Roatan Cocoview.... the shore dives, Mary's Place, Clavins Crack.... the option of a 3 tank boat dive to the West End and other side of the island ...what 3 sites to dive there? And in general maybe the 10 'do not miss' dives in Roatan. I am more interested the flora and fauna, than wrecks, and does not matter to me if the critters are loarge or small, just that this is a bunch of them. I realize this is a very subjective question,
If you come to the South Side of Roatan (where CCV is), and if you have in mind finding lots of critters, you will really enjoy the lush shallow walls that are well exposed to the sunlight. Because~ The little critters that make this area famous live here, as well.
When ships are "parked" at shallow depths, the critters use them as "structure" just like they utilize the shallow walls. The two most commonly visited wrecks on the South side sit in depths of 22~65 fsw, so not only is the diving easy (and with long BT's), but because of them being parked in the upper levels of the water column, they are prized as critter condos being in the phototropic zone for life.
To enjoy the South side's treasures you have to be, by certain standards, an "advanced diver". No, don't expect rough conditions, but to fully enjoy the bounty of micro delights, you must have excellent buoyancy skills and good observational abilities. Can you hover and poke your faceplate in close- then with just a breath or light motion- ease yourself up and away? That's the way to do it with these little guys.
Many folks ask, "Do we have to follow the DM's?" At CCV, they will inform you that you may do as you please, as long as you keep them advised of your intentions pre-dive. If you don't follow the DM, you are blowing it, big time. It takes years of patience and observation to see and understand how they locate the delights that you want to see. You will see 10% of the possibilities if you thunder off on your own.
You don't have to worry about pack mentality and crowding at CCV. The DM finds something, then as the trail of divers strings out and behind, everyone stops for a look in turn. I try to stay close, yet out of the way, so that I can understand what they have found. More than once I pull up for "my turn" and because of my skills. I simply can't see the
critter that made them atwitter. (even though it's right there in front of my mask!) Flashlights and laser pointers make great tools for this.
You can read me waxing on about the efficacy of carrying a small glass magnifier. A 10x $1 flea market/craft show special (made of
glass) will open up a whole new world for you~ especially on the South side of Roatan.
Favorite dives? Parrothead (above poster) will smile when I say this, but for many of us CCV habitues, the "
Front Yard", the shore dive, that's our favorite. You literaly take 40 steps from your room and dive locker, you're diving. I see more stuff out in front of the resort, most times in the shallows of the
Front Yard, and only go out to the Wreck as a sidelight.
The
Prince Albert Wreck is a Nicaraguan Tanker 140' long that sits upright in 35~65fsw, and she tops out at 22ft of depth. On the South side, she is well protected from storms, unlike the extremely deep wrecks of the North. She is a 3 minute snorkel/scuba from the resort, but that's only if you hurry and that is ill advised.
I
never tire of this wreck. It is rife with animals, many are tiny and all but invisible. Some are quite large, yet so well camouflaged that many times they escape the view of most divers.
I dive it three times each day when I am there, one of those visits is a night dive. Each day, there are morning and afternoon two tank boat dives. On the second boat dive, many folks select varying lengths of "drop off" dives along one of two walls and then SCUBA their way back to the shore exit at the resort.
I am lazy. I have the boatsman and DM drop me right on top of the
PA Wreck where I dawdle for an hour and most times longer before paddling in to lunch (or dinner). This 23 year obsession with this wreck has served me well. My wife (aka
Herself) has a resident
Octopus so well "trained" with repetitive encounters that she can pretty well summon it for an appearance at her discretion. I just enjoy all of the macro activity and marvel at the lush coral growth in such a shallow and well lit environment.
In that the original anchor chain is laid out all the way to and from the resort through the coral heads, this is a favorite
night dive for many~ you simply can not get lost... it is physically tied to your room. When I am there, I go out every night, sometimes twice. A lot of people do these sunrise dives, but I am snoring in one of the over the water cabanas.
I love hole in the wall, but you gotta do it with someone who knows it.
As with many Islands, there can sometimes be more than one dive site that has a common name. In this case, and for obvious reasons (once you see them) there are indeed two
Hole in the Wall dive sites on Roatan. Will is refering to the one on the North side which is lovely, but I'll bet that
even he:14:likely hasn't made it over to the far Eastern side of the South side and seen the odd
Hole in the Wall we have over yonder. The North Side
Hole is a pleasant dive, the SE
Hole is a bizarre upward slanted chimney... not for the
Club Dread diver.
Real trivia department: Many Roatan transplants refer to Sandy Bay as the place on the North Side where the North Americans have built large houses. Ask an old timer and he'll poke a gnarled finger at the map where CCV and FIBR sits. Hey~ at least there's
no Georgetown. How'd that happen?
When they do take you
around the horn for an all day trip to the North side, you will dive the best sites available due to wind and wave action, which is often an issue up that way. Sometimes CCV offers the North side, sometimes the North side boats are scampering South to get out of the weather up there. In short... they'll take you to the best stuff that they can. Remember- North side diving is quite deep in comparison, so it will not be offered on Day One. The DM's want to make sure you have your gear and buoyancy in order before doing that. This makes the window of opportunity a bit smaller in terms of weather being agreeable.
I suggest that you relax on the matter of getting to dive the North. the North side is an
excellent version of common Caribbean diving largley due to the
Conservation Zone and Marine Reserve that they have established for a few years. It has led to attracting some of the larger adults of fish and the more visible sized Crabs and Lobsters. Stuff that is getting hard to find in the Caribbean. These larger animals do like the cooler and deeper waters of the North, so they are more abundant there.
Here is a concurrently running thread on that topic specifically:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bay-islands/226845-north-side-v-south-side.html
Once you have seen all of the dive sites, and if you do want some adventure, you will learn that the dive sites they point you at
might not be the only attraction nearby. There are many tight and restrictive overhead environments that you can explore- but again- remember to advise your DM. Just recently I was diving
Mary's Place with a long time resident/dive operator and an oft returning guest diver (like me). I convinced them to let the group do Mary's Place first- we would take a "little detour" to a little place called
Scutt's Slot. It's a tight, shallow overhead environment that is not for the noob.
Many of us prefer
Calvin's Crack over
Mary's Place, but even at
CC, there are secret passages and hidden holes. You gotta look around.
What's my point? There is something for all levels, but to truly get the most out of the South side- to walk away after that SCUBA week, if you want to see the joys of the South side- you better have some good buoyancy skills and sharp peepers!
this one is not a "splendid" toad fish....there are 4-50ft boats and they all make the favorite sites during the week
Well,
he might not be splendid, but I would say he is pretty damned spectacular, anyway.
And that thing about hitting the
CoCo Chat link?
A no brainer for someone coming to CCV. (or an advanced diver going to FIBR)
Another excellent link that
logs weather and
what was spotted and photographed is
Dockside Dive Center Log. You can page back through many years of weekly entries.
Live "
dive cam"? look at
CCV Webcams
There is occasionally spotted a
Frogfish at 90' off the wall on the
Shore Dive. What you can almost always spot there are the
Yellow Tailed Jawfish and even the
Spotted Eagle Rays are a fairly common sight around the shallows of
the Wreck.
Managheri is a favorite dive site for many, and it has become so for an unfortunate reason. It is the most commonly dived site of a neighboring resort, and their DM's aren't as adept at critter spotting, so they tend to feed the fish on dives. This gets their generally less skilled divers all excited by the (large and easily seen) fish life, but fish do become quite
locally habituated to food=divers. By locally, I mean just that- a couple of hundred yards away and the fish return to normalcy.
There is on this dive, a
spectacularly mobile Green Moray who has his superhighway of nooks and crannies all laid out along the descending reef wall and rockets along, in and out- as you ghost along. He usually disappears only to rejoin you on your shallow return along the top of the wall. Very friendly critter- maybe for the same reasons as the fish.
Go slow, stay shallow, dive
all five CCV daily dives. When you move along the wooden walkways, look down. Look for my baby (16")
Nurse Shark!
