February 7/ Day 31 /40 nmi / Basavarajdurg Fort Island to Belekeri:

 

We woke up early to find that most of the fishing boats were gone and it was calm, to my disbelief. I talked to Ashutosh about the forecast. He said that there would be swells of 2 meters, but wind would not be as strong as the previous day.We weighed anchor at 07:40 and faced swells as soon as we were away from the sheltered water. I had more confidence in my boat for her sea worthiness and now I hoped that she might survive a gale - 30 to 35 knots wind (60 km/h). Just like the previous day, wind picked up in the afternoon to 20 knots and we continued sailing close haul. At times we would tack to keep on course. In the evening at 17:00 the wind was again at force 6 gusting at 24 knots. Today we did better, because we had gained confidence from the previous day.I did not want to sail in the rough water therefore I carefully studied the marine chart to find good shelter. I planned to anchor in a bay surrounded by hills from three sides near Belekere. Progress was slow as we sailed 40 nm in about 12 hours. We had planned to reach South Goa today but the strong wind against us had prevented us from making good process. Distance sailed in the last two days was only 70 nm – the slowest pace of our trip. However, this was to be expected as we were sailing northwards into the wind.As we entered the bay the sun was setting behind the hills and the view of protruding rocks in the water in the backdrop of sunset was astounding. We got some excellent photographs. As soon as we entered the bay, the sea became quieter and the wind lighter. Eventually we felt that we were in a lake surrounded on all 3 sides by small hills with dense forest. These hills had no houses, except one observation tower. We informed Ashutosh in Chennai about our position and that we were safe. He said that we could expect company as we were very close to a navy base. We were so impressed with the location that we could spend a few days here, but it was high time Anand and I sailed back home to meet our spouses.

 

February 8/ Day 32/ 30 nm:

 

In the morning, we sailed past the navy base, where we crossed some big navy ships ahead of us. We were expecting the company of navy security as we sailed past their base really close, but they must have presumed that we were a friendly boat as we had our sails up.We sailed past the beautiful Karwar harbor. The weather was clear and the temperature cooler and more comfortable than down south. I told Bhisma to book their room at the Lalit Hotel, South Goa. Now, I was sure of reaching in the evening. We anchored outside the hotel at the mouth of Talpona River. A hotel power boat picked up Bhisma and Nidhi. They had not really celebrated their first wedding anniversary so it was time to do so. Anand and I went ashore in our dinghy and treated ourselves to a beachside massage from the hands of locals. We were waiting for the tide to come in so that we could motor inside Talpona River and alongside the pontoon of the hotel, where the boat would be safe. The water sports guy from the hotel said that we could enter the river anytime as the water was deep enough. We entered the narrow entrance of the river which had numerous rocks on our starboard side. The hotel staff guided us safely to the pontoon, where we secured our boat with bow, stern and two spring lines.We took a taxi to a nearby beach, where we had had a delicious meal when sailing the previous year. All the restaurants on the beach arranged tables with candle light – a very pleasant and stunning atmosphere. After the fabulous meal we went to the boat, and Bhisma and Nidhi went to their hotel room. At night we decided to stay back for one more day so that we could refill the ration and fuel that we needed for the remaining journey to Surat.

 

Feb 9/ Day 32/ South Goa:

 

We had consumed 37 liters of petrol between New Manglore and Goa and had logged 178 nm or 330 km - in other words our vessel averaged 9 km per liter. We had spent the last 5 days in very beautiful places, where most tourists cannot reach by road or air and had delicious home made meals prepared by Nidhi. What more does a man need for his happiness!In the morning we walked to the reception with empty jerry cans for drinking water and fuel. Anand took a picture of me, which shows the contrast of sailing in India to abroad where there would be numerous marinas having fuel pumps, water hoses and electric connections. Despite all these inconveniences and challenges compared to sailing in the western world, we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves.We called up our hotel manager to find out about availability of petrol, but he declined therefore we decided to buy in the market. We gave our taxi driver money for petrol plus a tip to manage the fuel and leave the cans at the reception.Ajit Pathak, whom I have known from my child hood, arrived from Surat as our new crew member. We went to the same kindergarten and school till we were 10. We were together in Mauritius in 1986, where we both learned windsurfing. I continued the sport but he gave it up. He was one person I knew who loved water and would travel alone to different places – in contrast to most people I knew he would travel in a ghetto. He was Brahmin by birth, who are traditionally vegetarian, chant slokas and do religious ceremonies. He would do none of this, but instead he had acquired the art of storytelling as he could describe a simple incident in the most interesting manner. We didn’t meet often, but would have many things to talk whenever we did. We would often meet at parties where he would tell me his traveling adventures. He had been taking interest in boats and visiting boat shows in Goa much before I got interested. He had dreamt of building a boat, but they had still remained as dreams. He couldn’t believe me when I told him about my decision to build a sailing yacht. Once he mentioned to me that a locally built boat would fall apart, but in 2012 he did dare to sail with me when he confessed, “My dreams have remained dreams, but you have fulfilled your dreams”. I always enjoyed his company and his cooking; therefore I invited him to sail with me from Goa to Surat, which he gladly accepted knowing very well that the boat had proven her sea worthiness and would not fall apart.

 

February 10/ Day 34/ 51 nm/ :

 

Five of us continued our journey northwards in 10 to 15 knots wind. We sailed only about 56 nm in the whole day as the wind angle was either close reach, close haul or too light. Ashutosh had taught me some techniques of sailing in light wind; therefore I would sail in wind between 6 to 8 knots without turning on the motor.

 

February 11/ Day 35/ 71 nm/ Ambolgarh Bay near Vijaydurg

 

Today also we continued either motoring or sailing in light wind. I was debating whether to anchor in the Vijaygurg bay or Jaitpur bay for the night halt. Then I saw Ambolgadh Bay in the chart - a little north of both, which looked less populated and offered better protection at night from northerly wind.We went in and anchored at 18:00. Soon a fishing boat came to us and advised us to move more north near the shore for better wind protection. He mentioned something about boats circling at night which we couldn’t understand. At 19:00 hour about five fishing boats surrounded us and anchored very close to us. We couldn’t figure out their intention. After some waiting they asked a few questions about our journey which we answered as we didn’t want to be rude. I called up the marine police and the coast guard to report and seek help, but nobody replied. Finally, one guy told us that they would be trawling the whole night in circles therefore it would be advisable for us to move out of their way. We moved further north in 3 meter depth where we would not come in their way. Until we went to sleep, these boats would keep going around the bay trawling but they didn’t bother us.On a small hillock facing this beautiful bay, there was a shabby looking guest house - a location one would dream of having a house. There was also a temple on the shore.

 

February 12 & 13/ Day 36 & 37/ 112 nm

 

In the morning we enjoyed a swim in the bay when a fisherman approached us in his canoe. He had about 10 small fish still alive in the bilge water, which he wanted to sell. We were tempted to buy, but than Ajit said, “I could cook, but have never cleaned it.” We bought it anyway than we started cleaning it. Anand was watching us and smiling, who later came to our rescue when he saw that we were making a mess of it. He finally got it cleaned and Ajit cooked it for lunch. It was the first time that I had seen a beautiful fish dying in my hands, therefore I was sad and couldn’t eat much though it was delicious.There was a submerged rock in the north of this bay; therefore we carefully motored out of the bay keeping our boat near the southern coast. I heard a horn from astern soon after we were out of the bay and sailing north. There was a marine police boat. We stopped and let the security guard ASI M.E.Hafiz come on our boat and ask a few questions. When I asked, “Do you want to see our papers?” he replied, “You must be having them.” He was one of the most practical and decent ASI I have ever met. We have observed that most marine police were friendly and non-corrupt probably because they were still newly employed. He was about to leave when I offered a souvenir from Surat which he politely refused but I insisted that he accept it for his wife. The sea breeze picked up in the afternoon which was close reach therefore we made good progress for a while. Bhisma and Nidhi wanted to reach Surat no later than 15th February. The possibility to reach Surat looked dim in the absence of fair wind from a favorable direction. We could stop at Murud, Revdanda or Marine Drive in Mumbai, from where they could go to Surat by train or airplane.I wouldn’t enter Mumbai port because of the huge anchoring charges quoted to me earlier. Back Bay of Marine drive was not a part of Mumbai Port, though it would be a high security area. Our entering there would definitely attract local police attention and could create complications and delay. Ajit vetoed us saying, “Why do you want to invite trouble when you can avoid it.” Next choice fell for Revdanda, which was a commercial port. We were in no mood to waste our valuable time with port authorities and their securities.Murud-Janjira looked like a good option where there were two island forts, which I wanted to see. I found a bay near Dongri Bunder having good protection from a northerly wind and it had a jetty, suggesting a safe landing. The Admiralty Sailing Direction book recommended that small vessels could get good protection behind the Janjira Fort. Next morning we could drop Bhisma and Nidhi at the jetty from where they could take a taxi to Mandva anchorage to take a ferry to Mumbai.I discussed stopping at Dongri Bunder with my crew, but Ajit was against this too. He said, “This is a notorious place used by the gangster Dawood and many others as base for smuggling.” He probably thought that the place must be still hounded by his predecessor and wouldn’t be a safe location for an overnight stay. Dongri to Dubai is the first ever attempt to chronicle the history of the Mumbai mafia, but later I found out that this was different from Dongri village near Mumbai.This time I put my foot down as there was no other ideal location having good protection from the open sea. In my mind it would be an ideal place to visit as it had a history behind it with Janjira fort. I thought, “It would be better to face Dawood than our fat bureaucrats, who may waste our hours doing paper work and at times threaten to detain”. I was in no mood to face our mainland authorities after meeting so many of the friendly and helpful people of Lakshadweep. In a novel “Atlas Shrug” the author wrote, “When you know that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing. When you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods but in favors, when you see that men get rich more easily by graft rather than by work, and your law don’t protect you against them but protect them against you. You know that your society is doomed.” Now we need a thousand Anna Hazare to save our country from going in to chaos. I have sailed to a number of places abroad where I have never faced so much of red tape. In 2009, I sailed from UK to France, but nobody checked us on arrival for our passports and nobody stopped us on the way. Once I was grounded, and the coast guard promptly came to tow my boat from the shallow water.In order to reach the bay quickly we should pass between main land and a reef. An error would mean a ship wreck. My skill to navigate was at test. You cannot depend upon GPS solely as it could lack in accuracy by as much as 100 meters or it could stop functioning any time due to loss of satellite signal or power failure. I took a bearing of a light house and piloted between two dangers, which were submerged under water.We anchored at 17:00 in quiet Dongri Bay just west of Janjira fort. The fort surrounded by the sea looked gorgeous and the surrounding was pretty with a few houses on the beach – another excellent location for tourism and water sports. The Dongri bay had two hills behind which lay Murud town.A small ferry boat stopped by and advised us to move close to the northern hill to get better protection from the wind and away from some submerged rocks on the west side. After sometime we had company as a fishing boat also anchored. We had our evening swim before dinner.

 

February 14/ Day 38/ Murud to Mumbai:

 

Ajit used his contacts in Alibagh, who had known people in Murud. A taxi was arranged for Bhisma and Nidhi. I could see that they hated to leave us as they were genuinely enjoying sailing. Ajit had also arranged a person who took two empty jerry cans for petrol each of 25 liters for refill. We had consumed 50 liters between Goa and Murud. Now we had all our tanks full, which was more than enough for us to reach Surat non-stop even if we had to motor all the way.We left Murud at 09:00, when it was calm. We crossed the shipping channel of Mumbai port and sailed carefully to avoid a ship on collision course. We also saw a navy or coast guard ship crossing us at a great speed.We continued sailing in the evening as wind and tide were in our favor. We anchored at 19:20 hour in front of Breach Candy on western coast Mumbai. There was a tall building in front of us, which was identified by Ajit and Anand as Mukesh Ambani’s residence. We had passed very close to Marine Drive, Malabar Hill and Napeancy road, where they have high security, but nobody showed up. We were expecting marine police to check on us late at night when we came to know through a phone call that there was a terrorist threat in Bandra, but they did not show up because of lax security in the water or their fear of navigating at night.

 

February 15/ Day 39/ 64 nm/

 

Towards Surat from Mumbai: We took a short nap before weighing the anchor at 01:20 in the dark as the current turned northward. There was no wind but the current was favorable in the direction we were going. I was taught in RYA schools, U.K. the fundamentals of using two elements – wind and currents. As you go north of Mumbai, the current starts getting stronger therefore I would sail for 6 hours when the current would be favorable and stop for 6 hours as the current would be against us. I would certainly continue to sail against the current if the wind would be favorable and my boat speed would be at least 3 knots against the current. I would not motor if the current would be against us as it would be a criminal waste of fuel.When we were near Santa Cruz where Mumbai airport is located, the sky was lined up with planes. There was hardly a gap of 2 minutes between two landing planes. Ajit commented that one mistake was going to cost the lives of hundreds of people. On the radar it looked as if they were colliding with our boat as they passed overhead. After two hours of motoring at 03:30 we started encountering numerous fishing nets. I decided to anchor and sleep instead getting entangled in the maze of nets. I think we made a mistake for not sailing in 20 meters contour where we could have avoided the nets.At 08:30 we weighed anchor and moved away from the coast in 10 meters contour. A steady force 3 wind picked up, but it was again close haul. Late in the evening it backed to left hand and was close reach, increasing our speed. We had sailed 64 nm towards Surat in 16 hours at an average speed of 4 knots. We were near Dahanu which is half way between Surat and Mumbai.

 

February 16/ Final Day-40

 

Anand skippered till 02:00, and then it was my turn to take over. From Dahanu our sailing direction changed to NE at 13 degree bearing, while the wind was from 295 degree. An angle of 80 degrees was good and she picked up more speed as the wind freshened to force 5. It was time to reef and shorten our sail canvas for safety as sea was getting rough. I was in a dilemma, “Should I wake up Anand to help me reef or try it myself all alone?” I eased the main sail, slackened the halyard, climbed to the mast, pulled down the sail; hooked cringle into the horn, tightened the halyard and the first reef sheet. It was done and I was happy to be able to do it all by myself without anybody’s help for the first time. The boat zoomed at an average speed of 6 knots and had sailed 66 nm between 00:30 to 11:30 hours to reach the entrance of Purna River.We called up home and said that we would be arriving at Vasi-Borsi at 16:00 hours as the tide would allow us to enter the estuary. We celebrated our success and had our lunch before landing. We were welcomed by our family members with flowers. Reporters from Gujarat Mitra - a Gujarati daily newspaper - took some pictures for their front page news.Our voyage had ended after 40 days with seven people participating in it. We had consumed 275 liters of petrol and had logged 1700 nautical miles – 3145 km averaging 11.44 km per liter. We had logged 43 nm - 80 km per day.

 

 

References:

1) Girl Stella’s Voyage to Cuba - Frank Mulville

2) The Oldman and the Sea – Earnest Hemingway

3) Sailing Manual – Steve Sleight