Nishan
Contributor
I did one week of diving from Havelock in the Andaman Islands from April 9th-16th. Since there seems to be very little info on this region I'm posting a a lightly long trip report so hope its useful for others considering the Andamans.
I dived with Dive India and stayed at their property, Island Vinnies. Overall I had a great trip. Enjoyed the diving, the pace of life on the islands and the general vibe at the dive shop. The staff was friendly and efficient and there is a nice homely feel to the place. Its probably not the place if your into an intensive dive vacation but I was looking for good diving and a relaxed week on Havelock and it ticked most of the boxes. In short, I wont hesitate to go back.
Travel
Flew Kingfisher Airlines from Colombo to Chennai and then to Port Blair. We signed up for airport pick up (highly recommended). They arranged pick up, ferry tickets and transfer to resort. Took the new, fast catamaran from Port Blair to Havelock. Comfortable and worth the extra money, and it also worked well with my flight times.
Accommodation
The resort provides accommodation in tented cabanas or bamboo huts with en-suite bathrooms. The cheaper huts have shared bathrooms. I stayed in a tented cabana. Basic but clean and functional and the prices are good. The property is right on the beach with big trees and hammocks that are perfect for a post dive nap. The adjoining Full Moon Café has good food at reasonable rates and is a great place to hang out after dives. One negative is they dont serve alcohol so you need walk to another bar 5 mins away to get beer. My room was near the kitchen and it was a bit noisy at times. The staff also liked to play cricket just outside in the afternoons. Good fun but can derail any plans for an afternoon nap. Not a big deal but.......try getting a room a bit away from the kitchen if possible.
Dive Operation
The rental equipment seemed to be in good shape although I used my own gear. They have a large team of instructors and DMs. The shop was organized, staff professional and everything ran smoothly. The staff rig your gear and load it on the boat each morning so you have very little to do other than dive. We had clear briefings and the DMs were flexible, allowing me to do my own thing but also keeping a close eye on those who needed a bit more assistance. The diving is mainly done from converted fishing boats called dungies. They are slow but have shade and are spacious enough. They also have a speedboat they seemed to use for courses and a RIB with 2 x 100hp engines we used for dawn dives. diving is done as two tank trips leaving every morning. Between dives they served samosas, biscuits and tea. They also do dawn dives and night dives several times a week. The dive shop is spacious with a large area to kit up and hang gear. My main complaint was the lack of rinsing facilities for cameras. I ended up washin my rig in a small bucket in the bathroom. A tedious process since I could only get part of the housing or a strobe in at one time!
Diving
In my opinion the diving was world class. Some of the shallow sites have been severely affected by coral bleaching in 2010 but the deeper sites are still great. Most sites are rock pinnacles starting anywhere between 10-25m and going down to between 30-40m. There are also rocky ridges, shallow fringing reefs and patch reefs. A lot of the dive sites have an interesting topography with ledges and boulders. All of them had good fish life that included large schools of snappers and sweetlips, schooling bannerfish, hunting trevally, barracuda, including a large school at Dixons Pinnacle, large groupers and loads of napolean wrasses. The colorful stuff was also in abundance with lots of anemones and clownfish, butterflyfish, angelfish and clouds of anthias on the pinnacles. Big pelagics are low. We saw a few reef sharks but thats it. Most of the dive sites are also quite far away (1.5-2hrs boat ride) so in an ideal world there would be a few more within 20 mins boat ride. The sites I dived were:
Johnnys Gorge - Saw a few white tip reef sharks, a large school of bumphead parrotfish on the dawn dive, large schools of snapper and sweetlips as well as trevally and barracuda. Viz was good on both dives I did here, between 20-30m.
Dixons Pinnacle Lots of soft corals, gorgonians and anemones with clownfish. Large school of snapper, lots of napoleans, a huge giant grouper, big school of barracuda, and lots of trevally. Viz was around 10m on the 2 dives I did here but the huge amount of fish made this my favorite site. It also had a lot of diversity from colorful corals ,clownfish, shrimps and nudibranches to big schools of fish.
Jacksons Bar A flat platform like reef with a big school of snapper, bannerfish, lots of gorgonians and the usual big napoleans. Some of the group spotted a few reef sharks as well.
Broken Ledge Similar to Jacksons in terrain but shallower. Huge school of bannerfish, schools of snapper, big napoleans and a group of trevally hitting baitballs right through the dive. Lots of action.
The Wall A rocky ledge that drops almost vertically from around 10m to 55m. Lots of big fish including grouers and napoleans, good soft corals and gorgonians and interesting macro in the shallows. Ghost pipefish are regulars, and we also saw several octopi, crocodilefish, scorpionfish, electric clam, nudibranches and a variety of crabs and shrimps.
White Rock A rocky pinnacle going from 9m to 40m. A large are is covered in a garden of black coral. Fish life was dominated by small stuff but loads of them. Also the usual napoleans, hunting trevally and big groupers.
Minnerva A patch reef between 10-14m depth. Would have been a beautiful coral garden in the past but the coral is dead now making it a bit of an uninteresting dive. Will skip this until the coral recovers.
V 16 They only take special interest groups to this one. A sand bank at around 18m depth. The sand is dark brown and there is no reef. But found some interesting critters. Big sea stars, sand dollars and sea hares, burrowing snails, flat worms, gobies, flatheads, decorator crabs, sea pens etc. Apparently they also find sea moths and mimic octopus here but no luck for us. I enjoyed the dive but probably not everyones cup of tea. Viz was good at around 20m.
SS Inchekette - A shallow wreck between 5 and 18m depth. A large ship but broken up with not much penetration. Lots of soft coral and gorgonians and good fish life including both macro and a big school of mangrove snapper. Viz was low (<10m) and apparently is the norm at this site. Not a great "wreck" dive but still a nice easy dive with lots to see.
Summary:
Liked great fish action, colorful reefs, no crowds, basic but cheap accommodation and food, a laid back pace of life.
Could be Better dedicated camera rinse tub. Maybe a faster boat just to offer more flexibility. I was ok with the schedule but others may not be. Noise levels in the rooms near the kitchen.
Didnt like the mosquitos, difficulty in getting some booze and toilets in Indian airports but then thats life and if it was perfect we wont have stories to narrate would we
I dived with Dive India and stayed at their property, Island Vinnies. Overall I had a great trip. Enjoyed the diving, the pace of life on the islands and the general vibe at the dive shop. The staff was friendly and efficient and there is a nice homely feel to the place. Its probably not the place if your into an intensive dive vacation but I was looking for good diving and a relaxed week on Havelock and it ticked most of the boxes. In short, I wont hesitate to go back.
Travel
Flew Kingfisher Airlines from Colombo to Chennai and then to Port Blair. We signed up for airport pick up (highly recommended). They arranged pick up, ferry tickets and transfer to resort. Took the new, fast catamaran from Port Blair to Havelock. Comfortable and worth the extra money, and it also worked well with my flight times.
Accommodation
The resort provides accommodation in tented cabanas or bamboo huts with en-suite bathrooms. The cheaper huts have shared bathrooms. I stayed in a tented cabana. Basic but clean and functional and the prices are good. The property is right on the beach with big trees and hammocks that are perfect for a post dive nap. The adjoining Full Moon Café has good food at reasonable rates and is a great place to hang out after dives. One negative is they dont serve alcohol so you need walk to another bar 5 mins away to get beer. My room was near the kitchen and it was a bit noisy at times. The staff also liked to play cricket just outside in the afternoons. Good fun but can derail any plans for an afternoon nap. Not a big deal but.......try getting a room a bit away from the kitchen if possible.
Dive Operation
The rental equipment seemed to be in good shape although I used my own gear. They have a large team of instructors and DMs. The shop was organized, staff professional and everything ran smoothly. The staff rig your gear and load it on the boat each morning so you have very little to do other than dive. We had clear briefings and the DMs were flexible, allowing me to do my own thing but also keeping a close eye on those who needed a bit more assistance. The diving is mainly done from converted fishing boats called dungies. They are slow but have shade and are spacious enough. They also have a speedboat they seemed to use for courses and a RIB with 2 x 100hp engines we used for dawn dives. diving is done as two tank trips leaving every morning. Between dives they served samosas, biscuits and tea. They also do dawn dives and night dives several times a week. The dive shop is spacious with a large area to kit up and hang gear. My main complaint was the lack of rinsing facilities for cameras. I ended up washin my rig in a small bucket in the bathroom. A tedious process since I could only get part of the housing or a strobe in at one time!
Diving
In my opinion the diving was world class. Some of the shallow sites have been severely affected by coral bleaching in 2010 but the deeper sites are still great. Most sites are rock pinnacles starting anywhere between 10-25m and going down to between 30-40m. There are also rocky ridges, shallow fringing reefs and patch reefs. A lot of the dive sites have an interesting topography with ledges and boulders. All of them had good fish life that included large schools of snappers and sweetlips, schooling bannerfish, hunting trevally, barracuda, including a large school at Dixons Pinnacle, large groupers and loads of napolean wrasses. The colorful stuff was also in abundance with lots of anemones and clownfish, butterflyfish, angelfish and clouds of anthias on the pinnacles. Big pelagics are low. We saw a few reef sharks but thats it. Most of the dive sites are also quite far away (1.5-2hrs boat ride) so in an ideal world there would be a few more within 20 mins boat ride. The sites I dived were:
Johnnys Gorge - Saw a few white tip reef sharks, a large school of bumphead parrotfish on the dawn dive, large schools of snapper and sweetlips as well as trevally and barracuda. Viz was good on both dives I did here, between 20-30m.
Dixons Pinnacle Lots of soft corals, gorgonians and anemones with clownfish. Large school of snapper, lots of napoleans, a huge giant grouper, big school of barracuda, and lots of trevally. Viz was around 10m on the 2 dives I did here but the huge amount of fish made this my favorite site. It also had a lot of diversity from colorful corals ,clownfish, shrimps and nudibranches to big schools of fish.
Jacksons Bar A flat platform like reef with a big school of snapper, bannerfish, lots of gorgonians and the usual big napoleans. Some of the group spotted a few reef sharks as well.
Broken Ledge Similar to Jacksons in terrain but shallower. Huge school of bannerfish, schools of snapper, big napoleans and a group of trevally hitting baitballs right through the dive. Lots of action.
The Wall A rocky ledge that drops almost vertically from around 10m to 55m. Lots of big fish including grouers and napoleans, good soft corals and gorgonians and interesting macro in the shallows. Ghost pipefish are regulars, and we also saw several octopi, crocodilefish, scorpionfish, electric clam, nudibranches and a variety of crabs and shrimps.
White Rock A rocky pinnacle going from 9m to 40m. A large are is covered in a garden of black coral. Fish life was dominated by small stuff but loads of them. Also the usual napoleans, hunting trevally and big groupers.
Minnerva A patch reef between 10-14m depth. Would have been a beautiful coral garden in the past but the coral is dead now making it a bit of an uninteresting dive. Will skip this until the coral recovers.
V 16 They only take special interest groups to this one. A sand bank at around 18m depth. The sand is dark brown and there is no reef. But found some interesting critters. Big sea stars, sand dollars and sea hares, burrowing snails, flat worms, gobies, flatheads, decorator crabs, sea pens etc. Apparently they also find sea moths and mimic octopus here but no luck for us. I enjoyed the dive but probably not everyones cup of tea. Viz was good at around 20m.
SS Inchekette - A shallow wreck between 5 and 18m depth. A large ship but broken up with not much penetration. Lots of soft coral and gorgonians and good fish life including both macro and a big school of mangrove snapper. Viz was low (<10m) and apparently is the norm at this site. Not a great "wreck" dive but still a nice easy dive with lots to see.
Summary:
Liked great fish action, colorful reefs, no crowds, basic but cheap accommodation and food, a laid back pace of life.
Could be Better dedicated camera rinse tub. Maybe a faster boat just to offer more flexibility. I was ok with the schedule but others may not be. Noise levels in the rooms near the kitchen.
Didnt like the mosquitos, difficulty in getting some booze and toilets in Indian airports but then thats life and if it was perfect we wont have stories to narrate would we
