ANDAMAN BOARDING

"They're out there again," I said. I woke up to noise and voices and lights. A few nights ago some fishermen had stopped at our boat just after we had gone to bed. Al had gotten up and basically, politely, told them to shove off.

Now Al was scrabbling for his pants and in his sleep-filled gruff voice yelling , "Go away. Get off the boat." He reached the companionway ladder to find a gun pointed into his face!

Meanwhile, I had jumped out of bed and grabbed a nearby house dress. By this time Al was in the cockpit with numerous men, at least four of whom had guns. By the time I reached the steps the men were giving commands:

"Don't move."

"Hands up."

"Come out."

"Go there." One of them pointed forward. I didn't know if he meant to get into the boat that was tied alongside, or forward to the foredeck. It was the latter, and we went. New orders:

"Sit down. Sit down. Don't move."

"How many people?" Answer: two.

"How many people?" Answer: two, one - two (Al pointing at himself and me.)

"Sit down. Don't move. How many people?"

We are now surrounded by men with guns. They are dressed in brown military-looking clothes; they have scarves across their lower faces or over their heads. More men are in the cockpit. At this point, three other men join us carrying lights. One has a video camera! They do not identify themselves or offer any identification. They seem to be in charge however, and start issuing orders to the men on deck and in the cockpit. I see two men with guns go below. I have to pee. My God, jumping out of bed in the middle of the night faced with something like that it's a wonder I didn't just pee right then and there!

The three main officials start questioning us: Who are we? Where have we come from? What are we doing here? How long have we been here? Are we doing any diving? Al says, "Just snorkeling," and points to our masks and fins there on the deck. There didn't seem to be much comprehension of "snorkeling"

Things relax a little. Al asks for permission to get a shirt - the night air is chilly. He brings me one too. Al tells the 3 honchos that we are tourists, that we have permission from Port Blair, that we have followed the rules and checked in with Port Blair Radio every day, that they know we are here in the Table Islands. I am sent below for the paperwork. I also take a moment to relieve my bladder. One man with a gun is still below while I am doing that. He leaves when I return to the foredeck with our permits.

Al asks, "Who are you?" A bit vague, but it seems they are (officers?) from the Coast Guard, the Police, the Forestry Department. I'm sure the Army and Navy must have been there as well. Our papers are looked at, discussed - and filmed!

I keep quite a detailed log of all our various radio contacts. We have to report our movements daily, either by VHF to the local Port Control, or HF to Port Blair. There is discussion about this log and our reported positions. I offer to contact Port Blair on the HF. The Coast Guard man accompanies me. I turn on our radio and tune to the specified night frequency for Port Blair Radio. All I find there is there is a strong carrier noise. Impossible. The CG guy then tried our VHF to call his ship and the Navy. Neither answered. There was finally some conversation via a hand held set one of the chiefs had - satellite phone?

At this point I produce the document the Coast Guard had made for us when we entered the country. This seemed to satisfy them more than any other paper.

By now, everything is pretty calm. I am sitting below waiting for the next order. I think to myself, I should offer them some tea. Wait a minute - I don't have 15 cups!

In the end the chief of the party said he was sorry to bother us, but these are troubled waters. They were on patrol looking for "poachers". There were two Thai boats reported in the area with 25 people. They were smuggling illegal immigrants. (Or perhaps just plain smuggling?) They did not think it was safe for us to be in these waters by ourselves. I asked them if they were telling us to leave. No. They were just informing us that these were troubled waters, they were concerned for our safety, etc., etc.

At 4 am they clambered back aboard their boats and departed. Well, there was no way we were going to be able to go back to sleep. We sat with a cup of tea talking over the experience. One remarkable fact - nothing in the boat was touched! Nothing was even moved, like it had been picked up to be examined. Very remarkable, as in this part of the world, people are very curious about "things" that they don't have but we do.

We related this incident to our friends on our "Cruising Net" this morning. We also reported the boarding to Port Blair Radio when we checked in this morning. We will also make a statement to the Harbor Master in Port Blair when we clear out next week. We are required to report in daily with our positions (GPS Lat and Long please) and movements. There should be better liaison and communication between the agencies who are actually in charge and out there patrolling the islands.

Will we stay? One more night. The snorkeling on the reefs here is FABULOUS!