Few days ago I read an article about another scuba diving accident at Key Largo Florida . It makes me so sad to read news like this, especially when I think this could be prevented. The article didn’t have any details about what went wrong. I don’t know if the woman had some equipment trouble, a medical condition or if it was just a small little thing like losing her buoyancy that escalated into a big tragedy. There isn’t any information about the exact amount of divers on the catamaran and the amount of professionals on the boat when this accident happened either.

According to statistics most scuba diving accidents happen to new, inexperienced scuba divers when diving without guidance of professionals. I am not saying all the accidents can be avoided, but the majority can be prevented.

Boats loaded with tourists

Some call it a booze cruise

I’ve seen many touristy places in the world where dive operators take 20 – 40 divers with only 2 – 3 professionals onboard that sometimes don’t even go to the water with the clients. They just briefly tell them where to go and what they might to see and let them go down. It’s very hard to control a large group of scuba divers and make sure everybody is safe; especially with recreational – resort divers, where people of different diving skill levels and experiences are diving together. I personally believe that diving in few smaller groups and using more dive guides is much safer and more fun. That’s why I don’t dive with larger groups and I specialize in scuba diving with small groups only. I limit the amount of divers to 5-6 maximum, sometimes even less depending on their diving experience.

When I dive with newly certified divers, I usually take a MAXIMUM of three people but prefer to have only two, that way it’s much easier for me to control them. I focus more on their safety, then looking hard to find something new and unusual. There is always so much to see underwater and everything is all new for them anyways everything is exciting and makes them very happy. I never have new divers behind me, because it’s more difficult to control them without having the additional help of another dive master. I always keep them by my side, where I can see them all the time and provide assistance when they need it; before a small problem grows into a big one.

Diving with more experienced divers is a bit different; I give them more space, they always dive in pairs with a buddy and an odd diver is always my buddy. I am aware of my divers at all times making sure they dive safely and keeping myself in a position to assist anybody in need immediately.

Small groups scuba diving and snorkeling

Scuba diving and snorkeling with your family only

So far all of my clients love the way I dive with them. It doesn’t matter if they were new divers with no experience or advanced divers with lots of experience. I always give them the feeling of freedom and security at the same time. My clients can stay under water as long as the air or bottom time limits allow them; I don’t rush anywhere because I don’t have any other group of divers waiting for me to do another dive that day. If you dive with me, it is your time, your dive and your fun. I’m here just to assist you and make sure you are safe at all times. For me diving is a passion not a business and I love to share my passion with everyone.

So if you don’t like to dive on crowded boats, Contact us to enjoy great and safe scuba diving in Dominican Republic. Please make sure to book your diving trips with us ahead of time as it may be tough to accommodate you last minute when you arrive.

They call it Caribbean weather, quick change without any warnings. This morning was nice and sunny in Bayahibe Dominican Republic, then around noon some clouds came in and BANG, pouring rain started. Just like that. It lasted for about 2 hours. By 4 PM we had sunshine already.

But after all, we didn’t have rain for many days (I know they did in Santo Domingo), so finally we know again how the rain looks like. We tend to forget easily and think sun, sun, sun all the time. So it’s a nice change to see some rain, if it’s not raining few days in a row, as we used to see in other parts of the island. I believe the tourist coming here for a week or two to enjoy the sunshine, white beaches and nice clear Caribbean sea don’t like it too much, but we do once a while. We don’t have to water our gardens

November clouds in Bayahibe Dominican Republic

Cloudy afternoon in Bayahibe Dominican Republic

This fast change of weather is usually very surprising for people that come to Dominican Republic, or actually to any part of Caribbean, for first time. At least it was for us when we came. You don’t see any signs of rain coming, enjoying the nice sunny day on the beach, or having dinner under the sky full of stars. And suddenly in half an hour you are soaked, but still warm. Another half an hour later, it’s back to sunshine or clear sky with millions of stars again. But usually we don’t get these showers during the day much, it mostly rains during the night, making the air nice and fresh and we are back to sunny day the next morning.

We’ve had really nice weather for scuba diving in Bayahibe Dominican Republic unlike other parts of this beautiful Caribbean island. The Punta Cana / Bavaro area had to cancel all diving for the past week or so. They had big 9ft waves on the north coast couple days ago meaning no scuba diving on the north coast either. As most of the divers say, scuba diving in Dominican Republic is the best here.

November is here already, that means officially the hurricane season is over, and we didn’t get much of it this year. The Pacific side was hit much much harder then our Atlantic side. So as I always say, the weather is unpredictable, and we don’t know what will come, no matter what anybody says. The statistics are only a guide, showing the weather in the past.

We liked this hurricane season on the south coast of Dominican Republic, especially after really wet one last year, when we got hit by storms and hurricanes few times. Dominicus, where most of the resorts are located, and some parts of Bayahibe were flooded for couple days at the end of last September.  Meaning not only that we had water up to our waste in some parts of town. That the bottom floors in some resorts were under water and the tourists had to be moved to upper floors or to some other resorts in the country. That the meals had to be delivered in some resorts on canoes directly to the rooms as people couldn’t reach the restaurants. I belive only Dreams La Romana that is located in Bayahibe didn’t have any problems.

Storm in Bayahibe Dominican Republic September 2008

Bayahibe Dominican Republic flood September 2008

We, the locals, didn’t have power or water for few days. We used the rain to shower and candles for light like in some villages in the mountains where they don’t have electricity or plumbing isntalled. We use bottled water for cooking and drinking and always have at least two big 18 gallon jars full, so we didn’t have shortage of water. Also we have propane stove, not an electrical one, so we could cook without any problems.

But that was last year. This season was much nicer. There were few tropical storms coming during the past couple months, but either they stopped and disappeared or changed the path and missed us. Of course we were not complaining much, even though we pulled our boat Sharky out of the water for no reason. Like they say it’s better to be safe then sorry.

Heavy clouds above Bayahibe September 2009

September 2009 weather in Bayahibe Dominican Republic

We had few heavy rain storms, with lots of water falling down, but they stopped in couple hours and we were back to nice weather. We didn’t miss much of diving due to bad weather like the previous year, when we couldn’t go diving for about half of the month of September last year. This year was different. Not the weather, but the troubled world economy caused that only very few tourists came after summer. But we hope everything will get back to normal and lots of divers will enjoy scuba diving in Dominican Republic, like all the years before. Contact us to book you next scuba diving vacation or private trips with us and share the paradise life with us for a while.

Henri, not a storm anymore, just a depression for now, doesn’t look too good right now. Instead of going more north or north-west, it turned west and is heading directly towards the island.

Depression Henri heading towards Dominican republic

If it continues like this, Dominican Republic will get lots of rain. Even though it slowed down and lost the power, it might still bring some floods in some areas. We will continue to watch for more favorable changes.

What about Henri, the storm that is coming towards Hispaniola Island? Is it going to follow the previous storms and disappear, change the direction, or continue and bring some rain to our sunny paradise in Bayahibe Dominican republic?

A new storm Henry formed, but it looks like it might be slowing down before it gets closer to Dominican Republic. Based on the expected course it might be turning more east, meaning it might bring some rain to the north coast. But like we’ve seen it before it might change the direction to who knows where. More north would be great, in that case we wouldn’t get anything. More south – we don’t want that, it would bring lots of rain and wind all over the country. Let’s watch what will happen in the next day or two and hope for the best.

Storm update for Dominican Republic

So far we’ve been lucky and didn’t get that much rain. But we still have a month of possible storms and hurricanes ahead of us. Let’s hope it will stay quiet and we can continue diving in Bayahibe, one of the best places to scuba dive Dominican Republic.

Survivor Sweden episodes have been filming in the Dominican Republic for the past six weeks. A couple of the guys behind camera contacted us yesterday; they wanted to come and do double tank dives at St. George Wreck with us today.

They were looking for somebody to go scuba diving with privately that doesn’t have an additional 10 or more divers on the boat; so that nobody would disturb their filming. They also needed some help with lights; meaning a professional diver that is also an underwater photographer as well and that knows what he is doing.

This is exactly what our service is all about; offering private and unscheduled diving, where the customers can take as much time as they need and not be rushed by anyone. Repeating the same scenario over and over or standing in one spot for 5 minutes.

The weather isn’t too great this morning there are still some grey clouds haning around like it’s going to start raining any minute again; so we will see how the diving and filming goes. We will post more details and some pictures after the dives.

Yes, we have a rainy Sunday in Bayahibe.  After many nice sunny days, the rain came and watered our dry gardens. But somebody forgot to turn the water off and it was raining almost all day long.

Bayhibe weather Sept 20,2009

Bayahibe weather Sept 20, 2009

In the morning the sun was trying to get out after a heavy shower at night. But the clouds covered it by noon and the rain started again shortly after. At 3 PM the shower was so heavy that we were soaked in few seconds and had to wait with unloading the car. It was raining for about 2 hours. Even after it stopped we still heard the thunder in the distance till late night.

Bayahibe weather Sept 20, 2009

Bayahibe weather Sept 20, 2009

But so far we cannot complain much about the weather in Bayahibe, Dominican Republic this hurricane season.

Weather today in Bayahibe – it supposed to be a very wet day. According to the Dominican news, some low pressure was coming from the east and should bring some heavy showers. And actually it did.

Weather Bayahibe Sept 11, 2009

Weather Bayahibe Sept 11, 2009

After a sunny morning some clouds came in and the sky turned from blue to grey. Around noon buckets of water started falling down for about half an hour, then it slowed down a bit and eventually stopped. But only for an hour or so and then it started again. This time it rained only for 15 minutes, but probably the amount of the water was the same like before. But still, even during the heaviest rain, I was sitting in shorts and tank top, so I cannot complain about the rain to much. The only problem with the rain…… the temperature in the pool lowered a bit, it wasn’t 31 C / 88 F, but went down to 30 C / 85 F. I hope we have sunny day tomorrow and the pool temperature will get back to “normal”

Weather Bayahibe Sept 11, 2009

Weather Bayahibe Sept 11, 2009

Most of the time when people are worried about the forecast showing rain and showers I tell them to ignore it, because it’s hardly ever correct (except for the tropical storms and hurricane updates). This time they were right. But only a little bit. Around 3 PM it started to clear up and then we had nice sunny afternoon.

Storm update (click the map to enlarge):

Hurricane Fred is very slow, expecting to die by Tuesday. New system is forming by Africa that we have to watch. Other 2 systems are above USA but they won’t affect Dominican weather

Well the new strom forming by African coast doesn’r seam to be heading our way, so we don’t have to worry about it (so far). the winds are blowing it more north so even if it chages the dirrection, it would be too high to reach our island.

Current weather in Bayahibe, south coast of  Dominican Republic – today was nice and sunny, temperature 88 F / 31 C, light wind, water temperature 86 F /30 C, good visibility.

Bayahibe weather Sept 7, 2009

Storm Erika came at 3:15 AM showing us her last breath.

It started, like most of the depressions and storms by Africa, and it appeared it was going to hit the Hispaniola Island straight full blast.  Then it started heading north, gaining more power. It looked like it would pass Puerto Rico from the north, continue further to the west and strike the north coast of the Dominican Republic. But suddenly, it started loosing the strength and speed, coming slowly from the south, displaying all she had left.

But what a show that was. It came big, waking up everybody with a ripping sound of the thunder. The sky was lit up constantly for about an hour and half, one loud thunder after another, all accompanied by pouring rain. And then it slowly moved west, not even reaching Santo Domingo …. died …. disappeared.

This morning was sunny again, like nothing had happened through the night. Only big puddles left to show that there was a storm, but dried quickly by the hot sun.

So what is coming next and when? Couple new disturbances were getting organized by the African coast as usual, but it’s too soon to tell. It might not even show on the next update.