We flew from Kuwait to Kozhikode (Calicut) last night & arrived in India at 4:30am. Our friend Jafar was there to meet us & he had his friend Ashraf there as well. While we are here Ashraf will show us around the area.
The hotel we are staying at is very comfortable & the property is beautifully landscaped.
We started our day with breakfast at a restaurant on a terrace overlooking the river. Hard to believe we are actually here!
It’s hard to believe that I have been back in Kuwait for over 3 months. Catherine arrives in Kuwait on January 25th and we depart on the 27th for Kozhikode, India. Kozhikode is the home city of two work colleagues I have met while in Kuwait. By coincidence, my colleagues Jafar and Kabeer will be at home for a few days prior to when Catherine and I will be starting our tour so we decided to go to India a bit earlier than originally planned to visit with them and their families and see a bit more of that part of the country before heading off to Bangalore to join up with the rest of the organized tour group.
I made the above map using Google Maps. It shows the route that we will be following with our tour group. We depart from Bangalore on February 3 and end up in Chennai on February 18. Modes of transportation will range from motor coach to trains to house boats.
Here is a photo of the sunset in Eastport, Maine the night before Ananda was hauled out for the winter.
This summer I will be cruising in the Bay of Fundy using St. Andrews as my base. I grew up in this town as a kid and I have many fond memories of playing on the shore watching the tides and boats come and go–and dreaming about sailing away to far off places.
St. Andrews is situated on the Passamaquoddy Bay which is a sheltered inlet off the Bay of Fundy. The US border and the State of Maine is close by. Ananda is currently stored on shore at a marina in Eastport, which is about an hour away from St. Andrews by water.
Part of my plan for the summer is to take a trip up the St. John River to Fredericton. This will involve traversing the Reversing Falls at the mouth of the river in Saint John. I hope to do this early in July. After that I will cruise along the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia shores of the Bay of Fundy. Lots of interesting places to visit and things to do.
It’s been quite a while since my last post late in August. September through the first week of December was very demanding at the project site in Kuwait. After a long rehabilitation period the station was finally ready to start up and there were many, many things left to do–and not enough people or hours in the day to get the work done.
The last 6 weeks I was in Kuwait I worked 7 days a week. I returned home to Canada on December 9th–sad to be leaving my friends and colleagues who I had worked so closely with for the past 9 months, yet ready to come home and be with my family.
Part of me wanted to return to Kuwait for another 3 months but it was not the best choice for my family–so I have returned to work in Canada and the USA. I will stay on the job until late May/early June and then I will be getting ready to head off on my cruising adventure–the one that I postponed last summer.
Ananda is waiting patiently for me on the hard in Maine. I am anxious to see her and get back in the sailing groove. I took this photograph a few years ago at my marina in Goderich. I didn’t like it at first because it reminded me that the winters got in the way of sailing. But as time passed I have grown to like the photo and it is “re-teaching” me about the importance of patience and the rewards that come from it.