Havelock Island Diving

[HKGuns]

Just finished up two days of diving on Havelock Island. My first ever dives in Salt water.

We stayed at the Seashell resort which was wonderful, clean and well kept. Wireless and cell coverage was spotty at best. The only places with wireless were the restaurant and main desk area. But the coverage was intermittent at best and texts were about all you could get out when working properly.

Dove with ScubaLuv.in they are on the Seashells property and very convenient when you are staying on the property. All dives were on air, but Nitrox was available. Their tanks had pro valves so I was able to use my DIN regulator and didn’t need to use my Yoke converter.

We dove 2 days, 2 dives per day.

Day 1 was the wall at about 70- 80 feet average depth, the second dive was shallower at only 35-40 feet average depth. Clarity was good with some particulate floating around on the shallower dive. Danny was our dive master and he was very good and attentive to divers of different skill levels. I kept my buoyancy pretty well considering I was 2 kilos under weight on the first dive and when the AL80 got low I fought the buoyancy a bit toward the end.

With the extra weight on dive 2 I was able to hold my depth by breathing.

Day 2 the dive master was “42” we were supposed to be The Johnnies and Dixon. We motored through 8 foot rollers on the way to the site and when we reached the site the anchor wouldn’t hold so we called it unsafe and proceeded to two other sites closer to the islands where the seas were more calm. The ride out was a blast bouncing around in the front of the boat.

The first site was 50-60 feet with good clarity and marine life. The second site was 25-30 feet and visibility was poor.

On day 2 we dove with “Frank and Janet.” Frank has over 20K dives and was an incredible diver. This dude was 6” off the bottom at all times, in complete control, while taking pictures of coral and fishies. Simply amazing to watch and I did my best to stay out of his way.

I took all my gear and only used their AL80 and weights.

Two key learnings.

1. The dive masters don’t understand PSI and I couldn’t figure out how to switch my computer to Bar. On the third dive I got to the safety stop with only 200 PSI and was debating with myself what to do, but my buddy was very close so I continued the safety stop and walked on the boat with 90 PSI left in the tank. I know, stupid, but I was on top of my air status and didn’t panic.

2. Know how to convert pounds to kilos so you know how much weight to take. Relying on connectivity to do the conversion isn’t a good plan when you have no connectivity.

Getting there from the US was a 40 hour straight door to door travel adventure covering 8,735 miles, the worst part being waiting 5 hours for the ferry to Havelock from Port Blair in a hot, people filled room.

Flew Lufthansa business class from DTW to Frankfurt and Lufthansa business class from Frankfurt to Chennai.

In Chennai we picked up and IndiGo domestic 2 hour flight to Port Blair. In Port Blair we took a 2 hour ferry to Havelock. The Seashells is very close to the ferry port, a 3 minute ride and walkable if you don’t have 100 pounds of luggage and gear.

I really enjoyed the trip and would do it again in a heartbeat. I don’t think I embarrassed myself and held my own with the other divers.

I hope this helps someone in the future.

 

[HKGuns]

I finished the Video from the trip. You can hear my computer barking at me on a lot of the under water footage.

Most of you are in lock down so this will kill 45 minutes or so for you if you can take it.

 

[Vic K]

@HKGuns I am glad you had a good Trip to Havelock. We reached there probably a week after you left and stayed for about 10 days. We split our trip in 2 different hotels one of them being seashell too. Johnnies and Dixon dives were the highlight of our trip and probably were one of the best dives we have done, we ended up diving 2 tanks for a week. We ended up using a different op than scubalov but saw them in action everyday from the property. I did use scubalov on Neil island for a day and that was good. We too enjoyed the island a lot and would go back in a heartbeat. Hope we get to dive it again someday.

 

[HKGuns]

@Vic K I really wish we'd have been able to dive the Johnnies, everyone said it would be the highlight. Glad you enjoyed your trip! I will go back at some point after this virus clears.

Can I ask a couple of questions?

What was the other place you stayed on the island and was it as good or better than Seashells?
Where did you stay in Port Blair, assuming you went through there on your return?

 

[Vic K]

@HKGuns you are right about Johnnies also the Dixons and Jacksons were absolutely stellar dive sites. We did a dawn dive at them and it was just magical. Make sure to visit them just for those sites, as i mentioned they were probably some of the best dives we have ever done. The dive op we used was Aqua Nomad. The difference between their boat and Scubalov was in size and width so it made going through choppy waters easier and no dive was cancelled regardless of conditions. Only downside was no shade on the boat, but we travel with boat coat for hot and cold days so it did not matter to us but i did see some people burn.

The other hotel we stayed in Havelock was Sandyy Wavess (I think that is the way they spell it). I liked it little better than Seashells as the rooms were newer, much better water pressure and long hot showers, bed was much comfier, room was much more spacious, lot more outlets (for charging my camera and accessories) and a really nice pool which we used just once lol. It was on the beach like sea shells but i think it was less rockier than seashell. I did like the cafe better at seashells as it was more livelier and great food. Sandyy wavess was further down and you would probably need a scooter to move around if you are anything like us as it is not as centrally located. Price was on par with seashells.

On both portblair and on Neil island we stayed in Seashell hotel as well. Neil island being the best one period, just a great property. Mind you there are 2 seashells on Neil, we stayed in samsarra which is the newer property, Portblair seashells was awkwardly situated on the hill, nothing too fancy, decent cozy rooms. Great restaurant on the roof top for dinners and drinks. Definitely the highlight of the hotel was the roof top. We stayed here both on our way in and way out. Next trip i would definitely stay couple extra days on neil and havelock. Portblair will probably only be transit days.

Havelock was a great culinary experience for us also. Hope you got to try some of the wonderful restaurants that island seem to be full of. Coffee was a big problem for us but thankfully found barefoot down the street to brew some excellent coffee. Not many proper coffee machines on that island.

 

[Vic K]

BTW... on your video it looks like you were in the biggest room of seashells and the room looks renovated. Same was not the case in my room which was the second highest category but was not renovated and a little lesser space to spread out for 2 people with scuba gear. Also really enjoyed seeing the resort grounds on your video as i enjoyed that area as well.

 

[HKGuns]

Thanks for all the great information. It will be very valuable for our next trip.

On the way in, we didn't stay in Port Blair, we gutted it out and went straight to HaveLock. ~48 hours of straight international travel was kind of rough. When we got on the Ferry to Havelock we were in the VIP section alone and crashed hard in some really big comfy chairs.

Schedules forced us to over night in Port Blair on the way out and we ended up at a pretty rustic spot. In the video, the three wheeler is us going to Seashells for drinks the night we stayed in Port Blair. We went to the the Seashell on the hill for drinks that evening and thought it would be a much better option than where we ended up, glad to have confirmation.

We are considering spending the night in Port Blair on the way in next time as we were pretty beat down upon arrival to the resort on Havelock.

Yeah, the rooms we stayed in were very nice, hot water was still push button, but sufficed. All things considered, they were pretty cheap as well. I was kind of amazed there weren't many people there when we were at Seashells. We saw a few American's and Europeans but the Indian folks pretty much stayed in their rooms the whole time.

The video portion where you see me being bounced around the bow of the boat is the morning we attempted to dive the Johnnies.

While we were there we learned of a "volcano" dive trip that is supposed to be fantastic as well. I don't recall all the details, but we're going to investigate that for our next trip.

I get over there twice a year on normal years and my job makes vacations difficult, so it is easy to tack vacation onto a business trip and have free business class airfare to India. The only portions I paid for out of pocket was the flight from Chennai to Port Blair, the Ferry to Havelock and the resort / diving fees. Was really a bargain all things considered.

We'll check out that other resort and dive-op as well for our next trip.

Thanks again for all the great information and tips.

ETA: Based on the timing of your trip you cut it even closer than we did to being able to get out!

 

[Vic K]

The trip to volcano is on barren island. Unfortunately it is no longer accessible for recreational activities due to multiple reasons. This is as per Indian government order. I did hear that dive was a bucket list dive.

I did see your picture at the end on rooftop at seashell in portblair. I think while going and coming back it is advisable to stay overnight in port Blair. Also make it to Neil if you can on your next trip as it was a super cool small island.

very cool that you can just extend your work and take this side trip. And you are right about how reasonable everything is all things considered. hopefully you saw some excellent sun sets at radhanagar beach. If not there is always next business trip.

 

[scubajunky17]

@HKGuns you are right about Johnnies also the Dixons and Jacksons were absolutely stellar dive sites. We did a dawn dive at them and it was just magical. Make sure to visit them just for those sites, as i mentioned they were probably some of the best dives we have ever done. The dive op we used was Aqua Nomad. The difference between their boat and Scubalov was in size and width so it made going through choppy waters easier and no dive was cancelled regardless of conditions. Only downside was no shade on the boat, but we travel with boat coat for hot and cold days so it did not matter to us but i did see some people burn.

The other hotel we stayed in Havelock was Sandyy Wavess (I think that is the way they spell it). I liked it little better than Seashells as the rooms were newer, much better water pressure and long hot showers, bed was much comfier, room was much more spacious, lot more outlets (for charging my camera and accessories) and a really nice pool which we used just once lol. It was on the beach like sea shells but i think it was less rockier than seashell. I did like the cafe better at seashells as it was more livelier and great food. Sandyy wavess was further down and you would probably need a scooter to move around if you are anything like us as it is not as centrally located. Price was on par with seashells.

On both portblair and on Neil island we stayed in Seashell hotel as well. Neil island being the best one period, just a great property. Mind you there are 2 seashells on Neil, we stayed in samsarra which is the newer property, Portblair seashells was awkwardly situated on the hill, nothing too fancy, decent cozy rooms. Great restaurant on the roof top for dinners and drinks. Definitely the highlight of the hotel was the roof top. We stayed here both on our way in and way out. Next trip i would definitely stay couple extra days on neil and havelock. Portblair will probably only be transit days.

Havelock was a great culinary experience for us also. Hope you got to try some of the wonderful restaurants that island seem to be full of. Coffee was a big problem for us but thankfully found barefoot down the street to brew some excellent coffee. Not many proper coffee machines on that island.

Some of the best dives you have done, can I ask you please where you have dived, where are you comparing it to ?

 

[Vic K]

@scubajunky17 hope all is well. i probably have not dived at as many places at you. But here is the list - other than Andaman Islands I have done cozumel, tulum, Bonaire, curaçao, Turks and Caicos LiveAboard, roatan and Grenada. I have not visited other Asian destinations or Red Sea. Havelock island was absolutely great but at specific sites. You will be very disapointed in near the island places where they take the masses. But the spots where very few boats go to as mentioned previously were absolutely magical. please note they were all about 45 minutes ride in. These spots were nothing short of National Geographic movies worthy. If you go you will have to do your research properly for right ops and who can take you there as the information available online is very fragmented. If you need further information, please let me know I will be happy to assist.