Menu

Home  About  Experience  Locations  Store  Photos   Video   Links  Reviews  Contact

    


 

SailDives - Bequia

from Port Elizabeth, Bequia in St. Vincent and the Grenadines - Boarding at 5 PM Saturdays. (Prices include 15% VAT) Click "Reserve a Cabin" to see the list.

SailDives - BequiaOverview
Yachts
Summary - Union and Return
14 days - St Vincent and the Grenadines

Reserve a Cabin


Itinerary Union and Return Part I
Itinerary Union and Return Part II
Itinerary for 14 Days to Grenada
Bequia to Grenada Part II
Bequia to Grenada Part III
Bequia to Grenada Part IV
Bequia to Grenada Part V
Bequia to Grenada Part VI

Bequia to Grenada Part VI

14-FRI 15-SAT 16-SUN 17-MON 18-TUE 19-WED
20-THU 21-FRI 22-SAT 23-SUN 24-MON 25-TUE
26-WED 27-THU 28-FRI 29-SAT 30-SUN Go to top




Saturday - 29 OCT 2016


Flamingo Bay Grenada
We are the last ones off the Tradewinds yacht, but still early since we need to check in by 8:30 with Dive Grenada to do morning doubles in the marine park.


The first dive is Flamingo Bay.


We enter the water at 9:02 A.M. under sunny skies, 1' surface waves, for a 1 hour 4 minute dive with maximum depth of 104', mild current, 45' visibility and water temperature 86F to 82F at maximum depth.


The difference between the dives in the marine park on the North side of St George's and the dive sites to the South is striking.


The sites in the marine park have dense reef coverage of coral and sponges, walls and multiple environments, and large quantities of marine life including some rarely observed species.


Kojak has been working at Dive Grenada for years and we have dove with him many times in the past. He is a local and has some pretty interesting stories and experiences that he may share with you.


He is an experienced critter spotter, but he earned the name the "Seahorse Whisperer" after the dives we did with him on this visit.


The highlighted photos include a brown colored Longsnout Seahorse holding onto a blood red rope sponge.


Seahorses generally are territorial and will stay in the same vicinity once established. Our popular saying is "We know where they live, but they might not be home" is certainly applicable.


We also highlight a juvenile Spotted Trunkfish. This one was beige with brown spots, rather than white with black spots like the previous one we spotted.


The juvenile Smooth Trunkfish has the same shape but is black with white spots.


Despite the beige coloring we still think it is a juvenile Spotted Trunkfish and not a juvenile Cowfish.


The juvenile Cowfish is bright yellow and has a different shape to the snout.


On this dive we also spotted some larger marine life that most divers want to see and highlighted a turtle and Roughtail Stingray.


The stingray was quite large, about 5' wingspan tip to tip and was found quietly laying in a narrow sand channel near the edge of the wall at about 50'.


In addition there were schools of: Blue Tang; Creole Wrasse; and of Brown Chromis.


We also photographed intermediate Spotted Drum, Green Moray and Spotted Moray Eels, octopus, Caribbean Spiny Lobster and Spanish Slipper Lobster.


Many of the typical reef fish including the Longjaw Squirrelfish, Puddingwife and Tan Hamlet to point out a few less often observed species.


We rated this dive site as EXCELLENT at 4.0 It has excellent reef coverage, great structure, multiple diving environments, a large density and variety of marine life including some rarely observed species and some larger animals as well.


This is a site not to missed when visiting Grenada.








Dragon Wall Grenada
Our 2nd dive on Saturday is Dragon Wall.


This was another dive with Dive Grenada in the marine park.


We enter the water at 11:02 A.M. under sunny skies for a 56 minute dive with maximum depth of 67', 45' to 55' visibility, a Strong WSW current and water temperature of 84F to 86F.


We highlighted an orange colored Longsnout Seahorse, an image of the soft corals bending in the current, a Brown Garden Eel and Whitefan Bryozoan and Glass Goby.


On this site you cross over a flat area of sand and grass, passing a small wreck of a barge along the way.


Along this margin in the sand are several colonies of Brown Garden Eels popping in and out of their hole in the sand homes.


Of course many divers are oblivious and tend to swim right at them and they retreat to safey for a moment, unless they swim directly overhead.


We were able to move away from the group to a colony where we could slowly approach on the sand and get some photos.


On the flats the current was very strong and divers needed to secure position with pointers or fingers into the sand to prevent being swept away. Kicking would have burned through air before even reaching the wall.


The Seahorse lives in an area of dense soft coral a bit to the East of a straight line across the sand and grass to the wall. Then we went to the wall where the current decreased and made a counter-clockwise return to the end of the wall where the boat was then waiting.


We rated this dive as EXCELLENT at 4.0 because it has multiple environments, structure for multi-level diving, healthy and dense reef with an abundance of typical marine life and some rarely observed species as well.


We found many wire corals, but were surprised to find no wire coral shrimp after checking dozens of specimens. We found that unusual given the high numbers of wire corals observed.







14-FRI 15-SAT 16-SUN 17-MON 18-TUE 19-WED
20-THU 21-FRI 22-SAT 23-SUN 24-MON 25-TUE
26-WED 27-THU 28-FRI 29-SAT 30-SUN Go to top




Sunday - 30 OCT 2016


Dive Grenada
Our last diving day in Grenada we are scheduled for morning doubles with Dive Grenada.


We have dove with Phil and Helen for years and Kojak has been the dive guide for them for many years as well.


Dive Grenada is our "Go To" dive shop for all diving in the marine park. They also helped us find accomodations at the Siesta Hotel, which was well priced and had an over the top resturant on site.


The Flamboyant Hotel was closed and the new owners are planning to build a completely new facility on the site and the dive shop was required to move.


Phil was able to locate a nice lot a few hundred feet North on a flat parcel with no hills.


Since we visited the new dive shop has been completed and they are moved in.


We look forward to diving with them again at their new shop when we do this charter again next year.



Happy Valley
Our first dive on Sunday with Dive Grenada is at Happy Valley.


We enter the water at 8:43 A.M. under partly sunny skies, 0' - 1' waves with no current, for a 1 hour 5 minute dive with maximum depth of 91', visibility 40' above 30' depth and 65' deeper and water temperature 86F to 84F at depth.


The dive plan is we descend on the wall, keep it on your left until the end of the dive.


There is a mixture of skill levels so it was agreed we could do our own depth profile in our buddy pair and just keep them more or less in sight as we move along the wall.


This is the third dive we have done with Kojack and true to his new nick name, the "Seahorse Whisperer" he points out yet another seahorse, making it 3 for 3.


The highlighted photos include this third Longsnout that is black in ambient light, but with red highlights that appear under our camera lights.


A small school of juvenile Sunshinefish was highlighted, and we spotted several such small schools along the wall.


A large colony of Sea Frost worms was spotted which we also highlighted as most divers do not recognize these marine animals.


Finally, a Sailor's Choice grunt, although not rare by any means, is not typically observed by most divers.


The wall is beautiful, densely packed with sponges and corals and many many wire corals, but again, we did not spot any wire coral shrimp.


There were a large variety of sponges and corals including Azure Vase sponges, Black Corals and Fleshy Corals.


All of the typical reef fish were present in high numbers including Yellowtail and Shy Hamlets, Caesar Grunts, Red Banded Coral Shrimp, Spotted Scorpionfish, juvenile Yellowmouth Grouper, Red Hind and others.


We rated this dive site as VERY VERY GOOD at 3.75 The site has densely covered health reef life, great structure, limited multiple environments because of the depth to the sand and patch coral which is the only distinction making it less than excellent.


The wall is excellent and if having multiple environments is not relatively important than this is an EXCELLENT dive. If you like wall dives then this is a dive than is a must do in Grenada.


Dragon Bay Wall
The 2nd dive Sunday, our last in Grenada after the 2 week SailDives SCUBA charter on the Tradewinds catamaran, is back at the Dragon Wall dive site.


That is no problem for us since we will do an EXCELLENT dive site over and over because there is always new things to find on an EXCELLENT site.


The dive plan is the same as before, but today we are blessed with only a mild WSW current.


We enter the water at 10:50 A.M. under partly sunny skies, 0' - 1' waves, with mild WSW current, for a dive lasting 1 hour with maximum depth of 58', 65' visibility and water temperature of of 86F.


As we cross the flats of sand and grass, the lack of current makes the task of photographing Brown Garden Eels much easier and we were able to separate from the group early and obtain lots of photos of the eels well out of their holes.


There was also a medium sized Barracuda cruising in the flats that approached closely for a nice photo opportunity.


As we reached the same soft coral area Kojack found the seahorse again, making it 4 out of 4 dives a seahorse was spotted.


We highlighted the Longsnout Seahorse and a group of Brown Garden Eels.


We also highlighted a Yellowfin Grouper in the unusual Orange and black spot coloration. This species is not rare, but this coloration is rarely observed by most divers.


We also highlighted the Maculated Flounder, that is similar in appearance to the more common Peacock Flounder.


On this dive we spot a juvenile Smooth Trunkfish with the familiar Black with White spot combination.


As we stated in the review from the prior day, this is and EXCELLENT dive site and we rated it 4.0 and it was made so much easier with the mild current.


We really enjoyed diving in Grenada, with Kojack the "Seahorse Whisperer" and with our good buddies Phil and Helen of Dive Grenada.


Make sure to dive the marine park reefs with them and say hi for us!




top