Lakshadweep, Agatti Island

So early morning we were carrying back the BBQ stuff and cleaning and packing it where every item belongs. Towels and chair covers to the laundry, crockery to the pantry and galley and so on. At last we knock off and get our well deserved rest while the night shift crew deals with the small things and cleaning up the yacht.

Sunset over Agatti Island

I got up in the morning for the change of security detail and curry and parothas. Later, me, Willie and Sikandar take out students to do their pool exercise for their PADI course. We take the tender to the entrance of the Agatti lagoon and anchor in 1m of water that will do instead of the pool. Willie and Sikandar gets into their stuff while I watch over the operation and sneak a few minutes of snorkeling. It is not very interesting as the bottom is more or less dead with a great deal of rubbish spread about, I can see some fish but thats about it.

When one ventures further into the lagoon you can find there are a lot of turtles living in it, big buggers swim away from your boat when you approach and you can also see them coming up to the surface for air. Turtles, unlike in Maldives, are not eaten in Lakshadweep. Yesterday when scouting out the route to Tinakara I saw two of them mating and Sikandar informs me that this is the mating season for them.

Once we return onboard it is just to change dive sets and be ready for diving the Solar site, used set are taken out and full sets put onto the tender. The dive site is only a few miles south of IE and was very much like the yesterdays dive at the Fish Soup. Once we return back onboard again we get to prepare for a beach BBQ at Sea Shells. Same gear is once again loaded onto tenders and minivans and crew gets into beach wear to set up the party.

I get a few hours of rest and I go and relieve Alok form the beach and stay there until the end. There is a fresh evening breeze blowing and my waterlogged sinuses don't like so I feel like I'm coming down with a head cold. The breeze continued until the early morning hours and I was done by when we packed up for the night at 3am.