We spent a further two weeks in Chalong preparing for the best part of a year to come with few repair facilities.  Our dinghy came back with a new handle and chaps (canvas cover to protect from the sun).  It took some time to get the new AIS we ordered from Singapore to talk to all the different things we wanted it to connect with, taking two trips up the island to get extra cables from the Raymarine supplier, and a smell of gas from the gas locker sent us back to the chandlery for a replacement gas bottle and connectors.  Then, one day, Phil finished three potentially big jobs around the engine and suddenly we felt nearly ready.

There is always time to meet with fellow sailors! Dinner with the crews of Into the Blue, Fidelis and Saiorse, all heading across the Indian Ocean this year
Earlier in the month we had scrapped plans to visit the Andaman Islands but our friends on Venture Lady were there and said to go if we could, so Sarah started completing the paperwork (72 copies in total of various documents) and we went on line to apply for Indian visas.  The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are part of India, though they are geographically closer to Southeast Asia.  You are not allowed to visit the Nicobar Islands, but there is restricted tourism in the Andamans.  Certain islands are completely off limits to protect indigenous cultures, and some tribes who have refused contact with the outside world.  We had to submit an itinerary showing where we will be for each day of our visit for approval.  The islands are only slightly off the direct route for Sri Lanka and break the passage nicely.  From Phuket it would be 400 miles, a nice length for our first long trip with Meikyo. The Evisa website was a nightmare: it kept on crashing when you got to the end of a page and clicked to save and continue but, forewarned by Alison and Andy, we persevered.  It took 12 hours to complete the application, but our visas were approved in 24 hours.

The list of documents required to gain clearance into the Andamans

Our route 
On Friday 30th of January we joined the queue of people waiting to check out from Thailand.  It was a last chance to chat with the new owners of Serenity, who we have seen a number of times around Langkawi and Phuket.  Jordon, Aidan, Alva and Matt are now in Indonesia looking for surf on the south coast of Sumatra. 
With our clearance papers and some final provisions, we motored round to Nai Harn Bay, on the West Coast of Phuket, ready to leave on Sunday.  When we came to leave the anchorage in Chalong the anchor chain was covered in barnacles after 3 weeks in one place and Meikyo was very sluggish under power, so we guessed the propellor was in the same state.  Phil spent much of Saturday diving to scrape propeller and shaft clean while Sarah stowed the boat for passage. We drank most of our remaining beer to ensure we were within limits on arrival and went to bed ready for an early start, then Sarah got a message to say her debit card has been ‘compromised’ and was going to be cancelled.  Nothing we could do at this stage, so she will have to learn to use an electronic wallet for the next few months.

A final Thai sunset, in Nai Harn Bay
We wrote up the first day and a half of our passage in the last short blog.  We sailed the remainder of the way with winds up to 30 knots, reducing sail to double reefed main and staysail at one point with Meikyo sailing beautifully at up to 8 knots.  In the process of reefing, one of the sliders that hold the sail forward into the mast track came out, so we were unable to take the reefs out even when the wind went down.  Meikyo had been going so well that it didn’t matter as we wanted to be slower to arrive in daylight.

Easy sailing to start the trip

We dropped anchor in Port Blair at 0920, just over 3 days after leaving Phuket and settled down to wait for the authorities.  Eventually we had a message on the radio saying they would be ready at 2pm but almost immediately a Coastguard cutter came alongside and asked to come on board!  Smart white uniforms and shiny black shoes with filthy bottoms that left dirty prints all over our new dinghy cover.  Next, Phil had to take our dinghy across the harbour to pick up our agent’s representative who sorted all the paperwork into different bundles.  Another dinghy trip ashore to collect Immigration, and then we had to all go ashore to have our pictures and fingerprints taken at the ferry terminal.  This took two trips as the Immigration officer was a big man (and scared of water so Phil had to go slowly with him), and finally, at 5pm, we had stamps in our passports and permission to go ashore.  Our agent lent us some cash so we could get a Tuktuk to town for an ATM and phone card the next day.  We had arrived.