Guadeloupe · Guadeloupe · Wall · Pelagic & blue water
Bouée Anticyclonique
The park's main drop-off, 10 m down to 45 m
Area photo: Antoine Cupial · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bouée Anticyclonique is the drop-off of the Guadeloupe National Park, a wall falling from 10 m to 45 m where you had better not be afraid of heights. Hot springs vent along it, and the rock is full of hiding places holding lobsters, crabs and moray eels. Big open-water fish pass off the edge on a good day.
Where it is and how deep
16.1691° N, 61.7886° WPublished position for this site.
The dive
This is the drop-off of the Guadeloupe National Park, and the profile is exactly that: the top of the wall sits at about 10 m and the face runs down to 45 m, with open water below the last of it. Divers who dislike the feeling of nothing beneath them notice it here. Nitrox is recommended, and the deeper you take the wall the faster the plan gets spent.
Work the face rather than the depth. The rock offers a surprising number of hiding places, and lobsters, crabs and moray eels use them, so a slow pass at a chosen level repays more than a run to the bottom. Hot springs vent along the site, the volcanic ground of this coast showing through underwater. Off the edge, with luck, the fat fish of the blue come past.
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime |
Season follows Guadeloupe: Dec–May is the dry season with the calmest water; Aug–Oct brings hurricane risk and the heaviest rain.
Know before you go
- The wall drops from 10 m to 45 m with no shelf underneath, so depth creeps without you noticing — set a hard bottom depth before you get in the water.
- Nitrox is recommended here; on air the lower part of the drop-off leaves very little no-decompression time.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Bouée Anticyclonique?+
The drop-off runs from about 10 m at the top to 45 m at the foot. Most of the dive is spent working the face at a chosen level rather than reaching the bottom, and nitrox is recommended.
Sources
- Bouée Anticyclonique — Scubago — Scubago
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