Crabtree Boat Yard across from the Muslim Orphanage on Bazaar Road
10:17 local time
Hi All,
Just back-tracking a bit in this email telling about our arrival into Cochin Harbor and the offical paper work process.
Arrival into Cochin
We left Galle about 3:50 pm January 24th to time our arrival in the daylight hours of Cochin. We really should have left later, but the harbor entrance is closed off at dusk for security reasons so we had no choice. Randal had estimated that it would take 60 hours at 6 knots. 60 divided by 24 = 2.5 days and get us there “not in the dark.” As it was we had to slow down a bit because we were arriving too early.
We also had to dodge hundreds of fishing boats all through the night and early morning.
DoraMac surrounded by fishing boats.
At night the boats show up as purple blots on the route map or as blots on the radar screen. The problem is absolutely trusting the radar to be showing every tiny boat or fishing stake. The fishing stakes had blinking lights and I would see them as we passed them (thankfully not going over them and their dropped line.) During my 9:30 pm to 12:30 pm watch I had to wake Randal a few times. During my 3:30 am to ….. I woke him about every 20 minutes. I just don’t have any confidence in my interpretation of the blots. And in the Philippines where we first encountered fishing boats, they would be anchored or too slow to move so we had to go around them or their nets. Our friend Bill from Estralita said to just maintain a course and the fishing boats would deal with us. Sometimes the fishermen would flash lights at us to warn us away from their nets. I actually prefer dealing with the giant big tankers because you know exactly where they are and where they are going and how close they will get. And they play by the same rules we play by. And unless you are passing by Hong Kong or Singapore, you aren’t surrounded by hundreds of them.
Local fishermen.
Can you imagine being out on the ocean is something so small!!!
The darkest hour is just before dawn.
The fishing boats came in size small, medium and large with the larger boats towing a smaller boat. And then occasionally there were those “awful diesel trawlers” pulling nets.
One of the big boys!
As we were entering the channel to Cochin harbor we had to pass this giant tanker. The tanker was on our left and the channel marker on our right indicating shallow water. As Randal just explained it to me, “The tanker was about to make a turn. It was aiming for our starboard side, then our bow, and then turned to pass us on our port.” He was correct and that’s why he’s captain and I’m not. Of course with my librarian training I would have gotten on the VHF radio and asked the tanker what he was planning and then, no problem. They really do discuss their maneuvers with other boats near them and we hear that chatter going on all the time over the VHF.
Chinese fishing nets further than my camera could get a clear photo.
“Huge cantilevered fishing nets are the landmark of the Malabar Coast. The nets were introduced between 1350 and 1450 A.D. by traders from the Court of Kublai Khan in China. The nets set up on teak wood and bamboo poles can be seen along the entire stretch of the coast and are mainly used during the high tide.” Indian Map Service Kochi-Ernakulam
From the Court of Kublai Khan! We saw smaller versions being used on the Yellow Ocean River that runs between Jingan and Baijiao past the Seahorse boat yard. So we weren’t so surprised by their design. They are a major tourist attraction here.
Meters in tuk tuks
The meters are just for decoration….you negotiate with the drivers but it is really very cheap so far.
Buying our phone and 3G computer cards.
Randal is behind curtain number one with our tuk tuk driver, another customer and the shop owner. Small passport photos are needed along with proof of your passport to get SIM cards. One phone card had a problem. The card for our 3G phone wasn’t right either but we didn’t know that until we tried to use it. So we spent a large part of the next day dealing with that. Still seems a problem because we paid 500 rupee for the 3G SIM card and minutes and it lasted one night. Randal thinks it’s a regular phone card because for 98 rupee you get unlimited time for a month. We’ll go back again today to sort it out.
In between the Chinese fishing nets and the tuk tuk meter we spent about 4 hours on shore checking in. We had dropped anchor at the quarantine anchorage at 8:45 am and were visited by “the spirits of what is yet to come,” within the hour. We were visited by 2 boats with two sets of officials one after the other. We filled out paperwork both times. Then we had to go to shore to fill out more papers. There was some confusion how we would get to shore but finally at 11:30 am a small boat came by to take us and he charged 2 cans of beer. We immediately went to the wrong building, from wrong office to wrong office. But we were led from place to place by kind folks trying to help us. I think we had asked for the wrong office because we actually had to go back to the first building and several offices there later in the process. Piles and piles and stacks and stacks and even burlap bags full of paper everywhere. In the U.S. when you have a computer issue you call an 800 number and get someone in India. That’s funny because nothing in the long check-in process was computerized. Carbon paper is used! But when we went searching for an Internet Café the following day I was told they weren’t profitable because everyone had the Internet at home.
But as bureaucratic as it all was, it was all very polite and the officials who came on the boat never asked for any alcohol, cigarettes or hats. Officialdom tends to frown on photo taking so I didn’t. Just imagine a visit to the Motor Vehicle Department combined with a visit to the doctor or dentist and you just about have it. The officials who came onto the boat asked us to affix our stamp to the papers we signed. We have a stamp. Jane from the boat yard in China had given us one. We didn’t think to take it with us ashore so when they asked for our stamp, Randal stuck his thumb into the ink and stamped it onto the paper. Randal just said to tell you that he was very tired but it is just a very Randal reaction to repeated requests for the same information on 12 different forms. Funny enough all of the other cruisers there had fancy all in one stamp and pads while the Indian officials had hundred year old stamp pads wrapped in newspaper to keep the ink off everything. Immigration was the last office we had to visit. Just down the street behind the black gate we were told. “Just down the street” doesn’t say to me that we would need a tuk tuk to get there, but we did. How crazy is that having the last office so far away you really don’t want to walk there. Randal believed the tuk tuk driver who said it was too far even as I was still saying it’s just down the street. Tuk tuk driver was right. He drove us to the ATM and then to the not so great Airtel stand.
This morning we were visited by 2 small brown dogs. One ran off when I opened our door but one came back when I called. She is a sweet little thing and would have come aboard with just a bit of encouragement. But when we leave I’d hate for her to feel left behind and also, we don’t need to add flea bites to our mosquito bites. But I fed her crackers and will give her treats when she comes to visit.
Another lady, older than the one in the photo, is out now pounding her laundry clean. Boy, am I spoiled with my washing machine. But it is a good lesson in hand laundry. It might even work better on the really dirty stuff.
So that’s it for now.
Ru