radar, would trim the sail as the wind changed and wrote a log book every hour. Hourly marking of our position on a marine paper chart should be given utmost importance: this would confirm that we were on a correct track and we could determine an approximate position if the GPS broke down. The most important thing I was taught in a school was to sail without GPS because it is an electronic instrument which could break down or show an incorrect position. At night we would sail in 20 meters contour which was 10 nm from the shore to avoid fishing stakes as they were not visible at night. On the same route last year when we were returning from Goa, our motor got caught in a fishing net bending one of the brackets and therefore we would be careful this time to stay away from the coast. Bipin and Anand took over during second half of the night from 02:00 to 06:00. Many sailors practice 3 hours shifts at night, but I had figured out that two night shifts would give better chance to recover as you get 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Anand being my first mate would be acting as skipper with Bipin. By midnight we had sailed 62 nm at an average speed of 4.6 nm per hour. Sail boats are expected to average around 5 nm, which a non-sailor may find ridiculously slow in times of high speed cars, trains and airplanes, but one must remember that this is a recreation activity and not a transport option.

 

January 9/Day 2 crossed Mumbai shipping channel/Dist logged 97 nm:

 

None of us would like to miss sunrise and sunset as both were seen over water, which is possible from a boat or from a small island in the mid sea. They were some of the best moments: sunrise would bring the first ray of sun and its warmth ended our anxiety of sailing in the dark for almost 12 hours; and the sunset would bring back the cool evening air. A northerly light wind prevailed the whole night so we had made a slow but steady progress southward toward Mumbai. We had sailed to Vasai which is 104 nm from Borsi -Surat. We had our autopilot working all the time taking the strain off the helmsman. An autopilot is a pilot direction indicator (PDI) device which maintains a compass bearing by moving the steering to and fro automatically in a gradual manner to keep the boat in the pre-determined direction. This was a great boon after I had installed it in the previous year with the help of Girish Mirani, an electrical engineer and the boat builder Hitesh Wadia. I bought it from a Westmarine store in New York without knowing of its suitability for our boat, but there was no end to my happiness to see it working successfully. My risk of buying it paid off during our first trip to Goa. In the absence of this great product, one person would have been always tied up at the steering to maintain course just like in car. Research is going on to develop an auto pilot of a car, which is expected to be available commercially within five to ten years. It was easier to develop one for a boat than a car because on water there is little traffic away from harbor and you can sail in a straight line for hours and sometimes for days. Autopilot was not capable of avoiding a collision so one person must always be on the lookout and must change to manual mode if any obstruction was seen. We carry on almost all activities on our moving boat like cooking, reading, playing music and cards, yoga, mobile chats, internet browsing, sleeping, etcetera that you would in your house. On land you may see beautiful landscape with a forest or garden and here we could see the huge vastness of the sea and the beautiful coastline. When traveling by boat we did not have to pack or unpack, neither carry baggage at a railway station or airport, nor check in or out of hotels. Our boat was our vehicle-cum-home just like a recreational vehicle. The air is always fresh and there is no hustle and bustle of people. It is a very relaxing to travel when the weather is fair, but it could become an adventure when the wind starts blowing more than 15 knots, and the adrenaline starts flowing in winds of more than 20 knots. It would be definitely risky to sail in a gale which is 30 to 40 knots and a storm which is in excess of 40 knots wind.We celebrate Utarayan (a kite flying festival) on 14th January because the NE wind picks up following the calm of two to three months after monsoon ends in September. In Surat the month of October is the hottest due to high humidity and lack of wind. It starts getting cooler in November and December, but there is very little wind. Today at 13:00 hours we were experiencing calm in the afternoon though we would expect a sea breeze which is created as the cold air from the sea rushes to meet the rising hot air on land. This is a basic we have all learnt in high school. The expected velocity of the sea breeze is between 10 to 15 knots and is effective up to 10 nm from land. For some reason the breeze was absent thus we would motor for the whole afternoon. We were feeling frustrated as we were feeling the heat of direct sun light and the engine noise was annoying. We were also having pity for the kite flying enthusiast standing on the terrace in anticipation of wind.We crossed the shipping lanes of Mumbai staying away from Mumbai port limit as we didn’t want any unnecessary trouble from the port security. Once we adjusted her course when she was on a collision course with one of the ships. In the sea you must determine well in advance if you are going to collide or not as boats don’t have breaks. One must check the bearing of a ship crossing in front of you with a hand held compass or determine it visually at 5 minutes intervals. You could say that you were on collision course with a vessel whose bearing would not change. Sail boats can stay on course if they are on a collision course with another small power boat as they have priority as per international rule, but they must give way to large ships which are restricted in their ability to maneuver, especially in narrow shipping lanes. Most fishermen did not know the rules as they do not attend a navigation school, and many times Golden Cat had to give way to them. We wanted to cross the shipping channel of Mumbai before dark which we did at 4 knots speed under power due to favorable tidal currents. Tidal currents keep getting stronger as you sail north of Mumbai, therefore it would be best to sail southwards when the tide is ebbing and northward when it is flooding. It would be best to anchor if the tide was against you and it was calm. The whole idea of recreational sailing was to use natural elements like sea currents and wind in your favor as there was no sense burning valuable fuel when both these elements would be against you. We were sailing to enjoy the complete freedom from being on time as we had no appointments to keep and no strict target to reach a particular destination on time.We continued sailing at night in a light land breeze, which is opposite of a sea breeze. At night land cools downs bringing the temperature of land lower than the air temperature on water creating a breeze from land to sea.

 

January 10/ Day 03 reached Ganpatipule/ Dist logged 88 nm:

 

Early in the morning at 04:40 the land breeze stopped prematurely, thus we continued motoring. We were tired after sailing for a second night consecutively with poor wind conditions and the noise of the engine, therefore we decided to anchor near Dabhol creek and wait for wind. I was tempted to get closer to the beautiful green landscape surrounded by hills rising out of the sea, but was soon opposed by Anand and Bipin. They feared that coastal marine security would be attracted if we would go too close, wasting our valuable time. We had a few bad experiences in the previous years with police at Dandi, Gujarat and Devgarh, Maharashtra as they detained us for a few hours for no reason. At Dandi they wanted my ID, which was on my boat, but they would not let me go get it. They wanted us to give them a statement in writing that we would not come again by boat, which Anand refused to sign. We were released after our friend from Navsari intervened with the help of an influential person. At Devgarh, they would say that we were illegally swimming in the sea though such law does not exist. Here the land police is swine. There are so many unnecessary laws that a man can’t live without breaking them. At both of these places we had not broken any laws, but we were still harassed. Having said this, I would like to state that there have been exceptions as we have met many extremely helpful marine security people. I assume that they are still newly appointed after the Mumbai terror attack and have not learnt to get fat.As soon as we anchored in 10 meters of water, Anand dived into the water with his new snorkeling gear. We all joined him to cool down our heated bodies in the windless scorching sun. We felt relaxed swimming around the boat when suddenly Bipin appeared from under water in panic. He said, “I experienced very strong current and would like to climb the boat”. He wanted to climb up to the boat from the starboard side where there was no ladder so I asked him to swim to portside, but the current had scared him so much that he would not dare. He feared that the current may push him far away from the boat. Anand and I being stronger could manage to swim against the current, but it is important that one must assess the strength of the current before going into the water even if the boat is anchored and shore is not too far away. I knew that it was a bad decision on my part to let everybody swim at the same time, because if the current pulled us all away from the boat than there would be nobody on the boat to launch a rescue operation or call for help. An activity apparently looking very safe and innocent may build itself up to produce a misfortune which, to our small world, could be a disaster.The wind had picked up from behind and it was time to leave. Anand said that the spinnaker sail could be hoisted without the main sail up according to a video he had seen. The boat designer Richard Wood had written in his spinnaker article that the spinnaker should be always hoisted and brought down in the wind shadow of the main sail. Both of us were new to the spinnaker and wanted to try new things, so we tried to hoist the spinnaker without the main sail up and got into trouble as it got all entangled and was impossible to tame. It was scary to see it fluttering violently which made it impossible to hold the sheets and bring it down to the deck. Anand was almost air lifted trying to pull down. We could have damaged the sail if it had got in contact with the sharp edges of the anchor. It could have been dangerous if the sail went under the hull. I changed the direction of the boat into the wind to bring the sail on board but that made things worse as the apparent wind velocity increased further. Finally, I motored at full throttle with the wind behind so that the apparent wind would reduce. It worked and the sail was brought down to our great relief after an hour of wrestling. Another lesson learnt that things look too simple on video when they are performed by experts, but never deviate from the basics that you have learnt.We got under way with our conventional sail and later raised the spinnaker to pick up a good speed. Our pleasure to sail fast with spinnaker was short lived as our steering cable broke. We again struggled as we lost control of the boat and I tried to control the rudder in an awkward position. After hard work we could get the spinnaker down again and a jury tiller was attached. A large trawler came near us as they thought that we were having some problems and to enquire who we were. We had a chat in Hindi with the skipper about our voyage and problems. He suggested that we should sail to Dabhol port, where we could get help to fix the cable, but we didn’t need any external help as we had a spare cable which we could replace ourselves. Later, he also agreed that Ganpatipule would be a good place to stop as we could get a good shelter from the wind. We anchored at 19:00 hour when it was almost dark, had our hot dinner prepared by Gita and were fast asleep instantly. This was our first overnight stop after sailing 3 days and 2 nights without stop. No wonder we were deprived of sleep and were exhausted. Sailing at night was demanding for the skipper who must navigate with accuracy and uninterrupted attention.

 

Jan 11/ Day 04/ 55 nm:

 

After sleeping for 10 hours, we were rejuvenated with all our strength back and our morale up. Anand and I got our tools, spare blocks and a 6 mm wire rope out on the deck. When we were about to start our repair work, a boat approached us with two policemen. One of them was from customs. He checked all our papers and asked a few questions. They verified identity of all four crew members. Our offering a cup of tea didn’t bring a smile on their face as it would not build fat. I could read their mind, “Chai me kya leneka.” I gave them two polyester saris as souvenirs from Surat – the largest polyester fabrics manufacturing center in India. During the whole trip, we were never harassed by any officials as most of them were more than happy with our offerings of textiles souvenirs from Surat.Gita wanted to go to the famous Ganpati Temple to worship while we replaced the broken cable. We requested one of the tourist power boats to take Gita to the temple for prayer. He offered to drop her off for free but declined to drop her back even if we would pay his price. He said, “She could return by an auto-rickshaw.” Finally, she dropped the idea of “darshan”.Our steering had two pieces of steel cables – one for left turns and another for right turns - and one of these had broken. As explained in the beginning, we had feared this at the start of the trip and were well prepared with spares. I noticed that the other one was also worn out, but to save time I decided to replace it at New Mangalore, which was an error in my judgment.By the time we finished the repair job, we felt the heat of southern sun. We dived into the sea to bathe and cool down our bodies as our boat doesn’t have air-conditioning. A quick fresh water shower of about 1 liter per person was sufficient to wash off salt water from our tanned skin. Another alternative on a yacht with limited fresh water is to wipe out salt water with a wet towel. The sea water here is very blue unlike south Gujarat, which added the fun of bathing in the sea.Water is a very precious commodity during sailing. The major usage of water was in doing the dishes, but Gita and Anand had found an innovative method. We would first wash the dishes and utensils with sea water than wash with fresh water and soap to remove oil, if required. Unlike at home, a fresh water rinse was not given after the second wash with soap, but the cutlery was first allowed to drain all soapy water in the second basin before wiping them with a clean dry cloth. In UK where sea water is freezing cold, they would add hot water and soap to facilitate easy removal of grease. They would not rinse them again with fresh water to save water. In south Gujarat where water is murky, we had to give a fresh water rinse after an initial wash with sea water to remove mud. But here in south of India, the sea water was so good that many times we didn’t give them a fresh water rinse at all. In India there were no marinas where we could refill water with a hose and get fuel from a marine petrol pump. We had to manually fetch water and fuel in jerry cans on our dinghy from shore. We kept our water consumption as low as 20-25 liters per day or about 5 liters (half a bucket) per person per head. It would be impossible to manage with such a small quantity of water on land.At 10:45, we weighed anchor and were underway towards Goa. There was no sign of wind till 13:00, but a light NW sea breeze picked up and we switched off our engine. Sometimes we were motor sailing, which means that you use both wind and engine power together thus getting more speed than wind alone. Sailing without the engine in light wind is too slow and frustrating. In 2012 we had sailed non-stop from Mumbai to Goa without switching on our engine, but this time we were not lucky. It was a worrisome matter as we still had a long way to go.

 

Jan 12/ Day 05/ 85 nm/ Goa:

 

We continued sailing the whole day without much wind. Sometime we would sail slowly in light wind and other time motor sail. We sailed for almost 33 hours and logged 140 nm at an average speed of 4.25 knots.We started entering Agonda Beach of south Goa at dawn. It was tricky to enter the unknown bay at night. I had carefully studied marine charts for anchoring possibilities in the last 3 bays of extreme southern Goa. I found that Agonda was the most suitable and safe as there were no rocks in the middle of the bay and it gave good protection from a northerly wind. We saw numerous lights of many fishing boats anchored for the night which was a proof of good protection from wind. We wanted to pass all these boats and anchor as close to the beach as possible so that next morning we could take a short trip in our dinghy to the shore. I was at the helm, Anand at the radar and Bipin at the bow keeping constant vigilance. Anand was keeping watch for any unlit boats or obstructions on the radar, Bipin for fishing nets and obstructions not visible on radar and I was steering keeping a constant eye on the depth sounder and was ready to react if I heard anything from either Anand or Bipin. We motored slowly at 2-3 knots speed, passed all of the anchored boats and finally we were in about 8 meter depth at about 200 meters distance from the beach. I didn’t want to get too close where the shore waves would break. As soon as we anchored our hot meal was waiting for us. Gita was doing her part of work – cooking when we were all busy piloting inside the bay. Bipin said, “Well done” as it was a great experience of piloting in crowded unknown water at night. It was taught to me at sailing school to avoid entering an unknown harbor at night, but I could do it as I had a good team to work with.

 

Jan 13/ Day 06/ 27 nm/ Departure from Goa:

 

Anand and I went to the shore in our Zodiac dinghy after having breakfast, as Bipin and Gita opted to stay on board. There were many restaurants, bars and water sports facilities. We requested a water sports guy to look after our inflatable raft while we were shopping for ration, fuel and potable water. We had consumed 3 tanks (75 liters) of petrol during our 387nmi (715km) journey from Surat, which came to 9.55 km per liter. I was not happy about consuming so much fuel, but than we didn’t have time to wait for wind as we needed to reach Mangalore on January 15, where our fifth crew member Ashotosh Mohile would join us.The water sports guy arranged for two tanks (50 lit) of fuel as we couldn’t buy it in jerry cans from petrol pumps as per a new impractical law. The law was imposed to stop misuse of petrol by antisocial elements, but such laws were harassment for people wanting petrol for genuine need. In my opinion such laws don’t stop miscreants for doing harmful activities as there were a number of ways to get fuel by paying a premium which we did. Such laws were enacted to be broken, were harassment to the general public, promote black marketing, and kept police fat. The taxi driver who took us to a market was also grumbling that he had to go through so much hassle when his cab ran out of fuel.We bought rations from a nearby market and 40 liters of drinking water which we had consumed after leaving Surat at an average rate of 2 liters per day per person. On returning to Agonda beach, we ordered beer and fish for lunch at a restaurant shack, which also had a few rooms for guests. We had experienced that most beach restaurants in Goa served excellent food. This may not be a place for a typical vegetarian Indian tourist with Indian taste buds. After a nap we headed back to the boat. A light westerly sea breeze had picked up and the waves were breaking on the shore which looked quite docile from a distance. We had 40 liters drinking water, 50 liters petrol and 20 kilos of ration on the dinghy. Anand was leading the dinghy from the bow with a painter – a bow rope in his hand, while I was pushing her from stern. Suddenly a large wave broke on us and I was thrown back. We would have lost everything if Anand hadn’t held the painter tightly with all his might. Anand, being a mountaineer, 6 feet tall and weighing 92 kilos, was the strongest and heaviest among us. Once we crossed the breaking wave zone, Anand climbed into the dinghy but I couldn’t as I was not strong enough to pull myself up on my own. Our 2 hp Yamaha OBM came in handy to reach the Golden Cat.At 17:00 we were underway towards Mangalore. There was not much wind till 2:00, therefore we could log 30 nm by midnight at an average speed of 3 knots by motoring. We were encountered by many trawlers at night. Trawlers always moved in a large group as if they were out to sweep all living things from the Arabian Sea. We had learnt by now to stay away from such a group. Once I tried to go through a group instead of going around them and was very close to a collision as they would not deviate from their course or slow down

 

.Jan 14/ Day 07/ 79 nm:

 

At 19:00 we anchored to rest for the night. There were many rocks jutting out of the water around this area. One of the Islands looked very interesting and we vowed to return some other time. I had decided that we would not sail two nights consecutively. Night sailing deprived sleep and it would be suicidal to not keep full attention. It would be impossible to launch a rescue operation if we had a collision and the boat sank at night. A person in the water in the dark would be almost impossible to locate, though we were all wearing self inflatable life jackets with blinkers. Those fishing trawlers gave me anxiety because we couldn’t figure out whether they were anchored or moving. A white light on a boat means that it was anchored, but most of these fishing boats had white lights on whether anchored or moving. All boats should have a red light on portside, green on starboard side and white on the stern when underway as per international rules. This year I saw a few with red and green lights - a good change from my last year experience of sailing to Goa, when such lights didn’t exist on any of these trawlers. I hope that soon things would change and all of them would have lights as per rules. It would greatly ease navigation; and chances of collision at night would reduce drastically.

 

Jan 15/ Day 08/ 33 nm/ arrived New Mangalore:

 

At 06:00 I felt the wind in my sleep and jumped out of bed in excitement. We made good progress until calm returned at 11:00 hour. We reached the entrance of New Mangalore port at 15:00. I called the Indian Coast Guard on the telephone numbers given by Commandant Ashutosh Mohile. They told me to call channel 12 or 14 on VHF radio. The port officer asked us to wait till he received confirmation from the coast guard. Channel 16 is an emergency channel all over the world; therefore it is not used for communication other than a Mayday or Pan-pan or an emergency call. It was mandatory in all countries to have a radio license, so that you know protocols and did not create nuisance. You are taught the selection of channels for various purposes and the method of giving a Mayday (SOS) call that is short but clear for a rescuer. Most of the Indian fishermen do not have a VHF radio license therefore create nuisance on channel 16 and are not caught and punished. I hope that some kind of discipline and responsibility would be taught to them.We had to wait for half an hour before getting a nod to enter the port. A security boat approached us as soon as we entered the port limit to note down details of our crew members and the boat. The coast guard asked us to come along port side of their ship. We kept fenders on the starboard side and with the bow and stern sheet already attached. Fenders are cylindrical in shape made from rubber material inflated with compressed air which give a cushion effect between two hard surfaces and protects the hull from scratching or breaking. Many power boats in India use old car tires as they are cheaper than fenders though they are too heavy. Coast guard people picked up both lines and secured them on their ship so that both stern and bow remained close to the ship. We also attached two spring lines to the ship to arrest forward and backward movements. They served us tea and biscuits as soon as we boarded their ship. Ashutosh had booked a room at the Coast Guard guest house in the city, but to get there we needed port IDs without which we could walk out but would not be able to re-enter. There were a lot of logistics involved; as a result we couldn’t get them till the office closed at 17:00. We had no choice but to stay on our boat. The commandant and staff were very accommodative. They let us use their toilets and we had a first fresh water bath with soap. At night they served us dinner in their dinning hall – a first night that Gita didn’t have to cook.

 

Jan 16/ Day 09/ New Mangalore:

 

Hot tea and breakfast were served in the ship cafeteria. Ashutosh arrived at 10:00. We still didn’t have port IDs; therefore we decided that Ashutosh would manage an ID for Anand so that they could go out to purchase ration and fuel.We filled up all our tanks with a water hose provided by the ship and charged our batteries by connecting with a power line on the ship. Water and electric connection are a very basic facility provided on marinas abroad. This was a luxury for us as there were no marinas on this coast. We had to bring water and fuel in jerry cans and charge our batteries with four solar panels or use a Honda generator.I had called a boat repair guy as we had found some water leaking in from the transom steps at the stern. I wanted to beach the boat in high water so that we could fix the small leaks with waterproof putty. This was important as we were to sail 150 nm non-stop and away from the coast. The repair guy didn’t show up as promised so I decided to beach the boat with help of Bipin. Though we were short of hands, we did it quite well by dropping anchor from the bow and reversing on a beach. We tied both sides of the stern to trees which were far away. I started applying silicone putty with my bare hands on the bolts of the ladder and all possible pin holes as soon as the tide went out and the stern was out of water. The repair guy kept telling me that he would come, but he showed up just before dark when the work was done. It was too late and I had done the sealing job the best I could, but some areas were still wet on which the glue would not stick. I requested him to get me a hair dryer. I finished rest of the job hoping that there wouldn’t be any more leaks. It was night and we were waiting for high water to re-float our boat so that we could get going. It was a hard work for me as I was continuously on the job for the afternoon and evening. The silicone glue was so sticky that it took almost 3 days to completely get rid of it from my hands. Ashutosh introduced one of his colleagues, also a sailor, with whom we chatted till it was time to leave for Kadmat Island, Lakshadweep. At 23:00 hour we motored slowly out of the port into the dark and away from the main coast line of India – our first blue water sailing.For the first time I saw iridescent bubbles, which were beautiful in varied shapes. But they were the falsest thing in the sea. I enjoyed watching them coming from the front and then going under our boat every few minutes. Sometimes a large group was scary as you felt that they would collide and destroy you.

 

Jan 17/ Day 10/ 104 nm/ crossing of Laccadive sea:

 

Commandant Ashutosh Mohile had joined us as a fifth crew member on board. I had met him in Surat when he was posted for some months to supervise the repair of a Coast Guard ship. Once I invited him to go windsurfing with some friends to Narmada River near Bharuch. After I taught him the basics, he was windsurfing on his own. He got carried by strong tide towards sea and was rescued by a local ferry boat which dropped him back. We became very close friends since then. I had invited him to sail a dinghy at my Nargol beach house when he was posted at Daman. We listened to his thrilling story of an air crash and a miraculous survival. He impressed us with his capacity to command a fleet of Dornier planes. He had been an avid sailor in his heydays. At 23 he had sailed from Cochin to Okha in an open boat (without toilet or kitchen) with the help of a compass as the only navigational instrument. He had also participated in a number of regattas and he had a number of interesting tales. He accompanied me during the first boat show at Mumbai in 2006 along with Bipin and Gita, when the idea for owning a cruiser sailing boat was sown for the first time. I always discussed with him on phone various aspects about designing and building a yacht before finalizing to build this catamaran. We motored for the whole night and the morning as there was not a sign of light breeze. We had 162 liters petrol on board and we had already used up 25 liters on the first day. We still had 14 days to go. Fuel would be difficult to get on those islands; it would be pricier and contaminated. We were here to sail and not motor. Ashutosh decided to sail in a very light breeze and use his light wind expertise. He had sailed from Cochin to Okha on a boat which didn’t have a motor, thus had learnt the art of sailing in any condition especially in light wind. We were sailing at 3 knots, which I thought was a good speed because under power we would do 4 knots. We could do 5 knots at full throttle with our 9.9HP Yamaha OBM, but would consume too much fuel therefore I had decided to keep our cruising speed 4 knots or less. In absence of an rpm meter, I had to rely on the judgment of my ears and the engine vibration.At 21:00 hour, the wind started building to our delight and the Golden Cat started moving at 4 knots. After a few hours the wind increased to 15 knots and we were doing 5-6 knots. Finally the NE wind that was anxiously awaited since we left Surat had arrived. Anand and Ashutosh volunteered to skipper between 22:00 and 02:30. Gita would rest the whole night as she was relieved for the night duty of look out due to the availability of an extra expert sailor, Ashutosh.