http://www.followtheboat.com Tales (not just) from the high seas Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:26:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/02/03/excuses-excuses/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/02/03/excuses-excuses/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:06:42 +0000 Jamie http://www.followtheboat.com/?p=25674 We have been so busy this week that we've not completed editing our next adventure, which takes us into the Western Ghats mountain range. In this podcast we offer a couple of poor excuses but round it off with some great news...]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/02/03/excuses-excuses/feed/ 1 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/27/the-backwaters-of-allepey/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/27/the-backwaters-of-allepey/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:00:18 +0000 Jamie http://www.followtheboat.com/?p=25664 Lonely Planet has this down as a must-do before you die, and having spent a couple of days on the backwaters of Allepey, we concur. This is a bird-watchers and fish-eaters paradise. We take a gentle motor through the backwaters, viewing sunken rice fields and people-watching the locals as they go about their business on the famous river banks of Kerala. ]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/27/the-backwaters-of-allepey/feed/ 1 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/23/al-qaeda-official-killed-in-strike/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/23/al-qaeda-official-killed-in-strike/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:19 +0000 Jamie http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/23/al-qaeda-official-killed-in-strike/ Al Qaeda Official Killed in Strike A U.S. drone strike killed an al Qaeda official fighting alongside insurgents in Somalia, officials said. {lang: 'en-GB'}]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/23/al-qaeda-official-killed-in-strike/feed/ 0 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/20/the-crows-of-fort-cochin/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/20/the-crows-of-fort-cochin/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:00:04 +0000 Jamie http://www.followtheboat.com/?p=25621 Finally, after a year's absence! Welcome to the brand new followtheboat podcasts! Podcasts, for those who don't know, are free mp3 audio files that you may download and listen to on your stereo, ipod etc. They're the equivalent to a radio show, and we produce weekly radio shows of our adventures. This entire series is dedicated to our travels around the Indian sub-continent. We aim to get under the skin of India, the people and the culture. We've got a ton of adventures that take us from the very north in Sikkim to the very south of Tamil Nadu. In this first episode we take a nice, gentle stroll around Fort Cochin, the area in Kochi where the European adventurers settled after opening up trade routes between Asia and Europe. It's a typically warm day so Liz hides under the shade of the tree-lined avenues, forever surrounded by the cawing of crows.]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/20/the-crows-of-fort-cochin/feed/ 2 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/19/the-kites-of-kolkata/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/19/the-kites-of-kolkata/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:00:20 +0000 Liz http://www.followtheboat.com/?p=25569 As the sun began its rapid descent, the sky began to fill with black kites, some of them tiny specks a mile high. At first we took them to be of the raptor variety, but as we emerged from the undergrowth into wide grassland we saw a hundred boys and men wrestling with long twine stretching into the distance.]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/19/the-kites-of-kolkata/feed/ 0 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/16/kenyan-jets-bomb-somali-rebel-base-kill-14/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/16/kenyan-jets-bomb-somali-rebel-base-kill-14/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:00:51 +0000 Jamie http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/16/kenyan-jets-bomb-somali-rebel-base-kill-14/ Kenyan jets bomb Somali rebel base, kill 14 MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Kenyan jets bombed an al Shabaab rebel base in southern Somalia Sunday, killing a family of seven as well as seven fighters from the insurgent group linked to al Qaeda, residents said. Related Stories Bomb material found in Thailand after terror warnings Building collapses [...]]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/16/kenyan-jets-bomb-somali-rebel-base-kill-14/feed/ 0 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/10/freeing-up-our-pacific-plus-wind-pilot-self-steering/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/10/freeing-up-our-pacific-plus-wind-pilot-self-steering/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:15:31 +0000 Jamie http://www.followtheboat.com/?p=25603 One of the problems with not winterising your self-steering gear properly is that 18 months down the line you pay for it. When we started recommissioning Esper at the beginning of the year we were horrified to discover that our Pacific Plus self-steering gear would not budge. Worse still, I had turned the auxiliary rudder round so that it was pointing inwards and therefore made the brass gears inaccessible. Here is a video to the solution. ]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/10/freeing-up-our-pacific-plus-wind-pilot-self-steering/feed/ 8 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/09/britain-warns-of-terror-threats-in-kenya/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/09/britain-warns-of-terror-threats-in-kenya/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:00:20 +0000 Jamie http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/09/britain-warns-of-terror-threats-in-kenya/ Britain warns of terror threats in Kenya British officials Saturday warned of terror threats in Kenya as the east African nation battles Islamist militants in neighboring Somalia. {lang: 'en-GB'}]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/09/britain-warns-of-terror-threats-in-kenya/feed/ 0 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/09/liz-strips/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/09/liz-strips/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:54:01 +0000 Jamie http://www.followtheboat.com/?p=25593 Judging by the positive response from the last video clip we thought we'd post up another one for your titillation. It seems you lot like instant gratification so for those of you who can't be bothered to read our more exciting written and photographic blog entries, here's another clip for you to download and savour. It's a clip of the Lovely Liz stripping! Better watch it quick before she finds out...]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/09/liz-strips/feed/ 13 http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/04/a-messy-new-year/ http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/04/a-messy-new-year/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:42:28 +0000 Jamie http://www.followtheboat.com/?p=25588 Why haven't you heard from us recently? Indeed we could ask why we haven't heard from you too! Well, here's our excuse: Having made the decision to get off our asses and go for a sail, which will be our first in TWO YEARS (!), we are having to work our way through a stupid amount of jobs that should have been done before now. What with our land-based travels poor old Esper has been neglected somewhat, so now it's time to attend to her needs and get cracking with those all important boat maintenance jobs. I'm not going to bore you with a list of these jobs but I will entertain you with a quick guided tour of Esper and what she looks like after her guts have been ripped open. For those with no idea about living on a boat this is a little insight into what we get up to when preparing a boat for a sail.]]> http://www.followtheboat.com/2012/01/04/a-messy-new-year/feed/ 9