A wall in Douglas Bay sprinkled with huge coral-covered boulders, where soft corals compete for ground with equally impressive hard coral growth. The boulders are big enough to swim between, which is the topography Cabrits Dive Centre picks out, and the published range of 20 to 90 feet (up to 27 m) puts the whole face inside one dive.
Where it is and how deep
15.5972° N, 61.4651° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Cabrits Dive Centre calls this a dramatic wall sprinkled with huge coral-covered boulders, and the boulders are what you dive: they are big enough to swim between, and the passages through them are the topography the centre picks out as unique to the site. The published range is 20 to 90 feet, about 6 m to 27 m, so the deep ground comes first and the profile steps up the face as the dive goes on.
The other thing the centre picks out is the competition between corals: soft corals holding ground against equally impressive hard coral growth on the same boulders. That keeps the dive close in to the rock rather than out in the blue, and the shallow end of the range at 6 m leaves reef under you for the safety stop. It is twelve minutes out from the dive centre.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime |
Season follows Dominica: Diving is favourable all year; December to May is the driest and calmest stretch, and occasional summer rain does little to dive quality.
Sources
- Diving in Dominica — Cabrits Dive Centre
More dive sites in Dominica
Sand slope
A field of sea pens standing up out of the sand like white feathers
Reef
A sand plateau at 11 m (35 ft) with the wall dropping off its edge
Muck & macro
Seahorses, batfish and flying gurnards under a cruise ship dock
Wall
Barrel sponges shaped like sharks' mouths, on a wall to 40 m
Reef
A fallen boulder shaped like a hand, its top breaking the surface
Reef
A flat coral plateau at 12 m (40 ft) that drops sharply to 120
Reef
A gentle glide over coral, the centre's dive to start a trip with
Reef
Volcanic gas bubbling out of hot, sulphur-stained sand
Similar dives elsewhere
Black coral and gorgonians on two separate wall sections
Near-continuous schools of grunts and snappers on the wall top
Tall, narrow canyons where groupers appear to nest
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Sand-beach entry onto a reef that slopes past 30 m