Cochin, India bound for Oman

Cochin, India to Oman – 1450 miles across the Indian Ocean.

We sailed out of Cochin Wed. AM - 2/11/09. Very little wind so, when we got out to clear water, we dropped all sails while Bob and I went diving to clean the bottom. The underside of the boat was very overgrown with weed, barnacles and stuff. I had to really scrape the props to remove a heavy growth of barnacles. We scrubbed the boat a couple of times before leaving but every rope and the mast and boom is permanently black from the Cochin diesel soot.

Day 1 we had a stiff headwind that took us N/E followed by 3-4 days of sailing S/W into a head wind, our destination was N/W, but that’s sailing. During the next week the winds slowly veered north then N/E before dying out. After drifting slowly for 2 days, we finally gave up and motored the last 75 miles into Salalah, Oman. We arrived at 11 AM 2/21/09, a 10 day passage for the 1450 mile crossing from India. Other than the last 3 days lack of wind, I would say this has been a very pleasant crossing. We saw an unbelievable display of stars most nights along with great unobstructed sunsets and sunrises. Yesterday evening about 7PM as it was just getting dark, I was sitting quietly at the helm station when a huge whale came almost entirely out of the water just behind us, very close. The back splash rocked the boat. I hollered and everyone came up to see him surface again. A minute or so before he surfaced, I thought I heard a bump, but we often get goofy waves that go bump. As I now think about it, I believe we may have hit the whale while he was sleeping, not a big hit, but enough to get his attention. It was a dead calm evening, not a ripple on the water. He was white on the bottom and dark on the upper half. He actually followed us awhile. It was eerie, the only thing we could see was a patch of bioluminescence following us and occasionally, we could hear him breath great sighs in and out . One tremendous experience!!

Later - well we finally! caught a decent sized fish just as we were about to enter the harbor - enough to feed the 4 of us. We have been to Oman before and it is well run and reasonably prosperous. The ruler of the country, Sultan Qaboos, was educated at Sandhurst Military Academy in the UK. We are anchored in the outer bay across from huge ships loading containers. This is truly a commercial port. In order to get into town you need to take your dinghy over to the concrete wall and climb way up a steel ladder imbedded in the concrete. They keep our passports and boat papers and issue 1 day passes to go into town, about 12 miles away. The small boat anchorage was chockablock full of boats with “The Blue Water” ‘round the world Rally and the Vasco De Gama Rally boats all meeting here to go thru’ Pirates Alley together. We anchored outside and were lucky enough to find a cruiser who had rented a car and didn’t want it any longer, couldn’t get Mohammed to take it back, so we just took it for 3 days and finally, on our last day, found Mohammed, returned his car and paid him. Good shopping in Salalah, not a lot to see or do. While loading diesel into the dinghy, Bob slipped, fell and hit his head on a slippery ramp. We had to take him to the hospital where they took x-rays and a cat scan and kept him overnight. He wasn’t too happy about the stay or the $200 cost.

We left Salalah 2/25/09 headed 600+ miles to Aden, Yemen. First, we headed out 70 miles to enter the corridor that has recently been established for shipping traffic transiting to/from the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Somali pirates have taken several ships hostage in this area including a supertanker that they ransomed for $millions. I believe they asked for $20 million and settled for $2. Still not a bad days pay! The corridor is down the middle between Somali and Yemen with a 5 mile wide strip going each way.

There are now 20 coalition warships patrolling this area. We personally talked to a German ship, a Greek ship and had several helicopter flyovers during our 5 days and nights in the corridor. The ships were going anywhere from 10 to 20 knots while we made 5 knots, so we saw lots of traffic. One ship close to us was attacked by pirates but he was able to repel them using his high pressure water hoses. I don’t know quite how he accomplished that since he stated that the pirates had attack rifles and rocket launchers. At any rate it was exciting. After 4 days of light winds we motored into Aden. Since then we heard that the coalition forces have captured 2 sets of pirates including a leader. The leader stated that they were simple Somali fishermen fishing in Somali waters. The coalition forces asked how they caught fish with Kalashnikov assault rifles and grenade launchers?

Aden

The city is built, maybe half built, half decaying onto the sides of steep rocky hills. It is actually on the side of an old volcano crater. The place looks like a dump and suffers from years of war and strife between the tribal north and south government. What the city and maybe the country lacks in fancy infrastructure they more than make up for in friendliness. Everywhere we go the people, young and old say “hello where are your from?” It is almost one thought. They smile and have a good time. Most, tho’ not the black abaya dressed ladies, want you to take their picture.

Most people are poor and judging from the people hanging around, the unemployment rate must be at least 20 %. Aden has a couple of new shopping malls stocked with all the usual stuff, except no alcohol. The locals here don’t need alcohol they have “Qat”, which is a privet like plant that has mildly narcotic (but highly addictive) leaves which they chew. It is an important Yemeni social custom that usually starts about noon and last until? Shops all close from 1 to 4 in the afternoon. In the evening, most small shop keepers are laying down with a fat cheek full of Qat. They seem able to drive and conduct business, only at a slower rate. Our bus driver was chewing the stuff all afternoon while he drove in some of the toughest, steepest mountain roads that I have ever been in - much steeper than any USA interstate roads. Qat, pronounced "Gat", is widely grown throughout Yemen and is the principle crop and commodity in many markets. It is supposedly very addictive and is now a very accepted wide-ranging habit in Yemen. You can often see a teenager on a motor bike with a cheek full. I only tried chewing a small leaf and it just tastes bitter like you would expect of a hedge leaf.. I believe a cheek-ful is good for up to 4 hrs.

Ruth and I took a nice modern bus 7 hrs across the desert, thru the Qat farms and up the mountains to the ancient city of Sana’a. It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It was build about 2000 yrs ago and looks the same today. Our hotel was only 200+ yrs old but looked same as the other buildings.

It was made of rocks and mud. The doors were about 5 ft. high, the floors and walls were uneven and the modernized? bathroom had galvanized exposed pipes. It was like stepping back in time into a genuine Arabian village. We dined on goat and huge slabs of delicious bread directly out of the open oven. We mingled with the really warm fun loving people and in short had a grand time. I often ask the local folks in return “where are you from” and got some surprising answers. One said “New York here to visit my family” another said Georgia, here to play basketball and study the Koran. I showed one veiled lady a photo of a smiling Yemeni boy and she said “beautiful.” The architecture was amazing as you can see from the photos The people are very generous. I saw several beggars , often refugees from Somalia, walk up to prosperous looking locals and ask for money. In most cases they got some change. Folks really seemed to share. It was nice to get away from the boat. We left the boat in the windy, bouncy Aden bay and found all well when we returned.

Cochin

Bob and Judy left yesterday for some inland travel and Ruth left 6AM today to join a long planned 2 week tour of south India with her sister and a friend, so it is just me anchored in the middle of the river in Cochin. I’ve been to India a couple of times, so elected to watch after the boat. I also had a list of maintenance items that needed done. The salt water cooling pump on the starboard engine needed a new seal and bearings, the cockpit table base needed rebuilt, the starboard saloon window leaked, and the port engine alternator belt is loose and missing a bolt - to name a few items. I need to say some good things about India. So - India is a good place to be from! India is actually a very dynamic and interesting place. The people are friendly, and most are dressed well. The ladies, especially, wear beautiful saris. English is taught in school here and most people speak it a little. The folks have a way of moving their head sideways back and forth when you ask a question, such that you don’t know if the answer is yes or no. You ask the tuk-tuk driver “Do you know where Kingfisher Airline office is?” and all you get is a wobbling head, not matter how many times you ask. It actually means “Yes, I understand”. After being here awhile I can see most people are honest and helpful. I don’t lock the boat or the dinghy. I left a package in a small shop and retrieved it two days later. If you go into the wholesale part of the city, you will see men carrying sacks of produce, rice, bananas or concrete that would stagger an ox.

I go into the city every day to buy things and have lunch. Eating out is unbelievably cheap. Ruth and I had lunch at a nice air conditioned restaurant the other day and the total bill was 85 Rupees ($1.70). I had a 10 course lunch today for $1.60, all I could eat. After lunch I went shopping for some silicone caulk and fittings for the gas BBQ. Or should I say ex-BBQ. Our nice gas BBQ went overboard and I am trying to build another one, using an old charcoal BBQ given to me by another cruiser. I have to get a pressure regulator, fittings, burner, valve, and diffuser, and then get some welding done. The shops on Jew Street here have everything for the do it yourselfer. You can buy basic materials like iron, stainless, pipe, tubing, leather, etc then you take it to a welding or fabrication shop. All is made from basic parts, and all parts are recycled. There are no Wal-Mart’s or super stores here in Kerala, but there are in the bigger cities like Delhi and Chennai which are very sophisticated. All shops are very small and very basic. An old used bicycle wheel (for example) is used as a tool to make rope from coconut husks. You buy some local flat bread, (delicious) Pahrata, and it is wrapped in old newspaper. You can buy a hoe or shovel here that is hand made and will last a lifetime, made of steel with an all steel handle. Jars my teeth thinking about it!

We are part of the entertainment here. There is a constant stream of boats full of tourists that come thru the anchorage here. There are about 20 sailboats anchored here flying flags from the UK, US, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Holland, France, Canada, etc. The tour boats weave thru the anchored boats hollering, waving and taking photos of us, even if we are on the back step taking a shower. We now know what it is like when we go around a village taking photos of folks in their normal everyday environment. When we checked into India at Fort Cochin, I signed, at least, 5 letters humbly asking permission to anchor in this place. Heck, it is the only place they will let you anchor. At night, especially on the weekends, there is very loud noise, I think it is music, going late into the night, sometimes all night. We do get plenty of water at very low cost from the nearby Bolgatty Hotel.

It is pleasant and comfortable in the countryside where people live simply and in harmony with nature. Most have running water or wells, electricity and TV, satellite TV too and internet. This State is called Kerala – land of the coconuts. Plenty of coconuts, bananas, mangoes, papayas and anything else that grows. Cochin harbor/river where we are anchored is not a garden spot; and the city far from it. It is dirty, crowded, and chaotic. The traffic is unbelievable – buses crammed with people going at top speed honking the horn and spewing diesel fumes. Everyone has a horn. I mean a loud horn, and they honk incessantly. If, for example, there is a small traffic jam, everyone all along the line lays on their horn constantly until they all start moving, then they go back to intermittent honking. The 3 wheeled tuk-tuks, all have horns and some are driven by absolute wild men. They will not give an inch, and drive on all sides of the road, or bouncing over the sidewalk. You can ride across town for $1 or less.

The streets are reluctantly shared by large busses, trucks, small cars, tuk-tuks, motorbikes, push carts with huge loads, and finally, pedestrians fearing for their lives. We only cross the street where there is a divider. You wait and look carefully before dashing across and thru traffic to the safety of the concrete divider. You can usually get thru a few motorbikes, and maybe a tuk-tuk or two, but don’t try bluffing anything bigger. It is so dusty and dirty that one usually takes a shower soon as you get home. I don’t know if there are any traffic rules – anything goes. Traffic moves in all 4 directions on any side of the street. I would encourage you too look at Ruth’s posting. She will have a much different view since she traveled to some of the best places in India, while I chose to be stuck here in this not garden spot by myself. Try being anchored out with no internet and absolutely no one to speak to for 2 weeks- poor Marvin.