11:25.5 n

092:36.9 e

 

Chiryatapu to W. rutland 25nm.

 

A rolly sea off the E coast of Rutland island but sailing. very much a lee shore at this time of year. We passed the Cinque islands off to port and turned to starboard to round the south coast of Rutland island. We had hoped we might anchor in the bay at the south, but felt the swell was a little too easterly to make it comfortable. a shame as we had heard of manta rays swimming here.

We noticed a passenger ferry heading towards Port Blair, so asked them to relay our position to Port Blair Control when they were within range, a task they seemed very happy to do.

 

Up the west side of Rutland, we left Twin islands to port (we didn’t have permission to go there) and we looked for a suitable spot to stay off of Rutland Island. The sea calmed quite a bit as we got closer to the land, but the wide fringing reef meant we still about 1nm off. we tried to anchor several times before finding a spot where the anchor chain didn’t grumble over rocks and coral on the sea bed (and risk us being fouled).  After all our concerns about other places we did not have permission for, apparently this spot is not authorised either. We couldn’t check in again, so did not worry.

 

A quiet night, quite rolly after sun down with swell from the NW!!! (tide out of Macpherson Straits??)