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
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