Hi All,
All of our time is spent on DoraMac or in town so we really haven’t made use of the marina facilities. It actually is the only marina in India!
Ru
DoraMac
Bolgatty Island
Marina
The Marina office is in this building. I have only been there once, the day before we moved to the marina when we came to talk with the manager. There is a coffee shop and a small exercise room and a room with a huge pool table and a ping pong table. Going to my sciatica treatments and just being out and about has kept us busy. You can see DoraMac, the last boat on the right with the brown cloth covering her big front windows. Originally we were in a “too short slip” two docks over. I took this photo and the following one while I was on the ferry from Bolgatty Island to Ernakulam.
Local fishermen come by every morning.
The wife paddles and the husband fishes: at least that’s the way it was in the three of these round boats that passed by early one morning. Our new location gives us a better view of river traffic.
Moving day for Doramac
Getting from the Crabtree boat yard on Fort Kochi into the marina was pretty straight forward going in bow first. Moving from the “too short slip” to a spot along the outside dock was much trickier. Because of the location of our power outlet and our pilot house door, we had to back up to the dock. And because of the strength of the current, backing up wasn’t at all easy. We enlisted a whole army of helpers including “big” Nasir to help getting the stern line from DoraMac to the folks on the dock who would tie us to the cleats.
How many people does it take…..?
Bill from BeBe on our stern handled the lines and the group on the dock waited to catch them. The trick was we had to be close enough for Bill to throw a second mid-stern line and then the bow line before the current took us too far away. But it all worked out with no mishaps. My ego got bruised because the word “bow line” wasn’t sinking in and I kept trying to hand Bill a different line and felt like an idiot but, oh well.
Bolgatty Hotel
The hotel dining room: we’ve not eaten there.
Through the trees at the pool you can see the other side of the island and Kochi Harbour.
Hotel swimming pool or crow bath….
As well as the crows, cruisers are allowed to use the pool but Randal and I aren’t pool people so we haven’t but it is the place where between 4:30 pm and 6 pm cruisers tend to socialize and wait for temperatures to cool. We have AC so we tend to stay on the boat where it’s already cool.
Another view of DoraMac
The buildings are across the river which takes the ferry about 10 minutes to cross.
Another view across the river: far different scenery than at Fort Kochi or Mattancherry.
9:29 am looking across to Ernakulam: earlier in the morning everything is somewhat grey.
Tour boats pass by the marina and the announcer points to the different country flags on the boats.
Some of the boats are full of school age kids who yell hello and we wave back. Some boats blast “Monsoon Wedding” like music. Randal has some Frisbees on the bow so he might one day toss one to some kids on the tour boats.