Year 3 -25 March 2026 - Stormbird -More New Crew in Kochi - India

I woke at about 7.00am and wrote the blog. By 8.30am Jamie had still not got up so I had breakfast and at 9.20am I had to leave to go to the hospital for my check up for my lymph node swelling which had gone down considerably. Jamie was still out for the count.

We went to the hospital and I had an appointment this time so went straight to Dermatology. The Dr examined me and said it was much better although she was going to prescribe 2 more days of antibiotics to be sure. This was good news and I went to the pharmacy and was first in the queue.

The timings worked as such so Varghese could wait with me and we could then head on to the airport to pick up my brother J and his new wife Miranda. They were flying from Male where they had been for 36 hours and will fly back to the UK from there at the end of their holiday as they will stay on Stormbird until the 16th and then had some time in a nice hotel before flying home. In fact their flight was early and came out of the airport to find us 5 minutes away so they waited for us. If their flight had been on time then we would have been on time. It did not matter and they did not mind and it was great to see them.

We then drove back to Stormbird and I welcomed them on board, showed them their quarters and they had a welcome cold glass of water! Jamie had apparently got up about 11.30am! He had been bitten by a number of mosquitos in the night.

It was extremely hot by now and despite changing into cooler clothes J and Miranda were finding the heat quite intense. They had not slept on the flight from the UK and the hotel had mistakenly woken them at 4.30am that morning so they were quite tired. We did the Bolgatty tour so they knew where everything was. We then returned for some lunch and they unpacked etc.

It was then too hot to do much so J and Miranda sat in reception using the Wifi and enjoying the air conditioning and then the Beer Parlour. They decided to take a room in Bolgatty for a couple of nights so they could acclimatise and get some decent sleep as it is quite hot on the boat at night. It will be good once we move on to get some new air on the way to the Maldives.

We all went for a good swim and a soak about 4.00pm when the intensity of the heat and humidity begins to decline, which was refreshing and then back to the boat. J and I got the dinghy down so I could put back the fuel tank and the anchor which gives more space in the lazarette. We then pulled the dinghy up again. We also checked the horseshoe float light on the stern and it was working. This works when it is vertical and the contacts can sometimes get corroded and you want it to work if you need it too. Jamie worked on the other horseshoe as the holder had come a little loose. A couple of relatively quick jobs I had left for them to do.

We showered and agreed to meet at the Beer Parlour – quite a good name really- sounds grand -rather than bar or pub. We had a couple of drinks and then went for supper in the restaurant and we all had the Prawn Masala which everyone enjoyed.

It was great that Jamie, J and Miranda had arrived and we just need Keith Winstanley (“the Commodore”) to arrive tomorrow morning. I had received an odd message from the agent that he had looked up Keith’s visa and had received a message saying the one I had sent him (that Keith had sent me) had been rejected as he already had a valid visa! I sent this on to Keith who tried to find out what was going on but he was able to check in at Heathrow and they accepted his visa. Hopefully all will go smoothly. We are 4 now and tomorrow we will hopefully be 5 and begin to prepare to leave for the Maldives. I had been in discussion with the agent and he suggested we went to Uligan first to check in and then go down to Male. He said it was easier and cheaper and nicer than Male. I had read on lots of the WhatsApp sailing groups that many yachts had done this. It also looks very nice and is only about 264nm from Kochi. I will therefore look into this.          

The picture of today is the 4 of us at dinner in the Bolgatty Palace restaurant.

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK. 

I am looking for one crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town (mid June to end of July). If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com