Thursday, December 23, 2010

Captain's blog December 2010

This blog is the last as the Captain of Kalizma because I’m being transferred to the Owner’s bigger yacht, m/y Indian Empress, as Captain/ Chief Officer but I will be coming to check in on Kalizma at regular intervals.

m/y Indian Empress

After spending 2.5 yrs on her she has taken a chunk of my life with her troubles keeping her fit and trim for the Owner and guests. This is not only by my own effort but also with the good team effort of my Indian crew that is now left to be guided by my 2nd in command, Surender Saini, that has now gotten the MCA certification to this. My best congratulations for his future success in managing Kalizma with all her faults and on the other hand, her charms. In the end it is the crew that makes the spirit on the yacht.

Bottle mountain at Kingfisher village

As for the December month it went fairly uneventfully. On the 2nd I went with Saini to visit the Kingfisher village that was erected for the film festival. We were quite surprised as the beer was sold practically for nothing and the bartenders were handing over beer as fast as they could. The mountains of empty cans and bottles told the story of demand. We also found out this was the last night for the village until the next festival. People were having a good time with the local orchestra playing Konkani songs interspersed with Hindi popular songs. Me and Saini enjoyed us thoroughly until the venue was closed.

With Saini at boatshow checking the wares

On the 6th I visited the Goa boatshow, a really small event that mostly peddled boats for unsuspecting buyers. As an example I could mention the Seadoo jetski that looked fine and dandy but if you are gullible enough to buy for an arm and a leg you would discover at the first malfunction that the closest service center is outside of India. The next step to import spares and get somebody to service your jetski (properly) would cost you another appendix. Incredible India.

14th we did a seatrial to see how the old lady is performing, despite many barnacles being scraped off her hull and new ones growing up we got her up to 8.5kts with economic rpm's.

Aguada lighthouse and jail from sea

On the 16th was another Goa boatshow opening and I went to see the setup. On the arrival was abig banner announcing the show open at 10 am same day and I was there about 3 pm but then the guard told us to be back next day as the show had not opened yet (!?). We told we were here to visit our associate Mr. Alan Koh from International paints so the guard relented and let us through. Soon enough we found Alan and changed some news with him as well as with some people Saini knew from before. As Alan’s host was being busy elsewhere I ended taking him out for dinner to Candolim. We had a nice dinner at Joe Joe’s corner and we also discovered the restaurant had changed Owner’s. The food was still delicious and in fact the beer was now cheaper.

Full moon taken through binoculars

19th December was my birthday and the day Indian Empress arrived Goa and I had orders to sign on her. The crew gave me a Titan wrist watch as a present with the cake but I did not make it to Indian Empress as they were too busy with officials. I went onboard her the 20th and time will tell if this was a birthday gift or not, for sure, I’m going to be busier now…

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