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Turkey - Classic steamer
2008-07-21 08:57:00
Location : The Atlantic - 37 40 N 055 20 W   This a a beautiful example of the small steamers that were seen about a century back. Add a couple of paddle wheels at the stern and you could very well be in New Orleans. The thing that puzzles me is that there were no identification marks on the vessel. No name, port of registry of any such thing. The thing looks in great shape, so it might actually be a new building which is being test driven around before the official launch.   But please do note the beautiful Wooden superstructure (hell to maintain) and Masts, the midship Engineroom , The L shaped Air ventilator for natural ventilation, Mahagony wooden lifeboats, Extensive halyard design , and ofcourse the gaint wheel at the conning position on the fore of the bridge.   One give away that it is a new construction is the presence of the two shankless anchors neatly attached at the ships bow. These anchors did not really become popular with ...

Saracena at Skikda
2008-07-19 08:20:00
Location - The Atlantic - 36 37 N 043 31 W   The picture above is of M.T Saracena with the Algerian port of Skikda in the background. Saracena was ahead of us in line and went alongside to discharge there before us. Small tankers like Saracena criss cross all over the Med carrying small parcels of chemicals or products. One this which we can't see in the picture is that there are two funnels in the vessel, which meant that there are also toe associated engines and propellers. This gives the vessels such as Saracena great manouverability. In the background is the port of Skikda. On the right we see the breakwater and behind it the oil tanks spread all over the countryside. Also in the background are these aweful flares that keep spewing smoke all over the place. The three days that we were there, the town of Skikda was downwind and I can only wonder what they feel about these flares.     I like this particular picture because its got a rou...

Turkish Fort
2008-07-17 11:23:00
Location - Atlantic : 35 57 N / 028 26 W   Now that we have left Europe and Asia behind, I wanted to go back to the main countries that I passed through before coming over here. The one with the best views was of course Turkey with the amazing skyline of Istanbul and the neighboring countryside. This picture is of a fort about five miles north of Istanbul along the straits. Unlike the Indian forts, these forts have a very open feel to them and sometimes go curving into themselves. I can only assume that the purpose of that would be to funnel the attacking army into places where they could be plummeted by rocks, arrows and other such items.
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Gibralter - view from the top
2008-07-16 06:54:00
Location : The Atlantic -   After yesterdays postcard of Gibralter, here's another view of the rock. This image of Google earth is used with the same format as that of the image a few days back of my ship in Italy. In this image, my ship is the one on the bottom right. The waters off Gibralter are very deep, with depths going down to over 500 meters just a few miles off the land. As a result, most of the ships have to come quite close to the land to anchor.   In the picture above, if you match it with the postcard of yesterday, you can pretty much identify the landmarks. On the right of the rock (East), the three ships bunched close together are vessels anchored, most likely awaiting orders or waiting to bunker. The advantage of anchoring on the East of the rock is that you don't have to pay the port dues. So if you have a ship heading to Gibralter with a long anchorage, you know where to anchor now. :)   My ship, on the bottom right was waiting...
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Ile Srigina
2008-07-12 07:55:00
Location -     Ile Srigina is sort of place where I imagine a woman in long flowing white dress, to face into the wind, looking far away at the horizon into the setting sun. The camera, possibly on an helicopter, moves around, panning the scenery, a few waves crash into the rock below and the sun sets, bringing in the credits of the film.    The British Admilarity takes a dimmer view of the island and describes the setting as a lighthouse, 54 meters high white square tower.  As additional helpful tips, it adds that the light is obscured by Point Esrah when bearing less then 122 degrees.   I was anchored for two days about a mile and half from this island and loved it for all that time. The sun sets rbehind the clifss in the background and the whole setting looks etheral. Though its a bitch to catch on camera!      

Flares
2008-07-10 03:02:00
Location - Algeria   Came into the port the other day and since they don't allow anybody off the ship, it is only a limited view of the country we get. FLares light up the night sky in the port. The weather is fine with a dry northwesterly blowling. This thankfully means that the smoke form the above flares drifts away from us.    So se sit on the stairs leading to the bridge, side by side, looking at the flames leaping and jumping - Struggling to get out of their perch.  

The bulk carrier Lepetane
2008-07-08 13:31:00
Location - At Anchor off Algeria      So here we are anchored off the Algerian coastline. Pictured above is the bulk carrier called Lepetane who seems to be waiting for her turn to berth and discharge her cargo. The port seems rather full so I don't think they are going anywhere in a hurry.   In the background is another small coaster that seems to be shuttling between the Algerian ports And further back is the rugged Algerian coastline.
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The bridges of Istanbul Bogazi
2008-07-06 02:42:00
Location : Off Sardegna Island, Mediterian / 38 45 N / 005 23 EYesterday I had shown you a picture of one of the bridges connecting thecontinents of Europe and Asia. To the bridge enthusiasts, who might find thepictures of the bridges often enough, I wanted to show this informationabout the bridges, given on the navigational charts. These are great bridgesand as we can see that the first bridge has a span of about 600 meters, thesecond bridge, goes on for about a kilometer.With a height of about 68 meters from the high water mark, these are some ofthe greatest bridges that I have passed under.
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The Bridge at Istanbul
2008-07-05 08:12:00
Location : 150 miles off Sardegna Islands, 38 50 N , 005 43 E   Readers of my blog will remember the Bridge of the Americas at Panama City , that connected the continents of North & South America.   Pictured here is one of the two bridges at Istanbul , Turkey. These bridges are the only road (and probably rail) connection between the continents of Europe and Asia. I did mention on my previous post that they are building an underground/water tunnel, but I think that is still some years away from opening.    
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Istanbul
2008-07-02 12:43:00
Location - 40 28 N / 006 32 E - Off Sardegna   This is another view of istanbul at dusk.     
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Mumabi
2008-06-30 02:05:00
Location : At Anchor, off Genoa, Italy   Puja is coming over to the ship today, and since my thoughts are in Mumbai, might as well put up a snap from there.    This is a snap taken on  Madh Island, Mumbai.    

Italy
2008-06-29 23:39:00
  Came in to the anchorage as dawn was creeping in itself. Sunrise caught us dropping our anchor and the countryside in a beautiful vista of mountain ranges covered in morning mist.    
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Istanbul
2008-06-29 23:39:00
   These mosques are the first thing that come to mind when I think of Istanbul . Took this picture a few days back as we passed the Bosphorous. It was evening and the setting sun painted the mosques in a magical golden color.   If you are wondering about the three minars on the right, they seem to have some scaffolding on at present for maintainence.   In the foreground are the many many small ferry's that keep going up and down the channel the whole day. Good thing they keep out of the way of people like us. Almost at this exact location the Turks are building an underwater tunnel that is built more than half way. We'll probably have less of these guys once that gets built. But then they are also planning a Oil Pipeline to the Med from the Black sea. So it might very well be that they will see a lot less of us. :)  

Italy - The Scouts
2008-06-29 01:53:00
Posn - East Coast Sardegna - 40 30 N / 10 38 EThe institution of Scouts completed a hundred years of its existence in theyear 2007 and everyone other then the Indian govt seems to have issued reamsof stamps to commemorate the occasion. Pictured above is one of the sheetsreleased by the Italians for the occasion. I am putting this here simplybecause so many people have been asking for Scouts stamps on the internetbulletin boards, that I am sure that I am missing out on their significance.I actually was in the scouts. I distinctly remember wearing my brothershand-me-downs to the parades. The only thing I took to those parades, whichwas my own, was this round ferrule type thing through which we knot thescarf and a fierce will not to parade. And that is what we did in the scouts, I swear. We paraded, saluted thatthree fingered salute and read some rules off some blue book. Which wasimmediately taken back as soon as the parade was finished. Of course the stamps prove that some scouts pla...
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The Map
2008-06-27 07:54:00
Posn : South East of Sicily - 36 18 N 018 11 EFirst off, please forgive me for the long absense off the blog. I wish Icould say that it was for a good reason like global hunger, but I wasactually busy killing friends and strangers on the Team Fortress servers.After a moth or so of that, I find myself again in the safe sanity ofbobbing along in the middle of the sea. This time in the middle of theLagoon - Something the US Navy calls the Mediterian. I don't particularlylike the Medi. Too crowded for my taste and some of the worst weathers thatI have faced in my seafaring life has been in these waters. But hey new waters translate into new stamps don't they? I had gone to thebeautiful Italian city of Trieste and actually stepped out to visit theInternational Maritime Institute to have a look-see, but it turns out thatthe place shut down few months back. Just my luck. Someone who knows someonetells me that there was some scandal. Money taking and all that. But don'ttell anyo...

Nicaragua - The wall
2008-01-22 02:36:00
Location : The Yucatan - 17 08 N, 082 06 WIn my pursuit of the global graffiti, here is a wall from the small village of Corinto in Nicaragua . For a change I think the graffiti is about pro-social causes such as deforestation and abortions.
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Nicaragua
2008-01-21 03:58:00
Location : The Carribs - 13 57 N, 079 40 WI know I say this about every place, But Nicaragua is a beautiful country. I think once I get back home I should lay down strict guidelines on rating beauty. But the above scene was just sitting on the balcony of my deck. There are not too many peoplein Nicaragua and the reason might be the presence of 27 active Volcanos on the pacific coast. This is one of them and the fact that it was spewing out smoke throughout the stay of the ship was not very comforting to me. I've heard people actually pay money to get near places like this. Its a good thing I got my Pay raise last year!

Valparaiso - The wall
2008-01-10 04:12:00
Location : Pacific, Ecuador Coast - 00 23 S, 083 09 WValparaiso really is a beautiful city. It was one of the oldest cities to be settled in the country of Chile and the neat thing about it is that as it was settled, people from all over Europe came to the city and built houses in the style of theircountry. So you have French Shotgun houses nestled right besides a British country home. One great thing I like about the city was the huge variety if Graffiti on display. You had the more standard ones with weird font letters like the ones you usuallysee in the US to some really beautiful paintings done up on the wall. The snap above is on one such wall I pass on the way to lunch as we went walking on the cobbled roads.PS: As you can see from the position, I am now 23 miles from the equator so should be passing the big line in a couple of hours.
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Sea Lions
2008-01-08 17:46:00
Location : Pacific - Peru Coast 07 59 S, 080 49 WChile claims a sizable chunk of the Antartic Continent as a part of its Territory. I am not really sure how this goes down internationally because as far as my understanding went, the whole of the Antartic was supposed to be an international territory.Regardless, the Antartic does impose a potent influence on the whole country simply because of the cold water current that flows from it up the Chilean coast. This also brings along the visitors from down under such as Penguins and Sea lions. While Penguins are often spotted about 50 miles south of Valparaiso, only sea lions venture north up to Vina Del Mar. The picture above is of a rock just off the coast on the main road joining Vina Del Mar and Quintero. The picture was taken by acamera with zero optical magnification and 3 mega pix. I really regretted the fact that my faithful camera had finally died. Missed some wonderful snaps back there. A stamp sheet of these included in the Phi...
More About: Lions

The Beach
2008-01-08 04:31:00
Location : Pacific, Peru Coast - 10 55 S, 079 47 WInspired by the post that I put up on my philatelic blog, I wanted to show you what a day on the beach looks like in Chile in the Summer.This was also the day after the new year and on they say a million extra people had come to the Twin cities of Valparaiso & Vina Del MAr. This is the Main Beach of Vina.The Jetty in the background is that of an old Sugar refining factory, but has now been condemed for the use of some amusement park while the Sugar plant dug up and shipped to some remote region.

Warli Painting
2008-01-07 03:58:00
Location - Pacific - 16 15 S, 077 54 WHave been meaning to put this latest by Puja for some time. She painted this last month using Acrylic paints.
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One Love & El Nino
2007-12-27 02:23:00
Location - Peru Coast, Pacific - 11 21 S, 079 38 WThe last time I was in this area, in September end, I had written a post about the El Nino current . To refresh the info, the El Nino current is a current that has started flowing only over the last few years and is a southward warm current that overpowers the cold northward current that stays here the rest of the year. Its called El Nino, because it occurs around the last week of December and when it does flow, it brings in huge amount of fish for the fishermen. El Nino translates as "Baby Jesus".By some cosmic coincidence I find myself in the same location at Christmas. I am happy to say that the El Nino is not flowing this year. I can report that the current is still northerly, but at a much lower rate. For my part in the fight against global warming, I have switched off the Air con of the vessel for the last two days. The picture above is of the fishing vessel "One Love " in the small city of Lome in the small country of Togo in t...

Equator crossing
2007-12-24 19:04:00
Location - Coasting Ecuador, Pacific - 00 08 S, 081 10 WWe crossed the Equator a little before noon today. At the Equator, one minute of Latitute equals one nautical mile. So as you can see from the position, I an currently eight miles south of the big line already. For those who have read the novel by Roald Dahl, The BFG (big friendly Gaint) tells Sophie that he always likes to go south because its feels like going down hill. I feel much the same way! :)The picture above is of a cruise ship taken from the Mambo beach of Curacao in the evening. As this is the peak tourist season there, Cruise ships come practically everyday, spending the day at port and nights at sea, hopping from one Island to theother like sunbirds.Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:06 UTC Message-id: 353765797
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Old Lome Port
2007-11-30 23:35:00
Location - West Coast AfricaThis is all that remains of the Old Lome Port these days. Lome still isn't that big a port. It would probably be as big as Ballard Pier in Mumbai. The only real traffic in Lome is of the container ships, which come here in surprisingly large numbers.As the chap driving me along explained, the main export here is timber that is stuffed in containers. As he explained, these people cut trees & mint gold. He looked accusingly at me and said " And you know what, all these people, they are Indians?" Hey if I'm to take collective responsibility, let me have some money too!

Lome & the whales
2007-11-28 23:23:00
Location - West Coast AfricaThis is a picture of whale splashing away just 30 meters from my ship. We were anchored off Lome when a pair of whales came out way and started jumping (atleast they tried) and generally splashed around. Till my final days I shall regret not having my usual camera and having to shoot with this one. It was an amazing moment & I gave up trying to shoot it through this camera and simply enjoyed it.
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Panama - The dartboard
2007-11-27 23:48:00
Location - West Coast AfricaThe last few days were busy in port and am just getting past all that paperwork, so let me shaow you a sight we see in the Panama at the locks. For passing lines to the ships, you have thin lines (8mm Polyproplene) with a weighed end that needs to bethrown to the shore or the ship by which you can pass the remaining lines. The line throwers in Panama actually have tournaments and this is the board on which it is held. You throw the line through the bulls eye, and also over the top pole. I have thrown lines across many railings towards many ports and Let me assure you that its an art that I doubt I'll ever acquire!Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:50 UTC Message-id: 221327664

Fishing
2007-11-24 08:32:00
Pictures above is the sort of fishing boat that is common in these parts. The masts are based on hinges and the sails are fixed to the mast. As a result, unlike the sailing boats that you might be familar with, here the sails don't go up & down, thewhole mast is put up or collapsed when wind has to be utilised. Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:34 UTC Message-id: 220681536
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Finland Ships
2007-11-21 23:06:00
Location - West Coast AfricaHave been at the anchorage for the last few days and with things a bit hectic haven't shown up here. Since the fish series has had a break due to cartoons and cartoons got interrupted by Ship work, it seems only fair to put up some posts about Ships . This is a stamp form Finland on the older ships. The stamp itself is a beautiful one and the sketch in Sepia tones does give it a very nice look. I will need to do a bit of googling to find out any history about the featured ship, but I can try to giveyou a few basics.The ship is Named SS Express. The Prefix SS in front of the name indicates "Steam Ship". Other prefixes might be "SV - Sailing Vessel", "MV- Motor Vessel", etc. I am myself sailing in a "MT - Motor Tanker". The SS Express is thus a steam powered vessel most likely sailing around the 1915's by the look of it and is the type of vessel that used to carry everything from coal to livestock to Passengers...

Submarines
2007-11-18 20:43:00
Location : At Anchor, African west CoastWe are at anchor waiting for our berth & there is nothing to see. The capital of the country looks from this place like a desolate township near the bus stop on a highway. Well we are anchored about 10 miles from the coast, so hopefull that mightexplain it. Seeing nothing brings me to this snap of a Submarine that passed us by in the Panama Canal. The submarine is of the Columbian navy and as the pilot described it, is "engaged in the war on drugs". Interesting fact - Under the UNCLOS treaty, a distance of 12 miles from the coast baseline is considered as territorial waters of the country. A forign naval vessel can enter the territorial waters of another country under something called "Right ofinnocent passage". A submarine going submerged or a ship operating an aircraft is not innocent under law.Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:59 UTC Message-id: 219575616
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Whales
2007-11-17 23:19:00
Location - Anchorage , West Coast AfricaYesterday, I had put up a post on my philatelic blog about Whales from Estonia. Today, by some strange coincidence we spotted dozens of Whales all around the ship. It was an awesome sight, and I truly missed my old camera with 10X zoom. Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless; Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:06 UTC Message-id: 219500458
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