Farewell to the Andamans
13 February 2015 | Andaman Sea
Ashore at 0930 as arranged to meet the Immigration clearance team. We had “The Fast Bowler” & his mate; the same pair that cleared us in. Formalities concluded & relieved that we were cleared to leave.
We asked if we could go back in to the market area but to do this, we would then have to present ourselves at the immigration office with our purchases & our Restricted Area Permit & get another stamp! All too difficult so we distributed our excess rupees among some local fisherman & Mupardee, the boat boy.
Departed Port Blair at 1500h as Nick was hoping to be in the area of Invisible Bank in the morning for one last chance at a fish. Depending on our final landing, some 350 - 450 nautical miles to go. Started off in fine style with perfect wind but as we cleared the final headland, we were overcome by a strong set that had us way off course. This tidal effect lasted about two hours & then we had to recover lost ground & get above the course line as a protection against another wind shift. Set the sails & continued overnight without having to adjust them. Such was our speed that we crossed Invisible bank at about 0100hrs. No fishing again!
Lovely conditions for the return journey & we both managed to have enough sleep, though we will never get in to the swing of regimented watches.
We were in contact with ‘Screensaver’ & ‘Watusi’ on HF skeds & our intention was to meet them in the Surins. By Sunday morning, the wind turned more easterly & we were able to make a good course for Ban Thap Lamu, some 50 miles south of Surins, so we elected to go there.
Crossed the shipping lane in good moonlight & daylight & had just four ships in our path.
Memories of the Andamans: Lots of noise & tooting from vehicles…street chaos…colourful women’s clothing…white sandy beaches on uninhabited islands….clean, clear water….great food …..happy people and unbelievable bureaucracy.