Trip Report Clark's Cay

[afdgf]

We just got back from a week of diving at Cabanas at Clark's Cay. This was one of the best dive trips we have been on.
The good: Excellent visibility on almost all dives; good boat where we did not feel crowded with a good ladder to get back on and generous shade; excellent food which I would have to rank as the best or tied for the best in the Caribbean that we have ever had; laundry was done for us three times so you could pack much lighter than we did; very attentive, well-trained and cooperative staff; the dive staff took care of everything, the overall manager dove with us on all dives and he passed his level 4 exam when we were there with REEF so he is very good with fish identification; a lot of fish including species that we had not seen before like indigo hamlet in addition to the usual suspects we also saw a yellow lip grouper which is rare and the nurse sharks were very friendly; our group had the entire island to ourselves; wonderful massages but then you did not want to do anything else for the rest of the day because you were so relaxed; this was the first time I felt "spoiled" all day long; excellent popsicles and virgin mango daiquri; even though there was wind, the boat went to areas that were sheltered and had good diving.
The bad: the ferry ride over was miserable and I got seasick for the first time in my life, the ride back was fine; American Airlines changed our flight so that we were up for over 24 hours by the time we got there; I and another person in our group wound up with traveler's diarrhea which I think was from the salad, we were both susceptible for different reasons.
I realize that people want different things from diving, but for us, it was wonderful.

 

[Doc]

Pix of dive boats and ops please.

Describe daily dive process too

 

[afdgf]

Pix of dive boats and ops please.

Describe daily dive process too

I am not sure my wife took pictures of the dive boat. I will check with her. There are some pictures on their website. The daily dive process was basically to get your wetsuit from the hanger/rack on the dock and take it on the boat with you to your station where they had set up your BCD, regulators and your mask if you left it for them. I brought my computer with me each day. The booties were on one of the interior benches. Once the captain figured out where we were going (it depended on the wind), then they would do the dive briefing. I could always hear and understand the person doing the briefing. When we got to the site and we had gotten into our equipment (they would help if needed), we go un-bungeed, stood up and some people put their fins on when they got to the platform, but most put them on and then walked with the fins on the platform to do the giant strides. Some people did backward roll from a point on one of the sides. There were three staff who wore yellow rashguards so we could always tell who the staff were. There was one bucket for masks and one for cameras. They had defog (I think it was baby shampoo in a different bottle). Once in the water we all assembled and followed one of the staff, but our group went really slow so that we could count the fish (it was a REEF dive). When one of us would give the half way hand signal, then the forward staff would lead us back to the boat. The behind staff would stay with the slowest divers and come back with them. Twice we grabbed the line behind the boat before getting on the ladder. Took our fins off and threw them to the staff on the boat, walked up the ladder and walked back to our station when they re-bungeed us. There was also a shower on the boat that some people used. There was also a head on the boat. They provided some kind of drinks during the surface interval along with fruit and cookies.
My wife and one other person did their 200th dive, but another person did their 2000th dive. The first dive they check to make sure you could clear your mask and recover your regulator and clear it, mostly just to make sure of your comfort in the water. After that they left us alone because we were counting fish and taking pictures of the fish for identification. They seemed to have just the right amount of "being there" with noninterference to make for a really good experience for a week of REEF diving. The leader/instructor for our group Hilary Penner was an excellent fish instructor and we had some REEF "royalty" on the trip with us such as Jonathan Lavan and Janna Nichols so there was a lot of expertise available, even though my wife and I were relatively beginners compared to the others. I think we had about 18 divers on the boat which normally would have been too crowded, but in this case it worked out fine. I was surprised that we did not get in each other's way on some of the more narrow dives. If the group had been the usual group of novices, it would have been very uncomfortable.

 

[Ukmc]

Pix of dive boats and ops please.

Describe daily dive process too

Guanaja Scuba Diving - Cabanas on Clark’s Cay

Guanaja’s fringing reef is a protected marine reserve making it an ideal spot for scuba diving and snorkeling nearly anywhere offshore the mainland.

www.clarkscay.com

 

[Doc]

“”We do three dives daily, Sunday - Thursday, and two morning dives on Friday. One night dive is included with any seven-night package and is generally conducted on Tuesday evening (so no afternoon dive on Tuesday.)””

So, looks like 17+1 dives per week.

They mention 2 vessels, but i think they show only an external view of one… so, yes… do them a favor, post some more pix.

I trust SB detailed reports over any website.

 

[afdgf]

We did two morning dives each day and one afternoon dive. They were going to do a night dive but the group changed that to a dusk dive. The website is somewhat misleading on the boats. They list two but one of them is for dunbar rock, so the other one is for Clark's Cay. We only had one boat. If this link works for you it will have pictures of our trip and some of those pictures are on the boat.
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAzb5o

 

[Ukmc]

We did two morning dives each day and one afternoon dive. They were going to do a night dive but the group changed that to a dusk dive. The website is somewhat misleading on the boats. They list two but one of them is for dunbar rock, so the other one is for Clark's Cay. We only had one boat. If this link works for you it will have pictures of our trip and some of those pictures are on the boat.
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAzb5o

Great photos!
Thank you for sharing!
I miss that place!
Yes, indeed, there are 2 boats. One for Dunbar another one for Clark’s. They are twins - Freedom and Endeavor. Fit about 20+ people each with 40+ tanks.