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The Flight
The joys of flying with the “world's favorite airline”. Mainly due to flight availability and the dates we needed to travel it was BA again. No problems at all, that may have been something to do with having to go Club Class as there were no economy seats for the day we wanted. Not being that large my wife and I don't find the economy seats that bad, but the Club sleeper seats are a bit wider and the extra area around the seat is huge. Flying Club also allowed my wife to indulge in her favorite diet Champagne and chocolates, she insists this is solely to combat the effects of DVT but I have my doubts. To be honest the real plus with BA is the large baggage allowance of over 60 kgs so all the diving gear gets to go and you get that traveling economy too. No delays on the flight out and we arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule at Tobago. There were a few short delays because of weather on the way back mainly caused by a thunderstorm in Antigua which delayed the refueling but the flight managed to make most of the delays up on the leg back to Gatwick so complaints there.
Bluewaters Inn
The first week was booked at Bluewaters Inn, Speyside which is about 1 ½ hours in a taxi. It's only about 30 miles, but once past Scarborough the road is very twisty and has lots of pot holes. On the way the driver pointed out a number of houses that lost their roofs and as we got closer to Speyside there was clear damage to a lot of the rain forest with whole areas from some hill sides being damaged by the hurrican.
BWI had suffered some damage but by the time we arrived this did not cause any problems. For those who know the place the central accommodation unit was undergoing some repair but this seemed to be as much general refurbishment as anything else. We had no disturbance from any of the work, which made a real change from holidays in Spain where I think builders are employed to make as much noise as possible from 6:30 in the morning. The most noticeable damage from Ivan was the loss of a couple of trees from in front of the bungalows, and the jetty which has had about the last 40ft damaged. Talking to Duane the repair is going to require replacing the supports and should be carried out after the high season next year.
Going back to BWI was more like going back to see old friends, all the staff remembered us (could be something to do with last years bar bill) and were really friendly. If anything things have improved over the last year and I saw no evidence of the previous reports of them being a bit on the frosty side. Food wise the BWI has also improved. There was a bit more choice in the main restaurant and also in the bar so much so that we only ate out twice in the evenings once at Jemma's and once over at Sharon and Pheb’s in Charlottville.
The Kariwak
Our second week in Tobago was booked at the Kariwak at the Crown Point end of the Island. This was our first visit to the hotel as we have previously stayed at Coco Reef but wanted something a little more laid back than Coco Reef for our last week. Once we entered the Kariwak we were struck by the tranquility of the hotel despite its close location to the airport. We had initially booked a garden room but due to a problem with the air conditioning caused through an electrical supply problem on that side of the hotel we ended up being put in one of the pool rooms. There were no problems with noise that I have seen previously reported and we were quite happy with the change. The garden rooms are a little bit bigger and better specified but they were a little dark as they only have small windows on one wall, the pool rooms however are a lot more light and airy with the patio doors letting floods of light in, and the air con worked which was a big plus. Lots of positive comment have been made before about the food at the hotel so I will say no more than we not disappointed and all the meals we had there lived up to the expectations we had from reading the reports. The lunch menu deserves particular mention as the choice was very good and the Kariwak shrimp salad was excellent, even the sandwiches are enough to keep you going all day. One of the nicest features of the Kariwak are the gardens which are tranquil and cool due to the number of ponds and water features, the outdoor Jacuzzi was a really pleasant relaxing way to end the day after a hard afternoon reading a book while lazing in the hammocks at the top end of the garden.
All the staff were friendly, helpful and attentive and quickly made you feel welcome and part of the Kariwak family.
The main reasons we booked the Kariwak was the central position in Crown Point and convenience. On the last day it was great to drop the luggage off at the airport them pop back to the bar for a last rum punch and sit by the pool before the flight rather than suffer the crush in Tobago’s rather small departure lounge.
We did eat out a few times during our say at the Crown Point End and a special mention must go to Ru-B-Lous for what must be the best chocolate cake on Tobago.
Diving in general and Ivan
Having dived purely in Speyside last year the plan this year was to have a two centre holiday and dive both Speyside and the southern Caribbean end at Crown Point. This proved to be even more interesting as I was able to make comparisons between the dives from last year and those following hurricane Ivan this year.
In general the damage from Ivan is easy to spot and it is pretty extensive around Speyside, even around 30 meters which was a surprise. A lot of the soft coral and large tube and barrel sponges have been broken and in places some of the larger hard coral has also been damaged. Having said all that, the soft coral should re-establish itself and what remains is in much better condition than the Maldives and there is still plenty of other marine life.
The Crown Point end by comparison showed very little damage with only a few bits of soft coral and tube or barrel sponge broken which is probably no worse than any bad storm in the area.
Speyside Dives
All the dives at Speyside were with Aquamarine Dive who operate out of the BWI. I have dived with them before and always found that they give excellent service. That hire gear I saw was all in good condition and this year there were less problems with short air fills and leaking tank O rings, over the week I can only recall two tanks being rejected for being under 200 bar and one O ring was changed. They still use US style alloy tanks so anyone with DIN fitting regulators needs to take an A clamp adaptor as you can not remove the “slugs” to convert from A clamp to DIN in the same way you can with European tanks. The two dive boats are a good size with twin outboards and can easily accommodate around 12 divers and I noted that they always carried oxygen first aid kits and radios. The dive guides are all very competent and gave good briefings on both the dives and emergency procedures even down to where the nearest recompression chamber was and what they would do in the event of a diving incident. The usual day was split between a morning dive leaving the jetty around 10:30 am and than back in for lunch followed by an afternoon dive leaving around 1:30 pm. They will also do night dives if there is sufficient interest.
The first dive from Speyside was Black Jack Hole which is a sloping reef at the southern end of Little Tobago Island and will take you from the drop off point in a nice gentle drift to what would be the start of Kelliston Drain about ½ a kilometer away. We dived the site twice during the week and both dives were 40 minutes plus and around 24 meters. The big difference was the visibility. The first dive was at the start of the week and the water was still very green with a layer of hazy brackish surface layer of about 5 m the vis in this was poor 3 to 4 m at best but once past this it cleared to around 10 m but with little color in the coral as the sun was not penetrating the surface layer. The second dive was 5 days later and by then the water was very clear and you could see the reef from the surface over 20 m down. Once in the water the vis was a good 25m and made up for a lot of the poor conditions on earlier dives.
Fish life on both dives was very good with a number of spotted moray, grouper, lobster and good size cowfish as well as the usual parrot fish and shoaling jacks. There was some of evidence of the effects from hurricane Ivan with soft coral and sponges taking most of the damage but not as much as some other sites.
Off the southern end of Goat Island is a shallow 18m drift dive of Japanese Garden. Diving this site early in the week the vis was again very poor in the surface 5m and only improved to around 8m once we got below the haze. The site showed a lot of damage from Ivan probably due to the shallow nature of the reef and exposed location. Lots of damage was evident to both the hard and soft corals creating a bit of a coral debris field on the lower slope. The fish life seemed unaffected with numerous different types taking up residence among the jumble
Kelliston Drain or Coral Garden as it is sometimes called is a 24m drift dive of the southern end of Little Tobago that starts at the end of Black jack. The vis was still quite poor in the first 5m but improved once you were through the hazy layer. The scenery is very similar with plenty of life including spotted moray, box fish and lobster. Some coral damage was evident but the famous large brain coral is still ok however to one brain coral of around 2 m had been completely upended which shows the power of the hurricane.
In between Goat Island and Little Tobago Island is the dive known as Cathedral, a good fast drift dive at around 20 on the reef wall of LTI. There was much less coral damage than previous dives because of the shelter from the island, vis was also starting to improve and only the very top layer was hazy once you penetrated the first 3m there was a good 10 to 15m vis. Another name for this dive could be lobster city as they seemed to be in every hole and crevice along the dive. In addition to the lobster there were also a good number of spotted moray, parrotfish and wrasse and a few goods size grouper.
Spiny Colony has never been my favorite dive site; having done it a few times last year and I had not found it very challenging or interesting. It is usually used a safe check dive for new visitors to Aquamarine and as there were a few new people on this dive Spiny was the ideal site. The site is off the headland at the south end of Tyrrel's Bay at the base of a cactus covered cliff. Once in the water you drop down on to flat reef at about 12m and swim seaward to the reef wall which slopes down to around 30m. The vis was particularly poor this close in to the shore and green soup only just cleared before the top of the reef and even then it rarely improved over 5m. Even with the poor vis the damage to the site from Ivan was clear; all of the soft corals and sponges that had been there last year had gone and the site looked like it had been swept clean, the only thing moving on the top of the reef was a solitary hawksbill turtle. Moving down the reef wall it was clear that this site had suffered badly as much of the broken corals had rolled down the slope doing more damage and leaving a bolder field at the base. Fish life is returning but I think it will be a while before this site returns to normal.
TD Special is one of the rock pinnacles off the south end of Little Tobago Island. Looking out from the jetty this was the first morning that clear patches of Caribbean blue water could be seen (OK I know we're on the Atlantic side), Even on the way out it was obvious there was going to be a big change on the visibility on the dive as the reef could clearly be seen over 20m below so I knew we were in for a great dive. Once in the water the vis was really great 25 to 30m and one of the first things we came across was a good size turtle who had settled on the bottom and seemed completely undisturbed when we started taking photos. Large was obviously going to be a bit of a theme of this dive as once we started to move off round the pinnacle a solitary barracuda of around 4 to 5ft came in to investigate and stayed with the group for a good five minutes before disappearing off in to the blue. Besides these two high spots there were also a good number of grouper one or two being a very good size as well as the usual morays and schools of jacks. For the next 50 minutes we made our way all round the pinnacle down to depths of almost 30m and because of the much clearer conditions we were able to see the full colour of the coral and myriads of fish. To cap it all I managed to get a really good photo of a couple of banded cleaner shrimp which is something I have been trying to do for a few years which made an excellent end to a cracking dive.
The dive site called Bookends derives it's name from the pair of rocks with a split in between them that the current surges through, on this occasion there was not much current so the usual clouds that are produced were not evident and nor were the tarpon. The plus side however was that we were able to get a good look around the wash out bowl at the base of the rocks which I have not been able to do before. It is well scoured by the current, but one big surprise was the size of a spiny lobster that was resident in the overhang of bowl wall. It was certainly the largest one I have seen while diving off Speyside. The rest of the dive was drift at about 18m in a brisk current so a lot of ground was covered in the hour we were in the water. In addition to the monster in the bowl both Caribbean and spotted spiny lobster were much in evidence and in some areas they seemed to be fighting for space with 2 or 3 lobsters in the same hole. This was the first dive at Speyside where I saw nudibranches and quite a large number were spotted towards the end of the dive.
Angel Reef is a steeply sloping fringe reef on the west shore of Goat Island so it will have been well protected from the ravages of Ivan. Very little coral damage was evident, and as both the dives were towards the end of the week the vis was excellent getting up to around 25 to 30m. Both the dives were reasonable paced drifts along the reef wall lasting just under the hour a little and over 20m down ending up over a mile from the drop off point. The reef wall is full of nooks and crannies and provides an excellent habitat for Spotted spiny lobster, and moray. One very odd find at the start of the second dive was a pair old encrusted outboard motors at around 21m at the start of the dive. Both the engine covers props had corroded away and it took a few minutes to work out exactly what they were. Towards the end of the second dive I also came across a couple of nudibranchs. I thought it was a really good spot only to realize a few seconds later that there as a small colony of them on the surrounding rocks and coral.
Crown Point Caribbean Dives were with Derek Chung at Undersea Tobago the dive centre operating out of Coco Reef Hotel. Derek runs a really good centre and is the only one on Tobago to offer nitrox to qualified divers and a PADI nitrox course. There are 2 very fast dive boats based on a sports boat hulls rather than the more common fishing boat hulls that other operators favour. Derek's boats give a bit more room for dives as they are a bit wider and an exceptionally fast smooth ride at speed as he proved on the last day with a trip up to the North of the Island to dive the Sisters but more of that later. All the hire equipment I saw was in nearly new condition and here was a very good selection of suits, BCDs and regs. The daily schedule is slightly different that Aquamarine with an earlier start around 9am with 2 dives and a one hour surface interval before returning to Coco Reef. The advantage of this is you arrive back around 1pm which still leaves plenty of time for things in the afternoon.
The first dive with Undersea Tobago was Divers Thirst which is a drift dive on a reef around 4 miles from Crown Point at the southern tip of Tobago, a run that seemed to take no time at all in the fast dive boat owned by Undersea Tobago. The dive was mostly around 22 m over the cracks and gullies in the rocky seabed. The brisk current provided some good sport on the more exposed areas of the reef, while the gullies gave lots of shelter to lobsters, french and queen angels, wrasse and nurse sharks.
After a short surface interval of about an hour we made our way the short distance to Divers Dream which is a slightly shallower extension of the same reef the appearance is very similar but the reef rises to with in 7m of the surface which speeds the current up and gives a real helter skelta ride over the top of the reef. The high spot of this dives was the number of nurse sharks both free swimming and resting on the sandy bottoms of the gullies. In one area alone we counted 5 good sided sharks settled under one of the overhangs and 2 swimming close by.
The vis on both the dives was very good at around 20m with no hazy surface layer that had been plaguing the earlier dives in Speyside.
MV Maverick is an old ro ro ferry sunk in 1997 to provide and artificial reef for divers. Sitting upright in 30m of water on the sandy floor of Mount Irvine Bay the wreck is now well established and provides a good habitat for a number of species. It had been raining quite heavily on the way up to the dive site and the overcast conditions did not help the vis. At the start of the dive it was down as low as 8m in some patches. Entering the water and dropping down the permanent shot line attached to the stern of the wreck it came into view at around 20m and we continued down swimming along the shadowy port side to the bow at a depth of 31m. This also proved to be the coldest patch of water of the whole 2 weeks at 26oC where as all the other dives never dropped below 29oC. Once we rounded the bow we made our way aft along the starboard slowly rising to enter the car deck of the ferry through the stern door. Swimming along the car deck you can see down into the machinery spaces so don’t forget your torch. At the forward end you rise out of the car deck through the hatch in front of the accommodation block. Back into the sun light the vis had improved to about 15m and making our way back to the stern line we were buzzed by about 5 good sizes tarpon. The Maverick is not a bad wreck dive, but trying to see the whole wreck in one dive does not allow much time to take in any real detail.
After a pleasant hour stop at the beach in front of the Mount Irvine Hotel we set off for Mount Irvine Wall which is a shallow rocky reef wall dive down to maximum depth of 15m and lasting almost an hour allowing plenty of time to stop and take photos. The shallow depth meant the vis was very good and well over 20m making the conditions perfect. There is plenty of life on the reef with not only the usual things like moray and Lobster but also a couple of batfish and flamingo tongues which are like a small cowrie like mollusk which I have not spotted before, the shell pattern of these comes from the thin skin or “mantle” and if removed from the water this will quickly fade. Because of the close proximity to the shore the reef is used by fisherman and one should be on the look out for lines and hooks that can entangle or injure the unwary diver.
While at Speyside a few divers had been trying to persuade Aquamarine to run a trip round to the Sisters a group of rocks on the Caribbean side of Tobago level with Bloody Bay, unfortunately this meet with little success as the conditions were felt to be to poor to make the trip worth while. When Derek Chung offered to run a trip up from Coco Reef I jumped at the chance to go so the last days diving was going to be a bit special.
The Sisters are a collection of rocks so there are a number of possibilities for dives on them and on this occasion the plan was to dive both the eastern and western sides: because of the speed of Derek’s dive boat it is less than an hours run up from Coco Reef to the rocks. The excitement started even before we arrived as a few miles south of the rocks we passed a pod of dolphins and some in the group took the opportunity to go snorkeling with them. The first shorter 38 minute dive on the deeper seaward side got down to 28m with good vis around 20m. The rocks have very good fish life with large shoals of jacks, and a good number of moray, trigger, parrot fish and angels. Good soft coral with little damage although one or two of the larger barrel sponges were broken. We did not see any of the hammerhead sharks that are known to frequent the area so as a bit of a compensation we all set off to go swimming with the dolphins again during the surface interval.
After well over an hour with the dolphins we set off for the second dive on the Shallower landward side of the rocks. Getting down to only 16 m this time gave much longer bottom time of 54 minutes and there was still very good fish life: a good sized shoal of barracuda as well as jacks and silversides. Towards the end of the dive I managed to get a good photo of a couple of stone fish who were being a bit more mobile than usual. There were also plenty of also morays and lobster in the rocky ledges and overhangs around the site.
Special thanks too Alice and all the dive guides at Aquamarine for the Speyside dives and to Derek at Undersea Tobago for picking up my dive computer which slipped over the side whilst kitting up at Divers Dream. With a special mention for Joe "The Float" Cali who is doing his Divemasters and Instructors course at Aquamarine and ended up suffering me as a buddy on a number of occasions.
Hope you enjoyed that little lot
Kevin
