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Dive Review of Castle Comfort Lodge in
Dominica

Castle Comfort Lodge: "This might be the best diving in the Caribbean!", Nov, 2016,

by Roger D Roth, OH, US (Contributor Contributor 16 reports with 8 Helpful votes). Report 9345.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 5 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 5 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling 5 stars
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 5 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments This was my first visit to Dominica and I was delightfully surprised at the marine environment, especially the HUGE numbers of 5-6' tall barrel sponges, HUGE numbers of beautiful yellow tube and elephant ear sponges. Fish schools were large (albeit some smaller fish like chromis) but schools of black-bar soldierfish and Schoolmaster snappers were abundant and they had some of the largest yellowtail snappers I've seen anywhere in the world.

There were a lot of macro critters ranging from a couple of seahorses, many pipefishes, many species of gobies, blennies, shrimp, and bristleworms with even a few gawdy clown crabs each with different markings. Different species of lobsters were abundant during the day or night as were many different species of eels like spotted morays, sharptail, gold-spotted, and garden eels.

Controlled collection of lionfish was allowed for some with many different preparations of dinners served by the chef later. All dives averaged 60-90 minutes each. The dive guides are very attentive and good at spotting any sized critters for photographers and videographers.

Night dives were highlighted by a slender filefish, juvenile French angels, flounders, electric rays, southern stingrays, dozens of large spider crabs and box crabs as well as a few red-lipped batfish! After filming a bright orangeball corallimorph I followed a spotted moray while it hunted for its dinner.

Dive Dominica has five different boats ranging from one that can take just a few divers to a couple of boats that will accommodate 8-16 divers. There are rinse tanks on shore at the dive shop for gear as well as separate ones for camera gear. Dive gear can be cleaned and then safely kept at the dive shop for the next scheduled dives.

Land tours included a visit to their open market on Saturday mornings, a few waterfalls, hot springs, jungle hikes, rappelling, and of course their dolphin and whale watching trip produced spotted dolphins and false killer whales playing around the boat along with some sperm whales arching for their deep dives with backs and tails high! ("Stingray" has upper and lower decks, front and rear, and accommodates maybe up to 100+ viewers.) Fruit punch and rum punch was served on the way back to the resort.

I visited in November, so coming off of their rainy season led to lower visibility (thus great muck diving), but I'm looking forward to visiting again between February and June for much better vis and spectacular wide angle shots.
Websites Castle Comfort Lodge   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Fiji, Indonesia, Hawaii, Caribbean, Caymans, Belize, Honduras, Red Sea, and more
Closest Airport Dominica International Getting There San Juan to Dominica

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, cloudy, dry Seas calm, surge, no currents
Water Temp 85-°F / 29-°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 30-80 Ft/ 9-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Computer divers had no restrictions on depths or bottom times.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins Schools Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales > 2
Corals 5 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 5 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics N/A

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

Subject Matter 5 stars Boat Facilities 5 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 5 stars Shore Facilities 5 stars
UW Photo Comments Having serviced many different famous UWP's through the years, the staff is very careful with camera equipment and all of their boats have large fresh water rinse buckets for even the larger camera rigs. These are separate from mask rinse buckets. The dive shop also has large fresh water rinse tanks for camera gear.
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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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