Jetty

This was a concrete Jetty which collapsed. It has now become a part of the reef which provides hiding places for the fish. This site has a lot of encrusting corals on the shallow rocks. The depth near the Jetty structure is very shallow but it gets a little deeper going a little away from the island. Porcupine Puffers, groupers, lots of red tooth triggerfish, surgeonfish, wrasses, damsels, snappers, goatfish, squirrelfish, banners, butterflies and angels and sometimes barracudas, nudibranchs, & lionfish, are amongst what you see here. The symbiotic relationship between the shrimp and the goby is seen on the sandy patch.

Depth: 3 to 7 metres

Difficulty: Easy. 

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Navy Bay

This is a small wall of rocks in the sea that extends above the surface. We do a full cirlce around it. The depth on the south side is shallow with sandy bottom with scattered rocks. The northern side is deeper with a large patch of Table Corals and large submerged boulders. You generally see Puffers, groupers, triggerfish, surgeonfish, wrasses, damsels, snappers, goatfish, banners, butterflies, and angels. You sometimes see the box puffer, sting ray and lionfish. The symbiotic relationship between the shrimp and the goby is seen on the sandy patch.

Depth: 3 to 7 metres

Difficulty: Easy. Though there is surge.

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Bounty Bay

This site has a sandy bottom with a lot of gravels and rocks. Going towards the island you reach a rocks patch with large boulders providing hiding places for fish. On the eastern side is a large fingers shaped rock formation with each finger acting like a small wall that you can swim around. You generally see Puffers, groupers, triggerfish, surgeonfish, wrasses, damsels, snappers, goatfish, banners, butterflies, and angels. You sometimes see large Malabar Grouper, sting ray, moorish idols or golden trevally. The symbiotic relationship between the shrimp and the goby is seen on the sandy patch.

Depth: 3 to 7 metres

Difficulty: Easy.

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Shelter Cove

This site is around a rock wall that extends from the island into the sea. The nothern side is mostly sandy with a large patch of reef. We go along the wall and swim around to the southern side which is mostly rocky. There is an open channel in the wall through which we can swim back to the northern side. As the waves move though the channel, it creates surge underwater which is fun to swim through. You generally see Puffers, groupers, triggerfish, surgeonfish, wrasses, damsels, snappers, goatfish, sea urchins, banners, butterflies, and angels. You sometimes see sting ray. The symbiotic relationship between the shrimp and the goby is seen on the sandy patch.

Depth: 3 to 7 metres

Difficulty: Easy. There is surge in the channel.

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Coral Garden

The bottom is mostly rocky and covered with table corals and encrusting corals. You generally see Puffers, groupers, triggerfish, surgeonfish, wrasses, damsels, snappers, banners, squirrelfish, butterflies and angels. You sometimes see sting ray. Turtle, if you are lucky.

Depth: 3 to 7 metres

Difficulty: Easy.

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Freddy's Nook

As the name suggests, this dive site is at a nook on the island. The bottom is sandy with large rocks on the island side. They are covered with encrusting corals. There is a wall extending from the island on the east side. Though it is a nook, not all of the dive site is calm and sheltered. The wall has an open channel, which itself is a dive site, which causes surge on this dive site. Nothing to worry about. The surge is not very strong and new divers can easily dive here. You generally see Puffers, groupers, triggerfish, surgeonfish, wrasses, damsels, snappers, goatfish, sea urchins, banners, butterflies, and angels. You may see sting ray or a bar tailed flathead here. Mullets are also seen sometimes. The symbiotic relationship between the shrimp and the goby is seen on the sandy patch.

Depth: 3 to 7 metres

Difficulty: Easy. There is surge near the channel.

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S S Rita

Also called "Suzy's wreck", this is the most loved and most dived site in Goa. It is a wreck of a ship called S S Rita (Steam Ship Rita), which sank in the 1960's. It was carrying rail tracks. It hit some shallow rocks near Sail Rock and sank. This site only has the Bow and the middle part of the ship. The stern with the propeller is at a different dive site called Davie Jones. The shallowest part of the wreck was at 1.5 metres but recently that part has collapsed. The shallowest part (of the wreck, not the sea bottom) is now at 3 metres. The bow is resting on a sandy bottom at a depth of 7 - 8 metres. The wreck is over 100 metres long and the stern side is at 12 - 13 metres depth. The shallow portion of the wreck is covered with barnacles and blennies can be seen if you look closely. If you look inside the wreck, you will see a lot of sweeper fish which prefer dark places and frequently a few large groupers. This site has very good fish population. You generally see puffers, groupers, triggerfish, surgeonfish, wrasses, damsels, snappers (including some large ones), goatfish, banners, breams, butterflies, and angels. You sometimes see mackerels, barracudas, parrotfish, nudibranchs, lionfish, and batfish. Scorpionfish sit on the wreck well camouflaged. Silver moonies and sometimes Scats gather near the boat.

Depth: 7 to 13 metres

Difficulty: Easy.

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Turbo Channel

Remember the channel in the east side wall of Freddy's nook, which I mentioned causes surge at Freddy's nook? This channel itself is a dive site. The channel is pretty wide and long. It takes about 15 minutes to cross it at a relaxed pace. The waves moving in and out of the channel causes surge which can be pretty strong at times. The trick is to not fight it. You can slow down to just try and mantain your position when the water is against you and swim along when the water turns and moves in the direction of your route. You can simply swim in and out of the channel, swim through and go around the wall, or swim through, around the wall and then to SS Rita. There is also a small narrow channel within this channel which is fun to go through. The depth ranges from 5 metres to 14 metres. You need to have decent buoyancy control to go through the channel. There are a lot of sea urchins in the channel. You also see parrotfish along with the surgeonfish, in the channel. There are groupers, wrasses, damsels, snappers, goatfish, banners, butterflies, and angels around too. You sometimes see moray eels, nudibranchs, and lionfish. Scorpionfish sit on the rocks well camouflaged.

Depth: 5 to 14 metres

Difficulty: Intermediate.

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Umma Guma reef

This is a rocky pinnacle that extends out of the water's surface. We anchor based on the wind and waves and dive around the pinnacle. The southern side is about 14 metres deep, with a sandy bottom. This also happens to be a wreck site. However nothing now remains of the wooden ship that sank here, except an anchor and the cargo of clay tiles scattered at the bottom. The northen side is shallower (7 metres approx). The sea can be choppy which can be uncomfortable for other divers waiting on boat who are not qualified to dive here and there may be current. The visibility can be less due to these environmental factors and hence, we dive here only when the conditions are favorable. There are parrotfish, puffers, surgeonfish, groupers, wrasses, damsels, snappers, goatfish, banners, butterflies, and angels. You may see lionfish, Scorpionfish, and goby.

Depth: 7 to 14 metres

Difficulty: Intermediate.

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Lobster Avenue

It is not necessary that you will see lobsters here. You are likely to see them though. The bottom is mostly rocky with lots of table corals and other encrusting corals. This is a small rock wall that extends out of the water's surface. You can go around this. The southern side is deeper and based on environmental conditions, likely to be more choppy with relatively less visibility. The northen side is sheltered between the wall and the island itself. There are puffers, surgeonfish, groupers, wrasses, damsels, snappers, banners, butterflies, and angels. You may see bamboo shark sitting in a crevice.

Depth: 5 to 9 metres

Difficulty: Mostly easy.

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Sail Rock

This is a large rocky pinnacle that extends well above of the water's surface. It looks like a sail and hence the name. We anchor based on the wind and waves and dive around the pinnacle. The western side is 21 metres deep, with a sandy bottom. You may see sting rays here. The eastern side is shallower and about 9 to 11 metres deep. The sea can be choppy which can be uncomfortable for other divers waiting on boat who are not qualified to dive here and there may be strong current. The visibility can be less due to these environmental factors and hence, we dive here only when the conditions are favorable. There is good fish life here.

Depth: 9 to 21 metres

Difficulty: Intermediate to advanced based on conditions.

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Davie Jones

Remember that S S Rita is missing the stern? This is where the stern with the propeller is. It is along the southern side of  a patch of shallow rocks. The site has a good fish life and you are likely to see big fish here. Do not expect it but a whale shark was sighted here a few years ago. But thats not the big fish I was talking about. There are large groupers and snappers here. The fish population is also very good with a lot of surgeonfish, wrasses, damsels, banners, breams, butterflies and maybe a few angels. The sea can be choppy which can be uncomfortable for other divers waiting on boat who are not qualified to dive here and there may be strong current. The visibility can be less due to these environmental factors and hence, we dive here only when the conditions are favorable.

Depth: 9 to 15 metres

Difficulty: Intermediate to advanced based on conditions.

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Double Boiler

This is the least dived site in Goa. I am not aware of any customer diving here. Only a few professionals have dived on this site. There are no proper coordinates of this site. Since we dive not too far from the mainland and we have mobile signal available at the island, we are not used to carrying GPS devices. The phone GPS is very inaccurate in the sea. We anchor based on visual reference points. The conditions are mostly unfavorable. The sea is moslty choppy and hence not good for other divers waiting on the boat who are not qualified to dive here. There usually is strong current and visibility can be very poor. More or less, the conditions are not very different from Sail Rock but the advantage that Sail Rock has is that it is visible. The Double Boiler is not. So, finding it without proper coordinates, in poor visibility and strong current, makes it very tricky. Though I have dived here in very calm conditions and visibility exceeding 7 metres at bottom and 12 metres at the top of the boilers (two boilers and hence the name), these conditions are rare when you also have mostly advanced divers on boat. This is why this site is so rarely dived. The fish life here is very good, just like Davie Jones.

Depth: 14 to 19 metres

Difficulty: Advanced (mostly).

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Abyss

This is not really a dive site and we do not do fun dives here. We dive here to get the depth for the deep dive during the Advanced Open Water diver course. You can easily get the required depth here. The bottom is muddy with the depth of 19 to 21 metres and visibility is very poor at bottom. However, in all my years of diving in Goa, I was once fortunate to get a visibility of over 10 metres here with a clearly visible patch of rocky reef at bottom. But this is a once in 10 years kind of an event. On a regular day, you cannot see the bottom while you are standing on it.

Depth: 19 to 21 metres

Difficulty: Intermediate.