Hi all,
I just got back from a 4 week trip to India. I spent my final week (januari 2011) diving from Havelock island in the Andaman and Nicobar islands group.
I did about 9 dives. 4 2tank dives and 1 night dives, all return trips from Havelock island. We visited the following dive sites: The lighthouse, Johnny's Gorge, Dixon's pinacles, Minerva and The Wall.
I was diving with 2 operators: Andaman bubbles and Barefoot Scuba. Their service is pretty similar. Both operate dives from the same local fishing boats.
I enjoyed the dives. Water was warm (28°C) and there were enough interesting things to see in the water to keep me happy. Comparing to the other places (Costa Rica and Egypt) where I have been diving, I don't actually considered it world class diving.
It is ok enough to myabe throw one or two days of diving in while being on Havelock, but I wouldn't recommend going for the sole sake of a diving holiday. Well, not to Havelock at least.
Up to 10-15m the corals are pretty dead and covered by some sort of algy. There were enough fish at that depth to keep me entertained, but no interesting coral. 15-25m is where it starts to get interesting. Coral is in way better shape and lots and lots of fish, although no macro. Nitrox cetrification is a must.
Although most dive centres on Havelock state that the visibility is normally 20m and more, that was definitely not the case when I was there. Visibility was 10 to 15m, with a clear view untill 10, and hazy between 10 and 15.
Trips to the dive sites are long (up to 2 hours) and the dive boats pretty basic.
A two tank dive would cost you about 3500 roupees (55 euros), maybe a bit expensive for the budget of the backpacker that Havelock mostly attracts.
I did one day of diving with Andaman Bubbles and all the other dives with Barefoot scuba. They were bot fine, although on the last day I didn't have a very good experience with Barefoot Scuba.
We set out on rough sea and one diver got very very seasick. He did go on the first dive but was not doing well in the water. In my opinion the divemaster did not really take care of him, even asking him wether he was sure he didn't wanted to come on the second dive, although the guy had pretty much passed out by than. Understandably he had a horrible experience and asked if there was a possibility to go on a local afternoon trip when the seas were calm as a compensation. The asnwer was a clear njet.
On Havelock island: it's a really beautifull place, but keep a few things in mind while visiting during the high season. It is absolutely necessary to book accomodation in advance, as everything fills up. Arriving on the evening ferry and having to spend the night in a hammock is not a very nice experience. Same for the diving. I was intending on diving with Dive India, the pioneers of Andaman diving, but they had allready filled up for the week.
As a final note, looking at the map of the Andaman islands I think it is safe to say that there must be thousands of dive sites that are still unexplored or too far out. Things tend to be concentrated around Havelock as this is where the tourists go, but there are probably way better dive sites in more remote parts of the Island range. A liveaboard would really be the best option to explore these.
Many regards,
Bert
I just got back from a 4 week trip to India. I spent my final week (januari 2011) diving from Havelock island in the Andaman and Nicobar islands group.
I did about 9 dives. 4 2tank dives and 1 night dives, all return trips from Havelock island. We visited the following dive sites: The lighthouse, Johnny's Gorge, Dixon's pinacles, Minerva and The Wall.
I was diving with 2 operators: Andaman bubbles and Barefoot Scuba. Their service is pretty similar. Both operate dives from the same local fishing boats.
I enjoyed the dives. Water was warm (28°C) and there were enough interesting things to see in the water to keep me happy. Comparing to the other places (Costa Rica and Egypt) where I have been diving, I don't actually considered it world class diving.
It is ok enough to myabe throw one or two days of diving in while being on Havelock, but I wouldn't recommend going for the sole sake of a diving holiday. Well, not to Havelock at least.
Up to 10-15m the corals are pretty dead and covered by some sort of algy. There were enough fish at that depth to keep me entertained, but no interesting coral. 15-25m is where it starts to get interesting. Coral is in way better shape and lots and lots of fish, although no macro. Nitrox cetrification is a must.
Although most dive centres on Havelock state that the visibility is normally 20m and more, that was definitely not the case when I was there. Visibility was 10 to 15m, with a clear view untill 10, and hazy between 10 and 15.
Trips to the dive sites are long (up to 2 hours) and the dive boats pretty basic.
A two tank dive would cost you about 3500 roupees (55 euros), maybe a bit expensive for the budget of the backpacker that Havelock mostly attracts.
I did one day of diving with Andaman Bubbles and all the other dives with Barefoot scuba. They were bot fine, although on the last day I didn't have a very good experience with Barefoot Scuba.
We set out on rough sea and one diver got very very seasick. He did go on the first dive but was not doing well in the water. In my opinion the divemaster did not really take care of him, even asking him wether he was sure he didn't wanted to come on the second dive, although the guy had pretty much passed out by than. Understandably he had a horrible experience and asked if there was a possibility to go on a local afternoon trip when the seas were calm as a compensation. The asnwer was a clear njet.
On Havelock island: it's a really beautifull place, but keep a few things in mind while visiting during the high season. It is absolutely necessary to book accomodation in advance, as everything fills up. Arriving on the evening ferry and having to spend the night in a hammock is not a very nice experience. Same for the diving. I was intending on diving with Dive India, the pioneers of Andaman diving, but they had allready filled up for the week.
As a final note, looking at the map of the Andaman islands I think it is safe to say that there must be thousands of dive sites that are still unexplored or too far out. Things tend to be concentrated around Havelock as this is where the tourists go, but there are probably way better dive sites in more remote parts of the Island range. A liveaboard would really be the best option to explore these.
Many regards,
Bert
