Punta Cana - Dominican Republic
Pink Flamingo
October 2017
We flew out of Gatwick airport on this trip after driving down in the morning for an 11:30am flight from the North Terminal. We got a good all-inclusive deal with Tui, staying in a Privilege Junior Suite at the Catalina Bavaro hotel. I also booked online, a 6 dive package (4 local dives and an excursion to Bayahibe for 2 dives) with the on-site dive centre, Scubaquatic. The room was nice but there was building work going on, during the day, just a few yards away as the empty accommodation blocks were getting renovated. Explains the good price and, to be honest, it didn't really affect us much. There were several 'a la carte' restaurants and a general buffet restaurant where you could sit next to water and watch the fish and the Pink Flamingo and other birds as you ate you main meals, and there were a number of snack bars for during the day if you didn't want to get out of your cozzi to eat.
The most annoying thing was the constant loud rave music in all of the bars, including around the pool, and, at times, from across the way at the Pearl Beach Club. We found the best and quietest place to be, if not away diving, was in the Privilege area on the beach under a thatched sun shade, but you need to get there before 7am to claim your spot.
The weather in October was very hot and extremely humid, sometimes overcast, with the odd storm during the day which lasted up to an hour, but there was a lot of sun too and easy to get burnt if you're not careful. Thankfully, the Dominican Republic escaped most of the tornados passing through the Caribbean during the previous months.
Monica Wreck
Tuesday 10th October 2017
First two dives today were local dives, taking the small dive boat out from the beach at the hotel. The dive boat was open topped, so not much cover from the sun, and of fibreglass construction with a small ladder for returning to the boat after the dive. For both dives it was just me, the dive guide and the boat captain. First up was Anchor Reef. Not a terribly exciting dive but the highlicht was a juvenile Nurse Sharke resting in the coral towards the end of the dive.
The second dive was the wreck Monica, a wooden vessel which was transporting various tools and equipment to a sugar plantation. It sank in a storm and is very broken up but lots of interesting things to see, including the propeller and rails for the train.
Both dives were relatively shallow at 14 and 11 mtrs respectively and for for both dives the visibility was poor - 5 to 10 mtrs - and there was very strong surge which actually made me feel quite seasick towards the end of the dives. Apparently this is not typical but as a result of the recent storms.
Wednesday 11th October 2017
An example of image to the right.
Local dives again today with two additional young divers doing some dives towards their Advanced Open Water. Bit annoying really because I was expected to take on the role of Divemaster for the two dives and they were not the most diciplined of divers having, for the most part, not grasped the notion of diving as a buddy pair and staying together.
Park Reef and Collitas were the two dives, neither of which were particularly interesting to me and the heavy surge and very poor visibility - 3 to 5 mtrs - were again present. Lots of Fan Coral, Yellowtail Snapper, Blue Tang, Parrot and Trumpetfish.
Yellowtail Snapper
St. George Wreck
Thursday 12th October 2017
The excursion to Bayahibe involved an hour or so bus ride to the other side of the island. It was well worth making the journey.
Dive #1 was the St George Wreck (named after Hurricane George in 1999), a 73mtr ship, built in 1962 in Scotland, used for the transport of wheat and barley between Norway and the Americas. It sits on the bottom at 43mtrs about half a mile offshore in the Parque Nacional, and sank in 1999. It did move during the heavy seas created by the tornados this year, and part of it collapsed internally, so it was not recommended to penetrate it.
We descended the shot line to the stern, having to pull ourselves down due to the current, the picture on the left shows the approach. The first fish I saw was, unfortunately, the ubiquitous Lionfish but there was lots of other activity on this artifical reef with large shoals of White Angelfish and a good colonisation of coral. We did not go below the 30mtr depth, but stayed circling the superstructure for a 25 minute dive.
Surgeon Major or Sergeant Major
Dive #2 was the Atlantic Princess wreck. This was a purpose sunk artificial reef, having been decontaminated and prepared prior to sinking (it actually sank by itself one day in 12mtrs of water, on 6th May 2009 actually). A very nice wreck to dive with lots of access points for penetration.
Whilst passing through from one side to the other I was confronted by a very agressive Surgeaon Major (Sergeant Major?) fish who seemed to take exception to us swimming through its home. It got right in my face and did actually look angry, if a fish can do so! When I ignored it and carried on the little git swam behind me a bit my leg, drawing blood whith sharpe little razor teeth. There were large schools of Surgeon Major fish, glad they weren't all as grumpy!