Raggedy Cay is a wall dive beside a small island off Utila's west end. A shallow reef crest suits any level, while the wall below drops away toward a sandy base where turtles and nurse sharks rest, so the same site serves newer divers in the shallows and advanced divers on the deep face.
Where it is and how deep
16.0860° N, 86.9983° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The boat moors over a flat bottom at about 6 m, far off the wall, so the first part of the dive is a swim across to it; that distance makes the site tougher to navigate. The reef crest sits at 7.5 m (25 ft), where moray eels gape from holes, octopus hunch in crevices and triggerfish lurk among the corals.
Past the crest the wall drops off gradually to about 40 m (130 ft). Turtles and nurse sharks often rest on the sandy patches at its base, and the current is usually mild.
Marine life and season
- Sea turtles
- Reef sharks
- Octopus & cuttlefish
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Good |
Season follows Utila: March to May is dry, clearest and best for whale sharks; October and November bring the heaviest rain and some runoff.
Know before you go
- The mooring sits far off the wall, so finding the way back to the line takes careful navigation.
Dive videos
Sea Turtle at Utila Island · Tyler Phelps on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Is Raggedy Cay suitable for newer divers?+
The reef crest at 7.5 m and the flat bottom at 6 m work for any level. The wall below drops to 40 m and suits advanced divers with deep training.
Sources
- Raggedy Cay — ScubaGo
- Diving sites in Utila, Honduras — Dive the World
More dive sites in Utila
Wreck
A 2021 light-plane wreck flat on the sand at 24 m
Wall
A large seahorse in the garden eels at 18-24 metres
Seamount
Utila's blue-water seamount, with whale sharks passing over
Wall
A sand channel drift past caverns between wall and slope
Wall
A drop-off dive over one of Utila's coral nurseries
Wall
Near-vertical face of tube sponges, sea fans and black coral
Coral garden
Bioluminescent glow after dark gave this reef its ghost name
A 1998 artificial-reef wreck dived for its critters
Similar dives elsewhere
An 18th-century anchor buried in the reef that gives the site its name
Nineteenth-century anchors lie along a wall that drops past 975 m
Seahorses and frogfish along a vertical wall towards Small Wall
A V-shaped notch in the wall where nurse sharks rest on the reef top