It was exactly eight o’clock in the evening. We could hear the siren of the ship and rushed towards the deck. Since we were in the first-class cabin and the same was just one floor below the deck, we could reach the open deck within minutes. The ship tilted towards left and gradually moved away from the dock. The crew, sareng, and other staff were on different position of the deck and received instructions through loudspeakers from the ship as also from the dock in their code language which we could not understand.
Yes. Finally, we were moving to Port Blair from Kolkata crossing 1125 nautical miles through the Bay of Bengal. We boarded the ship, MV Harshavardhan with our luggage at around three o’clock after lunch after checking of tickets, entry pass and various other formalities as Netaji Subhas Dock of Kolkata Port Trust is a restricted area.
Availability of ticket had been another difficult task for us. The tickets
were issued after the announcement of the date of journey from Kolkata office of
Shipping Corporation of India. Since the number of seats was limited and
islanders had first preference
followed by government officials, so few residual tickets were
allotted for the general public. Having stood in the queue from almost midnight,
ultimately we could manage four tickets in a first-class cabin. Other than
first-class cabins, there were deluxe cabins for two
persons, second class cabins for six persons and bunks in
two levels.
The ship was of moderate size with a capacity of more than a thousand
passengers, the majority of them were either resident of the island or labourers
going from the mainland. There were a swimming pool, table tennis and billiard room,
library, restaurant, television room, stationery shop attached to the
restaurant and a large dining room open from three sides to have 180 degree
view of the sea.
After the ship plunged into the river Ganga, it took speed and started
moving steadily. Since it was a night with poor visibility, we took dinner,
brought from home, and went to sleep so as to enjoy the beauty of the sea the next
morning.
Early morning, we got up and found the ship was anchored in Ganga itself
and we were really disheartened not to be able to enjoy the voyage in real
sense. It was learnt that the ship needed two high tides to reach the delta of
Sunderbans was known as “Sandhead”.The first high tide took us to around sixty nautical
miles and the ship could not move further because of silt deposition and had to
wait for next high tide which would help to carry the ship to the sea.
All the passengers were advised to reach the deck through the public address
system and the captain and other crew members taught to tackle the situation in
case the ship was in distress. We were shown the locations of lifeboats, the order
of preference of boarding lifeboats, wearing of life jackets and refuge area
in case of fire in the ship. We were advised to purchase voyage food coupons
from the restaurant which would be valid for bed tea, breakfast, lunch, evening
tea and dinner for the entire journey.
At around ten o’clock the ship started with sirene and we could see the
ship was following a small boat “Rupsa” by name. The boat worked as a guide as
the ship might get stuck up due to silt deposition in both sides of Ganga. We
gradually crossed parts of Sundarban, Sagar Island and could see the temple of
Kapilmuni or popularly known as Ganga Sagar in the distant horizon.
Suddenly, another boat of similar size “Chandrima” appeared from nowhere
and parked beside our huge ship. A crew from that boat came up to the ship
through rope ladder and a crew from our ship disembarked to that boat. Both the
boat left for return journey upstream. We came to know that the crew who
operated from Kolkata to Sandhead was replaced by a crew who would be in charge
of an entire sea voyage.
Gradually, the muddy water changed to the green water of Bay of Bengal and
flocks of seagulls were moving around the ship, might be for the search of food.
The timings of breakfast, lunch and dinner were being announced by the public
address system and the passengers had to enter the dining hall in batches. Though the ambiance of the dining hall was good with an open view, the quality of the food served was not up to the mark as there was no variation in the menu. Tea was being served at cabins and bunks. We
started moving in the ship searching for any unknown locations which we missed
earlier. With the help of one crew, we had a chance to visit the main
navigation room wherefrom the ship was operated by the captain. We could not enter
some prohibited area for passengers because of statutory restrictions.
We enjoyed the cool breeze and changing the colour of clouds along with the movement of
seagulls. We again saw a change of colour of the sea from green to blue and
ascertained the change of colour was due to the change of depth of the sea. When
the ship was moving through the changing colour of the sea, we could see a distinct border of green
and blue. In the evening, we were inclined to enjoy the beauty of nocturnal nature
from the upper deck than keeping ourselves confined to cabin.
Next morning, when we landed in the deck, we found the colour of the sea
had turned to be totally black and the depth of sea had increased to a considerable extent. We could realise the reason why people used to call
Andamans as “Kala Paani”. Lots of flying fishes moved
either in the air or plunged into the sea. If the deck had been little low,
some of them would have landed on the deck itself.
At around eleven o’clock in the morning, while standing on the deck, we
found that garbage and food waste were being thrown into the sea through a huge
pipe. Few crew members were also relaxing on the deck with whom we interacted to learn their experiences.
The normal movement of the ship cutting through the waves was called “Pitching”
and that did not cause a health problem. But the rough sea waves tilted the ship
from both sides which were called “Rolling” that created giddiness and nausea to
the passengers which were popularly known as “Sea Sickness”. Majority of them opined that the toughest
period of the voyage was monsoon which remained from April to September, sometimes
extended till October. Moving on the decks became impossible because of huge waves along with the gusty wind. There had
been few deaths where the crew on the deck could not
survive the blow of waves and wind. The others had to be dumb witnesses to
those tragic incidents and most of the bodies could not be recovered. One of the
crew suddenly drew our attention to the sea where we could see tail fin of a shark just above the water level. Since the colour of the shark and the sea
were identical, we could not identify
the shark and within the twinkling of an eye, the shark
vanished into the deep sea.
In the evening, the sky was pitch dark and we were guided by stars and with
no sign of moonlight. Suddenly,
signs of light on our left side in the horizon were visible through the naked eye. We came to know that it was Coco Island in Bay of Bengal presently
occupied by Myanmar.
Next morning, we again saw an
island in the distance which was called Barren Island, where the only active
volcano of India is located. At around lunchtime, we had the first view
of North Andaman, with Diglipur as headquarters followed by Mayabunder of
Middle Andaman. It was a pleasant sight and the passengers were delighted to
have the view of the land after two days. But the ship did not touch any of the islands
and was moving through mid-sea keeping the islands at a distance.
The
colour of the sea again changed to blue and by evening, it was announced that the ship was much ahead of schedule on account of a favourable wind and likely to
reach Haddo, the port of Port Blair by around ten o’clock at night. We were
slightly anxious, as our disembarking schedule was around four o’clock in the
morning and the vehicle was advised to reach Haddo accordingly.
After
dinner, around eleven o’clock, we could find the ship harboured at Haddo and
after completion of formalities; we had to disembark from the ship. As we were
thinking about how to reach our hotel at night as a number of vehicles were less and
mostly all booked, one person introduced us as a hotel driver and we really had a sigh of relief when we found that hotel had taken the responsibility of sending the vehicle, based on the changed schedule of ship.
It was
really a lifetime experience for us travelling through the midst of the sea and
enjoying the beauty of changing nature and changing the colour of the sea. The ship,
though of considerable big size seemed to be a minuscule creature in lap of the
huge water mass.
The
majority of the population of India could not afford to board luxury cruise
operating in western countries because of accessibility and cost. It would be a
unique experience for them to enjoy the sea onboard.
Ship Fare for non-Islanders (per person) as per SCI
website
ü Deluxe Cabin Rs.11295/-
ü Semi Deluxe Cabin Rs.10290/-
ü First Class Cabin Rs.9365/-
ü Second Class Cabin Rs.7445/-
ü Bunk Class Rs.2905/-
Photo courtesy Google
Backlink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttHBg25J-y4
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