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| In the yacht |
At
Bombay I met up with a batch-mate who was from the Customs and Excise Service. He
was working as Collector Customs, Bombay. Sukumar Mukhopadhyay, that was his
name, was a very sincere worker and a very good friend. I recall two very
interesting trips out of Bombay with him. One was a trip to Uran in the yacht
of a Customs officer.
The
Customs officer, Gulshan Rai, had a yacht that was, if I am not mistaken,
partly financed by the government. It was named Jaycus II after the Collector Customs
who had rendered assistance in not only acquisition of the vessel but also in
organizing a round the world solo trip for Gulshan in it. Built of fiberglass,
it was a small yacht with a cabin and wherewithal to sustain one on a long
trip. Gulshan was an interesting person, having travelled the world as he had
done.
His
yacht was anchored at the Gateway of India where he took in his supplies and we
boarded the vessel. Slowly he meandered his way out of the crowd of boats of
various kinds and once he was out of the traffic he headed for Uran. Uran in
1980s was just an outcrop of mainland with only a petroleum company having its
storage facilities and a few villages. However, later it has seen some
developmental activities. It took us around two hours to get to Uran where we
had some beer and lunch.
Around
4.00 in the afternoon we commenced our “voyage” back home. Up to half way down
it was all very calm and uneventful. Soon, however, the wind gathered strength
and ominous dark clouds seemingly came out of nowhere in the Western sky. The
wind progressively became more violent as the sky darkened and the sea became
turbulent. The yacht appeared small and fragile in the rough weather with waves
all of a sudden seemed far too violently buffetting the yacht. Gulshan would
keep a continuous chatter keeping everyone’s morale up. As we came near the
Gateway of India the waters became more turbulent as they would rush towards
land, hit the wall and come back with renewed vigour. Inside the cabin we could
not sit down and had to use all our strength to steady ourselves on our legs.
We could see the Taj Hotel and Tower go bobbing up and down through the glass
windows as the boat went up and down with the waves.
At
last, after interminable minutes, we hit terra firma. We were home – with no
harm done to any of us. Apart from the scary end it was a very interesting
outing.
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