DAY 4 YEP INDIA EXPEDITION

4th of February, day 4

After a good night we were ready to face our second challenge. With our BCD's (Buoyancy Control Device) inflated, we all jumped into the water from Pangaea. A short swim above water allowed us we reached the right spot to start the dive with 5 meters depth. All the Young Explorers felt very comfortable and we could reach 9 meters at the deepest point of our dive.

The buddy pairs worked very well. Mike and the team were amazed to see how relaxed and solid our young divers behaved under water, getting rapidly the right attitude. A short briefing back on the boat allowed discussing the few important points on which the Young Explorers will still have to work on.

After this first dive we headed to Rutland Island and reached Portman Bay. An amazing place surrounded by dense wooded forest. Unfortunately, as so often along the shores, lots of debris and garbage were lying around, showing once again the impact of the irresponsible human being on the environment.

Time for our Young Explorers to act! They landed on shore with garbage bags and started to clean the beach full of plastic bottles and other flip-flops, lighters and ropes. Within 30 minutes, 300 meters of the beach were cleaned-up.

While the dingy was carrying the trashes back to Pangaea, the Young Explorers swam to the boat.
In order to keep all the trashes on the boat in a relative small volume, the Young explorers had to press them. Thanks to a compressor installed on board, three cubes of trashes came out of the 9 garbage bags filled on the shore.

We set sail late in the afternoon to finally drop the anchor next to the Macpherson Strait, just west of Chiriyatapu which is the most southern point of the South Andaman Island.

We saw some huts on the shore and local fishermen around. For the dinner: sushi as a starter – thanks to Jacek who caught a beautiful Tuna in the afternoon – following with a fish pie and brownies for desert!