Beth and the Navy official on clearing-in day.

March 16, 2001 -- CLEARING IN TO THE ANDAMANS

The one thing I had been really dreading about the Andamans was clearing in with the authorities.

The stories about officialdom in Port Blair had been circulating for many years: cumbersome quantities of paperwork, officials blatantly asking for "gifts", an inordinate amount of time spent confined to the boat while waiting for the different departments to send out officials. Earlier this year, it had taken one yacht 5 days to clear in! These were people we know, and we can't imagine WHY it should have taken so long. But it did.

It was good to see our friends, the Swedish yacht MARIDADI, also anchored in Port Blair. They had arrived the day before from Phuket; they had a passage of eight days! For mechanical reasons they HAD to sail, and had left right at the start of that windless period when we were just waiting around in Phuket. The good news was that they had already been cleared by Navy and Customs, and were just awaiting Immigration. We crossed our fingers.

Prior to arrival at the harbor we had called Port Blair Port Control on VHF Channel 16 for permission to enter the port. They took our particulars and said they would advise Customs and Immigration to come to clear us. We went about the usual business of sail covers, awnings, dinghy launching, and converting down below from sailing stowage to in-port living, all the while keeping our eye on the harbor wall for the arrival of the officials. In the end we missed seeing them entirely; MARIDADI kindly rowed them over to us!

Four Customs officials stepped aboard, introduced themselves, and promptly took their shoes off. They immediately went below and arranged themselves at the saloon table. One of the things you have to provide for Customs is a listing of all equipment on board. Sounds staggering, but they basically want the stuff like radios and cameras, that could be removed and taken ashore. I had done a run up of the listing on the computer; this was noted. The Superintendent (from Calcutta, the main administrative center for the Andamans) kindly suggested some additions that his office would need to have, and while I'm at it, could I print up 3 copies, please?

We filled out forms, and signed, and stamped them all. It helps to have an "official" boat stamp. I offered tea or juice. Two of the men asked for whisky. Well, they knew we had open bottles of spirits. "What?" says I, fists on hips, "at 10:30 in the morning?" "Yes, please," they meekly replied. The Superintendent however, was happy to have a diet Coke; he is diabetic.

As they left, the man who had asked for whiskey said, "Do you have some compliment for the Customs?" (i.e.: a gift) I remembered a bunch of key chains we had, and passed them around. I don't think it was what they wanted, but what could they say. All four men had been very courteous. The questions asked had been reasonable; they did not look around the boat or open any lockers. The Superintendent was very articulate and knowledgeable; I would have liked to have kept him aboard for a longer visit.

Immigration had been to MARIDADI, and when their business was completed, Shel brought the officers over to us. Paperwork was the usual-type forms of arrival/departure, nothing excessive. It is Immigration that gives you the permission form that tells what islands you can visit, whether overnight or day time only, and the exceptions. It is written in a fashion that is difficult to understand. We showed them a chart, but they were less than specific. Perhaps they had never seen a chart before.

We were just finishing lunch when Port Radio informed us that the Navy was waiting for a pick up. (Wouldn't you think that the Navy would have its own boat?) Al took the dinghy around to the fleet of small ships and brought a young officer back to SUNFLOWER. He took particulars about the boat. But mostly we talked about his posting in the Andamans, his family in the mainland (Bangalore, India) and their way of life. Nice.

So there we had it. We had cleared all three main agencies in ONE DAY! It must be some sort of a record! Yes, we still needed to see Port Control, the Port Management Board, and the Harbor Master. But we were free to go ashore to do that tomorrow. Welcome to the Andaman Islands!

As a footnote to our experience, other yachts that arrived while we were in Port Blair were cleared efficiently and courteously in a short amount of time as well.

I must also relate that there was one yacht in Port Blair that was experiencing extreme difficulties with the officials. This yacht had been to the Andamans many times and was well aware of the rules. His problems were transgressions made of these rules in the past and the fact that he was running a charter operation without the proper permits. Hey...they own the ball and the ballpark; if you want into the game, you need to play by their rules.