next stop was veraval, a fishing town close to the pakistani border. to us the dirtiest place on earth. Again a place where people were good to us and very friendly and helpful but one that we could not enjoy much because of the dirt and in this particular harbor because of the rats. turns out we were probably the only sailboats that had ever called at this port. as such we were the novelty and everyone lined up to see us. We felt like astronauts in a different planet.
after formalities were out of the way we thought we could go out of the port to explore and get our badly needed diesel and water. imagine our surprise when we were told that we could not go out and were in fact detained. we actually did not have visas for india because we never intended to cruise around this country. our visit to this country was a result of our new route to avoid pirates and when we decided on this route we could not get the needed visas, so we simply decided to sail north and only stop in emergencies only. of course our idea of emergency stops for diesel and water is not necessarily shared by the indian authorities who thought we were probably terrorists because we were entering their waters and harbors without proper documentation…. so after intense questioning and a brutal and very detailed search of the boat by over 30 men, we were simply detained on board for two days next to a horrendous wall full of people just looking at us and sadly spitting some red stuff over our boats… but at the end, they somehow realized we meant no harm and were really there only for water and diesel and released us and allowed us to continue our way. they of course escorted us out of the port to get our water and diesel. With that on board we were happy to continue on and leave india all together. sadly we left with a bad impression. The people are actually extremely nice and helpful. it is the system and especially the filth we could not stand….
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