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Dive Review of Anchorage Whale Watch and Dive Center in
Dominica

Anchorage Whale Watch and Dive Center, Jun, 2004,

by Jeff Bloomer, KY, USA . Report 1416.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 3 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 3 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments First the Good. The island is drop dead gorgeous. From the moment your plane makes the approach to the landing strip you think you are on some sort of King Kong movie set, flying through lush mountain passes. I've not been on a more beautiful island in the caribbean. We ran into a couple on vacation who live in St. Croix, says a lot for an island like Dominica when other islanders come here for a vacation. The people are very friendly, honest, and really understand what a special island they have. Our cab driver stopped many times along the way to show us cashew trees, nutmeg, banana, lemon grass, you name it. The diving was great too. We had the boat to ourselves up to the last couple of days so our small group of 5 divers and 1 snorkeler had our pick of dive sites. Paul the captain and Richard the DM were top notch. We never touched our gear, it was always rinsed and hanging up for us if we wanted to shore dive and on the boat every morning ready to go. Richard and Paul were very entertaining and made a lot of good suggestions on what to do and where to eat. As far as dive restrictions...forget about it. When other divers were done with their dive Richard would take me and a few others off and do some exploring to burn up our air. Where was the last place you dived and that happens? Usually the DMs are banging on their tanks telling me its time to go. Tons of eels, jaw fish, tropicals, lobster,sea horses, schools of squid, etc. Swiss Cheese (a dive site) is in my top 5 of all dives, a real must. We rented the whale watching boat, a large motorized cat to snorkel with sperm whales. We were out less than 20 minutes and were in the water with 2 females and a calf. Having these huge animals dive right if front of me and roll on their side to take a look at me was heart stopping. With an indigenous population of sperm whales you can see these big boys year around. The Anchorage hotel is OK, Castle Comfort was nicer but they gave away my reservations so they are not high on my list although I would stay there if the dive operation hires Richard and Paul! Evergreen was also nice. Have a meal at both these places but make reservations at Castle Comfort because the restaurant is very small. Another plus is the exchange rate $1 equals $2.40 Eastern Carib. The only bad experiance I had was in setting up a trip to water falls. The driver wanted to change the price after we agreed on the amount. In the future I will avoid dealing with Earl the cabbie. The only other bad part is getting there. At the time we visited Dominica you had to overnight in San Juan. I hear there is now a direct flight on Continental. This has to be the only reason this island isn't the top dive destination in this part of the world but it is worth the time to get here. If you are tired of cattle boats, unappreciative dive operations, and the same same you need to get yourself to Dominica. You wont see casinos and big resorts, heck only 1 cruise ship docks here, but you will experiance the reason most of us got into diving to begin with, a chance to visit unexplored tropical paradise.


Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Through out the Caribbean, Atlantic, US.
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 80-85°F / 27-29°C Wetsuit Thickness 0
Water Visibility 80-120 Ft/ 24-37 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions No restrictions once the dive master knew your abilities.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales >2
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 5 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 3 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 3 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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