Dominica's North Side Diving

Undercurrent reader Rivka Arieli got in a two and a half week trip to Dominica in November staying with friends and mostly diving the northwest end with Cabrits Dive Center near Portsmouth and writes of “really unusual dive sites with tremendous variety and colors in sponges and an amazing variety of critters, huge basket stars, weird shapes of barrel sponges (storm damage healed over?). Much of the diving was on sites that are relatively unexplored or previously unknown.

“Cabrits is a very friendly and helpful shop, but no cover on their open custom-built aluminum skiff. This is not fun in pounding tropical rain and wind — November is definitely the rainy season, and it can be ferocious! This is more ‘adventure diving’ than anything else. The owner is highly experienced and an excellent diver, but the other staff needed to learn more about boat-tending and diving.

“I did go to the south side of Dominica and got in a few dives with Dive Dominica. Their dive sites were great. Different from the north end of the island, but just as good. All their dive sites were buoyed—in contrast to the anchor drops at Cabrits where anchor damage was evident.

“I found Dive Dominica a safe operation. I had requested diving on the Atlantic side, but surf and current were strong, and fellow divers not as experienced, so we retreated to a protected pinnacle on the Caribbean side. Disappointing, but SAFE!

“Every one of the four sites with DD was quite different from the others. One site offered us almost a dozen seahorses in various sizes and colors. Gadzillions of critters everywhere—you need your underwater-critter-identification books for Dominica—north or south.”

Cabrits Dive Center : Telephone: 767-445-3010