The Andaman Islands

The Andamans open the way few charter grounds do: by permission, not by postcard. A Restricted Area regime that kept the islands nearly empty of foreign keels for decades has only recently eased enough to make a proper season possible, and clearing in still means a queue of uniforms — Navy, Customs, Immigration, the Harbour Master — before the anchor is down for good. What lies on the other side of that queue is a chain unlike any other water in this book: a beach that has spent two decades defending a 2004 ‘best in Asia’ title, a live volcano you dive beside rather than on, and a permit map with one section that simply reads no.

“Barren Island's volcano breaks the surface in plain view of every yacht that dives beside it; North Sentinel, thirty miles west, is the one Andaman shore no vessel is permitted to see up close.”

Signature anchorages

Ritchie's Archipelago and the volcanic outlier of Barren Island, reached on a single clearance out of Port Blair.

• Port Blair Harbour — the clearance anchorageThe archipelago's only port of entry, and the first stop regardless of where the charter is headed. Port Blair Port Radio directs arriving yachts to the quarantine anchorage west of Chatham Island — roughly 9–12m, mud and rock, reasonable holding — to be boarded in turn by Navy, Customs and Immigration, with the Harbour Master's office at Phoenix Bay signing off last. No marina; fuel and provisioning run through the yacht's agent.
• Barren IslandSouth Asia's only active volcano, intermittently venting since 1991 and most recently through 2022–23. An open roadstead (an unsheltered anchorage exposed to the sea) off the black-sand beach on the calmer side; steep volcanic shelving and thin holding mean most yachts stand off and dive rather than set a proper hook. Forest Department permit required in advance, no landing ashore, day visits only.
• Havelock & Radhanagar BeachRenamed Swaraj Dweep (‘self-rule island’) in 2018. Radhanagar's west-facing sand is a lee shore through the whole Nov–Apr season — anchor off in settled sand with good holding, or work round toward the main jetty for fuel and provisioning. Johnny's Gorge and Dixon's Pinnacle, among the Andamans' best dive sites, lie a short tender ride out.
• Neil & the Natural BridgeRenamed Shaheed Dweep (‘martyrs' island’) the same year as Havelock. Bharatpur Beach anchorage is sand, shallow and easy, close off the jetty; Laxmanpur, round the point, holds the sunset and the low-tide walk out to the Natural Bridge, a limestone sea-arch known locally as the Howrah Bridge. A short, sheltered hop from Havelock.
• Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, WandoorFifteen islands and around fifty coral species across some 280 sq km off South Andaman's west coast — and the clearest everyday example of the permit regime at work. Visiting yachts do not anchor inside the park; access is by permit and park boat only, daily numbers capped, the snorkel islets of Jolly Buoy and Red Skin alternated every six months to let the reef recover.
• Ross & Smith Islands, North AndamanA tidal sandbar joins two uninhabited islets off Diglipur, on the archipelago's northern tip, reached from Aerial Bay jetty some 170 nautical miles north of Port Blair by sea — a different Ross Island entirely from the historic one near Port Blair. Too far for a standard week; longer charters add the days, or fly guests into Diglipur to rejoin a yacht already stationed north.

The permit country

Three fixed points in a water defined as much by what you may not approach as by what you may.

Stay & table ashore

Andaman hospitality is thin on the ground by charter-belt standards — three addresses worth knowing, from a Correa-designed hillside to a rainforest hideaway.

A week, sketched

For a longer charter, or one already based in North Andaman, Ross & Smith is worth the extra days: two uninhabited islets off Diglipur joined by a tidal sandbar, reached via Aerial Bay jetty some 170 nautical miles north of Port Blair — most practically added by flying guests into Diglipur to rejoin a yacht already stationed there, rather than folded into a standard week.

Pair with

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