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The Andamans’ are a group of picturesque islands, big and small, inhabited and uninhabited, comprising five hundred and seventy two islands, islets and rocks, lying in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. They lie along an arc, in a long and narrow broken chain, running approximately North-South, stretching nearly eight hundred kilometres. Belonging to India, but geographically related to Myanmar and Indonesia.
Considered a rustic backwater, the Andamans have disappeared into obscurity, long forgotten and definitely far off the beaten track of the average tourist or traveller. The Andaman Islands do not have a commercial fishing industry; the only fishermen we see are small sailing outriggers or purse–net beach-based fishing operations by the local villagers.
Geographically the Andaman Islands are the tip of a sub-aquatic mountain range, with waters dropping steeply to great depths on both the east and west coasts of the main Andaman Island chain. With depths of more than two kilometres, the ocean is guaranteed to be crystal clear, swept with a rich oceanic current, which provides abundant food to support the rich and diverse marine life. This, combined with the lack of commercial fishing, ensures that the Andaman Islands offer some of the very best diving in the Indian Ocean.
We have been running dive trips in the Andaman Islands since the late 1980’s but due to local administrative bureaucracy, we had to curtail our diving operations in the Andamans for the past five years. A change of heart by the Andaman Administration now means that we are welcomed back to resume our very successful diving cruises to the very best dive sites that we know of in the Andaman Islands.
Approximate Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrive by air into Port Blair. SEAL’s guide will meet guests at the airport. Transfer to s/y Crescent, which will
be anchored in Port Blair harbour, a short twenty minute drive from the airport. Guests are welcome to drop
off their luggage on board; the afternoon is free for guests to explore Port Blair. Late afternoon s/y Crescent
will depart Port Blair and sail overnight to the first of the dive sites.
Day 2: Spent diving offshore reefs on the west coast of the Andaman Islands.
Day 3: Spent diving offshore reefs on the west coast of the Andaman Islands.
Day 4: Spent at North and South Cinque islands. Three dives.
Day 5: Diving at Sisters Island and Fish Rock. Three dives.
Day 6: Early morning sail north to Haverlock Island where the day’s diving will be spent on offshore reefs to the
west of the island, namely Minerva Ledge.
Day 7: Barren Island. Three dives.
Day 8: Narcondam Island. Three dives.
Day 9: Campbell Shoals “Fish City” and Middle Button Islands.
Late afternoon, sail back into Port Blair. Three dives.
Day 10: Guests disembark from s/y Crescent a.m. in Port Blair for transfer to the airport.
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