One morning, I caught the local minibus to Roseau and then along the Castle Comfort seafront to Dive Dominica at the Castle Comfort Lodge.
The sea was flat and, before diving, I went for a quick snorkel in the clear waters just off the pier.
On volcanic rock boulders were sponges and sea whips and under the pier large schools of striped sergeant majors and shiny blue wrasse.
Castle Comfort Lodge, with its 14 rooms, gardens and plunge pool on the waterfront, was one of the first hotels in Dominica, and is still owned and managed by the third generation of the Perryman family. They were also the first dive operators, starting up Dive Dominica in the mid 1980s.
Nowadays, Castle Comfort Lodge is very much a dive lodge. When I was getting ready to go out, Daniel Perryman was speaking to a group of divers who had flown in from the US for a week-long dive package.
I was impressed with their set-up and efficient, professional, friendly approach.
The US dive group headed off on the Arienne, a 36ft power catamaran for up to 20 divers, while on the Yan Yan, a 30 ft sedan for ten people, I joined a couple of divers who had been picked up from the Fort Young Hotel, along with the friendly crew made up of Captain Stinger and the dive masters Benton and Odell.
We headed along the coast towards the Soufriere Scott's Head marine reserve.
High above, flew frigatebirds, which can spend days in the air, riding the thermals over the sea.
We anchored just off the rock pinnacle of Scott’s Head, on the southwestern tip of Dominica, where the Atlantic ocean and Caribbean sea meet.
Here, there was a fisherman on a rock surrounded by sea, casting off into waters above the drop-off.
Odell and Benton, after our briefing, were ready to go in.
We jumped into waters of the Scott’s Head Point dive site. Looking down, I saw that we were half over a flat rock ledge 15 feet deep and half over the deep blue sea, dropping to several thousand.
Expelling the air from our buoyancy control devices, we descended down the side of the wall to 60 feet.
What caught my attention on this gentle drift dive were colonies of five-foot-tall black sea fans, shaped like a flat branching tree and covered by individual white polyps, each with eight tentacles filtering microscopic organisms from the sea. All over the rocks were feathery white bryozoans, busily filtering water through their feathery gills and then quickly retreating back into their protective casing, when I swam close. Huge yellow, green and orange vase and barrel sponges protruded from the vertical rock face, and typical of Dominica were the feathery prehistoric Crinoids.
All over the place were colourful reef fish: clown-like triggerfish crushing coral in their mouth, miniscule gobys clinging onto rocks, yellow and blue chromis flitting like confetti above a coral-head, four-eye butterflyfish couples keeping in touch as they explored the reef for food. Then there was a green moray spotted by another diver, which had retreated into its cave by the time I got there. Further on, I spent time looking at delicate white and red banded coral shrimp, standing proud at the entrance of their home.
Our second dive was across the bay, below the cliffs near Soufriere.
At the base of the grey volcanic cliffs were calm green waters.
The site is called Witches Point (also known as La Sorciere), named after a local legend that speaks of witches who lived in the forests above the cliffs.
Again, we followed a wall, this time shallower, at 45 feet. In places, the wall turned into areas of pinnacles, sand gullies and rubble. Of note here were three hawksbill turtles. Two had wedged themselves under corals and seemed to be resting- one had its mouth half open, with a cleaner fish pecking at the corners. Another hawksbill swam alongside me, just fifteen feet away, for a good couple of minutes before it went up for some air.
I also noticed numerous round patches of intense purple on flat rocks. Inspecting closely, I saw that they were fish eggs, and later on I saw that they were providing a feast for groups of hungry fish.
Just before ascending, we gathered below the boat. In the sandy bottom, we spotted the outline and two protruding black eyes of an electric ray, a memorable end to a great dive.
Dive Dominica offers the whole range of dive options, from a single tank dive up to dive courses, Nitrox diving and 7 night dive and accommodation packages. All details on www.castlecomfortdivelodge.com
