02/01/2010, Havelock Island, Andaman Islands, India
One morning I woke up and looked out my window, "where was I"?
I was in India. But not the mainland. And when we went into town it was very funny because in the middle of the streets you could see cows, goats, cats and dogs, just lying there just enjoying themselves like they were sitting down in a meadow of grass. They didn't seem to care about the traffic and all the noise and everything. One goat that I saw, he was walking down the sidewalk and then stopped and ate little things from the garbage. A lot of them do that, cows too. I am so happy they do not eat meat here. But they milk the cows. And I stopped at a little place where there was a sugar cane juice machine. I had a cupful, it was delicious, yum yum, yum.
Then we went to the museum. It was nice in there but first there was a big shop. Then you go in and you'll see a big hole in the ground, and they're putting an elevator in there.
And guess what? There was even a row of old music instruments. My favorite was the buffalo bell. It was a piece of wood with little shaved pieces of wood in the bottom, and when you put it around the neck of an elephant it goes, clink clonk, clink clonk, it's a very nice sound, like a wind chime. Then at the end we signed our name in the visitor's book. I like filling stuff in the visitor's book, I think it's very interesting. Next we went to a jail. It was almost like a museum and not very much like a jail atal. All it was, was pictures and pictures of old people. I didn't think that was very interesting. But then I thought the garden was interesting but it was kind of scary because that is where people would sit down and watch the bad person hang and die. We went up to the cells and all it was inside, is a corner with a hole which is their bathroom and just chains where you would hang on the wall, and if you broke out you're still in the same old room. Nobody could break that difficult rusty lock out. We went up to the amazing freedom of high air and then just when I was about to reach the end I had a person who grabbed me and asked if I wanted to have a picture taken. I said "yes", and then every person who came to see the jail had to take a picture of me, and I even had to hold their baby. Then I went back to Magnum and bla bla bla with a whole other story in Port Blair.
Then finally I got to come out to the islands. It is beautiful here, it's the most beautiful place I've seen in my travels. In one bay where we are now it's just a paradise bay. You could go for hikes and see elephants and surf waves, snorkel and even catch squid. I would like to tell you about the chiefs if you would like to know about that:
When I looked out at all the squid around the boat, I would put my lure in the circle and then the chiefs, there is always 3 chiefs and 5 other spare ones, but they stay in the group.
And the 3 chiefs are always watching the others going around the lure and biting and catching. They are watching under the boat where the shade is like most royalty fish. When the chief is ready to attack the lure you just try to get their attention.
He tells the others when he's going to attack the lure. They make a circle around the boat, a big perfect circle like a full moon. Then you put the lure inside the circle and wait for the chief to attack. When he is ready he swims straight for it as fast as he can and bites it and you've got the chief, and when you eat that chief you are the chief of your boat. Those squid when you catch them are very strong, they can nearly break your rod. But I managed to pull him up, they are not too strong. One night we put some chicken on the lure with a little head light where the rod was. Just when we were about to have a bite of our dinner, the rod was going crazy. Uwe and I went out to deal with it, Anne is not so keen on doing it, that is why she stays inside. We pulled him up and he was so heavy he could almost slip out of your hands. He was a big fat grouper. I knew it was a female by looking at her face, her mouth and her eyes.
One morning we got a call on the radio from our friends Crystal Blues. They are anchored at the other end of the bay. They said "elephant on the beach, having a bath in the little lagoon". By the time we got there he wasn't in the lagoon anymore he was having a drink at the tap. He was very nice. I think that he didn't even feel the chains wrapped around him. He put his trunk under the water tap for quite a long time to fill it up, and pulled it up and put it into his mouth and it was sounding like a big waterfall. We took a few pictures and one lady pulled my arm again and asked for another picture. Then she let me go. Then we saw a big group of other people and Uwe said to me, "we better go back in case they wanted to take my picture like at the jail". I said "yeah thanks".
We swam to the dinghy and I drove the dinghy all the way back to Magnum. We had a shower and did the rest of school, got dressed and went fishing but didn't catch any cos there are no squid now cos we ate them all, but I don't eat them just catch them cos I'm half vegetarian. And then here I am writing this whole thing, like I always say in every blog. Thank you ladies and gentleman, and kids of all kinds, and every type of boat for listening.
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01/22/2010, Port Blair, Andaman Islands (India)
If boredom is the only downbeat experience that one can encounter while being at sea, this emotion in itself, we have come to learn should be treated as a welcome part of the endurance. For it can only mean that nothing is amiss, nothing to tend to beyond the thoughts knocking about in your mind or the distraction provided by a good book from these recurring deliberations. After a somewhat bumpy start to our voyage west to the Andaman Islands, Magnum eventually settled into a smooth rhythm cutting through the waves under the consistent 10-15 knot north east sea breeze. After 2 days and 2 nights of rarely having to touch the sails and thrilled that our progress would enable us to arrive into Port Blair before nightfall of the 3rd night, we began to fire up the engine up to charge the batteries. It would also inject a further knot or 2 to our overall speed. My acute sense of smell has often been the brunt of complaints but on this occasion it divulged that something serious was indeed amiss. This should have been tantamount for immediate inspection. When Uwe did inspect it, he was greeted with billowing clouds of smoke emanating from the engine room with water splashing everywhere. The smoke was dense and stinging, but we could see nothing until it dissipated. I started the engine and bang there is was again: water shooting in the air and exhaust fumes mixed into it. Uwe yelled to shut down the engine and Kara lectured him later about yelling. The exhaust box in the bilge next to the engine had an 8” crack at the top edge, hardly visible. The darn thing had to be removed for a fix. Not a huge deal. But to get to the box the exhaust cooling pipe connected to the turbo charger had to be disconnected. Uwe with his German Aryan strength managed to sheer all 3 studs with the frozen nuts off the housing. And the box was fixed with some fiber glass in little time. Meanwhile the power was running low so we had to be careful and conserve power; auto pilot off, no movies. While our sailing speed was still good, it was not enough to ensure arrival before dark into a port unknown. Uwe was draped over the engine scraping his skin off while drilling the old steel studs out and tapping the same for new bolts. The last tap was completed with 1/100mm to go when the tool broke off. Drilling that out is not possible. Jeez man and for Christ sake. With only 2 bolts in place we motored the last 2 hours before reaching Port Blair at about 9pm. We hailed the authorities on the radio and after somewhat challenged communication were granted permission to enter the harbor. It was pretty straightforward, the channel entrance was large and well lit, and our friends Gar and Nicole from Dreamkeeper who were anchored inside also called us with guidance. At10pm we were finally anchored, tired and burnt out, relieved at arriving safely and ready to embrace a good night's sleep. Due to power conservation we did not make drinking water on the way and now the tank was empty and the water in the harbor not that ideal for the purpose of water manufacture, so we switched to beer. We had not known what to expect of Port Blair. We had been warned of the somewhat intricate system of Indian bureaucracy, which may require a few days of waiting on the boat before clearance could be granted. All 3 departments of officials (Customs, Immigration and Coast Guard) must come to the boat before you can disembark. However luck returned to our side as 2 mega yachts who had hired agents to complete their check in, meant that the authorities had to come out to those boats, and therefore checked us in all in a matter of about 4 hours-record time I should think. It was a huge help to have an ample supply of copies for all our documents available, since there seemed to be an infinite demand for paperwork and forms and detailed information. Our first introduction to India was a very positive one, with officials being friendly and courteous, although one was a little displeased by the way Kara held her pen, and so he sat in the cockpit trying to teach her the correct way. Since the fix was temporary, we now had to find a way, if any, of having the part repaired, and thus the hunt for its salvation began.
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The snapshot above shows the last gathering of cruising friends from Momentum, Kleiner Bear and Magnum, on board Magnum at the Surin Islands, our last stop in Thailand. This picture leads us to reflect on one of the great things about cruising kids; how they manage to overcome the barriers of age and still become great pals. Sadly, Momentum are returning to New Zealand and Kara will miss Thomas and Olivia who we first met in Fiji, and then had the joy of spending 3 idyllic weeks with them in Iles De Pins of New Caledonia, last year. Its an extra bonus when the Moms and Dads share the same rapport. Tears all round, yet again, as we had already cried some tears after leaving our good friends Peggy and Ray from SolSearcher, who remained in Thailand.
Fortunately, for us, Kleiner Bear will continue along with us all the way to the Med.
Surin Islands are a nice place to relax, a welcome break in pace from the chaos and bustle of Phuket. These islands are also home to the sea gypsies, a sort nomadic tribe of people who traipse around these waters living on their boats, pulling in whereever they fancy. They have no written language and few speak Thai.
Although the border of Burma is only miles away it remains illusive, occasionally we heard a ship hail Burmese authorities to which there was no reply.
And so, its departure time for us, as we continue our passage west toward the Andaman Islands (India).
We'll miss the tastes of Thailand and wish we could have travelled more within its interior, alas, we can't see it all, and time beckons us west.
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