arrived Port Blair, Andaman Islands 6 feb

Roam2
Terry & Fiona
Wed 6 Feb 2013 07:15
11:41.34 e
092:42.9 n

6 feb. arrived Port Blair from Surin islands. 337nm 66 hrs. ALL under sail
except leaving and arriving port.

we arrived around midnight last night at Port Blair, we don’t usually try to
arrive anywhere at night but especially new places, but a small drama on the
last day slowed us down a little – which was a shame after having done the
rest of the passage so well.
At 11 am there was a bang from outside – the genoa had a big sag in it. it
looked like something had broken at the top and the sail was falling down.
we tried to roll it away, but the reefing line was tight as though jammed
somehow although nothing was visible at deck level, so we pulled the sail
down to the deck, doused it and tied it to the guard wires. the head,
holding the sail to the snap shackle at the top of the forestay had broken.
the spinnaker halyard appeared wound around the top of the furler but on
trying to unwind it, it too appeared somehow jammed in the furling gear.
so, what to do?
we carry a spare genoa but we could not use that as the halyard to pull it
up was stuck at the top of the mast, also the furling gear was jammed, so we
had to resort to the storm jib – which is, in our case a small stay sail
given to us by a kindly Dutch fellow in Marmaris, which we hanked on to a
temporary forestay – again something we have not had to use since we fitted
it, but have ‘just in case’.
After an hour, we had sorted everything out and we continued on our way, at
a reduced speed with our tiny genoa, but the speed gradually increased from
2 to 4 knots with a very kindly motion. the Hydrovane wind self-steering
kept going all the way – 330 miles, never once asking for a rest or food –
terrific.

night arrival at Port Blair is relatively easy in reality although the
plethora of lights is confusing. a large sailing yacht left the anchorage
with AIS and we could capture their track. Port Control are very active here
and you have to request permission to enter and give all sorts of details of
boat ad crew each time the boat moves.

so, its now 10.30am and we wait for the authorities to arrive for check in.
this usually takes most of the day by all accounts......