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In 2018, 26-year-old American John Allen Chau died when he illegally sailed from Port Blair, India, to the forbidden North Sentinel Islands.

My best friend from college and her family had lived in Port Blair, the capital of the archipelago, for a decade and a half, but this was my first visit to the islands, where I had arrived on Christmas Eve.

For a while, there was speculation that we might not get clearance to dock at Port Blair for safety reasons and might have to spend the night at anchor.

After several hours of bobbing along in rough seas, we returned to Port Blair.

Because Phoenix Bay had been closed following the morning's damage, we were taken to Chatham, another harbour in Port Blair.