Editors Note:  from the 1st October 2018 there is no limit to the amount of time that visiting yachts may spend in the Andaman islands. Full details can be found here.

In December 2015, we decided to sail to the Andaman Islands, a territory belonging to India.   We contacted Emotion Travel in Phuket to apply for visas as we live in Phuket.  They informed us that for security reasons, persons now applying visas must have their fingerprints taken at IVS Global in Bangkok.

In order to start the process, Emotion Travel needed our passports, copies of every page in the passports plus a payment of THB 4,500 per visa application.  Three days later, we met their agent at IVS Global in Bangkok who had completed necessary the paperwork.  Handing in our applications and getting fingerprints taken took just 15 minutes.  10 days later, Emotion Travel in Phuket handed back our passports complete with visas.

Map of location of agent IVS Global, Bankok

Although it is possible to enter the Andamans without the assistance of an agent, we decided to appoint a local shipping agent to facilitate entry and exit formalities which are notoriously bureaucratic.   We wrote to 3 companies, and Andaman Holidays were the first and only company to respond.   In all our dealings with them, we were completely satisfied and their representative, Rathnam, was helpful, informative, and efficient.   On both arrival and departure, check-in/check-out procedures went smoothly and fully justified the extra cost in our opinion.

Rathnam provided guidance regarding documentation necessary for arrival, departure and cruising in the Andaman Islands.  Our adult ‘children’ who live in South Africa were joining us for the passage and obtained their visas in SA.   We queried the statement on the official document which said, “If any South African National is on board or any crew has visited South Africa within six months then yellow fever vaccination certificate will be required” as according to the India Visa and Passport services, South Africans don’t require vaccinations.  Rathnam wasn’t too sure about this (and our sympathies lie with him because it seems interpretations change with the official involved) so for safety sake, they had their inoculations at Phuket Airport Health Control Clinic.

We completed all paperwork as per the list below, (Rathman provided download links for the documents which were a boon).

List of forms and documents required for Check – In

We chose the Andaman’s because it has long (almost 20 years) been a dream of ours to visit.  We now live in Phuket, Thailand thus making the Andaman’s easily within reach (only 420NM).

As our grown-up son and daughter-in-law were spending Christmas with us, we decided to realise the dream. We would like to have sailed the islands much more extensively.  But given our extremely short time window, these islands were within easy reach, worked well for the wind direction (generally N to NE, and even E), and gave us a good flavour of the area.  We also spent a couple of nights in Port Blair and went ashore to sample local culture and enjoy Indian food at an up-market restaurant.

We like sailing to remote locations not overrun by other boats and the Andaman’s certainly provided with this.  We only saw only a handful of commercial vessels sailing both ways to and from the Andaman’s and, among the islands, there were no other yachts that we saw.  The islands are really remote and deserted.

The Andaman’s also has a colourful history, a distinctly Indian culture, and a rich sea life, though specifically at the places we anchored, the snorkelling was not as good as we had expected.  Completely made up for by a huge pod of dolphins which escorted us for about 15 minutes after we had left Port Blair.

Margie Guthrie SV Jade