Sailing to Goa – Homi Manekshaw makes his 1st Yacht-delivery with AAble Boats | The Finest Yachts and The Boating Lifestyle in India…and All Over the World.

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Sailing to Goa – Homi Manekshaw makes his 1st Yacht-delivery with AAble Boats

29 March 2009 No Comment

Homi Manekshaw shares with us his experiences of his voyage to Goa for a yacht delivery & throws light on some lessons learnt! Here goes…

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On Sat 31st Jan I joined the yacht along with Gp. Capt. Bhattacharya, Col. Sameer and Tindal Ashok. All others went back to join up with their normal day-to day callings. My brief was to sail the boat and deliver her safely at her home port – Goa. Since it was a week end we spent the time visiting the places of interest at Murud Janjira while the boat rode anchor at Rajpuri creek off the famous Janjira Fort.

On Sun. 1st Feb, night we weighed anchor came our of the Rajpuri creek and headed south at about 1900 hours. Once past the light house we headed southwards till we came to a beach about 10 Nautical Miles south of Murud. Here we dropped anchor for the night. Night sailing/ navigation was done with the help of the radar, depth finder and the hand held GPS. We piped down under the stars with the half moon keeping us company.

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On Mon 2nd Feb, we weighed anchor at about 0600 as dawn broke. Today our target would be to reach a safe port by about 2000 hrs. We were merrily sailing along in a 7 to 9 Knot breeze and when we were off Srivardhan we were joined by a shoal of dolphins. They played around the boat till one of them jumped out of the water and took our breath away. We then had a mishap in our steering cable slipped and we had to steer the boat manually without and mechanical advantage. At 2100 hrs we crept into Dabhol next to the famous Enron jetty. We anchored there and were fortunate to make friends with the project guys there. Fortunate because it is a very high security area and we were given the use of the guest house and a hot bath.

Tue 3rd Feb we spent in Dabhol fixing the boat and finally had her ready to sail the next day by noon.
On Wed 4th Feb we set sail at about noon and made good speed on the genoa and main to make land fall at Ratnagiri by about 2030hrs. We replenished fuel, water and ice here. Had a sumptuous meal and promptly nodded off to sleep while anchored amidst fishing trawlers.

On Thur 5th Feb we set sail from Ratnagiri and made a dash for Malvan with the spell of good winds continuing. We clocked about 68 nautical miles as we dropped anchor off Malvan harbour close to a beach. The sand being fine did not hold the anchor. So we weighed anchor and did instrument sailing between some very treacherous rocks to land up in Malvan harbour. This was not without adventure as the rudders got caught up in a fishing net. We got out of the tangle, had a hearty meal tossed up by Col. Sameer and dozed off while listening to soft music. We were all very excited at the prospect of reaching Goa the next day.

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Then as we sail on we crossed over from the waters of Maharashtra to Goa. There was joyous celebration and we were now on the home stretch. After passing all the North Goan beaches we arrived at Coco beach which is nestled behind Fort Aguada. Finally I handed over the charge of the yacht to the proud owner and prepared to head back to Mumbai.
The lessons learnt on this voyage… Know your boat well ; plan and prepare for the voyage in advance; carry fuel and water as much as you would need but use them frugally; carry all the documents and permissions needed for the trip; make preparations for emergencies; let each person know what they are supposed to do and….not do. This was the first yacht delivery done by Homi Manekshaw of AAble Boats, Mumbai. Contact us on +919367210313 or e-mail us at ableboats@yahoo.com if you want to undertake such a voyage, train to sail or charter a yacht.
AAble Boats is promoting Yacht Management, Yacht Charters and Training. We are located at Mumbai (Bombay), India. Bombay has a beautiful harbour and the West coast of India is a great place to explore on the waters. The warm waters in India make for a sailing and power boating paradise – all year round. (Inland waters and in the sea.)
AAble Boats is promoted and run by Homi Manekshaw who has enjoyed water sports on the waters of Bombay and surrounding areas since the last 40 years. He has had his training at the Sea Cadet Corps, Bombay. Here he learnt and then trained many a cadet to row, sail and maintain a boat. He is also a regular instructor who volunteer’s his services to introduce and train newcomers to sailing at the Training Sessions jointly held by Colaba Sailing Club, Bombay Sailing Association and Royal Bombay Yatch Club.