Sea conditions remained the same (thank God!) and we arrived at Port Blair at 1030 local time. We anchored in a bay surrounded by a series of small islands, some with low hills, some taller mountains, all green and beautiful. There are a couple sailboats and a mega yacht anchored near us. Port Blair’s wharf is full of commercial containers and warehouses. Farther back, you can see lots of buildings on the hill. East of Port Blair is Chatham Island, a tiny island with more commercial vessels in front of it attached by a bridge to Port Blair. The surrounding islands are all dotted with buildings here and there many along the shore, a housing development of some sort at the top of the hill on another island , a smattering of houses on the hills, but the majority of the land is undeveloped. It looks like pretty dense forest. In some ways it reminds us of the Thursday Island area in Australia.
Mainland India has a long and rich history, but we are going to focus only on the region we are visiting. The Andaman Island group and nearby neighboring Nicobar Island group are made up of 572 islands located in the Bay of Bengal, 1000 kilometers off the east coast of India and only about 400 miles from the west coast of Burma. The islands are the tips of an underwater mountain range. It is not known when the first inhabitants arrived in the area, but it is known that they were already inhabited by the second century. In the late 17th century, the reigning Indian empire of the time, called the Marathas empire, annexed the islands. Before the Marathas ever rose to power, the English already had established a trading post in Bengal, India. The trading post did well, and just like in Malaysia, the British began to slowly expand their control, and by the early 19th century the British effectively ruled most of India. Until the British took over, it was primarily indigenous people who lived on the islands. The British built a penal colony in the Andamans for political dissidents (people fighting for India’s independence from Britain). They built a military base in the Nicobars. During World War II, the Japanese captured the islands. Some of the inhabitants viewed the Japanese as liberators from the English, some viewed them as enemies and initiated guerilla activity. India became an independent nation in 1947 and they included the Andamans and Nicobars in the Indian Union. Since then, there has been massive migration from the mainland to these islands, increasing the population from a few thousand to 350,000. There are six indigenous people groups in the islands, and they have largely been displaced by the mainland immigrants. The indigenous people now only make up 12% of the islands population, and their numbers are decreasing. The earthquake that generated the tsunami in December 2004 was generated near the islands, and the tsunami caused a great deal of damage in the area.
The immigration officers were at the boat literally within 10 minutes of calling them on the radio, having been dropped off by a fellow cruiser that they had just checked in. It was standard check in procedures. It turns out that they would have let Mike in without the special Andaman stamp on his visa, contrary to what we read on Noonsite and what the person Mike talked to in the Andamans said. Lonely Planet commented that the civil servants in the Andamans get rotated every two years, and thus the rules change every time there is a rotation.
Eric took the immigration agents back to shore when we were cleared. We were told that customs would call us to pick them up around 1400 (2:00 pm). At 1630 (4:30 pm) we called to check status and were told customs was busy and they would come tomorrow morning. We have a bad feeling it is going to be another three day check in process like in Fiji. And they made it clear we could not get off the boat until we have checked in with customs, then the coast guard, then the harbor master. Sigh.
We watched a movie downstairs. The movie ended at 1830 (6:30 pm). When we came upstairs, Christi heard some shouting out in the bay, which she ignored. The shouting continued and when she looked outside, there was a coast guard ship pulled up along side us. Yay! The coast guard guys asked the most detailed and specific questions that we have ever gotten. Since there were so many questions, it took a while, but they were pleasant and professional and the overall process was totally painless. We are halfway done with check in!
The moon was at its fullest last night and bathed the islands in a romantic glow. It was a beautiful, warm night.