by Judy Handley | Feb 26, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 123, Year 5: A Little Extra Protein
Date: Friday, February 26, 2010
Weather: Hot Day with Late Afternoon Sea Breeze
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
Writing a daily log like this bares your soul to anyone out there checking out Handleysail.com. I have never really worried about that as I feel I am writing each day to my family and good friends. But this morning when I discovered weevils in our food supply, I thought maybe I should just not mention this to anyone. But then, I didn’t feel honest, because I have always written what is happening each day just as it happens. So the bad news is that some pasta and rice bought in Thailand and all the rice we have bought since arriving here in India are all crawling with weevils. Yuck! In our four and half years of world cruising, we have never encountered these little buggers, but now we know them well. Mark and I spent the entire morning meticulously checking every item in every storage basket in our forward head. That has become a food storage area and a week or so ago, I bought four kilos of rice here and just threw them into the storage bin. I had promised to vacuum seal them quickly, but somehow the days have gone by and I didn’t get the job done. When I got the packages out to vacuum seal this morning, the critters inside were very obvious. I threw out one bag, but went ahead and vacuumed packed the other three. I figure the weevils cannot live without air and when we open the packages for use, we’ll just enjoy the extra protein!
But unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. I have four milk crate-sized bins in the forward head, so I decided I should check each one for unwanted critters. The top bin was fine. The second one contains Oreos and TimTams for Mark, crackers, and soft and hard taco shells-no critters. So this is good. The third bin is for pasta-fusilli, vermicelli, bow ties, shells, and rice vermicelli. Well, the vermicelli bought in New Zealand in 2007 and the vermicelli bought in Thailand were all fine, but one bag of the fusulli from Thailand was absolutely riddled with weevils. Both bags of bow tie pasta bought in Thailand were also horribly infested, so out they went. Then I got to the bottom box of rice bought in Thailand. I hadn’t vacuum packed it because it looked airtight. Big mistake. I vacuumed packed anything that still looked passable, cleaned the milk crates and wiped the outside of very single package and then put everything away, liberally sprinkling bay leaves and whole cloves every where. I know weevils are a common problem with cruisers in this part of the world, but I have just never had to deal with this. We will check the milk crates regularly and hope that vacuum packing suffocated any wildlife left behind. And we’ll just enjoy those suffocated little weevils as extra protein in our diet in the coming months.
Mark, Ed, and I went into Ernakulum for lunch today and then did a little shopping. Ed bought 2-stroke engine oil and Mark bought aluminum bar to turn Windbird into a jail before we arrive in Madagascar. People there are so very poor and unfortunately you have to make sure you are locked in at night so no one can get inside. So Mark will make little grates to install in our hatches so no one can get in. I then bought more onions, we all bought little rag rugs to use for various purposes, Ed topped up his cell SIM card, we bought more Indian snack food that we have learned to love, I bought cloves and cardamom seeds, mailing envelopes, scissors, and a garlic press, and then we headed home. It was a successful shopping trip and a needed break from being on the boat.
Mark and I have been working on getting photos uploaded to the website and we now have successfully uploaded photos for Days 94, 95, 96, 100, 103, 116, 119. And more will be coming soon.
Our West Marine toilet repair kit has been in Paris for the last 24 hours, so we hope it is enjoying its time there. Our compressor seems to be on its way here from Chennai, but there was no update today. Hopefully it will arrive in the next day or so. And we talked to family in Florida this morning to arrange to have a few West Marine goodies sent back here when Lynne returns. My sister-in-law, Sue, and her husband Brad live in Boynton Beach, the same town where Lynne is staying while visiting with her mother and family. So we talked to Brad this morning and gave him our West Marine wish list. He will do the shopping and get the things to Lynne to bring back to us. So thank you to Brad and Sue for doing this shopping for us.
by Judy Handley | Feb 25, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 122, Year 5: Frustrating Day-But Progress
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010
Weather: Cooler Today with More Wind
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
Here’s how our day went.
10:30 am-Called DHL to check on compressor delivery. No change. Still in Chennai, but will call back in 10 minutes to report on progress.
11:00 am-No call back, so we called again. This time they needed an email address, again, so they could send requests. Will call back at 2:30 pm.
Noon-We sent the letter they requested with signature stating that we need the compressor to replace one that is that working. We say ‘replacement part’ over and over in the letter just to make the point that we are not importing this into India for sale.
2:30 pm-No call back, so we call again and find that the young woman we have been dealing with is on break. We wait some more.
4:00 pm-We call again and find that there is no resolution. We will have to wait until tomorrow.
This is how our day went. In between all of these communications I continued to work on organizing photos and Mark worked on tightening our stanchions. The stanchions are stainless poles that fit into deck fittings. Our life lines run through the top of the stanchions, and you want this whole system to be secure; it’s what keep you from falling off the boat. The set screws at the bottom of the stanchions keep them in place, but those set screws constantly work loose. So Mark drilled through and put in bolts with nuts. Hopefully this will provide stability. So some progress was made, but the constant checking of email, writing letters, scanning them in, and making more calls made for a very disjointed day.
But here’s the good news. I just checked the DHL website and it says ‘Released for Delivery.” So maybe the compressor is really on the way. It will take two days to get here, but we will be ecstatic if it reaches here by Monday. I also checked the Fed Ex website and it says our toilet repair kit has left New Jersey and is on its way. Our only problem on that one is just where it is on the way to. We have been assured that the incorrect address has been corrected, but the website still says it is on its way to ‘Kevala’ which doesn’t exist as far as we know. Since the last one went to Indonesia, we will just have to wait to see where this one lands.
Tonight Ed of Constance came over for happy hour drinks and for dinner. Things are going well with Lynne’s mom in Florida. The family is gathering and slowly Lynne’s mother is regaining some strength. For tomorrow, my hope is that we get confirmation that what we are seeing on the web tonight is really happening. We will also go ashore to do some shopping-some provisioning for food and some fun shopping. So goes life here in southern India.
by Judy Handley | Feb 24, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 121, Year 5: Unbelievable Shipping News
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Weather: Clear, Super Hot Day; 94 degrees F inside Windbird
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
West Marine does not get an A for effort. After talking for the hour and a half last night to Port Supply International Sales, we got confirmation today that a new toilet repair kit was sent to Kevala in India. So this time they got the country right, but the state wrong. It should have said Kerala. And they sent this package International Economy instead of International Priority, so we will have no idea whether we will get the package until after March 3rd. Then we get a call from DHL saying that our compressor could not be sent from Chennai to Cochin by air because the word ‘refrigerator’ was on the packing slip. They were going to send it by truck, but now there is another hold up. They want a VAT Tax # from us and we have no such number. We have no idea why DHL needs this since the package has already cleared Customs, but the bottom line is that we will know nothing until noon tomorrow. All of this is very frustrating, but we can only deal one day at a time. Hopefully the compressor is really on its way to Cochin. It is a 16 hour bus ride from here to Chennai where the compressor landed, but I have a feeling it has not left there yet. I guess Amazon gets the only thumbs up on shipping. Good for them!
Lynne made it to Florida and her mother is in stable condition. This was very good news. Lynne’s mother is 88 and has gone through a great trauma, so recovery will probably take some time. Neither Mark nor I still have living parents, so we have already gone through all of the decisions that must be made with aging parents. It is not an easy thing and we send our thoughts to Lynn as she and her sisters and brother deal with this.
I worked more on photos this morning and Mark did more work on polishing stainless. I also worked on making reservations for a hotel where we will stay when we head north to a Hindu festival this weekend. Mid-afternoon we went to town to check in with the Tourist Information lady at the main ferry terminal. I wanted to share our plans for going to the Chinakkathoor Pooram this weekend and get her input. She suggests we go by train but says we can’t buy the tickets ahead of time. In order to catch a 7:30 am train on Sunday morning, we will have to have Nazar pick us up at 6:30 am so we can get to the train station by 7 am. Hopefully all of this will work and we will reach Ottappalam by 10 am, check into our hotel, and then go to the temple for the festival. This is a festival that will be vibrant and colorful. Poorams refer to congregations of decorated elephants. So we are going to see the caparisoned (elegantly decorated) elephants (but not until sunset), kuthiras which are like huge horse piñatas carried on poles, kaalas which are like the kuthiras but are bulls instead of horses, and then a mass of people in the Sree Chinakkathoor Bhagavathey Temple. Our hotel is very close to the temple and the hotel is only 5 kilometers from the train station. So hopefully all will work out well and we will be back in Cochin by mid-day on Monday. I just couldn’t leave India without seeing one of these festivals, so I am so glad that one is happening and is only about three hours away.
One bit of good news for today-I found potting soil. Well, at least soil. The friends who visited with Lynne and Ed on Sunday had said I could get soil at Cochin Blossom on Market Street. So Mark and I walked all along Market Street looking for this place. We didn’t find it, but we did find a nursery that Mark had gone into a few days ago but had no soil. I went in this time and was told that potting soil is just not being delivered to here and that they had none. I asked the woman if she knew where I could find Cochin Blossom. She replied that I was there. When I told her a local woman had told me to come there to get soil, she agreed to sell my 5 kilos even though it is a precious commodity right now. She also invited me into the back room to see a 400 year old synagogue. You just never know what you are going to see here. So now I have my soil and if I just receive the seeds that my daughter sent, I’ll be able to continue with my onboard gardening. I have Thai basil, arugula, chives, and sweet basil started, but wanted the soil to plant more sweet basil and some lettuce. Since we will have nothing green in the Chagos, I think these will add significantly to our diet. Lynne started her basil weeks before me, and she has been enjoying pesto since we were in Thailand. I can’t wait to catch up.
by Judy Handley | Feb 23, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 120, Year 5: This and That
Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Weather: Hazy, Cooler Morning; Clear, Hot Afternoon
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
Yea! The first convoy of sailboats cleared ‘pirate alley’ and reached Aden in Yemen today. We are so thankful to know that they have arrived safe and sound. The World War II convoy strategies they employed worked. Robert and Tina of Shirena have sent daily reports and it has been most fascinating to follow them. They did not see pirates but they ‘witnessed’ an attack on a merchant ship on the radio. The merchant ship radioed a warship for help, but Robert said the captain was certainly not as responsive as he thought he should have been. The captain just kept asking questions about the number of attackers, types of weapons (to which the reply was “large, large weapons”) while the merchant ship crew was fending off the pirates. Only after a second attack was repelled did the warship commander say they were on the way to help. But by the time they arrived the pirates were no where to be found. So the threat is still out there, but at least the first twenty-five boats made it in safely. I guess if we hadn’t chickened out, we’d be in Yemen right now, but then we wouldn’t have seen India or be going to the Maldives or Chagos or Madagascar and South Africa, and we are now getting quite excited about each of those stops. The arrival of the Madagascar books yesterday got us on a roll and we spent all of this morning researching anchorages along Madagascar’s northwest coast. After lunch we turned our attention to boat maintenance. We borrowed a broom from Constance to sweep the dirt off our sail cover and the top of our dodger and bimini. We then washed down the cabin top and polished more stainless. Mid-afternoon, I stopped to work on photos and Mark continued with the stainless polishing. While we were doing this, we could see that Ed was cleaning his waterline from his dinghy and just about the time I came in to work on photos, he called and said he was working on a newsletter and wondered if I had any photos of Constance on the passage from Thailand to here. I did and he came over to get those. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the photos off the memory stick, so he just included a photo of Windbird instead of Constance. Constance and Windbird are the only boats with people aboard in the Bolgatty anchorage and today we both spent our day doing a little of this and a little of that.
Saying that reminds me of Dave and Judy on Freebird. When they checked out of India the officials kept confusing Freebird with Windbird. They finally asked while pointing wildly to the official documents, “Are you this bird or that bird?” Judy assured them that they were ‘that bird’ which makes us ‘this bird.’ Now when she emails, she always puts ‘This Bird from That Bird’ in the subject line. When they emailed yesterday afternoon, they were finally sailing for the first time in seven days. Hopefully the wind will continue and they will reach Salalah in Oman soon.
Our best story of the last twenty-four hours is about a call to West Marine International to check on the order we placed for toilet repair parts. The parts were sent to Bolgatty Place (not Bolgatty Palace) in Indonesia (not India) with a zip code that we certainly didn’t supply. FedEx is telling us that the package must come back to West Marine in the US and be sent to us from there. We talked to West Marine tonight for about an hour and a half (thank goodness for Skype) and the end result is that (we think) they are going to send a replacement package to us, but that took a lot of doing. We had a wonderful Hispanic woman named Teresa dealing with us and she finally got through to her supervisor who approved the shipment. Unbelievable that it took so long, but we are so happy that West Marine finally decided to do the right thing.
We have not yet heard from Lynne, but then she has still not reached Florida. I’ll have to report on her arrival in tomorrow’s log. I’m not sure what we are doing tomorrow, but one activity will be going to the market to buy more onions. So that’s it from Windbird for today.
by Judy Handley | Feb 22, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 119, Year 5: Tour of Mattancherry and Fort Cochin
Date: Monday, February 22, 2010
Weather: Clear, Sunny Day and HOT
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
Before getting into today’s little tour on the island of Fort Cochin, I’ll do an update on who is where. Our friends Robert and Tina of Shirena have less than thirty hours to go in the Gulf Aden before they reach Aden in Yemen. They are with twenty-five other boats and have reported the problems that boats are having and the way the convoy of sailboats have dealt with the problems. They have vowed to leave no one behind, so at least two boats are being towed at this point. All is going well, but there is just no wind. So it is motor, motor, motor. But there have been no piracy incidents and we can only hope that it stays that way. This first convoy was organized by Tom and Nicolette of Katanne, a boat from the UK. The second convoy that was supposed to leave Oman on March 1 was to be led by the man who organizes the Vasco de Gama rally. But evidently the boats coming from the Med are stuck in Eritrea and a number of people are very sick. So the organizer will not reach Oman in time to lead the March 1 convoy. We’ll see what happens with that, but it is obvious from the first convoy that cruisers can organize themselves. That is probably what will have to happen.
Now back to India. Mark took Ed and Lynne of Constance to shore at 6 am this morning. Ed and Lynne then went on to the Cochin Airport where Lynne was flying out at about 9:30 am local time and arriving in Dubai at 1:30 pm local time (noon Dubai time). Once Ed returned from the airport (which is about an hour and a half from here), we all took the ferry to Fort Cochin Island. We first went to Mattancherry where we could see the Pardesi Synagogue in Jew Town. This synagogue was originally built in 1568 but the Jewish people first came to the southwest coast of India in the first century AD. It is a fascinating story and we really enjoyed our tour of the synagogue. Photography was not allowed, but I bought a couple of postcards and took photos of those that I will post with this log. We then walked to the Matttancherry Palace, also known as the Dutch Palace. This palace was built by the Portuguese in 1555 and was given to the Raja of Kochi at that time. The Dutch renovated the palace in 1663, thus the alternative name of the Dutch Palace. We saw beautiful Hindu murals depicting Hindu legends in detail, walked through the gallery of maharajas from 1864 that had a great time line of world history intermixed with Indian history displayed, and saw a wonderful collection of palanquins (hand-carted carriages). It was definitely a good stop, but it was almost 1:30 pm when we got through the museum and we were very hot and hungry. So we hopped on an auto rickshaw to go across the island to Fort Cochin for lunch. I wanted to eat at the Dal Roti restaurant that the Lonely Planet had declared to have the best food in Fort Cochin. We had a good lunch, but nothing to compare with the food we have been getting in Ernakulam at the Hotel Saravana Bhavan for much less money. So we had an enjoyable lunch, but not the “best food in Fort Cochin” as written in the Lonely Planet. Or maybe it was the best food in Fort Cochin, but certainly not the best in the Kochi area. We then walked to the Bishop’s House to visit the Indo-Portuguese Museum. Unfortunately, it is closed on Mondays, so we just walked about the grounds. We then walked past a house where Vasco de Gama is believed to have lived. From there we went to the St. Francis Church which is believed to be the oldest European-built church in India. It was originally built in 1503 and Vasco de Gama was buried here in 1524. Fourteen years later his remains were taken to Lisbon but we could still see where he was originally buried in this church. We walked from here to the Catholic Santa Cruz Basillica. This is surrounded by schools and it was the end of the day. So we watched the school children leaving and getting on buses and autorickshaws to head home. The original structure built on this site was in 1506, but today’s Basillica was built in 1902. The interior of the church was quite interesting. But by this time, we had all just about had enough of touring for the day, so we made a bee-line for the ferry terminal. Our timing was great as a ferry was just about to leave. We got back to Ernakulam, walked the waterfront to the High Court Jetty, and then went on the Bolgatty Jetty to our dinghy. We dropped Ed off at Constance and then went over to the Bolgatty Palace Hotel to pick up a package they had called to tell us had arrived. It was our Amazon order of books about Madagascar. We used a gift certificate from Heather and Jed to order these books, and it was wonderful to get them. Mark has been pouring through the books all evening and is getting more and more excited about our visit to Madagascar. So thank you Heather and Jed for that wonderful gift certificate.
We are still waiting for our compressor to receive clearance and be sent from Chennai to Cochin. We will have to wait until morning to make calls about that, but tonight we will make calls to the US to track down tax information that has never reached our daughter’s address. So the fun continues!
by Judy Handley | Feb 21, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 118, Year 5: The Neighborhood is Shrinking!
Date: Sunday, February 21, 2010
Weather: More Sunny, Hot, and Hazy
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
When you are at anchor, the other boats around you become your neighborhood. And since we can’t walk on water, the only way to visit is by dinghy or by meeting at a place on shore. The meeting place is usually a little restaurant and bar onshore that has grown to accommodate the cruisers. But here we do not have a place on shore to meet other cruisers and we just haven’t gotten to know people. But what we do know is that there are now only six sailboats here, and no one is aboard any of them except Ed and Lynne on Constance and Mark and I. Judy and Dave on Freebird left for Salalah in Oman a few days ago, and then yesterday morning Rod and Lu on Skylax and the folks on a catamaran named Dejavu left. That left six boats, but the people on the other four boats must be traveling. It’s getting a little lonely here and as of tomorrow morning, it will be even lonelier. Lynne is flying home to the US tomorrow. Her mother, who is 88, took a bit of a tumble in the middle of the night a few days ago, couldn’t get up and wasn’t found for about 21 hours. She is now in the hospital fighting to recover. Her progress has been up and down, and finally Lynne decided that she just had to go home to see her. Since we live in such a small neighborhood, I find it uncanny that the only two “homes” with people aboard have both had family emergencies within a week of each other. And the other thing that I find uncanny is the reported difference in health care in South Carolina where my brother went to the emergency room and in Boynton Beach in Florida where Lynn’s mother lives. My brother-in-law Joe told me that he was absolutely amazed at the speed and competence in the emergency room where my brother was sent. On the other hand, Lynn’s mother was kept in the emergency room in Boynton Beach for over 48 hours because there was no room in the inn. The hospital is so overcrowded that they just cannot deal. But Lynne’s mother is now in a room and one of Lynne’s sisters lives close-by and is holding down the fort until other family members arrive. Lynne will leave early in the morning, fly to Dubai, sit for about twelve hours, fly to Atlanta, and then on to Florida. She will arrive on Tuesday and right now is slated to return on March 6. If that schedule sticks, we will stay here and wait until her return so that Windbird and Constance can sail south together. If she is delayed, we will have to make a decision at that point, but for now we will stay put and enjoy more of southern India. In the meantime, we can only hope that Lynne’s mother will recover rapidly and that Lynne will be back with us soon. Safe travels to Lynne and a speedy recovery to Lynne’s mother. Please know that we are thinking of you.
Today was a quiet Sunday. We started our day with a call to Justin, Jo, and Ziggy. Justin and Jo are doing well and are excited that there are signs of spring in the desert in New Mexico. Ziggy is now crawling FAST and pulling up to a standing position every chance he gets. During this call he was much more interested in the monitor screen and the keyboard than in calls in the past. But when the wooden blocks of buildings in London were brought out, he switched his attention. He played with the blocks for a bit and then he was off crawling again. He isn’t speaking in words yet, but he certainly gets his messages across. Tonight we talked with Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah. Jonah is also on the move these days, wanting to hold on to anything or anyone he can and then walk. He just started crawling a couple of weeks ago, but now pulling up and holding on while walking is his preferred method of transport. So both babies will soon be walking. Talking to Sam is whole different experience from watching Jonah and Ziggy. Sam is very much a three-year old. He typed us a Skype message while we were talking and drew a picture that he said he had to send to us. We can actually have a bit of back and forth conversation with Sam. We will hope to have at least one more Skype video call with Ziggy, Jonah, and Sam before leaving here. And then we hope to be able to call them from the southern atoll in the Maldives. After that it will be almost three months before we can call again. I can’t bear to even think about that, but I can be thankful that at least there is email. I really don’t think I could do this without being in email contact with my family.
Today I spent the morning cleaning the inside of the boat, while Mark worked on a sail repair project. Just after noon, Ed stopped by to introduce us to a local family that they had invited to Constance for the afternoon. They knew of the family from another cruising boat that spent eight months here. We were introduced, but I regret that I cannot remember their names. They were a lovely couple with two beautiful little girls, probably seven and three years old. Then I spent the rest of my afternoon getting packages ready to send to our kids. Once I learned that Lynne is going home, I figured it smarter to send things with her to be mailed from the US rather than risk that things sent from here will actually reach their destination.
Our compressor is still in Chennai waiting for clearance, so we are thinking that we will go to Fort Cochin tomorrow to do some more sight seeing, and then hopefully we will receive the compressor on Tuesday and start the process of getting that installed. In between any of these activities, we will continue the reprovisioning. Departure is now two weeks away, but I know that time will go quickly. We’ll never feel like we have all the provisions we need. But we will travel on and we will do just fine.
