November is a great time of year to get in the water and beat the holiday crowds. Dive in and experience a variety of marine life highlights at our top November dive destinations.
WHAT CAN YOU SEE IN NOVEMBER?
Enjoy Egypt’s Deep South
Egypt’s year-round diving season means that there’s never a bad time to visit, and St. John’s is a top choice for Red Sea scuba diving in November. The fringing reefs around this island are known for the diversity of their dive sites. Caves, caverns, tunnels, and swim-throughs are abundant in the area. Other topographies include relaxed plateaus and steep drop-offs adorned with gorgonians. Local marine life includes Napoleon wrasse, grey reef sharks, and occasional sightings of oceanic whitetip sharks, hammerheads, mantas, and dolphins.
Daedalus reef is another great option and this remote, steep-sided reef is mostly unspoiled, and hosts massive Napoleon wrasse, sharks, mantas, and tuna in its colourful shallows and along its vertical walls. November is a great time of year to see grey reef sharks during their mating season and the cooler waters also attract thresher sharks to the area.
There are many Egypt liveaboards to choose from and the SimSim liveaboard offers deep south tours to St. Johns.
Spot Mola Mola in Indonesia
At select sites near Bali, lucky divers have the opportunity to experience one of the rarest large animal encounters in the world: diving with sunfish, or Mola Mola. These incredibly strange but beautiful (and enormous) circular fish are reliable visitors to the island of Nusa Penida, as well as the smaller Nusa Lembongan. In some dive sites, currents can be extremely strong and can change direction without warning. If you can manage the dive conditions, you may be rewarded with multiple sunfish sightings along the sponge- and coral-encrusted walls. Mola Mola season runs from July through November, but sightings can be variable, so we recommend you contact your chosen liveaboard for advice ahead of time.
Komodo National Park is one of the best places for Indonesia liveaboard diving during November. This group of islands, home to the ferocious Komodo dragon, holds a perfect mix of large and small creatures underwater. Some of the world’s premier muck diving sites and pygmy seahorse spots can be accessed on a Komodo liveaboard, and there are reliable cleaning stations for manta rays. November is the end of the dry season and enjoys 30-meter visibility.
In Raja Ampat, November marks the beginning of the dive season, with calm seas and good weather. Plankton draws in high numbers of manta rays to add to Raja’s year-round biodiversity explosion.
The Solitude Adventurer was completely renovated in 2017 and offers year-round dive safaris to Raja Ampat, Komodo National Park and other top Indonesia diving areas.
Dive with Hammerhead Sharks at Cocos Island
In Costa Rica, Cocos Island tops the list for November liveaboard diving. The month of November falls under Cocos’ wet season when hammerhead sharks are most plentiful. Other marine life includes turtles, mantas, tuna, whale sharks, dolphins and many, many reef sharks.
For hammerheads, in particular, the dive site of Bajo Alcyone can’t be beaten. The shallowest point of this seamount is 25 meters deep, making it a site only for advanced divers. Watching the legions of hammerheads silhouetted above and around you make for a dive of a lifetime. The regular presence of whale sharks, mobulas, mantas, and eagle rays make it even more unforgettable.
The Sea Hunter liveaboard is a good option for divers who suffer from motion sickness but want to explore Cocos Island. She is a very stable vessel and even has stabilizers lowered on mooring to give added stability on anchor.
Read our guide to the Best Places to Dive in November to find out about our other top dive destinations at this time of year.
This article was written by divers and writers at LiveAboard.com
Leave A Comment