Favourite Dives: “Le Jettoi” Magical Shore Dive
Feel the magic under Hillsborough’s jetty…
I must confess that, even though Carriacou has quite a few amazing dive sites to choose from, this particular one has won a very special place in my scuba-diving-loving heart, so I am very enthusiastic about it and would strongly recommend you to check it out – even if you’re not a diver, just grab a mask with snorkel and a pair of fins and check it out – if you scuba dive, this site is a must!
Located at less than 100 meters from the Deefer Diving dive shop, we take a little walk to the beach and then head for a swim towards “Le Jettoi” (must thank Gary for the name, it still makes me smile every time I say it). This old dock was put out of service some time ago, and the sea life couldn’t be more grateful! Schools of fish and juveniles of all kinds find shelter here now, and you will be amazed by the great variety of species that can be found here.
We start our dive a little way from the jetty and make our approach under water. The first hint when you get close is the sound of big schools of fish near the surface (a gentle crackling and lapping noise), then you see hundreds of silversides surrounding you, as well as different schools of grunts (mostly French & smallmouth) near the bottom swimming around the pillars, some old tire fenders and other wooden structures that have created a perfect scenery for us to behold.
From the common spotted moray, to loads of purplemouth morays, this site is home for an amazing variety of eels, I even saw a baby green moray and a couple of chain morays as well, but truth is that I lost count on how many I’ve seen in one single dive.
You can find so many juvenile spiny lobsters, they’re everywhere! In between bricks and old wheels at the bottom, in the pillars and inside sponges as well, they are very cute and curious.
Other amazing creatures to look for here are octopuses: I remember seeing 3 on a single dive, and one time a dive buddy even found the cutest smallest baby octopus ever! I remember going for a macro dive with Yara, where she found two beautiful nudibranchs, one of them was huge, at over 5 cm long, the biggest nudi I’ve seen around here.
Macro lovers will definitely have a blast here – I’ve seen many juvenile fish, especially drums, and a couple of tiny juvenile queen angel fish, also different kinds of cleaner shrimps and lots of arrow crabs.
Its hard to decide which is the coolest animal I’ve seen here so far, but a huge barracuda at 2meters deep was pretty awesome, or a southern stingray and 2 scorpion fishes in one dive were a pretty cool find too. The one creature that will always get my attention thou, is the flying gurnard, specially when you’re lucky enough to encounter 2 cute juveniles “walking” along and spreading their small colorful “wings” to get away from your noisy bubbles.
One of my favorite things to do here is a swim through from the shallow part of the jetty at 2 meters, to the deepest end of it that gets to about 5 meters. Specially when you have great vis and no current at all, this feels like being inside an aquarium with hundreds of fish, and make you feel like you’re one of them. Then I just hover for a while, cause time here at such shallow depth becomes nothing, trust me, I’ve done a couple of 2 hour dives and still would go for more!
I could go on and on, remembering every single dive I’ve done at Le Jettoi, but the greatness must be experience in flesh, so next time you’re visiting Hillsborough, gear up and be mesmerized by the magical world under the Jetty, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
To find out more about diving in Carriacou, visit the Deefer Diving Carriacou website,
