One Love & El Nino

Location - Peru Coast, Pacific - 11 21 S, 079 38 W

The 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 the huge and fascinating continent of Africa. Its a beautiful name and I hope they catch a lot of fish.

Equator crossing

Location - Coasting Ecuador, Pacific - 00 08 S, 081 10 W

We 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 the
other like sunbirds.

Old Lome Port

Location - West Coast Africa

This 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

Location - West Coast Africa

This 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.

Panama - The dartboard

Location - West Coast Africa

The last few days were busy in port and am just getting past all that paperwork, so let me show 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 be thrown 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!

Fishing

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 familiar with, here the sails don't go up & down, the
whole mast is put up or collapsed when wind has to be utilised.

Finland Ships

Location - West Coast Africa

Have 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 give
you 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.

Another thing noteworthy about this picture is that the Express is breaking ice in front of her. This is typically the sort of ice that only a Ice breaker usually breaks. The Artist seems to have taken some liberties and shown Express ploughing through
the thick ice in what looks like speeds in excess of 10 knots.

But these were obviously times when we were pushing the envelopes in everything so it might very well have been the case. These days for a vessel to be anywhere near Ice of this thickness, the vessel should have an "Ice Notation" from a classification
society. Among other things, this means that your forward shell plating is made much thicker then it would otherwise be. And with that think plating and stronger engines, you are still required to slowly follow the broken ice behind the speed breaker
at a speed fast enough that the Ice doesn't freeze back, and slow enough that you don't walk into the Ice Breakers Stern!

Submarines

Location : At Anchor, African west Coast

We 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 might
explain 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 of
innocent passage". A submarine going submerged or a ship operating an aircraft is not innocent under law.

Whales

Location - Anchorage , West Coast Africa

Yesterday, 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.

Tribal Beauty

This is Puja's latest painting. Its inspired by one of M F Husains painting & we call it "Tribal beauty".

Columbus

Location - The Atlantic - 05 36 N, 020 30 W

We have been in the Atlantic for some time now and so I think it's apt to put a post about a chap who did it much before me. Columbus sailed out of Spain and crossed the whole of the Atlantic a long time back. The picture above is of the built to scale models of the ships that Columbus used to cross the Ocean with. I'm not sure if I told you about these before, but these ships are at the Corpus Christi Museum on the south end of the Corpus Christi inner harbor Bridge, opposite the State Aquarium.

My knowledge, is limited at the best of time, but If I remember, Columbus left Italy with a convoy of three ships & at least one of them was named "Santa Maria". I could spot only two ships put up for display there.

Whatever the case might be, to travel halfway across the globe, when everyone else thought you to be crazy, I guess you had to be a bit crazy. Here's to the craziness in all of us!

The Curacao Waterfront

Location : The Atlantic - 07 34 N, 033 50 W

A 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 philately blog which has an illustration 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 at
the 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.

Kavo Topaz

Location - The Atlantic - 08 13 N, 038 25 W

Today 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

Location - The Atlantic - 09 21 N, 045 57 W

I 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 below which 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 vehicle and supply for the naval force.

BTW, its Diwali in India today, so Happy Diwali to all you folks out there.

Flowers

Location : Atlantic - 10 00 N, 050 36 W

Puja has come out with another reproduction that we call "the flowers". Currently she is working on an painting of M F Hussain.