21 January 2020 – Departing Kochi India for the Red Sea
We had Daneesh, the “pool boy / lifeguard” over for beer and nachos a few weeks ago. This was his third invitation to visit us. With each and every encounter with Daneesh and other Indians, we learn more and more about the culture in India. Daneesh works away from home (his parents home) but returns every Sunday for the day. He told us of a “cooperative / bank” in his parents neighbourhood. There is a “club” or “cooperative” consisting of approximately 12 families (not always related by blood), in the neighbourhood. Every week there is a meeting of the families and there are even positions of President, Secretary and Treasurer. They pay weekly dues. They borrow money from the group, and then return it over a period of months. In this way, the community knows very well what is going on in the other families and monies borrowed and returned are kept at a very close level, and at low cost. This is micro-financing at the grass-roots level, and it is common in rural India, not so much in the cities. I never knew this.
We will be leaving tomorrow, early. The exact departure date and hour have been influenced by many factors, including tides. The tides here are only in the range .8m to 1.2m, but a fuller moon can give us more water to transit and the first mile is very shallow. For safety reasons we don’t want to leave in darkness due to the proliferation of fishermen, nets and garbage in the water. Customs will allow us to check out and leave two days later, but Immigration insists that we leave immediately after checking out. We HAVE to leave on a high “rising tide” because the water near the marina is very shallow, and we have seen several others get stuck. At least if we touch bottom, as a little more water comes in, it won’t get worse and we might be able to back out. Admittedly, our departure date has ended up being several weeks later than I had originally planned due to many variables that I had little influence over. This can be viewed as a good thing since during the last 12 month period, 3 yachts have been lost on reefs in the Sudan/Egypt area. There are countless uncharted reefs along this coastline, and with the strong Northerly winds and sandstorms that frequently happen early in the season, one passage strategy (a poor one it seems) is to hug the coast and seek wave protection from the reefs while moving North. We realize now that leaving India a few weeks later reduces the possibility of extreme opposing weather later on in that area for us.
Another unexpected wrinkle has been the setup and commissioning of our IridiumGo! (satellite communication gear). For the past 11 years, we have successfully used our HF/SSB ICOM ICM802 radio with a Pactor modem to connect via WINLINK. This has been useful to send and receive email and to fetch weather grib files. However, in this area of the world, the distance to shore-side stations is much larger than before. We have to either reach back to Australia or forward to mainland Europe. The popular alternative is to use satcom, at least in this region. We have a new IridiumGo!, and it has never been setup, much less operationally tested. Much to my disappointment, the manufacturer has produced new firmware and new apps for the iPhone and iPad – in the first few days of January, ie just before our departure. The email app is still not working on iOS devices but is OK for Android devices. This has necessitated a lot of discrete testing, unfortunately none of which can be done dockside in India because this equipment is banned, because it is feared that it may be used by terrorists. Its a sensitive topic, and one that I did not want to mention while still physically in India.
All preparations are now complete. Our crew-members Mariona and Gabriele have returned. The boat is completely provisioned and the tanks are full. We normally carry about 900 litres of diesel, but for this trip, we are carrying an extra 300 litres in 15 jerry cans on deck – just in case. Last year, at least one sailboat ran out of fuel in the High Risk Area (HRA) and we don’t to be in the same predicament.
Our planned legs are:
Kochi to Djibouti 2000nm (we may stop there, if required)
Djibouti to Suakin Sudan 610nm (we plan to stop at Suakin)
Suakin to Port Ghalib Egypt 620nm (we plan to stop at Port Ghalib, first Egyptian port)
Port Ghalib Egypt to Port Suez Egypt 110nm (entrance to the Suez Canal)
Port Suez through the Canal to North Cyprus 440nm
Total 3780nm (multiply by 1.852 to get km, or just 2X for an approximation)
For comparison purposes, by air travel – it is 4430 km from Halifax Nova Scotia (East Coast Canada) to Vancouver British Columbia (West Coast Canada) and about 6000 km by road. This trip to Cyprus is longer than the span of Canada by road!
We have very much enjoyed our 10 month stay in India, and are sad to leave behind our friends in Kochi, but the time has come. We must move forward, meet new challenges and see new places.
I will try to post updates and blog entries as we move along, but I can’t be sure of what Internet connections we’ll find along the way. We plan to arrive at Karpaz Gate Marina in North Cyprus, sometime in early April.
If anyone wants to track our progress, our current position for this journey can be found at this link: Tracking Link for Iridium Go: