Pete and Karens Dominica trip January 2008
We spent the first three days of our trip diving the south of the island at the capital Rosseau, using Dive Dominica whose office was at Fort Young Hotel, where we were staying which made life easy as we only had to walk through the hotel to the jetty for our 08:15 pick up. As usual the dive centre staff had never seen a BSAC qualification book before and definitely not one that is over twenty years old ! Still a good likeness to the photo though !!! Being PADI they think that an advanced diver is one step up from a numpty which means I can act like one and get away with it.
As the hotel is next to the cruise ship quay it meant that a lot of the other divers were doing a days (two tank dive) from the cruise ship, they were predominantly Americans and for the three days we were the youngest on the dive boat (honest) ! The dive centre used two boats depending as to how many people were diving, the first day there were only eight of us on the larger boat which on the following days had about twenty divers on it.
First dive was Scotts Head Drop Off , most of the life is soft coral and sponge and the underwater topography is a plateau at 15 - 20m with vertical walls dropping of to hundreds of metres as this area is an old volcano crater. Karen’s trying to get used to her new camera, I tell her I’ll be able to take better photo’s with our old one as its not what you’ve got its how you use it that counts!
Second dive is La Sorcier. which is in the same area but a little shallower. Again sponges , soft corals and really vibrant colours. Dive guide has realised we don’t use much air and tells us we can stay down for 15 mins longer than the others. Finished back at jetty for 13:00 which gives us time to go on the whale watching trip at 14:00, I don’t expect to see any and for the first hour we just cruise around about six miles from shore with the skipper talking to other boats in the area asking for any sitings. Then the shout goes up WHALES! A mother and calf sperm whale . The skipper tells us that if they a diving shallow and short you will just see their backs breaking the surface but if they are going deep and for an hour or more then their tails (flukes) will be out of the water. W e cut engines and drift with them for 15 mins until another boat appears and gets too close and they deep dive. Out comes the FREE rum punch for a successful trip, then a short while later two large males are seen, followed by another group of four. It is 17:00 as we head back with the sun setting behind us and we get a tour of the bay where scenes from the Pirates Of The Caribbean were filmed.
Day 2 Scotts Point Head Point, Karen and others see a stingray in a gully, as I arrive at the head of the gully it takes off straight at me and I have a ‘Steve Irwin’ thought as it passes overhead, got the photo though. Head back to shot line (all permanent moorings) and the current picks up a little and the vis comes down to about 5m ! Surface as I think we have gone too far and have a 25m swim to the boat.
Second dive L’Abym, The Deep. Narrowish ledge with drop off this time saw turtle and yellow frogfish. Vis back to normal 20m.
Day 3 dived Danglebean Pinnacles and Soufriere Pinnacles again good vis fantastic colours.We learnt a new signal on this dive and when we had stopped laughing we realized it was for a sea horse, think Frankie Dettori in scuba gear but without the horse! Difficult to get a decent picture as they have ‘furry’ edges which stops the camera focusing properly, also my cameras lcd screen seems to dying leaving a black patch in the corner off the screen making it difficult to see if you have an object in frame.
Diving day 4 we have now moved to the North of the island and we have a 40 minute drive from Calibishie Lodges, where we are staying, to the dive shop in Portsmouth, a university town and we have gone from being the youngest on the boat to the oldest! Dive Cabrits is run by a bubbly English woman Helen and her American husband Pete, here we don’t have to do anything apart from turn up, the dive kit is already assembled for us when we arrive on the boat (received a few comments from the guides on our ‘old school’ type of gear). The first dive is the usual not very testing dive called ‘The Cannon Site’ although none of the guides have seen any there! A reef runs parallel with the coast, we pass over this and a sandy area to see a small wreck sunk for divers, 5 mins on this and back to the reef where there are hard corals which weren’t at the south of the island.
Dive 2 at Douglas Bay Point, the bottom is more rocky in this area with gullies, overhangs , spidercrabs also seem to visit this site. Finished at 13:00 and drive round the bay to a cafe on the beach, the weather at the north is less changeable and we get long periods of sun.
Day 5 sees us at Sharks Mouth here we have to break the 25m depth limit as we see a Hawks Bill turtle happily grazing on a sponge at 32m, he is quite happy to carry on munching as myself and Karen take quite a few photos, makes it very good dive. We also get a close encounter with a snake eel free swimming just in front of us.
Second dive is Toucan Caves again a more rugged terrain with caves and swim throughs loads of fish life and very colourful, we all go through a cavern and on leaving it come out on top of the rocks to see all our bubbles filtering through the rocks which makes it look like an aquarium. Inside the cave it is home to loads of lobsters and shrimp but only visible if you have a torch.
Day 6 and our last days diving, more people on the boat today as its Saturday. We soon realize that there are trainees with us today and we are concerned as to what type of site they will be using. Dive 1 is called the Rose Garden, dive plan goes out the window as there is a current running, Karen has to give an assisted lift to an American ex commercial diver who is breathing mouthfuls of water and we end up drifting over sand for nearly ten minutes. Saw a ‘Flying Gurnard’ with its ‘wings’ outstretched. Towards the end of the dive we come back across the reef and surfaced about ½ mile away from where we went in.
Our last dive is at a site called Pole to Pole, nothing to do with Michael Palin, but a dive under the cruise ship pier. It doesn’t appear to be too inspiring with a flat sandy bottom at 15m, but on entering the pier legs are covered with sponges and it is very colourful. Here we see a seahorse and exploring we find there are quite a few scorpion fish. After 50 mins its back to the pier where we see another seahorse and say our farewells to diving in Dominica!
Trip organized through www.motmottravel.com
All photos taken using ambient light and manually setting the white balance for every picture.
Travel Tips :
Flight to Antigua with XL give you 30kg baggage allowance, we were just under this.
The connecting flight to Dominica is with LIAT and you only get 23KG! On the out going flight this wasn’t a problem but on the return with the same weight of luggage we were charged US$40, about £2 for every KG.
Pete Alibone
