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Dive Review of Deefer Diving/Rosa Guesthouse in
Grenada/Carriacou

Deefer Diving/Rosa Guesthouse: "Very nice trip!", Nov, 2018,

by Mike Oelrich, VA, US ( 1 report). Report 10767.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food N/A
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments After reading an Undercurrent article on Carriacou and Deefer Diving, we decided to try it out over Thanksgiving. I contacted Deefer Diving by email and they were very responsive and helpful. It was easier to handle multiple questions by phone, however. Our trip down was free of drama -- the only thing we wished we'd know ahead of time was the time it would take the Dolly C to get from Grenada to Carriacou. Four hours is a long time to be "at sea" after a day of flying. In retrospect, we might have been better off overnighting in Grenada and taking the SVG Air flight the next morning. Deefer suggested staying next door at Rosa Guesthouse. It is literally right next door to the dive shop so the morning"commute" was very easy. The other obvious option would have been the Mermaid Beach Hotel -- that is a 5 or ten minute walk through "town" away. Rosa Guesthouse suited us fine. It is not fancy, but it was new and had everything we needed. Beverley and Gary were excellent hosts and took care of a couple minor issues without hesitation. It is in "downtown" Hillsborough, which we found to be a bit noisy until about 10 or 11 at night, but earplugs took care of that. The rooms have cooking facilities if you want to prepare some of your own food. Note, however, that while Hillsborough does have a few grocery stores, you may not be able to find exactly what you're looking for. For example, we only found true "sandwich meat" at one deli and it was very expensive. Thankfully, there were other options for inexpensive lunches nearby. We appeared to be on Carriacou during a relatively slow time. At the end of the rainy season (we had a few days where we got some rain between dives), before the high season really kicked off. Hillsborough is a very small town with one main street. There are a few restaurants, the highlights being the Kayak Cafe and Snagg's. We also enjoyed Calaloo. More options are available in Tyrell Bay, but that requires a cab ride. The folks at Deefer Diving helped arrange our stay and were a good source of information. Their normal schedule is to leave at 9AM for two dives, then they do an afternoon dive at 2 if there is interest. They also accommodated us for a night dive. In general, they were flexible and accommodated whatever requests we had, including doing a two dive afternoon trip for us on our first day. Also, they normally don't dive on Sundays, but had the boat going out the Sunday we were there. Check on that before you go if Sunday diving is a must. Nitrox is available, but they mix by hand so they need advanced notice if that is a requirement. We found that we didn't really need it for our 13 dives. Max depth was about 65 feet for the entire week. Their boat is a catamaran with twin outboard. It isn't huge but has a wide deck that is easy to navigate. They have a limited number of dive sites in the bay, so if you can't bear the thought of doing the same dive twice, think about it. That being said, the sites are good, the reefs appear healthy, and the crew are all helpful and fun to dive with. We saw plenty of small fish, a few big fish (a couple big groupers, nurse sharks, and a couple eagle rays and one enormous school of jacks during a drift back to the boat). Octopus also seemed plentiful, and we stopped counting lobster after the second dive. Currents were mostly mild, the exception being at The Sisters. But it was manageable and Sisters is a really nice dive. Our night dive was also quite pleasant and went by much too fast. In general we found it to be excellent and relatively easy Caribbean diving, second only to Bonaire amongst our recent travels. If you are looking for an out-of-the-way place to do some good diving, and don't need every creature comfort, this could be exactly what you are looking for.
Websites Deefer Diving   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Many places in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indonesia.
Closest Airport GND Getting There We flew American Airlines to GND. The American flight landed too late to take the SVG Air flight over to Carriacou so we took a ferry called the Dolly C, which runs MWF afternoons. That went OK, but that boat takes 4 hours to make the trip so beware. On the return trip we took SVG Air back to GND (20 minutes).

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy Seas choppy, surge
Water Temp 82-84°F / 28-29°C Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility 20-70 Ft/ 6-21 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Stay with the guide. Submerge and surface as a group.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 2 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 2 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 3 stars Shore Facilities 2 stars
UW Photo Comments There is no dedicated camera facility at the dive shop. The crew did provide a small bucket (or two if needed) for cameras on the boat. My camera, with strobes, filled one bucket entirely so mostly I left it setting on the deck next to the bucket so the others with smaller rigs could share the bucket.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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