Marketing
29 March 2012 | Havelock # 3 - Laccam Harbour
Feb 22, 2012
The group weighed anchor at 1000 and motored around the corner to Laccam Harbour, on the north of Havelock Island. A squeezy anchorage amidst small wooden fishing boats and a couple of industrial ferries. Sadly, we couldn't get the dinghy engine going - Henry spent the best part of 3 hours on it: very frustrating. GT did go to shore with one of the other dinghies and had a quick Indian lunch in the town overlooking the anchorage (at the restaurant that had lost its liquor license and was "dry"). We managed to smuggle some gin in a water bottle and topped up the multiple 7-Ups we'd ordered. Henry got yelled at by a ferry boat driver for anchoring too close to the channel (mind you, if he couldn't get his boat into the large space, he shouldn't have been a ferry captain anyway!). India, and thus, the Andaman's, governs liquor very tightly - it's hard for the locals to obtain and what bars there are are hidden away and operated in dimly lit rooms with a strong sense of "taboo". The girls took another trip to the Havelock market and bought some more wonderful fresh veggies, and then all boats weighed anchor mid-afternoon, bound for Kwantung Strait, between Havelock and Henry Lawrence island. We had a lovely dinner aboard Rusalka in deep green water opposite and attractive cliff shoreline.
One downside of the Andaman's is that the swimming and snorkelling has not really been an option, due to an increase in the crocodile population. The Tsunami of 2004 wreaked havoc with the Andaman's: 40,000 lives, or 10% of the population perished and the islands themselves were physically shaken up and shifted up to half a mile in different directions. This is why sailing here is challenging, as the navigational charts are "fictional" and "useless" according to pilot guides and prior cruisers. The charts are a combination of 1857 Indian surveys and a 2001 British Admiralty hydrographic survey, both pre-tsunami, so everything's a bit of a gamble and depths vary widely from those stated on the chart, sometimes by as much as 20 meters. The natural mangrove habitat of crocodiles was physically changed so that the crocs have changed location, closer to the human settlements, and whilst we haven't seen any to date, we're not keen on an up close and personal encounter!
Pic shows Carol & GT buying veggies at the market.