My Yachting trip

samui

I've just come back from 2 weeks in Andaman Islands and wow, what a trip it was. I only spent a couple of days in Port Blair, the rest of my trip was on my friends yacht.

The whole 10 days cruising the islands we only saw a couple of boats, and we were never close enough to see any other people the whole trip!!! There's not many places in the world you can cruise without seeing other boats anchored up and people swimming.

First off the fishing.....

Ok where do i start.... I've fished all over the world, and this place is as good as any I have ever been to, the size and number of fish around is truly amazing. I'd also like to point out at that all fish are returned alive except for one or two each day which are eaten.

First stop I went to Barren Island (which was active and smoking at the time), after a couple of nights we moved on as there were just too many sharks, nearly every fish we hooked was getting taken by sharks, hammerheads, bull sharks, white tips, Tiger shark, we couldn't stop catching them (not a target species). To swim here would be suicidal, reef sharks ok, but some of these Tigers we saw were well over 3m, extremely dangerous at this size.

On the trip between Barren and Narcomdum we saw several pods of Dolphin with literally hundred of dolphins, they came right up to the boat each time and played and follwed for a few minutes before leaving us to chase tuna once again. There was also many babys with the groups which I had never seen before, some very small. We also saw a few whales, not sure which species, but not one of the larger ones, maybe three times size of a dolphin.

Narcumdum Island, absolutely beautiful, and the fishing was out of this world, Many Dogtooth Tuna 30-40kg, yellow fin tuna 40-50kg, wahoo 30 kg, Sailfish 40kg, Black Marlin 220Kg, Giant Travalley 30kg, Grouper 40kg + numerous other reef species to a very large size.

The Snorkeling was amazing too, huge grouper, many many reef sharks, huge stingray, morays, blue fin traveley, coral trout, hundreds of other reef species too numerous to mention + Turtles, lots of Manta rays and even a whale shark. Absolutley increadible!!!

After about a week in Narcumdum we headed to Button Islands, amazing snorkeling, and picture perfect postcard beaches, stunning underwater. One of the Islands had a long sand spit. Unfortunatley as we spent most of our time at Barren and Narcumdum we didn't have enough time to explore the rest except for Button, the rest of the trip was spent heading back to Port Blair, all the Islands looked pristine though which is so rare anywhere these days. The water was also very clear.

There's a couple of things I would like to point out that people have mentioned before on other posts, such as the diving in Andamans is no good, nothing could be further from the truth, it seems many people are basing there sweeping generalisations on very limited experiance. In many places I saw near on maximum visability, 40+m and saw a huge array of underwater life, and I was only Snorkeling!!! Maybe you need to get away from just Havelock and Neil, you shouldn't base your view of a whole Archaepelago on a visit to a handful of Islands. I know from my short trip I didn't even manage to see 0.0001% of the islands, it would take several life times and even then there would still be many undiscovered places, especially underwater.

Also there are a couple of speed boats, so not all diving has to be done by slow boats, if your prepared to pay, you can get to the sites quickly, I think the fast boats are not supplied by the diving companies, but you could always hire one seperatley and use that instead of a slower boat. There is a french guy who owns a speedboat in Port Blair.

I can't wait to go back to Andamans, but this time won't have the luxury of my friends yacht. I have a few questions for people who have been before. Firstly what is the fish life like around Havelock, is the Snorkeling good off no. 7, did anyone see any large fish, and also what other good Snorkeling/fishing spots did u find whilst on Havelock.

Also was wondering what price it is to hire the Dhonies for a day.

And a question for anyone who has been May-Oct, was havelock sheltered during the sw monsoon, or did u find the sea rough and windy.

My report is based on a very short stay and a visit to only a few Islands, but Islands that are too far away for many to visit, I can thouroughly recommend visiting both barren and Narcumdum even if fishing isn't your thing.

If you are a diver head stright to Narcumdum, it's a long way but worth it. It seems the active volcano on Barren has affected fish life, acording to my friend there is much less species of fish at than a couple of years back, and many more sharks, I have heard skarks are attracted by vibration, this could be why. I think the recent eruptions may have covered the reefs in ask which will have affected the marine life, I wasn't getting in the water to check tho!!! By the way there is a black sand beach on the island, but we didn't go on shore as you need permission. We saw planes everyday over the crater, I think the indian government were keeping a close eye on it.

Oh and I would definatley advise against heading to eigher Island on a Dhonie, they are extremely remote and the seas can blow up very quickly. Only go on a suitable boat with full safety equipment and radio or satelite phone.

I will be going back April/May so if anyone is heading there and wants to meet up let me know.

mani

Dear Samui

you just had my dream vacation. Yes its the costs and family responsibities that are keeping me away.

best of luck for your next trip.

mani

Nick-H

Wow! Sounds wonderful

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team