Captain's blog October 2010

Were now still in Goa and it is good as we don't have to cope with all the pollution as in Mumbai. The good weather is still eluding us as occasional thunderstorms keeps pelting us with water but in general the weather is good. We're still rolling at the Aguada Bay anchorage as the swell is coming in from the Indian Ocean.

Having Gujarati thali

Voyage Mumbai - Goa

MSC Chitra

Captain's blog September 2010

September was rather hectic time for all of us. Apart from the Krishna Janmashtami & Ganesh Chaturthi festivals it has been ceaseless maintenance on Kalizma and all the UB boats.

Launching RIB I

Ganesh Chaturthi ending

Ganesh idol in a makeshift shrine

Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh temple at Mira road

Krishna Janmashtami

As I was out on errands and the end of the day was coming I kept seeing the Dahi Handi's (claypot filled with milkcurd) being rigged over streets, over parking lots and any large open area any sponsor had managed to come over. It was the day of Lord Krishna's birthday and this festival was called Krishna Janmasthami.

Pyramid starting and handi rigged up in the air

Captain's blog August 2010

So August has gone by and we have seen more rain that we would ever prefer. It has been raining hard, poured down with water, torrential rains, drizzled, rained moderately, rained vertically, horizontally and intermittently. Any description of rain that you may have, we have seen.

Sunset over Mumbai

Marinas in Mumbai

On 25th Aug I came across this article in Mumbai Mirror where they envisioned new Marinas in several areas near Mumbai, such as Gateway, Mandwa, Girgaum chowpatti, Worli seaface, Revas, Mandwa, Alibag, Elephanta and Belapur in 2-3 years. It is about time. They say only the investor is missing.

Fishermen cooped up for monsoon in Mandwa

Mumbai oil spill - epilogue

Pink color showing Khalijia III, red MSC Chitra

Mumbai oil spill

It was an ordinary day on August 9th when it was announced in the news that two cargo ships, MSC Chitra and Khalijia III had collided just in front of Mumbai harbor and that one of them was sinking. When MSC Chitra sank, or rather, was beached on Prong Reef, she started leaking out heavy fuel oil (HFO). Official estimates was that around 800 tons leaked out in Mumbai waters and about 500 containers had fallen into the sea.

MSC Chitra (picture courtesy of www.today24news.com)

Shopping in Mumbai

So, we had arrived Mumbai and I checked into Hotel Elphinstone Annexe, est. 1946, an old colonial style building near the port on 149 P. D'Mello road. Not in the heart of Mumbai but close enough for comfort. The rooms were worn out but clean and had working hot water and A/C.

Our first day went in that we had lunch with Saini at the Balgi and then I took Jira to Crawford Market. From there she took the reins as it was shopping time. It was shoes. bags, clothes - the works. We even bought a light banderoll. Dinner we skipped and just rested at the hotel.

Dhobie Ghat laundry

Captain's blog June 2010

Having been on vacation for most of the month there is not much to tell you this month. I flew back from Finland on the 8th I was Mumbai by the 9th to deal with the monsoon berth issue that had yet to be resolved.

Sunset over Mumbai 

Captain's blog May 2010

The Mumbai yacht club

Lawrence Watch Co

Lawrence watch Co

Vardenchi motorcycles

After having gone to our meeting at RINA offices with Mr. Mishra, Mr Devadas and Bob Pinto re: our commercial yacht certification for Kalizma. Bob asked if I would be interested to do a small detour before going back to Gateway. He promised it would make both me and Mishra to feel young again. I replied "why not" and off we went towards Jogeshwar.

Captain's blog April 2010

As you may have read we have been traveling for most of April and are now relocated from Thailand to India.

 

Gateway of India

Chaitra Navratri celebration in Mumbai

Goddess Durga

Mumbai - Cochin - Langkawi

So, we left Mumbai finally and were underway to Langkawi via Cochin. The reason for stopping in Cochin was to take cheaper fuel from there as in Mumbai nobody was selling tax free fuel.

Once at sea we got the waves from our stern and a strong NW'ly breeze. Everything was hunky-dory. Our Naga girls got sea-sick of course and for the 1st couple of days resembled zombies as we were trying to get them cheered up. Finally I resorted to giving them motion sickness pills so that fixed that problem.

Kalpu prepared for the worst

Leaving India

Kalizma at Victoria Docks

Captain's blog - March 2009

March was spent alongside in Mumbai only. We had a MCA commercial yacht status survey and inclination test that was concluded on the 4th. Then after this the rest of the month was spent rectifying observations done by our surveyor, Mr. Alf Cashmore. Suddenly our “to-do” list was completely full.

Alf Cashmore, our MCA surveyor