Off to the Maldives
Wildfox
Anthony Swanston
Sat 17 Mar 2018 10:15
Before
leaving Kochi we had a run on the ferry across to the old town. A bit of an experience being the only
westerner aboard. In British money the
fare was about two and a half pence.
Then to
clear out. A problem arose at
immigration. They could not understand
why an Indian girl would be travelling alone.
Let alone on a yacht. Looking at Roja’s passport they questioned her
about the countries she had been to and where she got the money from to travel
so much. Then the head of immigration
interviewed her for 20 minutes finally making her write a disclaimer letter
saying she had been warned not to go and that she accepted the consequences of
her decision. My reputation has reached
a new pinnacle!
Out of the
harbour and Roja is instantly seasick.
And remains so for three days. This is quite common. It is just not very helpful. But after 72 hours she began eating again and
so is fit for purpose.
Then there
was the current. It should have been
slightly against me to begin with then nicely with me. Against all the way and
increasing. We were sailing at five
knots but only going forward at 1.2 knots of headway. 3.8 knots persisted for 36 hours and slowly
it abated to 1.4 by which time the wind had gone against us and dropped. We ran
the engine for a total of 54 hours to battle our way here.
Arriving was
a pleasure. My clearance agent called me on the radio on arrival and asked at
what time it would be convenient for US,( YES US) to have the officials aboard.
Unprecedented courtesy. 1115 was my answer.
At 1115 they all arrived. Five of
them, I am the second boat to arrive.
This is a full time job for all of them!
Assad my agent has all of the paperwork ready, six copies of some
documents. But it is all over and sorted
quickly and he supplies us with SIM and data cards. We are connected to the outside world and all
is done and dusted in one hour.
It is lovely
to be back in clear coral waters again…
