Sojourn on Kalizma

So 14th my vacation was up and I was ordered to fly to Male', Maldives to relieve the Officiating Master from Kalizma for his vacation too. I did not mind going to Kalizma as sitting on Indian Empress for two months in Abu Dhabi can't be better than going to Maldives.

The trip didi not start out very well as I was driving towards Phuket I got a call from office that I had missed my flight. It had been changed from evening to morning flight and I had totally missed the information. What a mess. Anyhow, I got a flight again the same evening and caught it to Kuala Lumpur, there I spent a few hours and flew to Colombo. The KL airport is huge but very quiet, maybe the reason was the late timing, I had a nice Caesar's salad at a restaurant while waiting.

I arrived Colombo in the early morning hours and spent there about 6hrs waiting for the morning flight. I half slept on a row of benches but was always woken up by clattering footsteps when a batch of passengers arrived from who knows where. Thats what you get for missing your flight. When the sun got up soon enough I was in the plane for Male' and a bit later we landed in good order.

The immigration was a breeze and I met Saini on the airport and we sat on the tenderboat to Kalizma in minutes. Kalizma looks the same as before, a bit worn out but that's why she is going in for a face lift in April. She is sitting at anchor north of Hulhule Island next to the Hulhumale' jetty. Then we started the handing over, accounts, current issues, maintenance, local contacts etc.

Colombo airport

In the evening I made "spicy chicken" curry Thai style for Saini as I had brought the ingredients from Thailand. Usually it is made in pork but unfortunately pork is illegal in Maldives. Later on I sent Saini to the airport for his flight to Colombo as he was going to meet with drydock people in Colombo before going home and so I had taken over Kalizma for a month.

The crew I knew from before: Richard now as Chief Steward and Umesh from Indian Empress as Chef, Dubey as my Bosun and Ruman as Engineer, as deckhands were Pardeep and Dhiraj and Steward was Parvinder. Rajaram and Sunil were on vacation. No girls worked on her anymore as they had resigned from service. I think an all male crew is easier to manage as well, less hassle and no envy.