The Andaman Explorer was built as the MV Atlantic Guard in 1963 in Norway as a Norwegian coast guard vessel. She is 61 meters long with her original Rolls Royce engines. The hull is built to 'ice class' with extra thick plates and she has the power to withstand north Atlantic storms or chases out to sea. Very handy when cruising in tropical waters!

She retired from coast guard duties in 1998 and was acquired by one Doctor Bogazzi, an Italian oligarch whose family owns the Carrara marble quarries. Dr Bogazzi lavished many a million on the ship, now renamed the MY Marina, completely refitting her with eleven very generous suites and a Jacuzzi on deck. Much of the ship is floored with Carrara marble, pleasantly cool under foot for those who go unshod.

In recent times she has belonged to a powerful shipping family based in Dubai who maintained the ship to a very high standard. She has now arrived in Thailand and under going redecoration in the Pandaw Style so the photos of the interiors we show here are as she is now and not as she will be when we have finished with her. The Andaman Explorer really is a sixties classic. The sort of plaything associated with Onassis, Jackie Kennedy and more glamorous times. There could be no vessel more appropriate for the exploration of South-East Asia's unknown coasts.