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The Curacao Waterfront
2007-11-11 01:38:00
Location : The Atlantic - 07 34 N, 033 50 WA few days back I had shown you a night snap of the curacao waterfront as seen from the floating bridge. This is a picture of the same area as taken in the day. Thought I'd put this up because I was posting a stamp on my phylately blog which has anillustration with the same style of the buildings as can be seen in the background. BTW, as Willemstad is a commercial harbour, under the local laws, even small vessels such as this in the picture have to enter with a pilot on board. If a sailing boat skipper does not wish to pay pilotage simply to complete immigration formalities atthe Custom house (about half a mile up the channel), then s/he has the option to drop anchor in the Spanish Bay about 10 miles up the coast and then catch a taxi to the custom house.Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:47 UTC Message-id: 218208836
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Kavo Topaz
2007-11-10 02:25:00
Location - The Atlantic - 08 13 N, 038 25 WToday was Diwali back home & we had a small meeting down below. Just wanted to drop by and let you see this picture of the Kavo Topaz shot at Gatun Lake in Panama. She is a beautiful ship & this always is one of the best profiles to take a picture of a ship from. The Kavo Topaz is a Panamax gearless bulk carrier & by the looks of it has not been out of the yard for more than a couple of years. Ships such as these are a pleasure to sail on. Happy Diwali to all you good people out there.

USNS Pililaau
2007-11-09 02:41:00
Location - The Atlantic - 09 21 N, 045 57 WI like pictures like this one taken in Corpus Christi, because they show so much of what happens in that area. In this picture, we can see a tug tied up with the ship as it goes along the narrow parts of the channel. Up ahead is a lift bridge belowwhich we can see a barge coming down and another tug going up the channel. On the north side of the channel, moored alongside is the USNS Pililaau. As I came to know recently, "USNS" vessels, like any vessel prefixed by the "USS" are also controlled by the US Navy, but are manned by civilians from the merchant Navy. These ships though painted in the naval colors are cargo ships and carry vehicleand supply for the naval force. BTW, its Diwali in India today, so Happy Diwali to all you folks out there.Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:59 UTC Message-id: 217879168

Flowers
2007-11-07 12:27:00
Location : Atlantic - 10 00 N, 050 36 WPuja has come out with another reproduction that we call "the flowers". Currently she is working on an painting of M F Hussain.
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Curacao - waterfront
2007-11-05 15:21:00
Location : Off Tobago : 11 27 N, 060 14 WAm off the Island of Tobago right now. Now we leave the confined waters of the caribbean and step out into the huge Atlantic Ocean. Before we step out of the Carrib, let me part with a snap of probably the most popular place in Curacao , the waterfront.The Waterfront in Curacao is not really the sea front, but the narrow channel leading from the sea to the Willemstad harbor. across the narrow channel, they have built a bridge that floats on pontoons and is imaginatively called the "Floating bridge".The above picture is taken from the bridge at night and shows the building in all their splendid colors & dutch design. during the day, the Restaurants set up tables along the water and you get to enjoy the best that the Caribbean has to offer for 3.99a glass of Baccardi cocktails.BTW, a point of interest, the route from Curacao to the present position off Tobago, brought me off the Island of Tortuga yesterday evening. The kind reader may rememb...

Isla Refinery , Willemstad - Curacao
2007-11-03 15:06:00
Location : 2 Miles off Curacao - 12 03 N, 068 54 WBefore I begin, a disclaimer. The following has been told to me by the people attending the vessel such as the pilots and the agents so it might actually be the truth. I will need to verify the facts once I get down, but till then, here's the story as I heard it:-I am right now a couple of miles from the Island of Curacao, fueling up for the long voyage up to the West coast of Africa & the place looks as beautiful as I remember it. The sun is out & the Island looks every bit as inciting as it is made out to beby the tourist broucher. But the last time I was in Curacao, I saw the most distressing sight to be seen in a tourist hot spot. Right in the middle of the Willemstad Bay, at any time of the day, you can see a huge oil slick floating around for all to see. This was explained tome by a story that does not seem so shocking these days. The Island of Curacao really gained any prominence only in the second world war, when the...
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The finger insect at Curacao
2007-11-03 02:20:00
Location - The Caribbean - 12 43 N, 070 49 WI agree that on the face of it, close up images of an insect do seem strange on a blog focused on sea life, but we are reaching Curacao tomorrow for supplies & the last time I was there, this very strange fellow dropped by the ship. I am very surprisedthat this species have not become extinct till now, simply because it spent almost nine minutes out of ten on its back wriggling its legs. I infact had to flip it over so that it could give me a couple of profile shots. After obiliging me, he promptlyflipped over & begane the leg wriggling. It might be that this is some arcane insectile mating ritual, but I doubt it. The curious thing about it though is that when yo look at it, it looks astonishingly like a thumb or a finger. Sort of like doing a cut-thumb trick and then the thumb sprouts legs and starts crawling around. Creepy! Happy Halloween everyone!Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Sat, 03 Nov 2007 01:21 UTC Message-id: 21680...
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USS Lexington
2007-11-01 16:22:00
Location - The Caribbean - 15 50 N, 077 37 WAs you come out under the Corpus Christi inner harbor bridge, you'll find the USS lexington on your port side, moored to a jetty next to the Texas State Aquarium. The Lady Lex (as she is popularly known) has been decommisioned for some time now & hasbeen converted to a Museum. I had gone on it the last time I had come to Corpus & it has a great flight simulator where you get to see an actual flight mission in Iraq & then get close to planes lined up on the main deck.This time we saw the aquarium, but gave a pass to the Lex.Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:26 UTC Message-id: 216538489
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The Copus Christi Inner Harbor bridge
2007-10-30 17:02:00
Location - Yucatan Channel - 22 07 N,085 54 WThis is the Corpus Christi inner harbor bridge & if you look a few post back to the bridge of the Americas, you'll realise that it bears a striking resembelance to the bridge of the Americas in Panama. I'm not sure which bridge was inspired by whome,but surely it's more then a plain coincidence. As we had come to the port at night, this is the snap of us going out. On the left of the bridge is the Texas State Aquarium, where we went and saw a nice dolphin show. On the right of the bridge is a Museum (I think of fine arts. Which we did not goto. I think our priorities are very clear. :)Though the bridge might look like the Bridge of the Americas it is no where near in size. The bridge has a horizontal span of 300 Feet and a vertical span of 138 feet. When we came in, we had an air draft of 132 feet and as we passed under the bridge,I was convinced that I had come out on the other side minus a radar antennae. Received: from ...
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Corpus Christi - Texas
2007-10-29 19:08:00
Location : Gulf Of Mexico - 24 06 N, 089 26 W, I have been off the blog for the last few days and the reason for that was that we were in the port of Corpus Christi, Texas . Though its not a port you hear of often, it did rank as the sixth busiest port in USA. As the outbound pilot explained to me,the ranking is done on the basis of the deadweight handled by the port. Corpus christi, with more then 42 feet of water is one of the deepest ports in the US and thus handles bigger ships and so manages to climb up on the charts. But regardless of the number of ships that the port might handle, my berth could not have handled too many ships. It took us almost five days to load a cargo of about 37,000 MT. The picture above shows the jettey where we were tied up for the duration of the stay.

Arrived Texas
2007-10-22 00:11:00
Location : At Anchor off GalvestonWe came in and dropped anchor off the coast and I must offer my condolences to all Texans. This coastline is some of the most unexciting coastline in the whole of the US. I have been up and down the coast of this magnificent country many times, and theTexas coastline always seems to me, the most boring part of the country. And coming from a place like Panama, it really looks fore lone and barren. The only thing visible are some smoke stacks of a few refineries & a few people out fishing in small dinghies on a weekend. More in an effort to cheer myself, I'll show you what I was seeing four days back. As the moisture laden wind rises just a hundred feet, you could literally see the clouds being formed out in Panama.Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:05 UTC Message-id: 349466099

Sunrise
2007-10-20 15:09:00
Location : Gulf of Mexico - 24 50 N , 090 46 WPeople do ask me if I don't get bored looking out the at sea for months & months. Its hard to explain that the sea never looks the same even during the same day. The other day, I woke up & opened the curtains of my porthole to look at this. Even after so many years, some of the sights that the sea throws my way are still breathtaking. Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Sat, 20 Oct 2007 13:27 UTC Message-id: 349298104
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twenty one hotel
2007-10-19 18:34:00
Location: Gulf of Mexico : 22 25 N, 086 19 WI think I mentioned that each ship transiting the canal is given a number for that day. All ships going south bound (from the Atlantic to the pacific) are given even numbers. When we were going to Chile, we were "Eight". If for some reason you getstuck in the middle of the canal, the next day, to avoid any confusion, you are called "Eight Alpha". The last time we crossed, we had to anchor in the Gatun lake for two days. That got us the exalted title of "Eight Alpha Alpha".The day before we were "Twenty one". The flags in the picture are the numeral pendants "Two" & "One". The bottom most flag is the Hotel flag I had spoken about earlier that signifies that the Pilot is on board the vessel. Northbound vessels that are delayed are called "Bravo"'s.
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By the sea
2007-10-19 05:41:00
Location : Carribian - 20 19 N, 083 59 WThis is the latest work by Puja & its called by the sea. This was the biggest canvas that she had attempted. She has now picked up a pretty challanging painting & I think it'll keep her busy for the better part of a week & half.

Panama City
2007-10-18 17:38:00
Location : The Carribians - 18 19 N, 081 49 WWe crossed the Canal yesterday & are now on the way to Texas. Pictured above is the Panama City outline as seen from the Pacific anchorage. It seems to be huge city, but I'm informed that it is pretty much the only city in the whole nation.This is pretty much the way we see you from our ships. :)
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The Clouds of Panama
2007-10-16 13:53:00
Panama - Pacific AnchorageThe clouds were out in full force yesterday. There is hardly any wind out here & the clouds lazily sweep the countryside & the sea, with heavy rain. The Mountains themselves look a little small infront of the clouds. Comparing the ships to the cloudsseems a far stretch indeed.
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Panama
2007-10-15 22:30:00
Location : Pacific Anchorage, Panama Today finds me again at Panama. We came into the Pacific anchorage & have dropped anchor about two miles from the sea Buoy. The place remains beautiful as ever with clouds hugging the hills & the rain coming & going. Pictured above is not the anchorage, but a picture from the Gatun Lake. The red tanker is a product tanker from the Aurora lines. to the right of the tanker, you can see the Gatun Dam in the background. That is the dam holding all the water of thePanama Canal. & to the very right of the picture is one of the Maersk line ships.

Flowers
2007-10-12 18:58:00
Peru Coast - 07 20 S, 080 50 WThe spring is starting in Chile right now & the flowers are blossoming everywhere on the countryside. As I was going along the sea coast, the person kind enough to give me a ride to the town was explaining that the cold current along the chile coast caused a fog in the mornings. In the north of Chile, where it was desert & absolutely barren, this fogwas enough for the flowers. As per him, if you went to the northern deserts in the month of Oct, you would find a blanket of flowers over the sand dunes as far as you could see. An amazing sight that must be. :)
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Tectonic plates & Geostacy
2007-10-11 18:00:00
Location: Peru Coast - 13 07 S, 078 53 WToday lets leave the mundane topics of the Sea & talk about interesting things such as Tectonic plate movements. The "Tectonic plate theory" is a generally well accepted theory these days. What that means, is that enough people oppose the theory sothat no one dares to call it the "Tectonic plate fact". :)In basic terms what it implies is that the Earths core is made of molten magma & the continents are in effect floating pieces of solids. Much like wood floating on water. The Theory of Geostacy proposes that like the wood or ship floating on the water,the continents float with respect to their weight. If you add more weight to them, they will sink & if you remove weight from them, they will rise. A great example of this are the poles. It is estimated that due to the melting of the Ice caps, so muchweight will be released from the landmass that the whole continent will life up by many centimeters. This is known as Geostacy. So if yo...
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Still life
2007-10-10 18:42:00
Location :- Peru Coast 18 24 S, 077 02 WThis is the latest of Puja's paintings and I think its simply great.
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Far far away
2007-10-09 04:27:00
Location : Chile coast - 27 26 S / 073 43 WPuja , being the prodigious painter that she is, has now completed three paintings. The first one that I showed you, was actually her second painting. This is actually her first painting. It's titled "far far away".Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:30 UTC Message-id: 347243331

Chile
2007-10-07 17:07:00
Location : Valparaiso, Chile This is a beautiful Country. Everyone on the streets is kissing one another & gorping one another. Apart from that the country side is nice too. This is the view from the jetty on which our ship is tied up. It is a beautiful beach and once the sun isup, you can see people soaking in the sun. The temperatures here are pretty low & once the sun comes up, everyone is out on the beach. People drive beach bikes & horses on the sand & you even see people surf boarding on the waves once they pick up abit in the afternoons.There are of course women in bikini as well & I'm afraid that my duty officers might actually have their binoculars trained somewhere other then on the ships deck. I wish people would be more disciplined these days & simply go and take pictures of thebeach to blow up & see on their computers.

Panama Birds
2007-10-04 23:31:00
Location - ChileWell we arrived at Chile and things are a bit hectic. Just wanted to leave you with a picture of a bird from Panama . In the docks, an extensive grid of Cameras is used to monitor all happenings. These cameras also provide a useful perch for the localbirds to sit & spot out their next meal. In my transit, I often saw different birds use this camera for sitting purposes when they could have sat anywhere nearby. Something to do with an birds eyeview I guess. :)
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Shadows by Puja
2007-10-03 21:44:00
Location - Chile Coast 29 00 S, 073 05 WPuja has brought along her painting kit with her & was busy the last few days with the Oil paints. Presented above is her first effort at a nude. We call it Shadows . :)

Leading lights & channel Navigation
2007-10-03 18:06:00
Location :Chile Coast - 27 48 S, 073 34 WI wanted to talk about the navigation in confined waters today. Navigation by itself is a very tricky thing. The basic purpose of Navigation to find out "where you are" & as a derivative second step, "where you are going". In the open sea, the beauty of Navigation as an art worked upon over the thousands of years becomes highlighted. To me, there are few things more beautiful then the act of setting down in paper, your position within a mile on the chart, using a star many many light years away. But lets discuss ocean navigation some other time. Today as the topic suggests, we shall deal with Inland navigation. One might reason that with a sign board every 50 meters, it would be easy to figure out where you are. And I would have to agree. Inland navigation is not really about "Where you are going", but about "How you are getting there safely". Due to the restricted waters of Canals & channels, it becomes critical to keep ships in very...
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Comment on the comments
2007-10-02 03:13:00
Location : Chile Coast -20 34 S, 076 14 WJust wanted to come by & say that even though I can't comment on the comments page because I'm not connected, I do read them & appreciate them. Thanks for the comment Mieke on the seagulls. I might just take a picture of the port fwd deck that theselittle buggers have decorated with their poop. I fail to understand how these chaps can eat so much. I am afraid I belong to those few who have not read J Seagull. It is on my "to do" list and I promise that I will get around to it. And thanks to Anon who pointed out that the white buildings in the pictures of the Panama locks are actually the control towers from which they operate the lock gates & the valves. The beauty of the Panama canal locks is that there are no pumpsinvolved. The lake (and the full Panama Canal) is above sea level. So what happens when the ship comes in the lower lock is that the valves between the two locks are opened & the water simply flows down with the ...
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Miraflores Locks - Panama
2007-10-01 17:10:00
Location : Chile Coast - 18 45 S, 076 54 WThe picture above is one of the classic shot of the Panama canal. A gem of a shot if I might be allowed a little modesty. Let me explain. Of the three lock gates of Gatun, Perdo Miguel & Miraflores, it is the Miraflores that is the most famous. This is simply because it is the closest to Panama city, & so has a big tourist centre. Hence, if a chap staggers over to you ina pub on Grant road at noon (Lets skip what you were doing there for the time being) and claims to have visited the Panama Canal, he is in most probability, talking of the Miraflores. Of the Miraflores, the White Building featured above is the most famous landmark. It stands, as it stood way back in 1913 when the canal opened up & no one is quite sure what it is used for these days. If you zoom into this low resolution picture, youmight just make out the writing on the wall "Miraflores Locks 1913"So the picture has the following going for it:01. The Mira...
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Dolphins
2007-09-30 03:46:00
Location : Peru Coast Yeasterday morning as I opened the blinds to the portholes, saw a huge school of Dolphins racing with the ship. Watching dolphins is one of the rare pleasures on the ship & I have rarely heard of anyone disagreeing with that. These particular dolphinswere in a particularly palyful mood & they would jump along the vessel or ahead of the bow & then criss cross underneath the ship to come jumping out on the other side. The fifteen or so dolphins must have been playing around the ship for atleast half an hour before they gave us up as poor sport and went jumping & dancing on their merry way.

El Nino & The Peru Current
2007-09-28 22:00:00
Location : Ecuador Pacific Coast - 04 54 S, 081 32 WToday we are passing the area of the world that actually is giving cause for much concern to the world.The Peru current flows nothward along the west coast of South America. It is a cold water current & brings water from the Atlantic ocean into the warmer climates of the Equatorial Region. The Area around which I am right now - Ecuador coast is the farreach of the current. After this the the current turns to the west & goes into the Pacific ocean. You can see the current with the broken line. The Current against this is the Panama Current that is a south bound current flowing from the gulf of Panamato the south along the coast. This is the current marked by the thicker line.In 1982 it was observed by the scientist Camilo Carillo the Peruvian fishermen used the term "Corriente del Nino" or "Current of the Christ Child" for a sudden southward current near Christmas. This current brought in a huge cache of fishes from theEquat...
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Bridge of the Americas
2007-09-27 17:47:00
Location : Equador Pacific coast - 00 17 N / 080 55 WFeatured above is the Bridge of the Americas in Panama. It is called so because for a long long time, this was the only bridge connecting the North & south America. It is really astonising to consider two huge continents to be connected with such athin link.We had started feom Gatun lake at 0900 hrs & by the time we passed through the Miraflores locks, it was evening. The Bridge of the Americas is at the southern end of the canal & actually in the background you can see the first glimpse of the Pacific. South of this bridge is territory that I have never been to before in my life. & the Pacific is the one ocean that I have not crossed. That will have to remain so for the near future, but I will go down the western coast of the South America. The routewill take me past Columbia, Equador (where I am presently) , Peru & Finally to Chile. I have never been to Chile as well & to be honest had never really seen i...
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