Utila: Dive Sites

Monday, June 28, 2004

016-5.460 N
086-53.640 W

Ahoy from Utila, Honduras!

This posting is coming from Guatemala well after the leaving Utila, but I suspect that the dive sites haven't changed all that much since we left! I'll preface this report by saying that I've been absolutely spoiled over the past 2 years with the diving in atolls off of Belize and even at the West End of Roatan. To say that I underwhelmed by the diving in Utila would be an understatement. The only reason that I see to go diving in Utila is to take advantage of the incredibly cheap scuba certification programs. You can get certified for under $100 and we got our tanks filled for $2! If this is your first exposure to diving I'm sure that it's wonderful. My advice would be to get certified there and then go to the West End of Roatan for some much better diving. And then if you're on a boat, head to atolls off of Belize and get ready to be blown away!

Once again the names of the dive sites came from the "official" laminated card that shows the dive sites in the Bay Islands. The numbers after that correspond to the dive site number. We've noted that there were more dive balls in some spots than indicated on the map and some of the local dive shops used different names.

-- Geoff

Black Coral Wall/Pretty Bush (3/4): In the dinghy we ran about 1.5 miles along the northern coast to a site called Black Coral Wall and dove to the NE from the site named Black Coral Wall. The mooring is tethered on the edge of the reef in about 30' and the wall drops away at about a 60 degree angle to probably 100' or more. The wall consisted of sheet after sheet of mountainous star coral and little else. We had poor visibility and the outbound swim at 70-80' was extremely boring. The return trip along the edge of the reef was more interesting, possibly because the sunlight could penetrate the murk. The wall became vertical at points and there were even some free standing pillars. Better visibility would have made it much more interesting, but the almost complete lack of fish really detracts. Once again the coral appears to have been severely damaged by a storm at sometime in the past. There are some regions where the coral is beautiful and diverse, but right next to it you'll see area vacant of live coral. I'd do this dive again if the visibility was much better, but I'd limit the deep section of the dive to 40-50' as there was nothing to see at 70-80'.

Ragged Key (16): After moving the boat around to the W end we had an opportunity to dive the balls on the N side of the island. There are 2 balls at Ragged Key and we took the W ball. The ball is attached into coral at about 35' and from there you swim about 100' to the edge. The wall descended almost straight down a long way...much further than I'd want to go, especially since there was little to see when combined with a visibility of about 50'. The vertical wall was almost devoid of coral, sponges or fish. As we swam towards the other ball the wall achieved a more gradual slope and was covered with varied species of boulder star coral and sponges. The return trip featured the all too common bleached out coral heads and few fish. The highlights of the dive were a Soapfish, quite a few Flamingo Tongue snails and a spotted eel. Sad...

Between Ragged Key and Don Quickset (16.5): I don't think that this buoy is on the "official" dive map, so I won't give it a name other than stating it's the 3rd ball from Ragged Cay. The prettiest section of the dive is probably at the base of the dive ball in 30' of water. There's a fair amount of dilapidated coral, but it's bright and colorful. At the top of the reef you'll find small pillar coral, small brain coral, and boulder star coral. Unfortunately the predominant coral is bleached white. It's clear that it's coming back, but it sure was damaged at some point. You'll also find lots of sea- rods, whips and fans. As we swam eastward the wall varied between almost vertical and 30 degrees but was nearly devoid of fish. The return trip wasn't much more exciting. In some areas there was just sand over coral and that was covered by a yellow-blonde fuzzy sea plant. The highlight of the trip was finding either a Barbfish or Scorpionfish. I'll have to look at the photos to tell. We also had a 5-6' Tarpon who was very curious about us and followed us for about 10 minutes. Once again another dive that I wouldn't quickly repeat.

Rocky Point/Red Cliff (32/33): Flat seas provided a pleasant trip to Red Cliff, which is the last dive ball before Big Bight. The ball attaches into coral about 40' below and a sand channel leads to the edge of the reef which is a short distance away. The reef slopes down at about 45 degrees to a flat sand bottom at about 80'. We swam to the south in virtually no current and swam past the Rocky Point (32) dive ball and half way to Ted's Point (31). The coral is primarily lobed star coral and finger coral, both of which are in poor condition. There's a large amount of fan coral but surprisingly few sponges. We had been told that visibility by these balls was good, but we only had about 75' or less which is not bad, but not great. What we were very surprised about was the lack of fish, both large and small. We did see some small groupers and snappers, but in general the area had little in the way of fish. Over all not a dive that I'd repeat.

Ted's Point (34): With the arrival of higher winds we decided to stick closer to home and dive Ted's Point. After sloshing through 4' seas we arrived at the ball only to find it occupied. When it finally freed up we donned our gear and slipped over the edge to find that the visibility had improved quite a bit from our previous dive in the area. It was probably 75'; not bad but not great. We descended the mooring line and found a huge coral head in the middle of the sand about 50 yards from the mooring line. From there we swam SW and found the wreck of a fero-cement sailboat in 65-75' of water. The hull was in good shape, but stripped of any contents and mast. We couldn't quite figure out how it sunk as the only damage was an 18" hole where the chain locker meets the deck. Unless you were taking waves over the bow and the bilge pumps weren't working, I wouldn't have thought this would have sunk the boat. After exploring the boat for a while and enjoying the field of nearby garden eels, we headed towards Red Cliff where the reef was as described above. The highlight was seeing a Soapfish, which is only the 2nd that I've ever seen.

Halliburton Wreck (40): These dive balls are located just outside of the light that marks the NW point of the reef surrounding East Harbor. There are 2 balls, one connected to the pilot house on the stern in about 65' of water and the other connects to the bow in about 80'. The hull is resting in sand at about 100'. The Halliburton was about a 150' long freighter. Visibility is typically poor at around 60'. The pilot house is probably the most interesting area with a bicycle locked to the rail, a teapot hanging from the VHF microphone cable and large snappers and groupers hanging around inside. You can easily swim through some of the decks below the pilot house. While it may be possible to access the levels below the cargo decks, we didn't try. We explored the entire wreck using less than half of a tank, but unfortunately there wasn't any place else nearby to use the rest of it. It was an enjoyable dive, but I wish that there was more to see.

Log ID: 516