. They use 97,000 bulbs.
Yes, this is a huge palace. So we did that and had some snacks at a place
across from the palace, then back to the hotel to rest up for the big
sightseeing day tomorrow. After breakfast, Monday, we headed off back to
the palace and spent a couple of hours touring it. The rate for Indians is
R20 but R200 for "foreign tourist". Really amazing when you consider this
type of thing was still being constructed in the early 1900's and that the
Rajah or whatever was a fairly minor guy. Man, they had it made. After
lunch, we wandered around and went to the local outdoor market where Rose
bought a bunch of oils, like Jasmine, amber and some others. Used as bases
for perfume and all sorts of medicinal stuff, even mosquito repellent. It
was getting to be a long day, but we wanted to see the art museum in the
same general area and off we went. It was a quick run through and on our
way out we ran into Samile, who solicited us for the rickshaw ride back to
the Ginger. We also worked out a deal with him (it had been our plan right
along to get someone to "show us around") to do a tour the next day. There
is a holy Hindu mountain nearby with great views and a big temple--"one of
the 8 most holy mountains in India" So Tuesday, we did the temple with a
million hawkers around, saw the holy bull, hit the post office and a "real"
grocery store to get snacks for the train trip home, stopped in several
stores looking for the the right kind of wood box for the salon table
(didn't find one), and, finally, went to a real oil factory since the guys
in the market, according to Samile, water theirs down. Bought a bunch more oil. We were done
about 2 (that's when I got the massage) and thought we arranged with
Samile to pick us up for a ride to dinner--he'd done that the night before.
He must have been pissed off that I didn't give him enough money (gave him the agreed amount plus 20%)for the
tour as he never showed up. We never did exactly figure him out as he
always had someone else drive the rickshaw and he just came along. Anyway,
while pissed off about no ride to dinner, the story has a happy ending as
we ordered out for pizza and it was pretty good.
The next day, we took the 11 AM train back to Bangalore--not as nice as the
one on the trip down and a 3 PM train back to Cochin which arrived at about
2:30 AM. We had a nice family in our compartment this time with a cute
little girl and had loaded up on snacks to avoid the train food.
Unfortunately, this one didn't have the coffee and tea guys so we had to
settle for the water we brought with us. Nazar met us at the train for the
40 minute trip home--longggg day.
I've already expounded on being suicidal when, waking the next day, I found
nothing was really fixed. Spent most of that day arranging workmen while
Rose went shopping. I also had 3 parcels coming in via FedEx with parts,
mail and sundries. FedEx has not distinguished themselves this time and has
summarily dismissed my demands for restitution. First they claimed the
address was incorrect resulting in a 2 week delay in delivery. Then they
screwed up with customs--normally yachts in transit are duty free--resulting
in $300 in duties. Then they refused to give me the packages even though
someone was in the office on Friday because it was a holiday. A real bummer
and expensive to boot, but there's very little we can do as DHL has been
equally horrible.
Entertainment wise, we filled the weekend, after finally getting the FedEx
and Rose getting her hair cut and colored even more blond, with a
traditional dance show on Saturday with elaborate costumes and makeup--one
of those must do things. Sunday, Valentines day, we took an all day tour
of the "backwater" so named as it is a series of tidal estuaries about 45
minutes outside Cochin. You take a bus to the boat and are then poled--no
motors--around the channels and lakes and get a traditional lunch which
wasn't too bad, returning about 5 PM. Met some nice people including an
Englishmen with a 70 foot canal barge--definitely need to keep in touch
with him.!!! Monday was provisioning day for Rose and Checkout day for
Tim--takes hours. A final dinner out at a pretty good Italian place and off
we went at 7 on Tuesday. We're back to motoring and the prospects of
decent wind are not good, so who knows when we'll arrive because sooner or
later the engine has to go off and the sails take over. This morning there
was absolutely no wind, but it seems at night things pick up. If we can
just sail 8 hours a day or so we can make it on the fuel we have. Keeping
our fingers crossed. Oh, a final note. A couple of days ago we sailed
right through a school of fish so I thought I might as well put a line out.
Took a while to get a lure set, etc., but I didn't even have the line
deployed before a nice tuna hit it. Unfortunately, once I landed it, I
didn't have a tail noose set and the damn thing threw the hook and got away
before I could tie it down. Probably will update this as we go along and
send it on arrival in Oman.
Sunday Feb 21. Well something had to happen. I've just finished lugging
and siphoning 6 jerry jugs of fuel--we're almost halfway and have about 600
liters left--180 still in jugs, so we might make it as there is no wind and
none forecast for a few days. Since I was already grubby, I checked and
topped up the starboard engine oil--we've been mostly running that one as it
has fewer hours than the other. While checking on a leaking deck shower on
that side as well, I noticed the steering cables were quite loose. This has
happened before and isn't a big deal to tighten. HOWEVER, when I checked
under the helm, lo and behold, one of the cables on that side had broken.
Bummer. What are the odds of repairing that in Salalah. Fortunately, each
side has independent steering so we're okay--just no backup. Keeping
fingers crossed.
Tues. Motor on the autopilot has crapped. Working well enough as I write
to limp the last three days in to Oman, but getting a repair or replacement
is a problem as we're only there 5 days before the pirate alley convoy
departs. On the bright side, we had a 50-100 strong pod of very large
dolphin swim with us today--twice!! Awesome. Also had a green flash at
sunset according to Rose. I really didn't see anything different!!
Thurs. Tired of fiddling constantly with autopilot which doesn't seem to
want to hold a course as the sprocket keeps slipping so the "brain" doesn't
realize the wheel hasn't turned. Whatever--at least I know what I mean.
Anyway, for this very eventuality, I had purchased a "wheel pilot". While
this is designed for a boat about 34% lighter, I figured it would work in
light air and calm seas. It was about 20% of the cost of a full autopilot
backup so I thought it was worth a try. However, when push came to shove,
I was leery about turning it on. Given our luck lately, who knows what
could happen. Hallelujah, it works!! No more tending the wheel. Still
working on getting a new drive unit to Salalah, but haven't heard anything
today and we are running out of time.
As for pirates, there was a "suspicious incident" with a freighter about 150 miles NW of our position around the weekend, so we ran dark and took the radar reflector down for the rest of the trip. This worked okay until we passed near a legitimate ship who, while no doubt having us on radar that close, decided to teach us a lesson and came damn close. After that, we turned the lights back on near shipping traffic. Not that we were paranoid, but about 50 miles out of Salalah, a ship appeared on the AIS receiver (which provides details about the ship, it's course and closest point of approach) which was supposedly only 168 feet, of "other" description and bound for Somalia. The guy was stalking us!!! and our course wasn't the way to Somalia. Are the pirates getting smart and faking being a real ship to get close to their victims? Flashed him with the green laser to get him to move off which seemed to just piss him off and he got to about 1/4 mile off before veering away behind us. This was over about an hour period so we were quite nervous. With the VHF really not working, we had no way to call on local shipping or the authorities to assist us if it had been a pirate.
Okay, just to finish off as this is getting long, we arrived at dawn on
Sat., and check in was a breeze with the able assistance of our Omani "go to
guy", Mohammed. Holiday weekend as it is the celebration of the real
Mohammed's birthday. Our phone number here is 968 977 85179. For some
reason, they've blocked Skype!!! We haven't done much touring as time has
been spent arranging repairs, lugging very heavy jerry jugs of fuel and
cleaning. Good group here waiting for the convoy to Aden--about 20 boats,
and there is a western style bar/restaurant called the Oasis which is
outstanding and our yachtie hangout. As for repairs, they are pulling the
steering cable today and have a new one coming in from Dubai; VHF antenna
due in today. In spite of the protestations of the NZ dealer that amateurs
couldn't possibly service the pilot drive, the guy here seems to have fixed
it. This is a $2,500 drive motor and they used plastic gears. One was
stripped causing the problem and the Omanis replaced it with SS steel.
Worked in port. Sea trials when we leave. Keep your fingers crossed. The
Omanis are super friendly and, surprisingly (to us, at least), their English
is the best we've seen in quite a few countries!! The anchorage is quite
crowded and one of the Dubai sheiks is in with yacht, support ship and 3rd ship
with toys. Port control keeps making us poor yachties move so they have
more room to maneuver!! Going to try to do a bit of touring today. There's
a good museum and some archeological sites. Apparently out in the desert we
have Job's tomb and the Virgin Mary's father's tomb. I, for one, was not
aware that we knew who Mary's father was, but it's here, nonetheless. So
far, really enjoying Oman and regret not having more time. Not nearly as
cheap as where we've been but not outrageous either. Nice to have a change
of venue.
Cheers to you all. Will let everyone know when we've passed the danger
zone!!
Tim & Rose
Arrival in Cochrin, India Feb 1 2010
Hello everyone.
WE'RE BACK ON THE SATPHONE FOR EMAIL, SO PLEASE DO NOT JUST
RESPOND TO THIS OR SEND ANY LARGE GRAPHICS FILES.
I'm happy to report we have arrived safely in Cochin after 1500 miles and 10
days at sea. We'll be here about 2 or 3 weeks before heading south to the
Maldives for another couple (only 200 miles), then it's big bad, pirate
alley. Oooooh!!! By and large it was a very calm passage and, in fact, we
probably motor-sailed in light winds for about 1,100 or 1,200 of the total.
We had the usual pods of dolphin with us part of the way, and, at one point,
Rose is certain we passed a dead body. While large, it looked like an
upside down dead turtle to me, but who knows? Managed to catch what might
have proved a serious problem on the way. The main sheet had been chafing
on itself and no end of trying some kind of chafing protection worked.
Finally, it looked like someone, probably me, had set it up slightly wrong
where it attaches to the boom. In calm seas, up I went on top of the bimini
to work on it. Could have done a better job tying the boom off before I
disconnected the sheet as I took a knock or two in the forehead when it
swung. So in the process of reconfiguring the thing, I found A. it was
almost chafed through in an undetectable spot and B. one of the shackles
holding it had almost worn through. This was especially fortuitous as we
had some really awful weather later on.
So we got in the groove of a passage with 3 hours watches and tan mangement
during the day with naps thrown in to make up for the odd hours of the watch
schedule. After a few days, it all becomes routine. We were able to coax
the Iridium into working and, thus had some contact with friends who had
preceded us on the passage. They warned us about the awful conditions in
the Gulf of Mannar, between Sri Lanka and the southern tip of India. As we
approached Sri Lanka, we finally got some wind and roared across the south
end at about 8-10 knots. Of course as we rounded the corner to head
northwest, the wind died. As this was the eastern side of the dreaded
Mannar, we put a precautionary reef in the main (that's shortening sail,
landlubbers) but were thinking what is the deal with this as we had light
air and were back under motor. Eight hours later, we got our answers as the
wind and waves increased dramatically. At one point with just a corner of
the jib out and the reefed main we were making 15 knots. To get a bit more
comfortable, we doused the jib altogether and "de-trimmed" the main. This
got us down to about 10 knots in 10 foot beam breaking seas and 30 knot
winds. If we hadn't been able to keep on course with these conditions at
least partially behind us and had only 24 hours of the crap, it would have
surpassed the ride down to Tonga a few years back as the worst conditions
we've ever encountered. Rose thinks it was worse because with no radar
below decks we had to spend a lot more time in the cockpit to check radar
for shipping of which there was a lot. The boat looked like it had been
rifled by burglars--tossed is the term I think. The cat even got seasick
and kept barfing after we fed him. Rose was asceered, but I reassured her
we'd been through worse and the boat was just fine--which it was. BUT--it
was badddddddd. Salt water everywhere, waves breaking into the cockpit and
washing machine motion that made it difficult to omove about. Really just
awful. There is no doubt we would have broken the mainsheet and probably
lost the mast had we not discovered the problems earlier. Whew!!!! The
only casualties were a lost fishing line, one teak board from the back deck
and a broken hinge on one of the swim laddrers which the waves had thrown
into the water. Shipping wasn't too big a problem, but a few of the boat
jockeys got their jollies trying to frighten us by running directly at us
and veering away at the last minute. We prefer not to assert our right of
way against 600 foot freighters and most are pretty considerate of our
sailing status. But, there's always a few.....
Post Mannar, we actually had a nice sail a good ways up the coast to Cochin
and arrived at 3:30 Saturday afternoon. That is where we really lucked out.
India is a very bureaucratic country and it usually takes a full day to
check in. Had we been unable to, we would not have been allowed off the
boat until the process was completed on MONDAY afternoon. Fortunately, the
officials seemed to want to get off for the weekend, and there is a really
good local helper guy named Nazar who helped. So we finished with customs
at about 4:30 and Nazar had talked to immigration and found that if we got
there before 5 they would clear us in. Well, we, with Nazar, just made it
on the public bus and accomplished in 1 1/2 hours what is takes most people
a day to a day and a half to get done. We still need to keep the boat in
the quarantine anchorage as Monday AM Customs comes back to take us in to
the Port Captain who gives us permission to move as well as taking our boat
papers until departure. But, we are free to leave the boat. We have new
SIM cards so if anyone want to call it's country code 91 number 984 613
0302. The card cost 27 rupees which at the current rate of 46 to the dollar
cost exactly 60 cents!!!!!!!
Today we're taking it easy and will wait to thoroughly wash the salt off
until we reach the marina/boatyard tomorrow. In the meantime we've talked
to the English owner who is buying us lunch tomorrow and Nazar is due to
arrive shortly to take care of the laundry. He's the "go to" guy here and
will be helping on repairs, getting us fuel and, hopefully, looking after
Charlie while we travel inland.
Stuff that didn't get fixed in Phuket or broke down on the way are VHF
doesn't transmit. I think this was a bad soldering job on the new antenna
connector, no AIS--could be the VHF antenna or lightning damage, engine
driven freezer not cooling--an ongoing problem, jib sun covering torn,
cockpit canvas stitching gone--poor quality thread used in NZ, swim ladder
hinge, instruments don't talk to each other or the repeater at the nav
station, teak board. All in all pretty minor stuff, especially when you
consider we really haven't gone anywhere for over a year.
So cheers for now. We'll get an internet card tomorrow and will send this
then with, maybe a P.S. on our activities today.
Tim & Rose
P.S. The bureaucracy here is nouts. Took 2 hours this AM to pay the port fees and get a receipt for boat docs. Moved over and it was a mission to a sort of dock where we'll have power and water, I hope, tomorrow so we can do some travelling. Took 2 trips and about 3 hours to get an internet card/stick and get it working. It's now 8 PM and still haven't had lunch!!! This is just like something out the movies but okay if you expect it. More on our travels later.
T
WE'RE BACK ON THE SATPHONE FOR EMAIL, SO PLEASE DO NOT JUST
RESPOND TO THIS OR SEND ANY LARGE GRAPHICS FILES.
I'm happy to report we have arrived safely in Cochin after 1500 miles and 10
days at sea. We'll be here about 2 or 3 weeks before heading south to the
Maldives for another couple (only 200 miles), then it's big bad, pirate
alley. Oooooh!!! By and large it was a very calm passage and, in fact, we
probably motor-sailed in light winds for about 1,100 or 1,200 of the total.
We had the usual pods of dolphin with us part of the way, and, at one point,
Rose is certain we passed a dead body. While large, it looked like an
upside down dead turtle to me, but who knows? Managed to catch what might
have proved a serious problem on the way. The main sheet had been chafing
on itself and no end of trying some kind of chafing protection worked.
Finally, it looked like someone, probably me, had set it up slightly wrong
where it attaches to the boom. In calm seas, up I went on top of the bimini
to work on it. Could have done a better job tying the boom off before I
disconnected the sheet as I took a knock or two in the forehead when it
swung. So in the process of reconfiguring the thing, I found A. it was
almost chafed through in an undetectable spot and B. one of the shackles
holding it had almost worn through. This was especially fortuitous as we
had some really awful weather later on.
So we got in the groove of a passage with 3 hours watches and tan mangement
during the day with naps thrown in to make up for the odd hours of the watch
schedule. After a few days, it all becomes routine. We were able to coax
the Iridium into working and, thus had some contact with friends who had
preceded us on the passage. They warned us about the awful conditions in
the Gulf of Mannar, between Sri Lanka and the southern tip of India. As we
approached Sri Lanka, we finally got some wind and roared across the south
end at about 8-10 knots. Of course as we rounded the corner to head
northwest, the wind died. As this was the eastern side of the dreaded
Mannar, we put a precautionary reef in the main (that's shortening sail,
landlubbers) but were thinking what is the deal with this as we had light
air and were back under motor. Eight hours later, we got our answers as the
wind and waves increased dramatically. At one point with just a corner of
the jib out and the reefed main we were making 15 knots. To get a bit more
comfortable, we doused the jib altogether and "de-trimmed" the main. This
got us down to about 10 knots in 10 foot beam breaking seas and 30 knot
winds. If we hadn't been able to keep on course with these conditions at
least partially behind us and had only 24 hours of the crap, it would have
surpassed the ride down to Tonga a few years back as the worst conditions
we've ever encountered. Rose thinks it was worse because with no radar
below decks we had to spend a lot more time in the cockpit to check radar
for shipping of which there was a lot. The boat looked like it had been
rifled by burglars--tossed is the term I think. The cat even got seasick
and kept barfing after we fed him. Rose was asceered, but I reassured her
we'd been through worse and the boat was just fine--which it was. BUT--it
was badddddddd. Salt water everywhere, waves breaking into the cockpit and
washing machine motion that made it difficult to omove about. Really just
awful. There is no doubt we would have broken the mainsheet and probably
lost the mast had we not discovered the problems earlier. Whew!!!! The
only casualties were a lost fishing line, one teak board from the back deck
and a broken hinge on one of the swim laddrers which the waves had thrown
into the water. Shipping wasn't too big a problem, but a few of the boat
jockeys got their jollies trying to frighten us by running directly at us
and veering away at the last minute. We prefer not to assert our right of
way against 600 foot freighters and most are pretty considerate of our
sailing status. But, there's always a few.....
Post Mannar, we actually had a nice sail a good ways up the coast to Cochin
and arrived at 3:30 Saturday afternoon. That is where we really lucked out.
India is a very bureaucratic country and it usually takes a full day to
check in. Had we been unable to, we would not have been allowed off the
boat until the process was completed on MONDAY afternoon. Fortunately, the
officials seemed to want to get off for the weekend, and there is a really
good local helper guy named Nazar who helped. So we finished with customs
at about 4:30 and Nazar had talked to immigration and found that if we got
there before 5 they would clear us in. Well, we, with Nazar, just made it
on the public bus and accomplished in 1 1/2 hours what is takes most people
a day to a day and a half to get done. We still need to keep the boat in
the quarantine anchorage as Monday AM Customs comes back to take us in to
the Port Captain who gives us permission to move as well as taking our boat
papers until departure. But, we are free to leave the boat. We have new
SIM cards so if anyone want to call it's country code 91 number 984 613
0302. The card cost 27 rupees which at the current rate of 46 to the dollar
cost exactly 60 cents!!!!!!!
Today we're taking it easy and will wait to thoroughly wash the salt off
until we reach the marina/boatyard tomorrow. In the meantime we've talked
to the English owner who is buying us lunch tomorrow and Nazar is due to
arrive shortly to take care of the laundry. He's the "go to" guy here and
will be helping on repairs, getting us fuel and, hopefully, looking after
Charlie while we travel inland.
Stuff that didn't get fixed in Phuket or broke down on the way are VHF
doesn't transmit. I think this was a bad soldering job on the new antenna
connector, no AIS--could be the VHF antenna or lightning damage, engine
driven freezer not cooling--an ongoing problem, jib sun covering torn,
cockpit canvas stitching gone--poor quality thread used in NZ, swim ladder
hinge, instruments don't talk to each other or the repeater at the nav
station, teak board. All in all pretty minor stuff, especially when you
consider we really haven't gone anywhere for over a year.
So cheers for now. We'll get an internet card tomorrow and will send this
then with, maybe a P.S. on our activities today.
Tim & Rose
P.S. The bureaucracy here is nouts. Took 2 hours this AM to pay the port fees and get a receipt for boat docs. Moved over and it was a mission to a sort of dock where we'll have power and water, I hope, tomorrow so we can do some travelling. Took 2 trips and about 3 hours to get an internet card/stick and get it working. It's now 8 PM and still haven't had lunch!!! This is just like something out the movies but okay if you expect it. More on our travels later.
T
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