Day 3 - At Sea

Just checking the Mariner’s position so I can let you know where we are at this moment. We have traveled 827 nautical miles from Dubai, 11,333 nautical miles total since our starting point in Galveston, Texas. We look to be just about due west of Bombay, India traveling southeast to Goa. Our arrival should be around 2:00 pm tomorrow afternoon.

This is a bit of a departure as we usually make port early in the morning, spend the day and then depart in the late afternoon. Tomorrow we will set sail again around 11:00 pm, my best bet is that I will be fast asleep by then.

Hopefully I will find tomorrow a peaceful and quiet day, where I can sit and read and enjoy the sound and look of the sea.

Today I stood in line for 45 minutes to get a Transit Pass to Goa and I am not even planning to get off the ship, I was hoping that the pass would work for both Goa and Cochin but I think I will get to do it all over again for Cochin.

I don’t want to start an international incident but it really has been a struggle with India since the beginning. The visa application was a very long one, with many questions about employment, education and religion for starters. By far it was the most expensive visa, $75 plus $25 for FedEx services. When you talk to people that obtained India Visas in Texas they paid five times that amount at the Houston office. Hmm that does seem strange – “Houston I think we have a problem.”

And having a visa doesn’t seem to be enough as experienced today with having to obtain these Immigration passes. I guess one way to control population growth in the country is to make sure wandering travelers don’t venture inside the boarders and stay.

Oh you can take the girl out of the country, ply her with food and alcohol and life’s sweet and delicious amenities but you can’t take the rebellion out of the girl.