CHANGES
INDIA JONES
Rambler Ambassadors! The India-ness of Port Blair filled our senses. Our first day adventures — including an amazingly inexpensive and delicious dinner at the Emerald Hotel — were aided by a wonderful taxi driver named Ravi. He acted as our guide and concierge. Whatever we wanted, Ravi could get. Located on a ridge in the IndiHere a tuk, there a tuk, an Ocean, South everywhere a tuk-tuk. Andaman Island Loud, smelly tuk-tuks. is home to many government, administrative and private businesses. But how they get anything done is a mystery, for when we got on computers at an Internet cafe, they were so old they didn't recognize Microsoft Word documents. We had to give up trying to surf — slowly — the Internet. Port Blair is also home to the largest collection of aging and shabby ships that we have ever seen. Our favorite was Warship, which parades around the port announcing that it is a warship. Probably from World War II. Our first cruise within the Andamans was a 20-mile sail over lovely clear waters to Havelock Island, the most commercial island in the group. Like all of the Andamans, Havelock is very green with a forest of tall trees to the water's edge. It's also dedicated almost entirely to 'resorts' — if you use the term loosely. In reality, they are rustic backpacker facilities, only one or two of which were up to our standards. Nonetheless, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, as the admittedly shabby small town was colorful
INDIA JONES
Rajan, famed as the only ocean swimming bull elephant, retired on Havelock Island after 61 years of doing tricks for photographers.
and home to a great veggie market. The one downside of the island was a sandbar preceding the site of our dinghy landings, which created three-foot waves. These weren't a bother if you were swimming, and they were a delight if you were surfing. But watch out if you're making a dinghy landing or departure! All but one of the dinghies in our party were pooped and rolled, resulting in everything getting wet. Our dinghy engine, which we'd finally gotten working in Port Blair, took a good dose of saltwater. As a result, we had to row — and eventually be towed — back to our boat. You would think we'd learn, but we got drenched during departure from shore the next night and the dinghy half filled with water. We had to try to drain it at the water’s edge between waves, as it was too heavy to drag up the beach. It took our soaked and sorry lot a half-hour to sort things out and get underway. Ah, the joys of cruising! The next day we took the boats around the corner to Laccam Harbor, anchoring among small wooden fishing boats and a couple of industrial ferries. Glenys did go to shore with one of the other dinghies, and had a quick Indian lunch — at a restaurant that had lost its liquor license — overlooking the anchorage. Fortunately, she managed to smuggle in some gin in a water bottle, and topped off the 7-Ups that had been ordered. Drinking is not a big part of the Indian culture, and the government tightly governs the consumption of alcohol. As a result, it's hard for the locals to get liquor, and the few bars that exist are dimly lit rooms that are hidden away — and exude a strong sense of taboo. On our way from Havelock to Henry Lawrence Island, our group lamented that swimming and snorkeling weren't really an option in the Andamans. The problem is an increasing crocodile population. The natural mangrove habitat of crocodiles had been physically changed after December 2004's tsunami, so the crocs had moved closer to the human settlements. While we hadn't seen any crocs up to that time, we weren't keen on any up-close and personal encounters! Another serious danger in the Andamans is navigation. Forty thou-
sand people — a staggering 10% of the population — perished in the tsunami, and the shorelines of some islands changed by as much as half a mile. According to the current pilot and prior cruisers, the charts are "fiction" or "useless". The old charts are a combination of 1857 Indian surveys and a 2001 British Admiralty survey, both pre-tsunami, so the depths vary as much as 60 feet from what the charts say. All navigation in these islands is a gamble. Our cruising pals — all of whom have been in the Andamans before — set a cracking pace the next day, as we anchored in three locations! Dreamcatcher’s normal cruising style is a two-night minimum stop, and more if we find a place interesting. Nevertheless, we joined in. One of the big attractions of the Andaman Islands is that they are so remote — 400 miles from Calcutta, and 400 miles from Phuket — that there are hardly any other boats around. The most we saw in one place was 10, and that was at the Port Blair check-in anchorage. So if any-