Dudu cave video

This is a video made by the frenchmen I dove with while looking for Chiquita reef.

It's kind of dark and we don't get to see much of the lagoon part which I really enjoyed. These guys, however, have the training to go beyond the "Stop, Danger" sign (The sign you see early in the video).

Return to Dudu cave

If you have read some of my previous posts, you know that I loved diving the Dudu caves.

I had the opportunity of returning there last thursday.

Of course, there's nothing like the first time . . .

Although I still enjoyed the dive, the water was not as clear as the first time because of increased traffic (lotsa divers and swimmers). Also, I did not get to swim for as long in the lagoon as the first time around because of tight scheduling.

This time around, I brought my video camera so that you can have a look at the location. The shelter that you see was in the early stages of construction the first time I went to Dudu.

Because they were gearing up for the long Easter weekend, they had music playing and more visitors than usual.

There were two other divers hailing from Quebec. One was a geologist, so we had a quick course on how stalactites and stalagmites are formed. The other was a well traveled diver who was cavern diving for the first time. Although she enjoyed the dive, she prefers the open spaces of the ocean with all teh fish and coral. Indeed, cave and cavern diving can be dark and dreary if you are not into the thrills and dangers of a covered environment.

Here is a short video of the location of Dudu cave.

Donde esta (where is) chiquita reef ?

Yesterday was my first dive with two frenchmen who have been exploring many of the caves, as well as a lot of the coastline of the Dominican Republic.

There is a place, however, that had still eluded them. A place called "Chiquita reef".

Chiquita reef, a mysterious location where no one has dived to in years. The exact location of that reef -- replete with exotic fish, sting rays, dangerous sharks, barracudas, sunken galleons and pirate ships -- was lost in time and only a few people still alive know of its existence, let alone its exact location . . .

Have I piqued your interest yet?

Well okay, I over romanticized the story a bit here but it sure felt like a mysterious and Indiana Jones esque epic adventure yesterday as the boat left Philippe, Thomas and me roughly 1 kilometer off the coast of Sosua.

We knew it would be a deep dive so, being the only one not having a twin, I was given a stage bottle.

We were given very vague
information on the possible
location of the reef

The top of Chiquita reef is presumably at 23 metres deep and goes down from there to a depth of about 40 metres. This particular fact was initially lost on me since I suffered from information overload because it was just a few hours before the dive that we were finally settled on which site we were gonna go to. The day before we were supposed to go to Rio San Juan, but on the morning of the dive, we learned that, because of mechanical failure on the boat, that dive would be scrapped. Then, we had a few options near Sosua and finally settled on Chiquita reef.

We were given very vague information on the possible location of the reef and because the boat was not equipped with a sonar, we could not know of the depth until we actually dove there.
With a sonar, we could have followed the pattern of the sea bed and determine the presence of a reef at 23 metres.

Anyways, we geared up, and jumped off the boat. The sea was rough so I dove a few metres underwater to finalize the tying up of my stage. Anticipating the possibilities of crevices and tunnels in the reef, I also brought along my Green force torch.

Thomas and I descended
to an, er...
undisclosed depth

When you consider that I have a 2 metre long hose for my main regulator, my octopus is tied around my neck, I have the cable for my green force going cross chest from right to left, down below I have my reel, my orange sausage, and on top of that, I have to tie in my stage without being all tied up, one understands the necessity of going underwater where I wasn't tossed around by the waves.

Once all geared up, we descended into the big blue. Thomas and I descended to an, er... undisclosed depth, and still saw nothing but the deep blue sea.

The big blue as I saw it ;-)

Within reach but out of reach.
That's how it felt to me as
I floated above this strange
looking landscape

Up above us, Philippe motioned to us to swim towards the coast. It is then that Thomas and I started to see the bottom. Still, the bottom was far below us, far . . . into trimix territory. Some call this depth "Deep air" which is a euphemism for "Suicidal air depth" :-)

I felt like the astronauts of Apollo 10 who flew within 16 kilometers above the surface in preparation for the historical landing of Apollo 11. Apparently, there was not enough fuel for them to land and take off from the moon so as to remove any tempation of landing.
Within reach but out of reach.
That's how it felt to me as I floated above this strange looking landscape, like hovering above the moon. Not so much because there were craters in the bottom of the sea but because of the rather strange looking pockmarked surface. Not sand but coral without all the variety, colors and fishes. In fact, we didn't see a single fish during the entire dive.

When it became clear that we would not find Chiquita reef, we started our slow ascent.

I recalled a similar
free floating deco stop in
Morocco a few years back

As we began ascending, I had 10 minutes of deco time, but by the time I reached deco stop depth, I had 12 minutes.

Doing a deco stop in the big blue is a special experience, there is nothing but the turquoise water to look at, and of course our dive buddies. In this case, no fish, no life form of any kind, just our computer, air gauge and our bubble going up to the surface. Philippe deployed a sausage and we waited, and waited, and waited.

I recalled a similar free floating deco stop in Morocco a few years back. I monitored my depth gauge and was able to maintain good buoyancy. This time, it was a little more difficult because of the surge on the surface. I kind of teetered within a meter most of the time. When you reference yourself on another teetering diver, it is hard to get a good fix.

Probably color blind for
not seeing the orange sausage
on a blue background in
broad sunny daylight

After 12 minutes, we surfaced and the boat was nowhere in sight, despite the fact that the sausage had been bopping up for the past 12 minutes. Again, I recalled my past experience in Morocco where the boat was always within a few meters when we'd surface. Now diving in Morocco is not for the faint hearted. We would sometimes go on a leaky wooden excuse for a fishing boat dating back to the Phoenicians and equipped with the original Ole Evinrude 1909 outboard engine. We figured that even if the boat would sink, that would give us a wreck to explore and we could always swim back to shore. But one thing I must commend the Moroccan fishermen for is that they do know how to follow bubbles. Even if they temporarily lose track of the bubbles, because they drift away while chit chatting, they somehow find those bubbles even in rough seas where the bubbles break out on the surface and are barely visible. They intuitively know how the boat drifted and the last direction the divers were going in order to relocate the bubbles -- never losing the divers.

Not having done a deep
dive in a while, I was glad
to see that, deep down,
I didn't feel any narcosis.

Now, back to our Dominican boat captain, 500 metres away . . . Probably color blind for not seeing the orange sausage on a blue background in broad sunny daylight, or maybe he thought he was sighting the very rare "Orange Dominican Dolphin" * bobbing its head up and down -- whatever . The only way we could get his attention is when Philippe used his direct system activated whistle. He said to me "Put your head in the water 'cause it blows loud".

Diver tip: If you ever are with a group of diver, lost, and one of them tells you to "dunk your head" because he's gonna blow his whistle, do as he says.

That thing blows loud, man! Loud enough to make a Manowar concert sound like chamber music.

Within seconds, we could see the boat rushing in our direction.

Not having done a deep dive in a while, I was glad to see that, deep below, I didn't feel any narcosis. I could perform the switch between my main reg and the stage's reg, monitor my depth on my two computers and air on my two gauges. In my case, swithching between bottles was recommended so as to prevent emptying one tank and then finding out that the stage has decided to have an impromptu mechanical malfunction.

Given our shorter than anticipated dive, I came out with half a tank on my main bottle and more than two thirds left on the stage, so I would have been okay on one tank alone.

Well, the search for the elusive Chiquita reef goes on . . .

Stay tuned . . .


* Orange Dominican Dolphins are often seen after gulping a bottle of dark Dominican Rum.


P.S. Although Chiquita reef is listed as part of the dive sites Northern coast diving goes to. It appears that they haven't gone there in quite some time because no one seems to know for sure where it is. With the recent hurricanes, the marker buoy disappeared and they need intrepid explorers like me and the frenchmen to relocate the spot and maybe, just maybe, mark the GPS coordinates and put it a new buoy. According to their website, stingrays are often found in Chiquita reef and the depth is only 30 meters, although this could be for not scaring the tourists ;-) For more on this neck of the world, check this site.

You can learn to dive at any age

I once read that Leni Riefenstahl had to lie about her age in order to get certified as a scuba diver. She claimed to be 52 when she was in fact 72 years old. But that was over 30 years ago. I think that since then, they have relaxed the age limit, as long as you are in good health.

At least, my 58 year old sister did not have to lie in order to get her Discover Scuba Diving cerftificate last week. I told the folks at Northern Coast Diving not to worry, that she was an excellent swimmer since she was part of the Olympic team . . . in 1952 :-)

Next, I will enroll her in PADI's elearning so that she can be a full fledged Open Water diver.

Always fashion conscious, you can notice her artful underwater hair and eye makeup;
her Coco Channel goggle; Jean-Paul Gauthier shorty; and Prada fins.

The fashion disaster in the background is, of course, yours truly.

At last, photos of Dudu caves

I finally got some cave photos, as well as the name of the underwater caves I visited near Playa Grande on the north coast of the Dominican Republic..

They are called "Dudu". Cute little name isn't it ?

The first photo is the typical underwater cavern photo, with daylight from the pool in the background:


This one shows the air pocket:


This one shows the "sunken forest":




This one shows the "eerie fog", of course, it is more "eerie" when you are actually there:



Well, that's it, hope you enjoyed. Well, okay, one bonus photo:


All photos courtesy of Jessy, staff photographer at Northern Coast Diving.

Best dive ever and no pics ??

As mentioned in my previous post, I said that it was my best dive ever. Unfortunately, my camera died on me a few days before.

I will try to get some photos from the dive shop.

With any luck, I will have the underwater housing for my video camera ready the next time I do the caves.

Best dive ever . . . and a lesson in "just in time" delivery

When I tell people that there are caves in the Dominican Republic they all act surprised. Yes folks, there are caves in DR.

First off, I should tell you that my cave and cavern experience is limited, I only dove Ginnie springs in Florida. I never did the famous Cenotes in Mexico, so my points of reference are not the best.

The caverns I did -- and for which I will get the name soon -- are in fact two types of dives in one.

As is typical of underwater caves, there is a big watery hole in the ground into which you descend until you reach water level. At that particular location, we descend a concrete set of stairs, with each step having a different height, as is typical of a lot of stairs in DR. The stairs eventually lead to a long concrete pier of sorts from which we finalize our gear set-up, and jump into the crystal clear pool.

From the pool, we dive in the direction of a first cavern, which leads to another pool about 100 meters away. From there, we take a second parallel cavern that leads us back to the original pool. Since there is an entry point and an exit point, these are technically "caverns". Moreover, we never really lose sight of daylight because we begin to see the daylight glow of the exit before we lose the glow of our entry point.

Again, from the main pool, we take on a real cave, that is, only one entry point and no exit. This cave leads to an open air pocket which is quite big. We can breath in this pocket since it is not a pocket made out of the accumulation of air bubbles from divers, but a natural pocket located above the normal level of water. The roof of the air pocket is vaulted and there does not appear to be other tunnels, but a few crevices, including one in which one or two divers could exit the water and squeeze into.

On our way back, not far from the main pool, as part of this cave, is a second cave. As one slowly enters it, there is a warning sign that tells us to stop. This secondary cave is very deep and requires true "deep cave"certification to enter. Unfortunately, I don't yet have this certification so I could not explore this cave. Last week, two french divers did explore it and said that it is much larger than what is actually on the map. Already, the map shows that cave as being more than twice the size of the other cave. Since very few divers dare venture into that cave, it has yet to reveal all of its secrets . . . maybe one day I will return and add to the mapping of it.

The second type of diving:

Although this "dive experience" is only one dive, it is part of a day long expedition which, for me, started at around 9:30 when a mini taxi-van picked me up at my apartment and from there, along with three other divers and one instructor from Northern coast diving, we drove for over an hour east of Cabarete to the diving site. Along the way, we made a "bathroom break" at a mangrove forest where the Gri gri river runs. A landscape right out of Jurassic park.

After the dive we had a buffet style lunch at a retaurant. But more on that later,m, now back to the second type of diving:

Since that particular diving location is very shallow, I still had plenty of air after about 40 minutes to continue with my dive. So me and Paul, the instructor, stayed in the pool and dove for another half hour. This pool offers quite a unique experience. You have to understand that I am a lake diver from Canada and lakes have notoriously bad visibility. So, I am a mud diver. My first experience in clear water was at "Les Escoumins", in the St-Lawrence river, where fresh water meets salt water and where the bottom is covered in various "tropical style" corals. After that, I did my advance Open Water course in a quarry with very clear water. So clear water diving is always a big thrill for me and so far my ocean diving in DR has been in low viz waters since there is still a lot of wind and rain at this time of year and viz is not as good as one would expect from the Caribbeans. Quarry water is typically very clear but the clearest water comes from underwater springs such as those found in northern Florida and . . . Dominican Republic.

Okay, enough with the preambles. Swimming in crystal clear water is like floating in air. In this pool, there are huge trees that have fallen off and some big fish but mostly small ones. Again, because of the clarity, the fish appear to be flying in mid-air and so do us, the divers. At the bottom is a brown layer of sediments which floats like a dark mist. So, overall, the look, with the many dead trees, is very similar to the setting one would find in a horror movie: Low lying mist over swamps in a forest of dark dead trees -- OoooWeeeOooo.

For what seemed much longer than the mere 36 minutes I clocked, I swam through the maze of tree trunks, limbs and branches, dipped into the brown fog, watched immobile fishes suspended in "mid-air". What an incredible Zen like experience! It is exactly the feeling of flying in the air. What a great way to practice one's buoyancy as one negotiates turns above and under tree branches, hovers above the brown mist, watches a fish . . . We finally came out of the water, quite relaxed and excited at the same time.

On the way back, we stopped at a typical Dominican restaurant -- basically a covered terrace by the road -- where fried chicken, salsa, rice, fried banana slices and pasta were served (strangely no habichuelas). There is something very interesting about the way they conduct business in the Dominican Republic: In developed countries, for the past twenty years or so, businesses have developed what is known as "just in time", a business practice wherein very small inventory is kept and an assembly plant will keep just what is needed in parts for what they need to assemble whatever they do. For example, Dell computers only has three days worth of parts to assemble their computers according to the clients requests. Eevery time, they need more, they place an order and parts are delivered to the assembly plant just in time. Well, folks, this concept has been known for centuries in developing countries such as DR. One of us asked for a drink that was not part of the restaurant's current inventory and so, the waitress nonchalantly walked across the street to the roadside convenience store and came back with the drinks -- just in time.

And to think that it was some Nobel prize winning economics teacher from Harvard who presumably introduced the concept in business. Baloney! He probably spent a couple of weeks in DR 30 years ago, saw that very same scene and thought to himself: "Hey, I got my drink just in time for dessert. Just in time, hey that's a concept!".

According to this website, "The marvelous Underwater World is starting to make a name for itself, and the newly discovered, still unspoiled Underwater Cave systems are going to put the Dominican Republic on the World map of cave diving."