Day 106, Year 5: Just A Day In The Life
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Weather: No Change–Sunny, but Hazy; Temps in the 80’s;
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
I think we finally had a normal day with not too many glitches. There was one, but I will talk about that at the appropriate time. We got up and Mark worked on computer issues while I did a laundry and started bread rising. Mark went with Ed to Bolgatty Island to get water while Ed inquired about the best way to get to the airport. Their auto pilot parts have arrived at the airport, but they received an email message instructing them to fill out eight different forms, go to the Port Captain to get a letter saying something was broken on the boat so that they can import the parts needed, and then bring the completed forms and letter to the airport tomorrow. While I baked bread (the one glitch of the day), Mark and Ed took the ferry to Willingdon Island to see the Port Captain. Of course, the Port Captain said no letter from him is necessary, so tomorrow Ed will go to the airport and hope to pick up his parts. While Ed and Mark were gone, I tried to light the oven to bake bread. It would not light. The pilot came on and tried for fifteen minutes to light, but nothing. So I assisted with a butane lighter for an additional ten minutes, and finally the oven burner lit. Just one more thing that needs to be fixed.
I spent my entire afternoon doing trip planning and when Mark returned home with a tourist flyer listing the dates of festivals for this month, my job became much easier. He also brought home a map of the province of Kerala and it is so much bigger and has so much more detail than my little Lonely Planet map. So he gets and A+ for getting these things for me. By the way, if you are interested in learning about God’s Own Country, the tourist slogan for Kerala, you can go to www.keralatourism.org and get loads of information.
So much has been happening that I forgot to mention that we got a new neighbor a couple of days ago. Rod Heikell on Skylax, author of the Indian Ocean Cruising Guide, is anchored just behind us. I thought of this because another UK boat came in today and anchored right in front of Skylax and right next to us-way too close. It’s not like there is a lack of space, but maybe the new boat, Astra, is just fine. We will have to check after the tide changes and see how we lie next to each other.
I think we will be leaving for our first inland travels this weekend. This will be a trip into the mountains to the tea plantations, possibly over the border into Tamil Nadu (another province) to the city of Madurai, back to Kerala to the Periyar Wildlife Reserve in Kerala, and then home. We may have to divide this into two trips so we are not away from the boat too long, but we shall see. There are also some exciting things happening here in Cochin, so beginning on Saturday, we should have some exciting adventures. It’s about time!
