Boat & Night Diving

Today, my brother and I did another set of boat diving. Our first dive was at a site called Scott's Head Drop Off. Here we explored another cliff reef. However, the depth was not as deep as the dive from yesterday because we were able to see the bottom when diving. During this dive, we saw a frogfish, Queen conch, scorpionfish, jellyfish, and many more. This dive was very enjoyable and beautiful.

Can you spot the scorpionfish?

During our surface interval, we drove to the next dive site stopping at Bubbles Beach to learn a little bit about the island. There are nine volcanoes with seven of them being active. Out of all Caribbean islands Dominica has the most per square kilometer. These volcanoes produce geothermal energy, which you can feel in the water such as at Champagne Reef. One fun fact that we learned was that parts of the Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed here. We also learned about the Roman Catholic Church of St. Mark, which was on the waterfront by Bubbles Beach. It is located in the quiet fishing village of Soufriere.

Our second dive was at Champagne Reef. This was a very pleasant dive where I saw a lot of things I was familiar with. I was able to show my brother garden eels in the sand flats. After diving along the reef, we came to an area were there were bubbles coming up from the seabed that is compared to bubbles in champagne. There are seven active volcanoes on the island so the hot, fresh water that is coming from the seabed are generated from the volcanic activity under the earth.

After our diving this morning, we went into town to get some lunch. We had a wonderful meal and when we were walking back home we stopped and talked to a local for a while. During our conversation with the local it started to rain, which allowed us to extend the conversation. We learned more about the culture especially the dancing, bele. When the raining let up a bit, we finished our way back to our hotel room to relax for a bit before a shore night dive.

Beginning the evening right with a beautiful sunset

We went on an hour night dive exploring the house reef. We spent a majority of the time in the small seagrass bed. Before going over the seagrass beds, I spotted a lesser electric eel swimming in the sand flats. I saw a number of different crabs and shrimp within the grass. I also come upon a spotted snake eel poking out of a little sandy patch in the middle of the seagrass bed. There was also a scorpionfish that was snoozing in the turtle grass. Shortly, after the sighting of the scorpionfish, we saw a batfish chilling in the sand next to the seagrass bed. This was a fun sighting because the fish is so unique looking. I personally did not get a photo but the guy we were diving with got some photos, which he offered to share with us. After our dive, we relaxed on the dock talking about the dive and many more things. Today has been a tremendous day and I can not believe my vacation is almost over.