Andaman Islands Havelock

[fda483]

Hi

Will be heading to India at the end of March on business and looking to add some diving to the trip. After a week of crawling around pharmaceutical plants a week underwater sounds great.

Was thinking of heading from India to the Andaman Islands for a week of diving. Have found two locations that seem to offer lodging and diving Barefoot at Havelock and Island Vinnies.

Any comments on the diving in the Andamans and these locations would be appreciated.

Thanks

Joe

 

[bcdannymalone]

I'm guessing Island Vinnie's is something new that is also, or was once, called Dive India. If so, I can recommend them highly. I've known Vinnie for years and have had a hand in training some of his staff. They are a great bunch. The last that I knew his website was DIVEIndia - PADI & SSI Scuba Diving in the Andamans, India, but I have read that people have been having a hard time getting a reply from him (I'm guessing slow connection). If you PM me, I'll give you his cell number. Or you can just rock up there and I'm sure you'll be taken care of. Best of luck!

 

[fda483]

I'm guessing Island Vinnie's is something new that is also, or was once, called Dive India. If so, I can recommend them highly. I've known Vinnie for years and have had a hand in training some of his staff. They are a great bunch. The last that I knew his website was DIVEIndia - PADI & SSI Scuba Diving in the Andamans, India, but I have read that people have been having a hard time getting a reply from him (I'm guessing slow connection). If you PM me, I'll give you his cell number. Or you can just rock up there and I'm sure you'll be taken care of. Best of luck!

Thanks for the response - how would you describe the diving in this area?

Joe

 

[bcdannymalone]

Hi Joe,

I really can't answer that as I've never been, but my girlfriend was there 7-8 years ago and loved it. A few of my best friends own Worldwide Dive and Sail out of Phuket and have done a few trips out to the Andamans. They, too, say it's very good (but they would, wouldn't they?). Vinnie Kalia, the owner of Dive India, has tried for ages to get me to go out for what he says is great diving. It's definitely on my list and I think you'll be happy with it. Maybe you can post after you get back and let us know how you liked it? Best of luck.

 

[red_barbarian]

The diving is supposed to be quite good from what I've heard from an Indian ex-Admiral who used to run the naval base there. I live in Bangalore half the year and in the States the other half. I have yet to get there do to lousy travel times to get there. It's faster to go to Thailand, Sri Lanka, or the Maldives and get more diving in for a long weekend. If you're going to be in one of the cities that has direct flights to Port Blair it might work for a week trip. Forget Air Deccan unless you're really into third world bus travel. Kingfisher and Jet are recommended. Stock up at the duty free before you get here if want alcoholic beverages, the duty is sky high. Think 3x or 4x for everything. Where to go really depends on where your trip in India winds up, PM me if this is your first trip to Inida or if you want help figuring things out.

 

[Luko]

I also recommend Vinnie's dive India, I have dive at his place last feb, you can check out my gallery relating this trip here (just click on Havelock special gallery... or enjoy the other ones if you feel to...)

The diving in itself is untouched, looots of fish, you have to push the trevally or cuda schools to swim forward sometimes. Currents can be fierce and viz quite chaotic : I have dived the same place, and within a two hours interval, the viz dropped from 25 meters to less than 10 meters.

if you love hard corals, this is your place too, never seen such a variety, it seems El Nino and greenhouse gas effects are unknown in this part of the ocean.

I have taken Air Deccan to get from Chennai to Port Blair, cheap and on time : just another low cost, I have nothing to say about. Ask Vinnie to arrange your tarnsfer to Havelock because the ferry ticket purchasing procedures can be tedious. Instead of fighting against the backpackers, leave it to Vinnie's staff and have a walk and a eat in Port Blair, you'll have to wait for 4 hours.

Forget about Barefoot they're expensive and located on the other side of the island. beautiful beach but you are REALLY stranded. Staying at Vinnies' place, you can walk to the Village, the finest restaurant which belongs to another hotel is 10 minutes walk (try their giant crab, almost the size of the table), of course the ensuite bathrom tents with a fan are mandatory, I have stayed one night in his 10USD no fan tents, it was hot like hell inside.

As a summary, the pros :
- pristine areas
- lots of fish
- untouched corals
- "soft adventure" feel
- great atmosphere at Vinnies', if you're a photographer, you'll be pampered.
- hey that's INDIA!!! Imagine burning hot Masala tea and samosas for a surface intervall snack.

Cons :
- the boats... jeeeze, they're so noisy and the trips to the dive sites are loooong.
- disappointing on the macro side, I haven't seen the usual nudi suspects or tiny critters, but maybe that diving is still young and the DM haven't really looked for that kind of stuff yet.
- no biggies, Manty (one of Vinnie's DM) says there's a manta at some place but it seems he's the only one to see them.

 

[Bowmouth]

I spend more than a month diving last year off a liveaboard in the Andaman Islands. We did A LOT of exploratory diving and visited lots of islands, islets and pinnacles.

I found all the diving around Havelock very marginal and not very interesting at all. The only ok divesite not too far from Havelock was South Button Island. South Button had a nice reef with plenty of fishlife (at least 6 large Napoleon wrasse, jacks, chevron barracudas, hawksbill turtles, moray eels, sweetlips, lots of anemones with anemone fishes, jawfish, moray eels, mantis shrimps and even some cool nudis).

By far the BEST diving can be found at Barren island (live volcano) where we had constantly great visibility (up to 50 meters), consistant manta ray sightings, giant groupers, huge dogtooth tuna's, lots of banded seakraits, lots of napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrot fish, purple fire dart gobies (by the hundreds!), nudibranchs, flatworms, schooling fish and even the odd grey reef and white tip reef shark. Barren was also the only place where we found a large area covered with large soft corals.

Second in place came Narcondam Island (extinct volcano) where we dived a pinnacle with a HUGE school of bigeye trevallies, bumphead parrot fish, some Napoleon wrasse and turtles, and a few reefs and ridges with good manta sightings, plenty of Napoleon wrasse, turtles, tuna and schooling fish. Not too many macro creatures though...

Closer to Port Blair is one other good spot and it's called Fish Rock. It's a large pinnacle that breaks the surface and surrounded by fairly deep water and VERY exposed to current. It must also have been a Navy practicing area because we found lots of bullets and shells while diving. The main attraction at Fish Rock is the fishlife; the rock and pinnacle itself are fairly barren. We saw huge giant groupers, green and hawksbill turtles, schooling chevron barracudas, huge schools of sweetlips/snappers and jacks, dogtooth tunas and king mackerels. It also had a few giant moray eels and some nice blennies in the shallows.

Most other sites we dived either had just hard coral reefs with not much fishlife at all or just lots of silt, barren rocks and algae.

Imo is diving the Andaman Islands only interesting if you can take a Liveaboard trip to Barren and Narcondam or just dive day after day at Fish Rock from a small vessel.

The "swimming elephant" at Havelock Island is a bit of a tourist trap. You'll have to pay big bucks to get a local harassing his elephant into the water so you can get your pictures. It's no natural behaviour and I think shouldn't be encouraged.

 

[Luko]

I found all the diving around Havelock very marginal and not very interesting at all. The only ok divesite not too far from Havelock was South Button Island.

That's where our mileage varies...

Marginal and not interesting at all wouldn't be something I would qualify for Dixon's Pinnacle dived at the right time, neither for Johnny's Gorge. I don't remember the usual sites in Thailand for instance packed with so much fish...
In comparison, South Button was a fish desert, although the hard coral life was outstanding. Never been to Barren, but it looks amazing, unfortunately long liveaboards are not my cuppa...

I have read your discussions with Vinnie, maybe this explains that. Once again, Vinnies' DM have been diving the place for years now.

 

[Bowmouth]

That's where our mileage varies...

I have read your discussions with Vinnie, maybe this explains that. Once again, Vinnies' DM have been diving the place for years now.

True, Vinnie and the other local dive operator(s) have been there for many years and dived and explored the area around Havelock probably extensively. Unfortunately do none of the local operators to my knowledge have any decent dive boats and are thus unable to explore the area away from Havelock and Port Blair.
Maybe we were just unlucky while diving around Havelock or maybe you and I just have different ideas about what is good and what is marginal.

I dived most of the known sites around Havelock and also did more exploratory dives basically all around the island and found the diving very disappointing compared to Barren, Narcondam, Passage island and Fish Rock. Lots of hard coral reefs but also lots of rubble, silt, rock and mud and very little color. This wouldn't be a problem if there were any cool creatures to be found but unfortunately even the small animals just didn't seem to be around. I understand that the diving in the Andaman Islands is still in its infancy and it may take many more years for the local operators to be able to find good dive sites. Also, the area is HUGE so their must be some good potential either further up North or down South.

I really hope sooner or later someone will invest in a proper dive boat / liveaboard in the Andaman Islands and will explore the area properly and open up a market for (the more serious) divers. Given all the rules, regulations and laws in the area I doubt though if that will happen any time soon.

 

[boney]

Just came back from there - got back Sunday the 10th of Feb. They are both at the same location, Island Vinnies is the resort and dive india the dive operators. Very nice resort (recommend the "deluxe" tents) with friendly people as well as other travellers. Water was a warm 84F all the way down to 60feet with vis at about 60feet as well at this time of year. Lots of fish and I did see some coral crabs and a nudi as well. On my last day there the dive group that got back saw a whale swim overhead!
I flew via JetAirways and would recommend them, if you book early enough the prices can be quite cheap. Do have them arrange the transfer for you, and if you like you can stay a city king palace for your stay in port blair - but it is a really run of the mill hotel. You may want to try to book a better one yourself. If you pay for the transfer they will take you there as well as to the airport the next day. When you stay in Port Blair, try eating at the lighthouse restaurant - its near the aquarium. Great seafood with cheap lobster, indian style, as well as tandoori fish!
When you fly there, I'd recommend a direct flight to Chenai or Calcutta - Mumbai airport is crazy. Also be wary of doing multiple flights on your way home! You may require more than 24hours after your last dive before you fly.

Multiple Flights after Diving - Undercurrent, March 2007

Pics for viewing - although not as nice as Luko's (great shots BTW!)

Picasa Web Albums - Hamesh - Andaman Islands