Tarangini

Aman and I went to Road Island with Vijay (from office) and his wife Meera to look at 19 or so "Sailing ships" that had docked on the Newport harbor as a part of some around the world race.
Although all ships are meant for "sailing", these were ships that have the old styled "wind sails" mounted on huge, really tall, masts and no fancy engines or gadgetry.
There were all kinds and ages (both ships and people). The oldest (ship), Nova Scotia, we saw was from 1911 and this one had won this race 16 years running from 1911 to 1927 or something like that. For its age, the boat still looked in perfect condition and well kept.
The Indian ship, Tarangini, was one of the youngest -- built in 1996. Tarangini was also one of the best looking ships and to our delight had won the last lap of the race coming into Road Island.
Now why will someone build a ship with wind sails in 1996? The answer: it is used to train Indian naval cadets in the art and science of manual sailing, using the wind to your advantage, astro navigation using the sun and the stars etc. About half the ship's crew was young cadets straight from the naval academy.
We looked at about 5 of the 19 or so ships and by then realized that all of them looked more or less the same from inside...so, we moved on to our favorite alternative, food.
The weather was very nice and the wind was loaded with an overpowering smell of dead/cooking fish (and probably other sea food).I had some kind of "clam" dish, which was really nice. Aman had a "funnel cake", on Meera’s suggestion. Both were firsts for us and we were not disappointed -- will have them again any day.
(Will put in some pictures once I get them from Vijay)