The Mergui Archipelago lies in the Andaman Sea off the coast of southern Myanmar.

How it all began

A few sea eagles soared above a rocky, forested island in the Mergui Archipelago but there wasn’t a sign of a hornbill. Our birdwatching expedition was a bust.
It was time for the two Zodiac-style expedition boats to head back to our home ship, the Andaman Explorer, some 16 kilometres away.
But now the sun was setting, the lightning flashed, the thunder roared, the rain came down in sheets and the sea was rising along with the wind. Moving as fast as they could but making only slow progress, the boats sometimes ploughed through the waves, sometimes sailed over them and crashed down. Sheets of water drenched everyone.

On board Zodiac Z2

Phil and I were on Z2, the smaller of the Zodiacs, along with another passenger Jean. It had a 60hp outboard that suddenly spluttered and died – we were out of fuel.
“No problem,” said the purser. “The other boat has a spare fuel can.”
Z1 with its 100hp motor was a short way ahead by now but they turned back and handed over the jerrycan.
Unfortunately it was almost empty.
After some confused discussion we decided that the three passengers would transfer to the more powerful Z1 and some crew would replace us on Z2.
Crossing between two tossing inflatables was a challenge. It involved standing on one slippery side tube, stepping across when the two boats were more or less at the same level and being caught by the sailors.
Jean and I scrambled over successfully, but there was no sign of anyone replacing us and now with 4 crew and 6 passengers, Z1 was looking a bit overloaded. Phil decided to stay where he was and watched us motor away.

Out of fuel – again

Z2 struggled on for a few more kilometres and then the engine coughed and died again as the fuel ran out.
“So call the ship and get them to come pick us up,” Phil said.
“No signal,” said the purser.
The only means of communication they had was a two-way UHF radio. They could sometimes contact Z1 but not the ship, the Andaman Explorer.
So Phil was marooned with four incompetent crewmen including, as he later found out, the ship’s captain. They were 10km from help in the Andaman Sea and it was a dark and stormy night!

Drifting

All around on the horizon were the eerie green lights of fishing boats setting fluorescent lures to attract squid.
Somebody suggested hailing a passing squid boat to get fuel from them but the crew only had cell phones to use as torches.
The squid boat sailed on by.
Surprisingly Phil wasn’t worried.
There are large numbers of islands in this region of the Mergui Archipelago, he thought. We can just land on one and wait until morning. Actually that wasn’t necessarily a good idea because not all the islands have sandy beaches, many of them are rocks all the way to the waterline.

Guardian angel

But after five or ten minutes of drifting, a guardian angel quietly came alongside.
It was a Moken woman rowing a small canoe. There was no engine on her canoe but she had a litre container of fuel that she handed over. And then she rowed away.
Z2 had to travel very slowly due to the high seas. But eventually the lights of the ship came into view … and there was Z1 which still had passengers on it an hour or more after Phil assumed everyone would be back aboard the Andaman Explorer sipping cocktails.

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On board Zodiac Z1

Meanwhile, back on Z1, we moved slowly because of the wind, the swell and the number of people on board.
After a while the lights of the Andaman Explorer came into view but for a long time they didn’t seem to get any closer.
And the waves were crashing over the Zodiac and battering all ten of us on board.
Although this was in the tropics the constant sluicing was beginning to have an effect and we were beginning to feel cold.

Almost home?

Eventually Z1 reached the Andaman Explorer and we six passengers breathed a sigh of relief. The four crew probably did the same … but it was a bit too soon.
The problem was the swell which made it too dangerous to attempt to board using the ship’s port gangway – the Zodiac would likely have been caught under the bottom platform and ripped to shreds.
So we moved around to the starboard side but the swell was still too high and there wasn’t a staircase on that side anyway.
The second officer who had been left in charge of the ship then talked to Jack, the one passenger who did not accompany us on the trip.

The pilot’s ladder

Jack was an old salt and he knew what to do – use the pilot’s ladder. This is a rope ladder with wooden slats plus one extra wide slat to stop the ladder swinging around.
One of us, Laurie, managed to climb aboard from the starboard side but dropping a safety rope proved more of a hindrance than a help so Z1 clawed its way back to the port side and then the rest of us took turns to clamber up the ladder to the safety of the deck.
That wasn’t quite as easy as it sounds.
The Zodiac was still rising and falling with the waves so you had to choose your moment to grab hold of the rope sides and step onto the bottom slat. Then you had to slide your hands up the ropes and step higher and all the time the ship and ladder were swaying. After a couple of steps the bosun, who was one of the sailors on Z1, climbed behind the person on the ladder which was a great relief as it meant there was someone to catch you if you slipped and fell. At the top of the ladder more sailors grabbed your arms and helped you over the guardrail, onto a chair and thence the deck.
Jean and Jenny went first, then it was my turn followed by Joanne and finally Dave.

And that’s when we saw Z2 arrive. A momentary lull in the waves meant that Phil was able to board via the port gangway so we all made it safely back to the ship with no harm done except to Phil’s camera which died a watery death.

Summary

It had taken Z1 one and a half hours and Z2 two hours to return from a trip which took just 30 minutes on the outward journey.
There were obviously lessons to be learned from this adventure and Jack and Phil wrote separate letters to the company, Pandaw, to let them know what had happened.
Pandaw take the safety and comfort of their clients very seriously and they immediately took steps to make sure nothing like this could happen again.
Among other things there has been crew training, extra fuel, lights, flares, radios, searchlights, spare outboards, oars and a curfew on when Zodiacs must be back at the Andaman Explorer. The port and starboard gangways have also been improved with safety netting and permanent rubber fending.
A cruise on Pandaw’s Andaman Explorer will be an interesting, luxurious experience and will now, above all, be safe.

More …

Check our video of the rest of the Mergui Archipelago cruise here.

See more videos from Myanmar here on this website

 

Check out the Mergui Archipelago on the Pandaw website.

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