handben
Contributor
Roseau, Dominica November 7 -14, 2009.
I went to Dominica with my wife (kids stayed with grandma) for a DAN diving and hyperbaric medicine conference. The conference took place at Fort Young Hotel in Roseau and because of the conference, I wasnt able to get out explore the island like I might have otherwise. However, I did get a good feel for the diving in the main diving area (the far south-west part of the island).
Firstly about the hotel, we were very happy with our ocean view room. It was an end unit (212) and had a great view of the south of the island down to Scotts Head. Most of our meals were at the hotel (as part of the overall conference package) and were very tasty. Most of the food is what you would call Creole. This included mostly fish and chicken with rice, plantains, salads, fruits and juices. We did have another nice meal across the street at Roses Creole. We also ate at Garage and this meal was most noteworthy for the exceptionally slow service some 2 hours to get our food. Fort Young is the largest and most well equipped hotel on the island to stage a conference. With 96 guests in our group (around 65 in the conference), we were the largest group to ever visit the hotel. Without exception the hotel staff went out of their way to see to our happiness and well being. They went so far as to pay for an additional plane charter to carry luggage for the group when it became apparent that the charter plane was not large enough to carry all the passengers and their stuff.
Now for the diving - with such a large group, I believe we overwhelmed their dive infrastructure. It took some 5 boats to get all of us out to the dive sites. The boat we were assigned to is mostly used for whale watching. It is a large catamaran which does not have a dedicated dive deck. We all placed our gear on the back deck in a somewhat haphazard manner and were tripping over and bumping into one another all week. I am quite sure that under normal circumstances and with smaller groups, this would not be the case. We were scheduled for 11 dives this week, but our last dive of the week got cancelled due to the compressor breaking down (thankfully, it broke at the end and not the beginning!).
I will excerpt the narrative from my log-book for the dives we made this week.
Dive #: 1
Location: Carib Point/Witchs Head
Narrative:
We saw 2 Hawks Bill turtles. Ben caught the first one on video. Lots of squirrel fish, spotted Morays and orange coral. We had to dive in a group of about 14 divers. Lucy had a hard time getting down to depth. Every diver here is very well experienced (per Lucy). Our dive was by this cliff where the local divemaster said the Carib Indians would throw their wives once the got tired of them. Ben ate a tasty new fruit A sugar Apple during the SI.
Dive #: 2
Location: Champagne
Narrative: Nice dive toward the wall we saw a guitarfish (type of skate), also garden eels and gold spotted moray and angel hair type of invertebrate. In the shallows were sulfur bubbles and hot water from shallow volcanic activity.
Dive #: 3
Location: Danglebens pinnacle
Narrative: Another great dive. A couple of pinnacles which were more like large mounds sticking up from the depths. Perhaps the highlight was the 2 turtles, hard to tell if they were fighting versus loving. Also enjoyed the spotted drum. Lucy is getting the hang of things and doing well with her buoyancy and air consumption.
Dive #: 4
Location: just north of Soufriere
Narrative: Ben and I both sneered at the poor visibility when we saw the water at the back of the boat. Fortunately, when we arrived at the wall at 80 feet the water cleared up and we saw abundant sea life. We viewed another illusive spotted drum, a poised and elegant lobster, and Ben encountered a Pederson shrimp under a ledge. The sun lowered her beautiful self as we came upon more amazingly stunning life below water. We swam through a valley filled with sea urchins and orange coral.
Dive #: 5
Location: Craters Edge (just NW of Scotts Head) Dominica. This is the border between the Caribbean and Atlantic.
Narrative: Very neat topography the edge of a crater of an old volcano. The top of the crater is around 35 feet, the wall drops to some 8000 feet. It was really cool dive, the only difficulty was the current (~3/4 knot).
Dive #: 6
Location: Scotts Head Wall
Narrative: The water was quite turbid near the shore (probably due to surge). Once out on the wall, the water cleared up a bit, but was still only about 40foot or so of visibility. Highlight of the dive for me was a frogfish (first time for me to see one). Also I enjoyed a brief entry into an overhead/ledge was a small cavern. Also seen were more spotted drum and pufferfish.
Dive #: 7
Location: Scotts Head Wall (about ½ distance down peninsula)
Narrative: Night dive, was great, started out with a school of reef squid under the boat to begin with. Saw a number of lobster, basket stars, several moray, spotted drum. We drifted swam against the current (going East to west), it then reversed when we were heading back toward the boat, so we went against the current both was. Anyhow, a very nice dive.
Dive #: 8
Location: Scotts Head Drop-off (Just west of the far end of Scotts Head)
Narrative: Another very nice wall dive and cool stuff in the shallows as well. Turtles among other things. 60 minute dive.
Dive #: 9
Location:LAbyme
Narrative: Great little dive on a steep wall. I did see my first sea horse among other things.
Dive #: 10
Location: Swiss Cheese just West of Tip of Scotts Head
Narrative: Great dive, steep wall with some impressive swim-throughs. Was a nice way to cap off the week. The sad ending of the dive was due to a fish trap on top of a sponge. It had several large file fish and a porcupine fish in it. I tried to free the fish but was stopped by one of the dive masters.
Final impressions are that the island is a great place to visit and I would like to return; but I am saddened by the lack of enforcement of their own laws regarding the marine preserve. There was a lack of large fish on all of the dives, which I believe to be due to over-fishing. If Dominica want to boost tourism and be a top rated dive destination, they will have to protect their fragile resources better.
PS - to answer my own questions re: nitrox, I ended up diving air all week and due to the benign profiles, I was limited more by gas than by deco. The dives lasted between 40-60 minutes. I do not believe that diving nitrox would have added any additional bottom time (though perhaps a bit larger of a safety margin).
I went to Dominica with my wife (kids stayed with grandma) for a DAN diving and hyperbaric medicine conference. The conference took place at Fort Young Hotel in Roseau and because of the conference, I wasnt able to get out explore the island like I might have otherwise. However, I did get a good feel for the diving in the main diving area (the far south-west part of the island).
Firstly about the hotel, we were very happy with our ocean view room. It was an end unit (212) and had a great view of the south of the island down to Scotts Head. Most of our meals were at the hotel (as part of the overall conference package) and were very tasty. Most of the food is what you would call Creole. This included mostly fish and chicken with rice, plantains, salads, fruits and juices. We did have another nice meal across the street at Roses Creole. We also ate at Garage and this meal was most noteworthy for the exceptionally slow service some 2 hours to get our food. Fort Young is the largest and most well equipped hotel on the island to stage a conference. With 96 guests in our group (around 65 in the conference), we were the largest group to ever visit the hotel. Without exception the hotel staff went out of their way to see to our happiness and well being. They went so far as to pay for an additional plane charter to carry luggage for the group when it became apparent that the charter plane was not large enough to carry all the passengers and their stuff.
Now for the diving - with such a large group, I believe we overwhelmed their dive infrastructure. It took some 5 boats to get all of us out to the dive sites. The boat we were assigned to is mostly used for whale watching. It is a large catamaran which does not have a dedicated dive deck. We all placed our gear on the back deck in a somewhat haphazard manner and were tripping over and bumping into one another all week. I am quite sure that under normal circumstances and with smaller groups, this would not be the case. We were scheduled for 11 dives this week, but our last dive of the week got cancelled due to the compressor breaking down (thankfully, it broke at the end and not the beginning!).
I will excerpt the narrative from my log-book for the dives we made this week.
Dive #: 1
Location: Carib Point/Witchs Head
Narrative:
We saw 2 Hawks Bill turtles. Ben caught the first one on video. Lots of squirrel fish, spotted Morays and orange coral. We had to dive in a group of about 14 divers. Lucy had a hard time getting down to depth. Every diver here is very well experienced (per Lucy). Our dive was by this cliff where the local divemaster said the Carib Indians would throw their wives once the got tired of them. Ben ate a tasty new fruit A sugar Apple during the SI.
Dive #: 2
Location: Champagne
Narrative: Nice dive toward the wall we saw a guitarfish (type of skate), also garden eels and gold spotted moray and angel hair type of invertebrate. In the shallows were sulfur bubbles and hot water from shallow volcanic activity.
Dive #: 3
Location: Danglebens pinnacle
Narrative: Another great dive. A couple of pinnacles which were more like large mounds sticking up from the depths. Perhaps the highlight was the 2 turtles, hard to tell if they were fighting versus loving. Also enjoyed the spotted drum. Lucy is getting the hang of things and doing well with her buoyancy and air consumption.
Dive #: 4
Location: just north of Soufriere
Narrative: Ben and I both sneered at the poor visibility when we saw the water at the back of the boat. Fortunately, when we arrived at the wall at 80 feet the water cleared up and we saw abundant sea life. We viewed another illusive spotted drum, a poised and elegant lobster, and Ben encountered a Pederson shrimp under a ledge. The sun lowered her beautiful self as we came upon more amazingly stunning life below water. We swam through a valley filled with sea urchins and orange coral.
Dive #: 5
Location: Craters Edge (just NW of Scotts Head) Dominica. This is the border between the Caribbean and Atlantic.
Narrative: Very neat topography the edge of a crater of an old volcano. The top of the crater is around 35 feet, the wall drops to some 8000 feet. It was really cool dive, the only difficulty was the current (~3/4 knot).
Dive #: 6
Location: Scotts Head Wall
Narrative: The water was quite turbid near the shore (probably due to surge). Once out on the wall, the water cleared up a bit, but was still only about 40foot or so of visibility. Highlight of the dive for me was a frogfish (first time for me to see one). Also I enjoyed a brief entry into an overhead/ledge was a small cavern. Also seen were more spotted drum and pufferfish.
Dive #: 7
Location: Scotts Head Wall (about ½ distance down peninsula)
Narrative: Night dive, was great, started out with a school of reef squid under the boat to begin with. Saw a number of lobster, basket stars, several moray, spotted drum. We drifted swam against the current (going East to west), it then reversed when we were heading back toward the boat, so we went against the current both was. Anyhow, a very nice dive.
Dive #: 8
Location: Scotts Head Drop-off (Just west of the far end of Scotts Head)
Narrative: Another very nice wall dive and cool stuff in the shallows as well. Turtles among other things. 60 minute dive.
Dive #: 9
Location:LAbyme
Narrative: Great little dive on a steep wall. I did see my first sea horse among other things.
Dive #: 10
Location: Swiss Cheese just West of Tip of Scotts Head
Narrative: Great dive, steep wall with some impressive swim-throughs. Was a nice way to cap off the week. The sad ending of the dive was due to a fish trap on top of a sponge. It had several large file fish and a porcupine fish in it. I tried to free the fish but was stopped by one of the dive masters.
Final impressions are that the island is a great place to visit and I would like to return; but I am saddened by the lack of enforcement of their own laws regarding the marine preserve. There was a lack of large fish on all of the dives, which I believe to be due to over-fishing. If Dominica want to boost tourism and be a top rated dive destination, they will have to protect their fragile resources better.
PS - to answer my own questions re: nitrox, I ended up diving air all week and due to the benign profiles, I was limited more by gas than by deco. The dives lasted between 40-60 minutes. I do not believe that diving nitrox would have added any additional bottom time (though perhaps a bit larger of a safety margin).
