"Fishing Fleet"

Passenger List of Eligible British Ladies known as the Fishing Fleet

Young eligible English ladies of marrying age, daughters of wealthy Britisher’s living in India, who traveled back and forth from England to India, were known as the “Fishing Fleet”.

While what I have read about them is quite interesting, this entry is about one of India’s actual fishing fleet that dot the coast of this incredible country.



The history of boat building dates back in the Indian region to as early as 2040 B.C. as evidenced by artifacts uncovered of the Harappan civilization that thrived in what is now southern Pakistan and western India.

This Indus Valley civilization was so advanced that they not only built docks and warehouses, but there is evidence that they conducted trade via ocean going vessels to faraway places.



For nearly 4200 years, from 2500 B.C. to 1700 A.D., India was considered the “Proud Mistress of the Eastern Sea’s” until the European powers took control of Indian shipping and the East India Company prevented the construction of large ships which were competitors to the English ships of the 18th century. Until then, boat building was undertaken in nearly 200 ports along India’s 6000 kilometer coast.

My trip to the port in Vizag gave me a glimpse of some of today’s boat building activities, where future vessels in Vizag’s fishing fleet were being constructed.
The construction yard was void of many of the modern tools and equipment that one might find in other boat yards in the western world. The boat yard also serves as home to many as well; living and working in the same place, in crude conditions is the way of life for those in fishing communities.



Boat Builders home in the shadows of the vessels

The wood being used in the construction of the fleet appeared to be crudely cut and riddled with flaws and would not be considered acceptable to use in other parts of the world where blemishes would be a clear sign of poor workmanship.



Eventually a thick skin of fiberglass will cover the flaws and gaps that exist between the planks and make it more seaworthy. A final coat of colorful paint will be applied to further enhance its beauty and provide it with a unique identity among the many boats that grace the port.



The boat builders were as interested in me as I was of them……they stopped working and yelled down at me in Hindi, and while I did not understand the words they used, the body language of the foreman of the crew indicated that he wanted me to take their picture.



There were as many as 5 boats being built, all in various stages of construction; some nearly complete while others resembled the skeletons of upside down whales……….the keel serving as the spine and the ribs reaching outward and upward toward the sky.


Scientist reconstructing skeleton of a Blue Whale in a museum

I am sure that the commissioning of a boat in India does not include a bottle of champagne being broken on the bow…….but it would surely involve a puja.



Shortly afterwards, the colorful addition to the Vizag fishing fleet will provide a captain and his crew the means to make a living in the waters of the Bay of Bengal.

Return to the "City of Destiny"

Jeff Sheehan,Jessica's(Parker's friend)dad, was our first house guest. How he managed to find himself in India was because of me. This is a story of it's own, that I will share, but let's just say that it was another one of those strange things that took place that made me think that India was where we belonged.....destiny.

Luckily he was here on business, a trip that I was to attend with him, but was unable to because of my need to be in Vizag. The Doubletree in Vizag is positioned to be open in a few months, and we are in the window of identifying our Management Team.

Notice periods are long in India, a minimum of one month and they can be longer.....3 to 4 months for the more senior positions.

Two other members of the team and I were returning to Vizag on Monday January 19th for 3 1/2 days of final interviews for key positions throughout the hotel.

Although this marked the first overnight trip for me, I was comfortable leaving Linda and Preston to experience India without me.....all in all they had 18 days in Delhi, and they were adjusting amazingly well. Linda was getting a bit more adventurous and learning.....and Preston was busy at school.

My flight was scheduled to leave Delhi at 5:55am, which means with the tightened security at the airport my day started at 3:00am, to be ready to leave the house by 4:00am; by 4:15 the driver and I were to reach Sonya's house and then on to the airport. Although the driver was here on time, the fog was so thick I instructed him to go very slow....I did not want him to hit anything, or anyone! This is Delhi after all and there were people walking on the side of the road at 4:00am, and we were using it to guide us as me crawled along. Winters in Delhi are notorious for fog....and having grown up in Louisiana, I am intimately familiar with fog, but honestly, I have never experienced FOG like this in my life until moving here.
It is thick......very thick and dense,mixed with smoke, which is common in Delhi due to the many people that use wood for keeping warm, and cooking. It made the journey to Sonya's and to the airport very long. We arrived to find that our flight had been delayed 5 hours.
By 11:00am the fog had cleared enough that we were able to take off and were airborne. Vizag and several candidates were waiting for us. Monday was a very long day of interviews, but the end of the day was most special.
The team and I had been invited to the owners home for dinner with his family. although we were interviewing candidates for Executive Chef for the Doubletree, I am convinced that the best Chef in Vizag is Sarat's wife, Bhavani.
Her food was fantastic......and was such a treat at the end of such a long day.
Tuesday was similar, but without the flight delay.....interviews started at 9:00am, and went throughout the day. Lunch was prepared by a candidate for Executive Chef.....it was very good, and dinner was prepared by another culinary team candidate. We selected both of them.....
Wednesday more interviews......and two hours touring the hotel site with our General Manager, Shoeb. Things are falling into place and the Doubletree by Hilton-Visakhapatnam is "destined" to open in a few short months. After the tour of the property, we had approximately an hour or so before the sun disappeared, so we took a quick drive north on Waltair Beach Road......Vizag was named "Waltair" during British Colonial times. Sonya urged us to take a walk down to the beach even though we were all in business clothes. While I was on the beach, I missed Preston's second soccer game.....this time against the French School......another loss for his team.....
Vizag is gorgeous......and each time I visit the city I fall in love with it again......here are some snapshot's of my most recent trip to the "City of Destiny".
The pictures: The Doubletree by Hilton-Visakhapatnam, Ashish Hasrat, GM F&B;Shoeb, GM of the Doubletree;Sonya, Corporate Director of Human Resources on the beach in Vizag, Visakhapatnam Sunset, Tombs, Vizag Fishing Boats at the end of their day.

Doubletree by Hilton Vizag.....someday...and another cultural experience!

For those of you wondering how our first hotel in India is coming......Slooooooooowly! For those of you who saw the first set of pictures I took in August on my inaugural trip, not much has changed...besides having to go there to assess the status of the hotel, a huge part of my job is establishing relationships with the owners. Many of you will recall my telling you that the owner, Sarat Kumar Reddy, wanted to open the hotel on the date of his father's birthday, October 15th...I had promised him back in August that I would be in Vizag for his father's celebration....no matter what. Opening the hotel on his father's birthday was Sarat's dream, but it was clear to me back in August that we would not open the hotel.....but I was going to be there for him. There was a ceremony scheduled that day, but it didn't involve a ribbon cutting...it involved another "Puja". Now this was my second puja and there were many familiar aspects ....remember ...no shoes.....and a priest....alot of chanting, flowers, incense, candles, gods, more flowers.......and something unfamiliar....sitting on the table were two clear containers with two different liquids in them...and one of those little spoons! Now keep in mind that I am standing in this room, watching intently at everything happening, which is easy to do when you don't know what is being said....I don't know if he was singing the Hindi version of "How Great Thou Art" or what, so all I can do is observe.....when the priest picked up the container with the "milky, cloudy, liquid" and then saw Sarat form his hands into a cup......I admit I was having second thoughts, but I couldn't back out at this point.....OK..."second thoughts" is being nice...I was thinking "Oh Shit, what am I about to drink"? I watched Sarat drink the liquid from his hand, then he rubbed the remaining liquid in the palm of his hand through his hair. I say to myself.."OK, I got this down....cup hands.....drink liquid (I was worried about making a slurping sound, and then rub the remaining through my hair...I can do this", but I am still a little nervous. Well obviously I am still around to write my blog; so I didn't die or get deathly ill, but my story can't stop there.....Brace yourselves....I executed the task at hand flawlessly, but did not take into account that rubbing liquid through my hair would have different results than Sarat, who has a thick hair.....yes.....the liquid as it turned out was coconut juice with something sprinkled in it.....but it did not stay in my hair......it ran down my forehead! Yes.....another "cultural" experience for Lloyd in India.....I am guessing that Gandhi has the same problem.....so I wore the coconut droplet that reached my left eyebrow with pride....and I had to do so because the ceremony was not over....Have any of you stopped laughing yet?? So then we were given something to eat, which was sweet.....I think it was called "ghee"....Indian clarified butter with sugar.....it tasted better than it looked....almost like a praline flavor without the pecans. Well...when the ceremony was over , I excused myself and wiped the droplet inconspicuously from my brow...but i had strands of hair and flower petals plastered to my head....because coconut juice is sticky....and I had to walk around like this all day long! Well here are a couple of pictures of the hotel.....like I said, not much has changed and I estimate that the hotel will open sometime at the beginning of March. The last picture is of "Sonny", at least that is what I think I heard them call him.....he sleeps just outside the door to the temporary office at the project site. I miss you Murphy!

"Second Line" - Visakhapatnam

Remember I mentioned that I woke up at 3:30am to start this trip with my flight to Hyderabad, which was just a stopover, as my final destination on day one was to Visakhapatnam or Vizag. When we landed in Vizag, we went straight to the hotel which is under construction to meet with the owner, take a quick tour and then go to dinner.....well dinner didn't start until 9:30pm and lasted until 1:30am....When I layed my head on the pillow, I had been up for 22 hours. But I am not complaining, dinner was great and so were the "Kingfisher Beers" I had with it.
This was Wednesday morning in Vizag 8:00am....day two of my trip and after 5 hours sleep....it was nice to see blue sky and white clouds!Linda is always commenting that in many of the pictures I have shared, there always seems to be a "haze" in the sky.....and yes it is true...it's like living in Los Angeles! But on this Wednesday morning in Vizag, the sky was so pretty I had to take a picture of it. And where there is Lloyd, there will be pictures of flowers.....these yellow ones had fallen from a tree above and looked so beautiful on that green carpet of grass....and I couldn't resist a picture of flowers in one of those pots! Yes.....I can hear it now..."another one of those damn pots"....enough! Well I have news for you all, I am going to figure out a way to have one at home! Later that day, I caught this great shot of a "Shepherd" and his herd of sheep......on the road of course....look at the guy in front with the umbrella.....I think the "SECOND LINE" started in Vizag!