Leaving India

Hi!

So first off, the Foods 4 Dudes! India project went great! Thank you to everyone that was able to donate a bit of money. All together we raised $300! So on Saturday, I was able to take a few of the sisters from the Mother Joseph Orphanage in Panjim to the market for quite a shopping spree! We were able to get a lot of supplies such as school bags, shoes, underwear and a TON of material for them to make clothes out of. Very cool. And we still have about $80 left to feed some people on the street here and wherever I head to next. So thank you!

Man India has been a blast. It has also been a challenge, because with the captain in the hospital, and Elina leaving, I've had to be on watch with the boat for a lot of the time. But I was able to venture out for a few days.

Have you ever seen $3.5 million get crushed in between 300 tons of iron and steel?? I almost have!! So one night when Peter was still in the hospital, Elina and I were out for dinner and drinks. Afterwards we went to call Peter from a local pay phone. Everything was good with him, he was just taking it easy and recovering from his kidney stone procedure in the hospital. As we started to walk back along the river to the dinghy, we noticed that the boat was gone!! Ahhh!! Frantically searching in the dark we spotted the boat floating freely in the middle of the shipping channel in the river! The Mandovi river is crazy man. All day and night there are these HUGE iron barges that are constantly coming in and out with cargo. We start sprinting back to the dinghy, jump in and we haul ass back to the boat! By the time we get to the middle of the river there are about 2 or 3 of these barges coming from either side directly toward us and the boat! Elina and I hop in, start the engine and narrowly escape the metal giants chugging straight at us! We managed to get back to a safe area and reset the anchor our of the shipping channel. The conditions in this anchorage are very sketchy. The current is wild, the tide varies up to 3 meters, and it is dangerously close to the shipping lanes. We had been anchored there safely for the previous 5 days since we had arrived, but somehow the conditions caused the anchor to drag and let the boat go wild. After that we decided to let out another 5 meters of anchor rode. We've been fine ever since.

I consider myself as somewhat of an adventurist. And what do adventurists do in 3rd world countries? They rent motorcycles and get lost!! I spent 2 great days exploring Goa on a little Honda motorcycle and it was probably the highlight of my time here. The first day I went north to explore the beaches and jungle of North Goa. After hours of dodging cows, crowded city buses, bicycles and other motorcycles on the state highway, stopping in little villages and towns for fresh juice here and there, I found myself at the furthest northwestern tip of Goa. I met a few English blokes at a little coffee shop, and they told me about the ruined Tiracol Fort they were headed to just north of there. Sounded perfect! So I followed them on their beautiful Royal Enfield Bullet and we raced through the jungle to find this thing. We ended up at a river. There is no bridge over the river, but there is a free ferry that carries people across. So we hopped on the ferry and got to the other side, very fun. Now one of these guys lives here in Goa, but the other one was just visiting, but neither of them had been to the fort before. So trying as best as I could to keep up we sped through the jungle trying to follow poorly marked signs on the road. Well after about 20 minutes we ended up finding it, but it was well worth the effort! I don't know much about the history of the fort, but it's the ruins of a 16th century Portuguese fort that's been overgrown with vines and trees and other wildlife. It's pretty incredible! We spent about 2 hours exploring the ins and out of the fort, and then returned back to the ferry for a cold kingfisher (beer).

This morning I got to take the bosun's chair up to the top of the mast to fix the windvane, it's about 75 feet up in the air!

Well we're wrapping up our time here in India. We're waiting on a few parts for the generator, and then we have some provisioning to do, and then we'll set sail for Yemen probably on Thursday! It's been a good visit, but honestly I'm pretty anxious to get back out to the open sea. I think I prefer it there.