Monday 28 November 2011

Vanishing act?

The Bermuda Triangle! I remember reading a book once, and this must have been close to twenty years ago now, but it had made quite an impression! Of course, the exact details of the matter are a bit hazy. But now that we are sailing through the very same waters, I can't stop feeling intrigued by the whole mystery.

Physically the Bermuda Triangle has the island of Bermuda, San Juan (the capital of Puerto Rico) and Miami as its three extreme points. So, given the present day state of sea freight in and out of the Gulf of Mexico to the east, on any given day there are many vessels within this once feared part of the ocean and clearly, it's lost some of that fearsome reputation :).

The theories behind the supposed disappearances are as varied as they are spectacular. But none of them seem quite credible enough. And given that we've been sailing across the triangle under clear skies and fairly beautiful weather for over half a day, I suppose the terror has disappeared just like all those ships!

Currently: trailing Sargasso
Listening to: Creed - With arms wide open

Wednesday 23 November 2011

A sea of shadows

I think I've mentioned this before, but not in some time. Seeing how I haven't actually been on the boat during a transit in three years :). I love bad weather at sea, but only when we are transiting. Otherwise, there's the headache caused by fear of losing the tons of really expensive annoyance we tow around.

Unfortunately, this time I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like to staring at the wilderness of white-capped waves. Nonetheless, the transit has had the calming effect of an interlude. We've got another week or so till we land up in the West Indies.

It's been a rather strange week :). I find myself rather surprised at how I seem to be doing quite okay, really! Not that I shouldn't be doing okay. Or so I am told :). It's quite nice of people to lie to you once in a while.

While I have taken absolutely no photos yet this trip (despite being awake for sunrises and sunsets) I should really get to the ones from what appears to be my last visit to Lisbon for the foreseeable future. But time has this uncanny ability to slip by even as it seems to be standing quite still...

Currently: trans-Atlantic
Listening to: Chicane - What am I doing here? (part 2)

Friday 18 November 2011

Bubbles in an empty glass

Sometimes you've just got to let go of some part of your mind. Preferably the bit that keeps reminding you that you are this close to losing it! Every other waking second! Yup, it's been that kind of a start to the trip. What can I say? :)

I'm tired, unbelievably so. But I'm hoping the next two weeks weathering the Atlantic will help. The odds of that aren't exactly staggeringly awesome though. Oh well. Anyway, point of this exercise was supposedly to post some parting shots of Lisbon. It appears I'm too tired to do even that :-<.

Feeling: battered
Listening to: Feist - Comfort me

Friday 11 November 2011

Here and there

So what have I been up to the last couple of weeks then? Travelling mostly! And for the first week, to out of the way places I'd barely even heard of before :).

The original plan was to head to the Lakshadeep Islands for a week of diving. But last minute cancellations from the dive centre left us in a bit of a lurch, and the need was for some drastic steps. These ended up taking the form of a few days at an ashram about 30 km from Mangalore where we tried to learn to surf as best as we could. And then another few days at Murudeshwar, diving!

While I was at it, I even managed to get that Advanced OWD certification :D. To top it off we decided to spend a supremely lazy few hours in Goa on the way back to Bombay, which is where I am now!

As usual, the city continues to surprise me with the ever increasing volumes of traffic it seems to be able to fit within its narrow congested roads while maintaining a certain festivity about it all. But maybe that's just me visiting after a couple of years.

Well, that'll be all in this rather hurried update. A more detailed account of the surfing/ diving trip will have to wait. I'm not here for long, unfortunately, the weekend will see me heading back to the ship. A process that promises to be rather long. Let's hope the unpleasantness is restricted to that.

Currently: marvelling at the multitude of surfing/ diving bruises!
Listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers - The adventures of Rain Dance Maggie


PS: Finally! Photos!