ISLAND TIME DIVERS: Dominica - Diving the Nature Island of the Caribbean

We arrived in Dominica on Saturday afternoon after a spending a night in San Juan Puerto Rico. In San Juan we stayed at the Hampton Inn and ate dinner at a really nice Puerto Rican restaurant next door called the Metropol. The food is traditional and reasonable priced. I ordered garlic pork with tamale, black beans and rice, Mary got the sampler plate. The food is very good, just make sure you have enough Rolaids you will need them.

Lambert and Martin from Ken's Hinterland Tours met us at the airport in Marigot Dominica. While Mary and I were traveling alone, another group of divers from Arizona was arriving at the same time, We all were driven in a tour bus by Lambert to Roseau. The drive to Roseau takes about one and a half hours across the Island on a very narrow winding road. The scenery and topography is fascinating. You pass small desolate villages with houses made of cement blocks and tin roofs. See Beautiful Atlantic Ocean vistas with warm inviting beaches and rolling thunderous waves. Cross over fast moving rivers of crystal clear water cascading over huge boulders. View banana plantations on rolling hills with blue plastic bags tied around the fruit. Pass through National Reserves with unspoiled beauty, cascading waterfalls and every shade of green you can imagine. See Street hawkers, at intersections, in rags selling grapefruit and oranges. Avoid cows and goats grazing on the side of the road. Exotic flowers you toil over back home grow wild on the side of the road in addition to orange, lime, avocado and palm trees.
Marigot Street crafts

The kids were very interested in watching the craftsman work.

As you leave Marigot and the low land you enter the Central Forest Reserve. You move from sea level to about 2000 feet elevation. The change in climate is noticeable, the air becomes much cooler as you ascend up the mountain into the Reserve and noticeably warmer as you descend on the west coast near Roseau.

Lambert kept up a running dialogue about the Dominican countryside, flower and fauna, and peppered us with bits of history, politics and intrigue. He made the ride very enjoyable and entertaining.

Our first stop in Roseau was Fort Young where the Arizona group got off leaving only Mary and me on the bus. Next stop Castle Comfort Lodge.

We were met at Castle Comfort by Derek Ferryman, the owner, and Ann Marie. Derek let us know our bags were in our room and went to get us a rum punch while Ann Marie gave us an orientation of the Lodge which included our eating preferences, diving choices, dining schedule, currency conversion, transportation to and from town, tour options, etc. I must say this was the most extensive and best orientation I had ever received anywhere.

Castle Comfort Lodge looking back from our room.

We were delighted to find out that we were the ONLY guests in the lodge. Ann Marie put is in room number 14 right above the dive shop overlooking the ocean. We hurriedly unpacked and prepared for dinner at 7:00 p.m.

I am told Dominica has wonderful restaurants and I am certain this is correct, however, we ate every one of our meals at Castle Comfort and you will see why.

We were met at our special table on the balcony overlooking the ocean by Roselyn our waitress and Tuxedo the lazy cat. Roselyn is so warm and friendly she made you feel like part of her family. She let me know that Ann Marie had informed her that I was not fond of fish so she had prepared a schedule of chicken and beef for the week. Our first meal started with split pea soup. Before you go Yuk!, this soup is good. The entree was grilled chicken marinated in Creole sauce, fresh green salad with cucumbers and tomatoes, boiled new potatoes with Creole spices, fried plantain with white rice. For dessert we had fruit fudge topped off with Dominican coffee. What a way to start the week and this was just the first day!!

As a sampler of our dining experience at Castle Comfort for breakfast we had banana pancakes, ripe bananas, mangoes, oranges, grapefruit, French toast. For lunch cheeseburger Dominican style with cucumber, sauce and homemade bun. For dinner always a cream soup such as pumpkin and the traditional "Calalloo" soup made from the dasheen leaf that looks like an elephant ear. Meats included glazed lamb chops, marinated pork chops, marinated steak topped with mushrooms and onion. Vegetables included black-eyed peas, eggplant and spinach casserole, dasheen, tannia, breadfruit, and plantain. You get the message. Why eat anywhere else!! So we didn't.

The Diving and other adventures: Day one - Sunday:

We ate breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and brought our gear to the dive shop at 8:00. Not knowing what to expect we wanted to be early. No need, we were the ONLY ones on the boat. Our captain was Curt and Dive Master (DM) was Ryan. They quickly got us loaded aboard the Yan Yan and off we were "just the two of us" like the song says.

Our first dive was at La Bim, Creole for the Abyss because it is a wall that drops off to about 2000 feet. All of the dive sites are within site of the shore with no current to speak of. This dive started in about 20 feet of water and we ascended over a wall covered with barrel sponges, schools of Creole Wrasse, Creole -fish, Blackbar Soldierfish, lots of little critters like Redlip Blennies, Peppermint Gobies, Sea Horses, Spotted and Chain Morays. A wonderful relaxing dive with a depth of 74 feet for 49 minutes. Ryan was checking out the newcomers and it didn't take long for him to let us dive our own profile. Talk about diving freedom!

Dive two was at Coral Gardens so called because of the coral mounds. A beautiful site with some residual hurricane damage from years before. I was fascinated watching a giant school of Boga in a bait ball being attacked by jacks. A Lesser Electric Ray swam right up to me and we saw even more Sea Horses. A nice relaxing 69 feet for 51 minutes in bathtub warm 86 degree water.

The excitement really started before dive number two when Curt spotted a pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphin during our surface interval. There must have been hundreds of them breaching and jetting in and out of our bow as we sped in circles. I don't know who was having the most fun, the Dolphins or us, I guess we both were.

Dive three and four were shore dives off of the Castle Comfort pier. From the shore to about 20-30 yards out, the bottom is boulders that give way to sand and turtle grass, then a wall that drops off sharply to 100 feet. The boulders are home to about a billion sea urchins just waiting to stick it to you and about a zillion fire worms. But all is not lost! Interspersed among these devilish critters are Goldspotted Eels, Spotted Drums, Balloonfish, Spotted Snake Eels, called Cong by the locals, White Mullet, Spotted Scorpionfish, and Flying Gurnards. We did one dive to the southwest wall and the next to the north where we found the Flying Gurnards. After over an hour in the water my mouth was dry but I still had to beg Mary to come up. She didn't want the dive to end. I had been told there was a Shortnose Batfish in the sandy flats, but I missed it this day.

Day two - Monday:

Guess what? We are the only ones on the boat today. What a bummer. Captain for the day is Gus and DM is Erin. We are again on the Yan Yan.

First stop Dengle Ben's Pinnacle a wonderful wall dive with colorful azure vase and barrel sponges, Bluespotted Cornetfish, Shy Hamlet's and Hawksbill Turtles. Another relaxing dive to 92 feet for 52 minutes.

Dive two was at the famous Champagne where bubbles rise from hot vents in the floor of the ocean. This place has lots of yellow Frogfish and Eels. I saw Quillfin Blennies here and lots of Cocoa Damselfish. Some of the vents spew forth extremely hot water. This is a shallow dive; we did a max depth of 54 feet for 61 minutes. Some of the vents are in about 15 feet of water. You want to do this dive when the Cruisers are not in port because it is a popular snorkel site.

Afternoon adventure:

We meet up with the boys and girls from Fort Young for a tour to Ti Tou Gorge and Trafalgar Falls. Lambert picks us up in his bus, we swing through the Botanical Gardens, head for the village of Laudat on roads you wouldn't ride a goat on, head down a path to the gorge, jump in this damn cold water, swim up it and back, ho hum. Trafalgar Falls was more interesting, but be forewarned, this is dangerous and one slip can mess up a week of diving.

After Lambert dropped us off at Castle Comfort, we have our wonderful dinner and suit up for a night dive. The mission is to find the illusive Shortnose Batfish. We do a giant stride off the pier and are immediately swayed from our mission. This place is alive with Octopus, Lesser Electric Rays, Balloonfish, you name it. I head out to the sandy flats and turtle grass sweeping my light in front of me, Mary to my right. Suddenly we are surrounded by hundreds of Flying Gurnards.

They act as though they are in a trance, we glide right over them, and it is eerie like a horror movie. These things are ugly in the day time but at night they are frightening. They look like porpucinefish with wings. As far as my light would reach I saw nothing but Flying Gurnards, but, no Shortnose Batfish. After two morning dives, a horrendously tiring afternoon tour we cut our night dive short at 43 minutes and called it a day. We will find the Shortnose Batfish another day.

Day Three - Tuesday:

Day three started with the same old boring clear blue skies to the west with white puffy clouds floating off of the mountaintops like cotton candy. The weather slowly warmed up to between 86 and 90 each day with a slight breeze off the ocean.

We will have company on our boat today, we are picking up newly weds from Fort Young. Our Captain is Gus and DM is Ryan and we are on the Yan Yan.
After getting our newly weds aboard we get to our first dive site a little later in the morning than usual around 9:30a.m. Have you noticed how newly weds are always late? We are diving Scott's Head Drop-off. Scott's Head is a volcanic peninsula at the southern tip of Dominica, surrounded by the Caribbean Sea on one side, and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. We dive to a depth of 75 feet for 63 minutes bottom time in beautiful coral formations. Fishermen still work these waters so no large fish are found, but the coral formations along this wall are fantastic. The only large fish I saw was a foot long Rock Hind hiding in a cavern.

Dive two was just north of Scott's Head along the coast called Pointe Giugnard. This dive was laced with volcanic caverns and swim thrus. We did a leisurely dive to 55 feet for 52 minutes checking out the Spiny Lobster in the volcanic caves.

Afternoon Adventure:

We had arrange to be picked up this afternoon by Ms. Dorothy Henderson who would bring us to The Social Centre where we had arranged in advance to bring toys and supplies for the children. It was a wonderful way to spend our afternoon, meeting with Ms. White, the Director, and her staff at the Social Centre and delivering the toys and supplies we had brought with us.

Back at Castle Comfort, we prepared for our official night dive. Our newly weds were along for this dive, with boat Captain Gus and DM Ryan on the Yan Yan. We dove Champagne again 48 feet for 42 minutes. To be honest not much was happening this night to get excited about, so we came up early to go eat. Our plan was to do another night shore dive at Castle Comfort later that night to find the Shortnose Batfish.

Well we had eaten another wonderful meal and donned our equipment around 9:00 p.m. and had just taken a giant stride off the end of the pier when the water erupted with bubbles all around me. My air hose had split and I was loosing air quickly. I reluctantly aborted the dive. The Shortnose Batfish beat me again.

Day four - Wednesday:

At breakfast I let Derek know that I had a problem with my hose. Derek had Jerry replace my hose that morning and I was ready to dive.

This morning we had the newly weds again and another gentlemen from Fort Young. Our Captain is still Gus but our DM is Billy. We do both dives in the Soufriere Bay. The first dive at La Soruere " Witches Point", a wall dive to 78 feet for 54 minutes and the second dive at Soufriere Pinnacle to a depth of 62 feet for 53 minutes.
Afternoon adventure:
We are doing our whale watching trip this afternoon. Jerry is our Captain. Jerry is a laid back Dominican with a Rastafarian knit cap and "happy go lucky" attitude to boot. He is assisted by Greg and we set sail into the open ocean away from the west coast of Dominica. Jerry loves finding Whales and is damn good at it. He provides us with an excellent orientation explaining the difference between Baleen and Toothed whales, whale behaviors like diving, eating and socializing, and how to spot and identify them on the surface. Did you know that a Sperm whale has a single blowhole that is tipped forward and to the left?

Jerry has an underwater sonar system made out of a long pole with a bowl attached at the end with wiring to a small sound system. Don't laugh it works!
We would stop and Jerry would put his sonar in the water. "They are north about a mile maybe two on the surface." We head north a mile maybe two. Suddenly Jerry shouts, "There she blows!" I search the horizon for any sign that he was not pulling my leg. Jerry points and says there she is. I still can't see anything. He cranks up the motor and we speed away to some unseen point only Jerry can see. To make a long story short we had three Sperm Whales sightings, one with a two-week old calf. As we watched each whale, Jerry would say "there she goes, get ready" just as each Whale would raise their head with a final blow, arch their back and dive head first with their awesome tail extending upward like a sea palm.
In addition to the Sperm Whales Jerry found for us a Beaked Whale, quite a rare sighting, and several Short-finned Pilot Whales. To say that Jerry was awesome at finding whales would be an understatement.
Day five - Thursday:
Today we did Boiling Lake. Our guide was Sonny from Ken's Hinterland Tours. This is a strenuous hike on rough trails to an altitude of 4017 feet. The trip to Boiling Lake takes around 3-1/2 hours one way. I will spare you the details; just suffice it to say I will not do this trip again.

You have to be quick to get a shot of Boiling Lake. The mist covers it and then mysteriously moves off for only a brief time.
Day six - Friday:
Our last day of diving and I am a little worried I haven't found the Shortnose Batfish. Our Captain is Gus and Billy is our DM. We are headed back to Soufriere Bay and Scotts Head for our final dives. Billy is going to make repairs to several broken buoys during our surface interval.
Our first dive is at Scott's Head Pinnacle to a depth of 68 feet for 52 minutes bottom time. This is a wonderful dive with beautiful coral.
During our dive Billy finds and coils the ropes of broken buoys. During our surface interval Billy is able to repair three of four broken buoys. I asked Billy why he was repairing them and he said because nobody else would. I think it is commendable that Castle Comfort put forth this effort.
Our second dive was around Scott's Head Point. We circumnavigated Scott's Head coming up on the Atlantic side with considerable current. Again the coral was beautiful, we went to a depth of 49 feet for 54 minutes. Lots of little critters and I saw Saddled Blennies at the end of this dive.

After our second dive, I told my Mary to leave her equipment set up because I was going to ask Gus to drop us off, at the spot where the Shortnose Batfish was reported to be, on the way back to Castle Comfort. After dropping off our newly weds at Fort Young we slipped on our tanks and impatiently waited until Gus neared our target, the brown buoy. We dropped down to about 29 feet over sand and turtle grass and I began swimming a pattern in search of the batfish. Just a few minutes into our dive, there he was, not 15 feet from the base of the buoy. We hovered for ten minutes with fascination watching this unique fish with his bat like wings, unicorn projection between his eyes, straw like tail and unique round gills behind the back of his wings. He just stood on his fins as if to say, where have you been. This is a magnificent creature.