We were woken at 5 AM by the sun’s rays pouring through the small cabin window. We immediately went on deck to shoot some video footage and take some photos. As we stepped out of our cabin we saw the ship’s first port of call – a group of islands called Car Nicobar. It looked like every other island in the Andaman with crystal clear water and plenty of thick vegetation.
The boat docked at the island somewhere around 6.15 AM and a steady stream of people alighted with their goods. Man! The queue of passengers leaving the boat seemed as though it would never end. Then, just when the last passenger stepped off the boat, another seemingly endless file of passengers began to board again! Our next stop was supposed to be the Nancowrie islands. However, for some inexplicable reason, our boat made way for all the other boats to dock then moved out from the harbor and remained offshore. Apparently the Nancowrie port didn’t have the facility to allow our boat to dock at night.
It would take 12 hours to reach the Nancowrie Islands and in order to make sure that we would reach them on time the next morning we were forced to stay put for nearly 8 hours. Feeling tired and utterly frustrated and knowing there was not much we could do, we did what anyone else would have done in that situation – we all slept for 3 hours straight…As the sun started to set, the Chowra lifted its anchor which meant that we would soon be starting for our next destination. As we were shooting the sunset we met a man from Mysore who had been working for the government in many different islands for a number of years. It was nice to meets someone who spoke Kannada amongst so many other people who spoke other Indian languages. We discussed many things about A & N islands, especially about the different lifestyles of the people compared to those that stayed on the mainland. After dinner, we were off to our cabins where we spent some time watching the surf videos (again!) and we went to bed dreaming about the remainder of our trip. Took some time off from our busy schedules to shoot ourselves.
