Catamaran Ride

That was a long cherished dream coming true..A ride on the waves in a catamaran. when did i start chasing this dream?? i dont remember clearly.. i think it was when i saw the song in the movie Yuva which shows kareena kapoor (I hate her) n vivek oberoi (i hate him too ) having a good time with a jolly good ride.. after that it was kamal haasans turn in the movie vetrayadu vilayadudududu.. guess i iwll remember these movies only for those shots. forget the actors, lemme talk abt the adventure evening starring me and few friends.


welll, before i talk more, a lil hostory. I am one of those pravasi malayalees. Came to the land of thairu saadam n mallippoo. .. yes, you guessed it rite.. chennai .had my own apprehensions before coming here.. but now i am a huge fan of this city even though for a person who lands in chennai central for the first time, it will conjure up images of unclean streets n beggars n unbearble climate which only turns hot hotter n hottest.. and many more bad things like that. but hey any city will have all these.. Namma chennai is a lot better. Now I am a person who keep exploring the nooks n corners of every place i am in. Chennai offers many such amazing places.. for every chennaite who is bored of the same old stuff, there is always the ECR (East Coast Road which leads to pondy from Chennai) to go for a long drive away from the maddenning city. Catamaran ride is one of ECR's promises for you. Taj Fishcove is the resort whcih offers this facility and you need not avail of any other services of theirs to try this.

Our ride was on a saturday evening. 16/6/07. I called up Mr Patrik of Fishcove to check the condition of the sea. He cleared it and few sms was alll it took me for the rest of it. We were 4, myself, Jiby (One of my Best buddies ) Archana & Vikram. In fact i was fed up of asking ppl to join me for this. As expected, most of them dint have the guts for it. So we were the final adveterous lot who set out on the ECR one saturday evening in another colleagues car.

We reached fishcove right in time. Patrick was ready to welcome us. We were helped with our life jackets and we started towards the nearby fishermen settlement from where we have to start the ride. Now the catamaran is nothing but 6 logs put together. The fishermen got the catamaran ready with the motor and they pushed it towards the waves and we got into it. All 4 of us sat one by one on a line holding on to a rope that runs from one end to the other... and we started the trip. the catamaran gets rocked by the waves and we were screaming in excitement. saltwater splashed against our faces causing a lil burning sensation for our eyes.

once we reached the middle of the sea, the motor was turned off and it was time for us to take the plunge into the waters. I somehow have an additional gene that makes me kinda brave when it comes to forces of nature. So i was my brave self and took the first plunge. the fisherman 'anna' asked me to put my legs out first and plum... i was in the water.. floating.. for a few seconds i think i was trying to touch the grund with my feet and then it occurred to me that i am in the middle of the sea. then came all 3 of them.. we held on to the rope and was floating for sometime in the waves. intial jittery feeling over, we kept silent for sometime and the sole sound was that of the waves. it was divine.. it was awesome. One of those many moments in my life when i worshipped the great creator standing in awe of his creations. this time it was the mighty ocean and man's undying quest and courage to conquer it too. Next to us was the fisherman anna who dint even require the life jacket to manage it in 40 feet deep sea..

our stipualted time was 45 minutes and it went by very fast. Getting back to the catamarn is another funny thing. We have to turn our backs to it and stand still. and the anna will hold on to our jackets and lift us up and put us back (am i that light weight??) Padak.. we were back in the catamaran and within minutes back on the shore..

We were ready for the trip back after a quick shower & change. The fight with the waves had made all 4 of us hungry. We stopped at a dhaba on the way and had some hot spicy food. The evening turned out to be a real good break after such a long time.

i suggest this too all you guys who like watersports n adventure. The place is Taj Fish cove in ECR. CHarge is 500 bucks. but it is worth the money. Back home my amma hasnot yet stopped scolding me for having done it. paavam, according to her all these are because she dint get me married off before i started enjoying this new foud freedom. hihihi. In reply, I told her about this caption i found in an ad long back. it goes like this: " When is the last time you tried something for the first time?" I really believe in that kinda spirit. And I am a free bird with some self imposed strings.

So all u guys, When is the last time you did something for the first time??