Season start 2019-20

Sailing to our anchorage at Dona Paula 
The last 4 long, slow months were spent alongside accompanied by many sighs of boredom and repeated bouts of cleaning. Finally, on September 30th, we slipped the lines and sailed across to Dona Paula, our home for the season.

The sail across, from the Mandovi to the Zuari was a lovely, uneventful one. We had put down the mooring lines the earlier day, so we simply sailed in, hooked the lines and voila, Antara was home.

Itching with ennui, we promptly set off for an overnight sail to Bhogwe beach, near Vengurla. After leaving at 0630 on October 2nd we reached around 2000. The day was slow and easy, with a gentle breeze filling the sails. The winds picked up by evening and Dilip decided to turn around and sail back instead of getting bumped around at anchor.
My first night sail in India, and with Dilip. The starry night and the Milky Way made for a

memorable sail. Antara added the spice with a moody, on again off again auto pilot, lazy jacks entangled with the runners and a runner sheet taking off for a swim!

A 24 hour trip with about 5 hours of sleep in all, got us back to home port the next morning at 0615.  A memorable experience, it had its moments of tension, challenge and excitement.

So of course we planned the next few sails. A few friends signed up for the 5th and we arrived nice and early to prep the boat.

Now that she's at Dona Paula, we have to get into our dinghy to get to Antara. Which means we first haul all our gear to the beach, then lug the OBM from it's storage area in the Goa Yachting Association's shed down to the beach, then hoist the dinghy from up the beach, into the water. I then hold the dinghy, whilst in waist deep water, with it's bow facing seawards, while Dilip fixes 
Our first guests this season
the OBM onto the dinghy and then puts all the gear in and starts the engine. With me so far?

Sounds easy right!? Not! This morning, the OBM decided to cop it. No amount of cajoling my would help and, the repair kit was on Antara. Finally the friendly neighborhood sailors towed us across. Delayed, and with a bunch of friends waiting eagerly across the river, we switched on the engine
Or at least tried to. Both of us forgot to check the service breaker the previous night and it had stayed on, draining the battery. Damn!

But, we did not despair. We had just the solution.. jumper cables. A couple of 'jumps' and the engine was growling to go.

A beautiful end to a fun day

Our first guests of the season included a young lad celebrating his birthday. A toodle around the river and we had to drop them back at the Naval jetty in Vasco. So we now had some daylight time to fix the OBM.

Which we did, so all's well that ends well! Well for the day at least...read about our first hairy night at Dona Paula, in my next post.

Meanwhile, with Antara, you now have the opportunity to sail, safe in Covid times - on a large sailboat, along the coast, in the deep blue yonder! You decide and we'll design a sail just for you. 

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