This morning brought us an amber sunrise filtered through thick industrial haze. The air was cool but the orange ball rising promised us a hot sticky day ahead. As promised, the customs boat came and picked us up on time. First stop: Port Captain. We filled out a forest of paperwork and paid our port fees. Then we were off to the Customs office where we were told that they wouldn't process us until we had a receipt from the Port Captain. Back to the Port Captains office we go. We waited for an hour and decided to go to lunch. After lunch, we went back to pick up our receipt but it was still not available. We waited... and waited .....Those reciepts are really hard to make I guess..... we waited some more. Finally, they produced our prized document and we trotted off back to the customs office. After an unbelievable amount of paper and carbon paper and vicious stamping we jumped in a "motor rickshaw" and headed to the Immigration office. More multipal copies of forms to fill out and even more vigorous stamping. ( Our stamp is of the automatic inking variety...they were in awe) We could actually out stamp them with our eyes closed. They were really impressed. We stopped by the phone store for Sim cards and then returned to Freebird as the sun was sinking back into the haze.
Freebird is anchored in front of the swank Taj Hotel. The water front restaurant looks out over the bay. With hand signals Dave reserved the corner table. Our dinghy took us to the dock where we were met by the Maitre d'. We were shown to the best table in the house where we had a long, well deserved and delicious meal. We gazed out on the dark bay where Freebird illuminated by the full moon was the featured show for the evening. We discovered a nice dry Indian white wine and wobbled our way back to Freebird..ZZZZZZZZZZZZ