Showing posts with label Galle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Galle. Show all posts

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Captain's blog July/ August 2012

So, my vacation was once again coming to an end. Unfortunately, this year the summer in Finland had yet to materialize so I had not enjoyed much of any warm weather although I had met a lot of old friends and a few new ones. Anyway, it was time to pack the 'ol trunk and get my arse to Helsinki to fly via Mumbai to Colombo.

Monitor lizard at Galle seafront

I boarded on time and flew first to Heathrow, London where my layover was 2h45m and I nearly missed my connection to Mumbai. There were a lot of people lining up for connection flight boarding passes and when I got the booth the lady said the gate is closed. I asked what do you mean closed, there is still an hour left and the plane has not left yet. She said I came late and the gate is closed. I replied that I just arrived from Helsinki, what do you want me to say? Isn't there anything you can do? Then she made a call somewhere and fiddled around on her computer and came out with the boarding passes and told me to hurry. 
Well, said and done I hurried, after 20meters I reached another checkpoint where the gent ripped my boarding passes and told me I am upgraded to coach deluxe. Bloody great, just give me my boarding passes, I need to hurry. I went off again at full pace and reached the security "express line" which to me seemed as fast as the regular line. Through I went finally, and I hurried down to the inter-terminal railway station as I needed to change from terminal 3 to terminal 5. 

Luckily the train was there almost as on request and as I stepped in the train the doors closed and off we went. I came to terminal 5 and continued my trek towards my gate and arrived at a queue that was 30m long. Luckily for me the plane was a bit delayed, and I got in good order albeit drenched in sweat. The flight leaves eventually and I am in deep slumber after a late last evening at my childhood friend, Taru's, pad.

The flight is 8+ hours long so I wake up at the stage they start serving drinks and food. I stare myself silly on inane movies from the on-demand system in lack of anything else to do as well as turn a few pages on the book I brought with me. I fall asleep again at some stage and wake up to the waiters serving a very early morning snack or very late supper. 

Soon enough we land, and I venture to the Visa on arrival queue. The thing is incredibly poorly arranged, and the Officers can barely talk English. I am directed to a sofa group at the side of the immigration desks where a group of elderly Filipino ladies sit and laugh as well as a young Japanese lady. She looks extremely bored with the Immigration officer. 

I am given a form to fill up that is the same as you will fill any visa application form with the usual Indian paranoia if I have relatives in Pakistan and so forth. I fill up the form but have no picture to give, they also ask me of my hotel booking as well as my onward journey ticket. As I did not have any of what they asked it took them hours to find a printout of my onward journey, the photo was skipped and multiple phone calls to get them to understand I am staying at a friend's place. 

Finally, after some 3-4 hrs I was led through to pay for the visa (2000 INR) and I got the stamp, collected my luggage and was on my way towards Avnish pad. The Japanese girl was also at the visa payment desk at the same time as me. I saw her having only Indonesian rupees which naturally were not accepted, they are worthless anywhere outside Indonesia itself, so I offered to pay for her as well otherwise she'd never make it through the immigration. She asked if I was sure, and I said yes, and off she went. I hope she got through alright. In hindsight I think she may have faked it all, who knows.

At Avnish pad I had a few snacks, and we changed a few words of latest news and hit the sack after a cold Kingfisher started to weigh my eyelids. Next morning was busy in meeting with the Office people and the program of Kalizma and other small vessels accompanying her. Then it was lunch time that had to be in Gokul's with Avnish. After that a bit more meeting and saying goodbye to Cmde Mongia & Avnish and then it was again off to the airport for my flight to Colombo. 

Arrived early morning and was picked up by our local driver who soon was whisking me off towards Galle in his minivan. There is now a brand spanking new Chinese built elevated motorway all the way to Hambantota port so the road was pretty smooth once we got onto it. The stretch through Colombo though was as chaotic as before but being the wee hours traffic was not too bad.

Once in Galle we had to get the agent to arrange me the requisite permissions to enter the port and get onboard. Even though Sri Lanka has entered a peaceful stage in their history the paranoia of security still lingers on from the Tamil Tiger scourge, but I could see the military presence was relaxing. Ports are a different story due to the security codes implemented by IMO internationally. So, there is a fair deal of red tape in Asian countries to gain access to commercial ports complying to the ISPS code. 

I can't even think how a marina could operate in these conditions, there is still a long way to go. After some turns and twists I got the agent, and he did his stuff and soon enough I was onboard saying hello to everyone and then hit the sack for a couple of hours as I was knackered of the overnight flight and land travel.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Galle to Weligama Bay

Later the guests get up and venture to the Dutch Fort and to Nico’s on Talpe beach while Avnish was looking after all the arrangements. He was a lucky bugger as he managed to slip away and get some Sri Lankan crab curry at Unawatuna beach, but so was I too, as you will read.


Monitor lizard at the Lighthouse

I had a filling fall out during the voyage and our agent, the trusted Mr. Upali, took me to see a Professor in dentistry (sorry, forgot his name). The outfit looks worn out and run down but I can see the equipment is better than foot driven drills. After some sitting waiting for the examination room to be prepared from the last patient I chat with the Professor and he tells me he has practiced dentistry on Harley street in London and still goes every year to UK for lectures in medical universities, then the nurse announces the room is ready and we get down to real business. 


The Lighthouse restaurant

Artwork at the Lighthouse

He takes one long look in my gab and fixes the tooth in no time. The Professor tells me that the cost of the procedure will be 5000 LKR and I tell him straight away to go ahead. Afterwards Upali tells me he nearly fell off the chair as the price for a filling in Colombo is the double. In Thailand the price is somewhat the same as of the good Professor.


Weligama Bay

Note the table legs are made of old engine blocks

After this we go for lunch with Upali to Lighthouse restaurant. The venue is very nice with seating out in the shade with the Indian Ocean swell crashing onto the rocky beach promontory in front of the establishment. The entrance to the restaurant is lined with metal sculptures picturing people at war several hundred years back. 


The Japanese designed house in Weligama

Mirissa fishing Port

We are being served by a beautiful Sri Lankan lady named Jaisha (if memory serves me right). Lunch was curry and rice and this is in the Sri Lankan way served almost like a South Indian Thali. I was brought a plate and several bowls of curry and vegetable dishes, the main being crab. The food was very delicious and we washed it down with local Baron Beer which I found better tasting than the other local brand Lion Beer. After lunch Upali brought me back onboard and the evening goes waiting for the guests to return back.


Lucy & Avnish

Indian Empress at end of infinity pool at the Japanese villa

Next morning we depart Galle at 6am for whale watching with a naturalist onboard to guide us. We sail out tothe 1000m depth contour and head east towards Weligama Bay and Dondra Head. After some 4 hrs of circling back and forth the whales still eluded us and I think also the other local whale watching boats also did not catch a glimpse of anything else but us. It was not that nice to look for whales as this is the southern point of Sri Lanka and is the place where all commercial cargo ships converge enroute to Malacca Strait or Middle East, so the traffic was quite heavy going. As the morning had gone and whales were not being cooperative we headed for Weligama Bay and anchored off Mirissa Point.  

Lucy & Jessie

Baron's - local beer

After arrival we went ashore with Avnish and checked out various places to have BBQ and so on. Eventually some local expats joined up and ferried us around to different venues. One building we visited was in a fabulous location but looked like an unfinished building site as the cement slabs had not been painted.

Beach beauty at Mirissa point resort

Finally we had a very late lunch at Mirissa Point and I went back onboard to coordinate BBQ and Avnish to set it up. When I was arriving IE it was being the focal point of the village and had small boats of every size and shape buzzing around the ship like flies on a fresh cowturd. On some fishing catmaran I counted up to 15-17 persons, maybe it was the whole family as the people onboard consisted from small kids to elderly matrons.




Sunday, February 13, 2011

Voyage Mumbai - Colombo - Galle

Our cruise to Lakshadweep had been foiled by the sudden appearance of Somali pirates in our intended cruising area so we did not leave as planned. We sat for another 2 days and had a hectic time preparing backup cruises for Sri Lanka and up the West Coast of the subcontinent to Diu Island, Gujarat.

Dolphin Rock in Mumbai

Then the orders came to sail for Sri Lanka.

We quickly got our agent mobilized, port clearance and last minute shopping and so we departed for Colombo at midnight 8th. We were in a hurry and burned fuel to the tune of 20 knots, our three 6270 kW main engines were guzzling up diesel hundreds of tons every day. By the time we reached Gulf of Mannar we got bad weather blowing from the NE. The center engine started taking in water through the exhaust so we had to stop it but as we were almost there it did little difference to our ETA.

Another old Colombo Port visitor

Eventually we made arrival Colombo on the 12th at 3am. We tied up near the northern entrance and were still rocking of the swell outside of the port. The port of Colombo is growing massively, huge land filling project is underway to enlarge the container terminal outside of the old harbor. This could not be seen in April 2010 when I stopped there to refuel Kalizma. The Sri Lankan industry must be booming after the Tamil Tiger problem has been gotten rid of.

M/y Indian Empress in Galle

We got guests onboard from the airport and continued our voyage at 5am towards Galle where we arrived at noon. Galle had remained the same from my last visit there in 2008. The port had restored some yacht pontoons and moorings that had been demolished by the 2006 tsunami but otherwise everything looked more or less the same. Even the pilot cum Port Captain was the same. The publicans were also the same, scores of people asking for booze and cigarettes left and right.

Another Galle visitor, perhaps for whalewatching...

Luckily we got Avnish doing the Purser bit as I always have a problem of telling people politely they got enough, now scram. Once the formalities are cleared we get some expat bum named Geoffrey seeking entry onboard on the excuse that he has a friend of a friend who knows the guests onboard, yeah sure I also use this excuse when I want to go meet unknown rich people, works every time. Only God knows how he managed to get into an ISPS controlled port.

The LTTE gunship cum trawler


The forward mounted 50 cal machine gun

There also was an impounded ex. LTTE gunship tied up in the port, an old fishing trawler equipped with 50cal machine guns mounted forward and aft. I could imagine the Somali's could put it to great use being the scourge of the Indian Ocean.



Friday, December 26, 2008

Captain's blog - visit Galle

We arrived Galle roads at 7am 18th Dec and I contacted the Port control. Port Control instructed us to proceed in and a naval patrol boarded us to do inspection. Once clear the sergeant asked for whisky… oh well. We entered the harbor basin that was boomed off except a 10m gap at the breakwater that was guarded by armed sentries. We moored at the “New pier” (N of Gibbett Island), a decently fendered cargo pier but not really suitable for yachts. Everywhere was a military presence and small guys patrolled around with big assault rifles slung on their shoulders or carried in various fashion. The LTTE threat was taken seriously.

Fishermen outside Galle

Then our agent, Mr. Upali Gooneratne, boarded with all the officials in tow, there was Port Health, Custom, Immigration and Security. They all needed whisky too, must be the dusty paper shuffling making them thirsty. Bunkering was to start at 1300hrs by truck. Lastly I was also visited by the Harbor Master and we chatted about Port of Galle and future plans of re-developing a yacht marina (I found out there had been a yacht marina that had been swept away by the 2004 tsunami.) Harbor Master also commented on some yachts that in his opinion were smuggling people to Europe, Asian crew was duly registered on the crew list but when the yacht arrives Europe it would be met by snake heads and the Illegal Immigrants would be taken away to their unknown destinies. First time I ever heard about such activities.

Galle harbor, wavebreaker entrance on extreme left with armed guards

After all red tape was cleared, I went with Mr. Upali for some shopping for ships provisions. At the same time we drove a short loop in Galle city and the Dutch Fort. The city has a population of only abt 100.000 and has not much to offer. Surprisingly I saw quite a few foreigners on the streets. The drive in the Dutch Fort was nice, there was a Dutch reform Church and all buildings were left after the colonial period and looked very quaint but unfortunately they were in a more or less dilapidated state. Once our shopping was done we headed back to the ship to wait for the bunker truck that was now late.

Galle Dutch Fort

At 1330hrs there was no truck forthcoming and we started calling around and we got replies that the “truck will be there soon”, “truck is at the gate”, “Truck is there” – all was essentially figments of imagination and as we called higher up the ranks it was revealed that the truck was late, very late. Time was now our enemy as the sunset would leave us rolling our thumbs until next morning as port regulations did not allow movements after darkness. Fuel truck finally arrived 1630hrs and it was past 1700hrs before bunkering got started. The sun was setting fast.

Dutch Fort old lighthouse

Mr. Upali had arranged clearance in advance and Navy guys were standby to do their inspection and we stated our departure to 1800hrs for the Port Authorities, Harbor Master gave us permission to leave as long as we could see. I said I have x-ray vision. Vivek started up the engines to warm up, pumping was going on and finally we got the hose disconnected at abt 1810hrs, amount was verified, papers signed and people were showed the gangway. At 1810 I ordered all ropes cast off and we were clear off the pier at 1815hrs. Port Control was already telling us on VHF that we can’t exit the port while I was passing the breakwater barrier along with the last rays of the sun. We eventually managed to do our visit in one day, phew, but it was a close call. All was thanks to the Custom Officer accompanying the fuel truck that decided to stop for a 2h lunch and get drunk. While bunkering went on I could see him staggering around the pier, there was for sure no whisky forthcoming to him if he would have asked (he did not).

Evening when sailing along the Sri Lankan coast was littered with fishing boats, they looked more like narrow dinghies and had a smaller pontoon rigged on the side for stability, we had to get 10’ offshore when we cleared all fishermen. Once out on the Gulf of Mannar we got a good NE’ly force 4-5 and a swell as well.