Rain, Sun and a lot of Fishermen Oh what Fun!

 It’s been Exactly a week that we set Asail from Goa and finally the day has come when we crossed Indian peninsula will come back now only next year Nostalgic…this longing and sense of separation from motherland is quite overwhelming probably one of the reasons why we were hugging the coastline all the way down ..Going ahead smoothly now in the Lankan waters …let me give a quick recap of what occurred over past few days of the voyage…

Care to join for a Movie?

While initially “Tarunis of Tarini”(Quote PM)  wondered if we get favourable winds.. The days were dry while the night gave us showers. Skipper and puko were the first to encounter rains The rain showed its “Jalwa” like swatcat says and gave a tough life to the night watch keepers  winds gusting up to 30 kts and then in the next  15 minutes coming to as low as 8kts Adjusting and Readjusting the sails,Furling and unfurling the head sails kept the hands busy on watch and also did not give a nice night’s sleep to the off watch keepers inside as they would pop up constantly to help out the watch keepers(when we are lying inside we can feel the wind picking up it itches us to step out and have a look)..Swatcat who was on watch with gator(me) would look out and say “aa raha he ek aur Jalwa” and we will be out in a jiffy to do the requisite adjustments. One of these nights got the better of us so much that we blessed the next watch keepers (Skipper and puko) to have a smooth watch.it was also heart wrenching to find Croc and Shou early in the morning with drenched heads despite their raingears saying “why don’t you get your shampoos and soaps it’s raining crazy out here” The watch keepers kept their towels handy in the cockpit coming in once in a while to wipe their face off rain as it obstructed their vision like “Tennis players in middle of their game” well this is the sport we play standing out there in the rain with our Henry Lloyds keeping us dry.  Well, for the better I believe we made hay while the sun shone (actually when it rained) and covered a good distance over a short time don’t you think?
The cherry on top of this chaos were the fishermen who popped up anytime from anywhere. Now, the poor chaps are not aware how to go about when in a close encounter situation with another boat (Tarini) which for them looked pretty much out of place…as if we were encroaching their territory given the conditions of the sea… And come what may! They will always cross us from right ahead even if there is plenty of room behind the boat and no amount of light flashing or shouting “Anna” (Karnataka coast) and “Cheta”(Kerala Coast) will take them out of our way and we had to constantly be on a vigil to change and adjust our own heading to keep out of their way. Sometimes our heart goes out to these guys when we watch them tossing and turning middle of the night being there every night to earn a living for tomorrow.. Respect guys!

Why so slow network?

Surprisingly enough! The days were quite sunny (extreme heat)as compared to the nights and allowed us to dry our raingear ,have a look around the boat outside ,the sails and shackles outside fix up a little here and tighten a little there and prepare for the rainy night(isn’t that a saying?)
A little insight to what the girls do during off watch hours these days.. this was when puko was going through her own tummy troubles and occupied WC most of the time causing quite discomfort to others on board-some little domestic issues.. I myself declared holiday to self when not on watch, lethargic (probably settling down time to the sea)- left the responsibility of blog and photographs to the fate of others and coaxed my partner in crime Croc(Pratibha) to play scrabble and watch movies with me or she coaxed me??(never realise who spoils the other amongst us )- SwatCat and Shou(Vijaya) watch movies while relishing on some homemade goodies from their respective home take a closer look and you realise they are actually watching a telugu movie and Swatcat is translating the movie to Shou (break the barriers girls!!)...VJ(skipper) and Puko have taken the vow of cleanliness (Girls and OCD gosh!)and are found cleaning the galley and the boat insides during their waking hours (middle watch keepers 12 to 4 morning and night-found sleeping otherwise when off watch) sometimes pulling us all into the groove …we were quite close to the coast yesterday before we bid farewell to the Indian coast and network popped up on our mobile phone for so long duration that everyone of us had a word with friends and family for quite long.. vedio calls and all
During the evening  when the weather was clear the serendipitous six step out to enjoy the breeze make some “chai and pakode” and put some music on and shake a leg and relish the moment… looking ahead for many such evenings  Tarini signs off it’s a clear starlit night outside and I want to feel the wind in my hair..      
P.S  Rather funny that we are already victims of plagiarism…random unidentified strangers publishing our content without ever informing us. I guess” success has too many fathers”(quote Croc) but don’t you think you should rather wait until we finish the voyage dude? Such a shame..