Dominica-Belated Brief Trip Report-w Pix

[ReadyDiverOne]

Hi all, am belatedly posting abbreviated trip report re trip to Dominica in mid-March 2019. Stayed at Fort Young because hotel affiliated with Dive Dominica was destroyed by Maria; dove 5 days with awesome Blue Planet (DC) group. Dove with both Dive Dominica (in Roseau) and Nature Island Divers (in Soufrier). Both were awesome, great operations; Nature Island smaller but still great (terrible long boat rides to dives, must have been as long as 2 minutes--not a typo, 2-3 mins max, they're in the heart of the marine preserve).

Overall, island getting there but still in process of coming back from massive devastation of Maria. Fort Young was nice, but expensive, and food was only ok at best. Couple of good to quite good restaurants in Roseau, and Simon of Nature Island makes a mean lionfish sandwich! Topography of island much like Hawaii, really impressive; reefs generally good to very good shape, interesting underwater volcanic topo.

Diving was good to very good; stress that all of the DMs were really terrific, helpful, friendly, not pedantic, you know what I mean. Not a lot of larger fish (not sure saw a single grouper), not a ton of angels or parrots. But some beautiful other life and coral.

Here is a link to some pix:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmDX5KLS

Enjoy.

 

[Redfoot]

Looks great! Thanks for sharing.

Do you dive with Blue Planet a lot?

I am thinking of doing a trip with them later this year as they have the Aggressor booked the week I wanted to go. Seems like a good outfit. They have been very responsive and kind thus far, and I have not booked yet.

Just curious, did they do T-shirts for the trip?

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

Yes, strongly recommend them, great outfit. Yes, T-shirts

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

Oh and thanks!

 

[Redfoot]

Great!

Thanks

 

[FettSolo]

@ReadyDiverOne See any whales while you were out there? I went to Dominica last November to snorkel with sperm whales and it was amazing!

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

We did do a boat ride but saw only a couple of false killers. Good reason to go back!!

 

[iamrushman]

i love reading trip / dive reports..... thanks for sharing....love the photos.

 

[arew+4]

Nice pics!
How was the weather topside, and how were seas/currents. Vis looks pretty amazing, but sometimes thats strobe set up and light room technique, was it as good as it looks?

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

@arew+4, thanks much, and you are spot on about the strobe/post-production efforts! So I would say viz was ok to good; frankly not great on the first couple of dives, improved over the 5-day period. Currents were not too bad, ACCEPT for out by the point and especially Scot Hed's Pinnacle, where it was rocking so hard I had to fin hard to get over the little wall there. It was tough given I was lugging my dual strobe-Kraken 5000-RX100 housing-GoPro rig!! Weather was beautiful first couple of days then we got some rain, which cooled things down quite a bit. I was really glad I had my North Face rain jacket.