Dominica - Diving Report and Pictures

[xaveri]

I just came from a cruise on the Carnival Victory and I had the chance to dive in Dominica. I booked the dives directly with a local operator instead of booking a cruise excursion and I'm glad I did. The folks at Nature Island Dive picked us up at the port at the appointed time and after a 20 minute drive we arrived at the dive shop. The facilities are clean and spacious and right in front of the beach across the street where the dive boat was docked.

We quickly got ready and head unto our first dive site called Dangleben's Pinnacles which are a series of 6 Pinnacles. The boat trip from the dock to the dive site was about 6 minutes, so we could see the dive shop from the dive site!

We started our dive at 85 feet and worked our way around the Pinnacles to finish at the top of a Pinnacle at a mere 20 feet where we did our safety stop. Marine life is plentiful. We saw around 5 huge turtles, stingrays, and a wide variety of fish.

Our surface interval was spent at the dive shop since it was so close. The second dive site called Scotts Head Pinnacle took us 10 minutes to reach. We descend at a large rock formation called Swiss Cheese and drifted across a 120 feet deep wall that finishes at a sand bed again at 20 feet where we did the safety stop.

Swiss Cheese

Both dives were really pleasant and plenty of interesting features. Visibility was about 60 feet and the water was at a pleasant 82 degrees.

I just added a couple of pictures to a new gallery if you are interested is seeing more.

Also, you can check out the diving operators here:
Diving in Dominica with Nature Island Dive - Let the Adventure Begin!

 

[divengolf]

Nature Island is a great choice. I dove with them 3 years ago for a week. None of the cattle boat stuff that the other dive ops get into with the cruise ships.

Never had more that 6-8 on a trip on a big, covered pontoon boat. And all the really great diving is at the south end right near thier shop.

Was Simon still there??

 

[divengolf]

Great photos BTW.

 

[waterpompi]

Simon is no longer full time with Nature Island Dive any more

 

[divengolf]

Simon is no longer full time with Nature Island Dive any more

How about Karen and her son whose name I can't remember?

 

[diverrex]

How about Karen and her son whose name I can't remember?

Karen and her her son Tony are still there. We just did 5 day of diving with NID. Tony was our DM on 4 days (and 1 night) while Oscar was our DM on Tony's day off (Sunday). All the staff was great. We really enjoyed diving with NID. Its slow this time of year so out of 11 dives 6 only had two other people and 5 of the dives were just the DM and the two of us. That really makes diving enjoyable.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Thanks for the report. Gotta look into Dominca now.

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Great turtle pic! Thanks for the report.