west to Maldives

We left the Andamans on Thursday Jan 27 at just before sundown...they want you out of their hair in 2 hours after checking out from immigration. So we got to sail thru a 1 mile passage in the blacka** night with no moon or sight of a horizon...just the radar image to get around the south of the main islands. Even Chuck who is a pillar of patience couldn't wait to get out after "big brother" was watching us the whole time with radio calls and even helicopters. I mean we aren't carrying weapons!!!

Some anchorages there were supposed to be just great but now they are off limits for cruisers and they are also charging about $10 a night to anchor any where in the islands. Even the regular anchorages are often in passages between islands with current and deeper than we like at 60-70' depth. As far as we are concerned the whole Indian bunch can just shove it!!! We heard of a taxi driver reporting a cruiser for changing out a routine pump and the govmt charged him duty for bringing it in because he allegedly brought in the pump to sell!!! Go figure! No other government acts this way....taxi driver spies??? Come on!!!

3 days behind us now with lumpy seas but usually good enough wind to do 5-6 knots. We have had enough scattered storms to clean off the salt and top off the water tanks....and make everything sticky and knocks us around freshening up our bruise assortment!

This sunday am just after I got up from my last sleep about 1pm, Chuck says we are dragging something and he has to go into the drink and cut it off in 25 knot winds. We hove the boat to with the staysail...[sorta stopping it by keeping it almost into the wind]. He was so brave to tie himself on and dive down with a knife and cut off a 10' long bunch of nets...looked like a bunch of onion and fruit bags in a old fish net. It was hooked on a tiny ...less than 1/4" screw... that holds on a zinc and had been slowing us down by a knot of speed.

Cooking has been a challenge but I am getting my sea legs back and learning to wait for the right roll to cook and it takes twice as long. No fish yet but we still keep trying as long as there aren't storms. These storms are pretty mild...just annoying.

more later

Cyan Crew
Lynn

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First Anchorage in Andamans

Finally, we are anchored at Havelock Island in the Andaman Islands, way SE of South India. The check in process the last 2 days for us both and the vessel was beyond belief. We had heard that they have the "bureaucrats from hell" here in India and boy, do they like paperwork and job security. We have never had to go fetch, in the dingy [on several trips], 12 different customs, quarantine and immigration guys from the harbor dock to fill out forms and submit pages of info and then, later have 7 more coast guard guys get on the boat for more of the same paperwork. They needed to know everything about us, our plans and the boat....like how much booze we have, a list of all meds, all the food and suppies we have, all our electronics and a list of jewelry and other things of value and another list of everything on the boat like anchors, sails, electronics.

While cruising we have to call in twice a day and tell them everything we do. You'd think this was the garden of Eden instead of a bunch of islands. How this country functions, we cannot understand!!! When they gave me back the paper with all our prescriptions all neatly listed and said they also needed to know all the expiration dates, I blew up, emphatically said that "They all are expired...I only take expired meds and I wanted out of their country...NOW!!!" Well, since they never seen a conniption fit, they backed down and said we suddenly passed quarantine and there were no further problems! I'd had enuf folks tromping thru my boat all day asking all kinds of personal questions like how much did the boat cost, how old we are, how long we have been married...everything but info on our private stateroom life!!!

The town at Port Blair is a dingy village from the past with cows rooting thru garbage cans and getting anything done, like buying deisel fuel, takes great effort, filled forms and long lines. Getting a cell phone sim card was more of an event than the whole process of Checking into most other countries. The card just costs a total of $2.50 and 30 minutes building up a 20 page file for their record. There were about 6-7 boats in the anchorage checking in or out and on Sat the 22nd of Jan we were glad to get off on our trip around these islands we have read and heard so much about.

Our first anchorage is off a nice long, beach with a small resort. The seas are soft and the breeze keeps away the bugs and cools us. Fishing is supposed to be great but we haven't caught anything all day...maybe tomorrow!!!

We heard about the "big Salties", the saltwater crocodiles that are in all the brackish areas off the main islands and to watch where we swim. We enjoyed watching the porpoises jump while having dinner and look forward to walking the beach and fishing tomorrow. We will snorkel in a better location for coral than here....and we will keep posting...

Lynn and Chuck, too, on CYAN

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We are off

We left Phuket, Thailand early...a lot earlier than Chuck wanted to get up...on Monday Jan 17 after anchoring in a wonderful cove on the west side of the island. We actually had some light wind and sailed until about 1pm and have been motoring and will probably will thru the night....makes for an even warmer cabin to sleep in with the heat of the engine while off watch. Chuck sleeps from 7-12 then Lynn sleeps 12-5am, then Chuck for another 3 hours and Lynn for another 3 hours. This works for us. We were told to always get at least a sleep of 5 hours for good brain rest. It always takes 3 days to get used to the schedule with Lynn getting a tad bitchy due to lack of sleep.

We are fishing but haven't caught anything yet....seen several big ships going to and from India.

Huge healthy salad with croissants for dinner with box wine.

I just want to check that this is making it onto the blog...more later

Chuck and Lynn on Cyan

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Leaving Jan 16th

Welcome to the blog we plan to keep while traveling through the Indian Ocean and on to the Red Sea.

Here is a slightly inaccurate map [since Lynn doesn’t quite know where Aden is] of pour planned course. She also can’t make a straight line with Photoshop yet so the course line is a bit sloppy but you get the idea.

We can send messages to this BLOG right from our SSB radio and keep folks posted about how things are going. We expect to catch fish and avoid pirates!!! Apparently they are targeting areas well south of our course anyway. We can’t send photos but we can ramble on about what we are doing and how the weather is.

We can only get messages if you know our sailmail email address and we cannot put it here due to spammers acquiring it. We do hope to hear from folks. This trip is going to take a while but we are well stocked and the boat is well conditioned.

Warm thoughts

Lynn and Chuck on CYAN

Prayers from our friends and family who are "believers" are always appreciated!