by Judy Handley | Feb 8, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 105, Year 5: World’s Best Shopping
Date: Monday, February 8, 2010
Weather: Sunny, but Hazy; Temps in the 80’s;
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
Panama was great for shopping, but I think India is better. Fresh fruits and vegetables in the open markets are unbelievably cheap. There are plenty of eggs, egg plant, cauliflower, red and green peppers, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, green beans, snap peas, cabbages (both red and green), pumpkins, parley, mint, cilantro, potatoes, red onions, and a host of local produce that we can’t name. There are oranges of all kinds, limes, bananas, grapefruit, pomegranates, pineapples, and even strawberries And it seems you can fill your backpack for somewhere between $2 to $4 US. It’s a great bargain. Today we went into Cochin for lunch are our newest, most favorite place to eat, Saravana Bhavan, and met up with Ed and Lynne of Constance. After a fantastic Indian lunch we strolled down Market Road and just oogled at all the goodies in the different shops. There are shops that sell only eggs (duck and chicken), other shops that sell only potatoes and onions, shops for buying fishing supplies, and hardware stores that sell AAA batteries for 5 rupees each. Mark bought twenty for the price of eighteen which was less than $2 US for all twenty. Ed searched every shop for good red onions. He checks every one and buys only the best. Once he has supplied Constance with onions for the months ahead, I am going to ask him to pick onions for Windbird. He has the knack. There are shops that sell only Basmati rice and other shops that sell other types of rice. And then we came to the REAL food market with the array I described at the beginning. We found a thread shop that sold thread and elastic in all widths. We had searched Malaysia and Thailand for elastic and were so happy to find this shop. I bought 10 meters of one width, 5 of another, and 2 of another width, and the total cost was less than $2 US. I love it. And then there are shops that sell only silk and others that sell a wonderful variety of materials. We just walked away the afternoon looking at all the shops and the goodies found within. When you can shop ’til you drop and spend less than $5 US, it’s a great afternoon.
I spent my morning researching southern India and trying to narrow down the places and special events we will try and see while we are here. As soon as I have an itinerary, I will share that, but for now all I will say is that it is going to be very difficult to make the choices. Southern India is filled with spectacularly beautiful places to see and festivals to experience. We have been here almost two weeks and haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. So we are going to be busy tourists in the next three weeks.
Mark spent his morning fixing the leaks in the forward head. So far, so good with the patching of the leaks in the aft head, so he thought it prudent to continue the repairs. We are still waiting to hear if we can buy a new marine toilet here. We thought the answer was yes, but we still have not seen one. And we spent part of our afternoon battling with PayPal on the internet. We need to pay for the new refrigeration compressor that we found in the UK through PayPal, but since we have not used our account for four years, we are having to prove who we are and that we actually have the funds. This process could take the rest of this week, so the shipping of the compressor has been delayed. Hopefully this will all be settled by the end of the week and we will have the compressor by the end of next week.
So . . . repairs and plans for touring are moving along. In the meantime, we are just enjoying being in this incredible part of the world
by Judy Handley | Feb 7, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 104, Year 5: What A Difference A Day Makes
Date: Sunday, February 7, 2010
Weather: Sunny; Temps in the 80’s
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
After bottoming out yesterday, everything today seemed to go just right. We ran the engine to charge the batteries and everything worked as it should. We ran water through the toilet that Mark patched up with 5200 and so far, no leaks. I battled with Mark’s computer for three hours trying to place an order with Amazon, but was continually taken offline. So we installed the new modem in my computer and it has been working beautifully. So the issue with the old and the new modems was not the modem or the wireless service at all, it was Mark’s computer. It works fine for navigation, but everything else will have to be done on my little IBM ThinkPad.
We made our second visit to the International Book Fair and bought five books for $30 US total. The price at the book fair is less than half of what it would be back in the US. Not bad. We bought a Southern India cookbook, a Wilbur Smith novel about South Africa, Ken Follett’s The Hammer of Eden, Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth outlining the evidence for evolution, and A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. After leaving the Book Fair, we walked to a restaurant that another cruiser had told us about. It is called the Saravana Bhavan. Nothing on the menu cost more than 50 rupees which is about $1.10 US. So for 151 rupees, or about $1.75 US total, Mark had Muttar Paneer Masala, I had Chanah Masala, we shared a wonderful lightly fried rice, had a side order of Naan, and shared a large bottle of cold water. And all of the food was wonderful. We kept watching these huge rolls of friend bread being served to others and asked what it was. It is called Masala Dosai and the next time we are in town for lunch or dinner, we will definitely try that. There were all sorts of little side dishes with the bread and we can’t wait to taste it.
Once I got over the frustration of spending the better part of three hours trying to place a book order with Amazon, I was able to do a lot of research online about travel in southern India. We’re hoping to do the waterway tour this week and the tea plantation and wildlife reserve next week. We have to wait until business hours in the UK tomorrow to get the information needed to send money for the compressor via PayPal. Once that order is placed, I think we will be able to relax and enjoy. At least let’s hope so.
So all things considered, it has been a good twenty-four hours beginning with the Kathakali performance last night. The high point of the day came at the very end when we connected with Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah for a Skype video call. Both boys are sick, but we got some great smiles out of Jonah and Sam pretended to be fishing for tuna and octopus and fed us right through the ethernet. Amazing. We then talked to my nephew Todd’s wife, Shelley, who just had Kyler Channing Martin on February 3. My brother Dickie and his wife Conda are the proud grandparents. Todd and Shelley have two little girls, and now a boy, so they are a very happy family. Our congratulations to the parents and grandparents.
by Judy Handley | Feb 6, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 103, Year 5: Wrong
Date: Saturday, February 6, 2010
Weather: Sunny; Temps in the 80’s
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
I named yesterday’s log, “It Has To Get Better.” But, wrong, it does not. This morning we tried to start the engine to charge the batteries, and it wouldn’t start . . . again. Mark then bypassed the starting battery and tried to start it off the house batteries, as he has had to do many times before and it has always worked, but nothing happened this morning. So rather than try and troubleshoot the situation ourselves, we decided to have Nazar call Anil and get someone here as soon as possible. Actually, we needed an electrician, but what we got was a mechanic. To make a very long story short, the mechanic called in the electricians. While WAITING two hours for them to arrive, we kept working on the problem. Ed of Constance came over and helped troubleshoot as well and we thought we found the problem. We charge our starting battery with a small alternator, separate from the big alternator that charges the house batteries. That alternator did not appear to be working. So we figured the starting battery didn’t have enough charge to start the engine. So we tried using the house batteries, and this time it worked. This told us that the solenoid and the starter were fine, and when the electricians came they cleaned the terminals with a wire brush (which we had already sprayed with terminal cleaner) and all of a sudden everything was working just fine. The small alternator was charging and the engine starts. We can only hope that this is the end of our electrical woes of the past six weeks.
While Mark stayed on the boat waiting for help to arrive, I went to town to see if I could find out why our modem connecting us to wireless internet is not working properly. The short answer to that is because we plugged it into two different ports and needed to reinstall it. But I ended up renting a modem for the month that will give us twice the signal strength. We will try to connect with Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah later tonight to see if the new modem works better. If not I will take it back, but if it does work, we will keep it and loan our other modem to Ed and Lynne on Constance. But to back up a bit, when I got back from my little field trip to town, Mark told me that when he dropped me off this morning, our dinghy propeller got caught in a fishing net right at the jetty (it was low, low tide again) and he had to call Ed to come with knives to cut the net away. He then had to be towed back to Windbird so that he could bring the dinghy motor up on deck to finish cleaning it off. That got mud everywhere, but by the time I returned, the mud was mostly cleaned off and the dinghy motor was back on the dinghy and working fine. In fact, while they were waiting they fixed the lever on the dingy motor that lets you tilt it up out of the water.
We decided that after dealing with so many boat problems in one day, we needed a change. So we went to Fort Cochin to the Kairali Kathakali Centre to see a performance. Kathakali is a story told in mime with the actors using precise hand gestures and facial expressions to tell the story. The make-up, costumes, and headdresses are elaborate and the mime is accompanied by drummers and singers. We arrived just after 5 o’clock and watched one performer applying the intricate make-up. The performance then started at 6 o’clock and for an hour we watched the story of Bhagavata Purana unfold. Tonight there was one drummer and one singer and two actors. It was basically a story of seduction. We knew what was happening with no words needed. The stories performed were mostly written at the same time as Shakespeare was writing his tales in England, but the origin stems from temple rituals in the 2nd century. This was a wonderful introduction to Kerala culture.
We hopped on the ferry to get back to the mainland and then walked along the waterfront to get back to our dinghy (more than a mile’s walk). We ducked into the International Book Fair being held on the waterfront and oogled at the wonderful array of books. We will go back tomorrow and take a closer look but we did buy a novel about King Arthur and a book on the life of scientist Stephen Hawkin. So a good ending to the day.
And now we are waiting to try a Skype video call with Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah. Sam and Jed went to the lumber yard and are still not home, but hopefully we will be talking with them soon. I did talk to my sister Patsy and learned that the weather on the East Coast has been ugly and I tried to reach by brother Dickie with no success. I’ll try again tomorrow morning and report on the Skype call with Heather and company in tomorrow’s log.
by Judy Handley | Feb 5, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 102, Year 5: It Has To Get Better
Date: Friday, February 5, 2010
Weather: Sunny with Haze
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
It’s been a long week of searching for boat bits and we know it has to better than this. We’re starting to feel like everything is going wrong, and we know that is not the case. We just need to get one thing fixed or at least ordered. Early this morning we got an email back from a Danfoss dealer in Florida who could send us the compressor for $475 and the shipping would be $450. Too much! We found out last night that we could order a whole unit from West Marine for $700 and the shipping would be about $200. Still too much. So our thanks go to Michael who reads our logs and sent us an email message that we search for a distributor in the UK. We did just that, and finally we had some success. We can get the whole unit for $550 and the shipping will be $150. This is definitely sounding better. And while emailing and calling back and forth with the distributor in the UK, we continued to call the Danfoss centers here in India to see if they could get a unit for us. We still have not heard back from them, so we haven’t placed the order yet, but it looks like we will be getting the new compressor unit from the distributor in the UK. If we place the order on Monday, delivery should be in seven days. So it is our hope that we are on to a solution for that problem, and Michael, we thank you for that.
Now to the toilet issue. Mark spent the part of his day, when he was not on the phone, patching cracks in our Jabsco plastic toilet base. We are letting it cure for 24 hours and using a bucket in the meantime, so success on that one will have to be reported tomorrow. And we are still hopeful that Anil is getting a new toilet for us, but he still cannot tell us what brand, so we don’t know yet if the new one will fit. One way or another, we are hoping the toilet issues are solved by tomorrow.
I spent part of my day defrosting the refrigerator and the other part researching those things we would like to do while here. We want to do a canoe trip through the waterways that trickle inland and do some village tours where farming continues like it has for hundreds of years. We also want to visit the tea plantations and go to at least one of the wildlife preserves that are only a few hours bus ride from here. We will make a small start tomorrow by taking the ferry to Fort Cochin to experience a Kathakali performance. ‘Katha’ means story and ‘kali’ means play. So a Kathakali performance is a story acted out in mime with music. The stories are from Hindu mythology and much of the grandeur of these performances is in the intricate make-up worn by the performers. We will see the make-up being applied from 5 pm to 6 pm, and then watch the performance from 6-7:30 pm. After that we will be treated to traditional Indian music and dancing. So we are definitely looking forward to this.
We heard from Robert and Tina of Shirena who are now in Salalah, Oman. They are dealing with problems with their auto pilot and their watermaker. They say the people of Salalah are very friendly, but they are not fond of the anchorage. Fatty and Carolyn of Wild Card are there and are hoping to leave in the next couple of days. Fatty’s one-year old battery bank has been giving him fits, and when he arrived he found a hole in one of the cells. Robert said he just sealed it, poured more acid in, and is going on. I laughed aloud when Robert said that he had contacted RayMarine about his auto pilot problem and they just said to contact a local dealer and use the back up (which they assumed all boats would be carrying) in the meantime. Robert said he was going to email them back and tell them that he would get the spare from the sailboat they are towing just for the extra parts! I laughed aloud when I read this.
We tried to do a video Skype connection with our daughter last night, but it did not work. We did have a phone connection, however, and found out that Sam has been having full-blown asthma issues and that Jonah has another ear infection. Sam really wanted to do a video connection, but we could not arrange that last night. But he did say the he misses us very much and that was enough to bring tears to my eyes. Oh my, how much we miss those grand babies. We will try for a video Skype call with Heather and gang on their Saturday morning. Hopefully that will work.
And we ended the day with margaritas and burritos on Constance. Ed has a secret recipe for margaritas and they were great. Before we left we got to see some photos of Ed and Lynne’s families and their new grandbaby. It was a delightful evening away from thinking about boat problems. We are looking forward to more times like this in the coming days.
by Judy Handley | Feb 4, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 101, Year 5: Putting the Pieces Together
Date: Thursday, February 4, 2010
Weather: Sunny with Haze
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
Southern India has many puzzling parts that just don’t fit together. The tallest buildings in town are stores that sell clothing for weddings. And in a country where the average annual income is less than $1,000 US, the average cost of a big-city wedding is $12,500 US. How strange is that in a place where people are so poor that they have to row round, woven basket boats to get across the waterways to and from town? And then there are the men in town. All the business men dress in western-style clothing and have earphones for their cells so they can walk and talk. And then there are the other men who wear a dhoti which is a loose, long cloth pulled up between the legs so it looks like a short skirt. There is also the lungi which is colorful and more like a sarong and the mundi that is like lungi but is always white. But whatever color, often the men wearing these just stop wherever there is a crack in the sidewalk, stoop down, and pee. I have learned quickly to just walk around, but it is a little strange. All women that we have seen here dress traditionally in either saris that are a single piece of long material that is tucked and pleated into place and worn with a choli which is a short, tight-fitting blouse showing the midriff and a palloo that is the part of the sari that is thrown over the shoulder. The other commonly worn dress is the salwar kameez. This is a long, dress-like tunic slit up the sides that is worn over pants that have a drawstring at the waist and are tight-fitting at the ankle. This is worn with dupatta which is a long scarf. This is my favorite, but I just love looking at every woman I meet because all of their outfits are so colorful. But you don’t expect to see women dressed like this dancing wildly to modern Indian music. But sometimes when the tourist boats pass by us, there will be clusters of young women dressed in their saris dancing away on the boat. And here’s another one. You can go into a little internet cubbyhole that is down an alley and up some stairs with no sign and that has computers that are at least ten years old and have keyboards so worn that you can’t read them, but the machines have been upgraded and are super fast. The last incongruity that I’ll mention is that here in Cochin there are Catholic churches and schools at every corner and Hindu temples are very hard to find. And when you do find them, they are in disrepair and not anything like the Hindu temples we saw in Singapore with their beautiful, intricately sculpted towering tops. But here the temples have cows to pet, so I like that.
But still we cannot get out and enjoy the countryside because we are still seeking solutions to our boat problems. I did finally make it over to see Bolgatty Island this morning. The Cochin Golf Club is there, part of the Bolgatty Place Hotel, and that was fun to see. They use a horse on a tether to cut the grass. Great idea! And I’ve decided to call Nazar our agent instead of a boat boy, because he is no boy and that seems demeaning. He works hard to get everything we need, so agent he is. He put us in touch with a man named Anil who coordinated our freezer work and who has now found us a marine toilet. He called and we called Danfoss in India to see if we could get a replacement 12 volt condenser here, but the answer is no. So we are going to have to order from the US. We will stay up until midnight tonight so we can make calls during morning business hours to the US. Hopefully we can get something ordered and on its way soon. And tonight we again had the problem of the boat not starting when we turn the key and there is no apparent reason. So the problems just go on and on. The definition of cruising is working on your boat in exotic places, and that is exactly right!
We made a Skype call to Justin, Jo, and Ziggy this morning. The connection was not great, but we did get to see Ziggy in action. He actually sat in front of the computer for the whole time that we talked playing with wooden blocks that are replicas of buildings in London. I was amazed that he sat still for so long playing with the blocks, once in a while looking at the computer screen, and jabbering away. Justin and Jo say he is not talking yet, but his jabbering sure sounds like conversation. It won’t be long before he is walking and talking. He is an absolutely beautiful child, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and it was a delight to see and hear him in action. We will try to call Heather and Jed late tonight which will be their Thursday morning and make arrangements for a Skype video call this weekend. We can’t wait to see Sam and Jonah and watch them in action.
by Judy Handley | Feb 3, 2010 | India, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 100, Year 5: Day Trip to Mattancherry and Fort Cochin
Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Weather: Beautiful Day with a Little Haze
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
Mattancherry and Fort Cochin are both on Fort Cochin Island which is back toward the entrance to Cochin harbor. Ed and Lynne of Constance, Judy and Dave of Freebird, and Mark and I were planning to take our dinghies to shore, hop on an auto rickshaw which would take us to the main ferry terminal, and then take the ferry to Mattancherry early this morning. But Nazar and Ibrahim who have become our Indian boat boys (for lack of a better term for they surely aren’t boys) came to see if we needed anything and when we said we were going to Mattancherry, they offered to take all of us on their boat at no charge. We still had to take dinghies to shore so we would have a way back to our boats later in the day, but then off we went. Everyone but Judy and I were going to find a man named John who runs the boatyard in Mattancherry, but they never found him. What they found out instead is that we just tell Nazar and Ibrahim what we need, and they will make sure we find it. Nothing here is straightforward. All requests or messages seem to be passed from one person to another and you are never sure the original message gets through. It’s kind of like playing the child’s game of Telephone. Judy and I went off with Ashbak in his Lamborghini auto rickshaw and had a not so good experience at a spice shop. We paid WAY too much for WAY too little. I think Judy and I just got caught up in the beauty and the smells of all the spices. Ashbak explained to us, after the fact, that it was because our skin is white and that we need to bargain, bargain, bargain. If the price is too high, just say no thank you. Okay, lesson learned.
While Judy and I were having our spice experience, Mark, Lynne, Ed, and Dave had a different spice experience in a warehouse on the waterfront. Their’s was way more authentic and cheaper. The boatyard contingency had not had any luck in tracking down anything, so they headed to the part of Mattancherry called Jew Town at the same time as Judy and I. We looked in more shops, all fascinating but expensive, met up with Rose and Tim of Rendezvous Cay for lunch, and then all split up going in different directions. Eventually, we caught up with Ed and Lynne at an internet café where we found out that 3G is not allowed in India. So now we will have to try a Skype video call with our 2G and just see what happens. Next, we walked all the way across the island to Fort Cochin stopping at a temple on the way and a few fruit and veggie markets. When we reached the waterfront in Fort Cochin, Mark and Ed got to see the cantilevered Chinese fishing nets in action, and actually got to go out and help pull the ropes. These fishing nets date back to the days of Kubla Khan in the 1400’s and the whole process is just fascinating. We took video and will edit that get it posted with this log in the not too distant future.
After a twenty minute walk to the ferry terminal, a twenty minute ferry ride, and a two mile walk back to the dinghy, we made it home and collapsed. It was a good day, but a tiring one. The good news is that when we went to the internet café to meet Ed and Lynne, Mark got online and found that there are three Danfoss (our freezer compressor) offices in India that make reference to a 12 volt compressor, so Mark is hopeful that tomorrow he might be able to contact these offices and find that we could buy a compressor here rather than having one shipped. We also have Anal (the man who sends us our refrigeration guy) working on finding a marine toilet. So it seems that all of India is searching for what we need. Let’s hope they are successful.
