SW monsoon told us that it is not very far away and we should be prepared to welcome it, notwithstanding, sailors’ dislike for it. The passage on board Allcargo Laxmi from New Mangalore was marked with the message loud and clear. Though the winds were not strong, the moderate/heavy south westerly swell made its presence felt and demanded the due respect. The last two days to Kandla were not like earlier good weather sailing. Vessel rolled incessantly and persistently enough to annoy. Jasvinder (my wife who is aboard with me) was confined to bed and felt sea sick as usual. The fact that we were sailing after a gap of about 16 months made matters worse. I was content with heaviness in head and a justifiable excuse not to work. The problem with bad weather is that everything goes haywire. It becomes extremely difficult to work, creating a backlog which further compounds the problem.
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| View of Kandla port - figure 1 |
Not only the vessel was rolling, she was rolling with a short period, because of the stiff status as a result of full load of iron ore pellets. Southerly current was taking a toll on our speed, making the troublesome passage longer. On top of that our concern was the fate of the 19th windmill blade that was loaded on 3rd tier. We were compelled to adjust course to minimize the jerky rolls and keep the blade intact for safe delivery.
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| View of Kandla port - figure 3 |
In Kandla berthing is tide –dependent. We anchored on 7th afternoon and berthing was fixed for the next day. When the moment arrived, berthing was cancelled. Because the vessel that was to sail and vacate the berth ran into trouble with her engines and we were told to stay put and anchor again. I wish we had berthed. The spring tide gave us its bitter taste. We dragged our anchor and dragged again upon anchoring. Finally I changed the location and went further SW of outer Tuna buoy. But, I noticed something very strange. We did not drag anchor aft, with cable leading right ahead. We were dragging towards port beam at a speed of about 0.5 knots. The cable was leading starboard beam, long stay (starboard anchor was down). I have not seen anything like this before. Wind was blowing from port quarter at about 13 knots. Could it be because of the presence of 19 windmill blades on hatch tops? I have no clue. Ship was heading like all other ships at anchor (tide rode) but dragging laterally towards port beam!
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| View of Kandla port - figure 3 |
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