Under Sea Adventurers Dive Club

On July 8th, sixteen dynamic divers headed for Dominica to determine whether all the great things they heard about diving there were true.  In addition, the idea of exploring the island was intriguing.

Trip leader, Mary L, had a difficult moment when at check-in the clerk informed her that the baggage limit for Dominica was a total of 70 lbs.  In preparation for the trip, Mary had called the airline twice and confirmed that the 2 bags, 50-pound limit was applicable.  Mary asked the clerk if she should cancel the trip and the clerk said as long as the airlines accepted the bags we should have no problem. No other clerk mentioned this to members as they checked in.  However, this was hanging over our heads for the return trip.

All the bags arrived and we took a one-hour bus ride to the Castle Comfort Resort.  There Adventurers, Linda C, Kaye C, Ronnie F, Linda Io, Mary and Larry L, Danny M, Sue M, Frank and Joanne M, Pat S, Nancy and Roger S, Judy T, Larry T, and Bob W got their room assignments and began to make themselves at home.

Sunday morning we went on the first dives, first to Dangle Ben’s Pinnacles and then to Scottshead.  On the days that followed we dove Witches Head, Champagne, L’Abym, and Soufriere to name a few. We saw more eels and lettuce slugs that anyone can recall elsewhere. There were many trumpet fish of various colors, shrimp in the crinoids, turtles, seahorses, lots of drums and flounders to name a few of the things we saw. The garden eels would let you come within a couple of feet if you hid behind a small clump of soft coral.

On the first day we had a boat that was rather cumbersome to get off and on.  The second day the dive shop provided us with a large pontoon boat with lots of room. Mary convinced them that many of our divers had bad backs and knees and that this was the perfect boat.  They graciously provided it for the remainder of our trip. In addition, the shore divers were able to dive from it during their afternoon forays.

The dives included in our package were limited to the morning, which left the afternoon for land adventures. Five members tackled the hike to the boiling lake... a 6-8 hour trek. Several members hiked to a waterfall, a few went to Wacky Rollers Adventure Park, some canoed, and a number stayed at the resort to shore dive.  Danny M proudly announced his conversion to muck diving. Several members were treated to observing a half dozen whales on the whale watching expedition.

Sixteen exhausted travelers headed back to the airport at 10:30 a.m. on July 15th.  Check-in was uneventful.  All that worrying about weight limits was for naught.  However, we still faced unexpected peril.  We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico where between there not being enough people to unload the plane and the long line at customs, where all they did was collect the declaration card, we missed our connection to Fort Lauderdale.  There was a flurry of activity as we made arrangements to fly to Miami and be shuttled to Fort Lauderdale and reschedule those rides we arranged for a week earlier.  At midnight, we arrived in Fort Lauderdale.  Thus the conclusion of another wonderful, albeit sometimes stressful, Under Sea Adventurers’ journey.