The dive operation seemed to be a fairly laid back business. The actual shop consisted of a small office managed by a friendly young lady who loosely choreographed the various water sport activities leaving from their dock. The Anchorage offers fishing, snorkeling, diving, and whale watching trips. A large locker room was adjacent to the office and had a series of racks to hang gear. Rental equipment was available and relatively new but I saw no sign of repair capabilities. The air compressor was in a separate shack, looked well maintained, and wasnt particularly noisy. There was also a separate tee shirt/boutique shop next to the dock, but this was never opened during our visit. Rounding out the facilities is a coldwater shower at the beginning of the pier and a concrete rinse tank with a spigot. There were no specialized facilities for photographers. The dive op seemed to consist of two primary vessels although the actual number of boats at their disposal was a little hard to determine because of arrangements with Dive Dominica next door and other local boat owners. My guess is that theyll find a boat to take you out if theyve got the customers. Two tank trips left the dock at a civilized 8:30 to 9:00 and returned about 1:00. This was good because the restaurant didnt really get going till 7:30 and with the sometimes slow service one would be hard pressed to be at the dock any sooner. Afternoon and night dives could be arranged but required a minimum number of divers. None went out during my visit. C cards were checked, liability releases were signed. Aluminum 80s with current Hydro stamps were pumped to 3000 psi, sometimes 3200, although an occasional tank slipped by with 2500. There was no Nitrox available. Standard dive rules were: no deeper than 130, let the DM know when youve hit 1000psi, then again at 700, stay together and well come up as a group. None of these were rigorously enforced. Dives were mostly follow the leader but the DMs rarely turned around so you were basically free to dive your own profile as long as you could find the guide at the end. Our group of mostly experienced divers usually got hour + bottom times. During our stay there were never more than ten divers so they used the small boat, Anchorage Diver. This tired old 36ft fiberglass single screw diesel is advertised to handle up to 20 divers. If there had been that many it would have been a bit tight. Suffering from some serious neglect we noticed that the marine radio had been removed, the swim platform was cracked, and one of the twin aluminum boarding ladders was missing a step. Cell phones worked for communication as long as they didnt go out too far. A canvas covered flying bridge with its control station removed provided good visibility and a rocking ride. An enclosed cabin in the bow held a set of V berths used for storage; I found no sign of a DAN O2 kit although I did not ask them to show it to me. In between the berths was a marine toilet with a hand pump. Occupancy of this cabin and use of its facility was of the shortest duration possible because of the pungent smell of chemical disinfectant. A fiberglass roof with side windows covered the helm and provided sun and spray protection for about half the passengers. Most of us rode the aluminum bench seats to and from the sites. A center upright aluminum island of spare tanks could be removed when the boat was employed for small whale watching trips. The large engine cover doubled as a gear table and passenger bench. Corroded aluminum tank racks were mounted behind standard bench seats along the rails. These featured fatigued strips of inner tube to tie our dive gear in place. Several of these broke at inopportune times during our trips and one divers gear flipped off the rack onto the tank valve and regulator. Luckily nothing blew and it was one of their rental regs that got bent up. We were able to cobble a regulator set together and no dives were missed. Dives were conducted as drifts although there really wasnt much current at most sites. Divers geared up and did a giant stride off the swim platform. Boarding was via the two aforementioned ladders. After our return the dive staff would rinse our gear and hang it up in the locker room where it would be available for shore diving in the afternoon. The next morning it was on the boat waiting for us. During our five dive days we had three different dive masters. This may have been designed so that they all got some income during a slow week. Richard, our first guide, performed lackluster briefings and didnt spend much time showing anybody anything. Although in all honesty they said he wasnt feeling well and we never saw him again all week. Michael on the second day picked up, poked, and prodded all kinds of critters. During our surface interval I asked him to refrain from yanking the basket stars out of the barrel sponges. Sherman who was with us for the last three days was a good bit more engaging both underwater and on the surface. Doubling as captain when the regular boat driver failed to show up he told interesting stories, pointed out stuff, and basically worked a little harder at providing an interesting trip. His tips no doubt reflected the extra effort. Their big boat, Misers Dream, is a 60ft long catamaran with a 26ft beam capable of hauling 50 people for whale watching expeditions and 60 folks from the cruise ships for snorkeling trips. They advertise 40 divers max for scuba trips on their web site but I saw no tank racks or other provisions for scuba on board. On a couple of days this boat left the dock empty and headed up to the Fort Young Hotel in Roseau to pick up large groups of whale watchers. It also is their vessel of choice to service the once a week cruise ships, Oct thru April. This boat was in pretty good shape and had multiple levels with lots of bench seating, some cushioned arm chairs, and a good sized lounge much like a broiler when the boat stopped moving. There were also three off limits bedrooms. We did all our diving on the premium southwestern sites of Scotts Head Marine Reserve. Famous dives like Soufriere Pinnacles, Scotts Head Wall, LAbym, and Danglebens all offered up the advertised dramatic underwater topography and spectacular healthy coral and sponge gardens. Boat rides were never more than 15 or 20 minutes and presented dramatic scenes of the lush, verdant mountains and quaint sleepy communities. Surface intervals were usually spent floating in protected coves, however once we landed in the town of Soufriere where we strolled to the ruins of a sugar cane plant, checked out the local church, and sprawled out with the local matrons in a hot springs bubbling up along the shore line. Most of the wall dives are actually the steep sides of a collapsed volcanic cone encrusted with hard and soft corals along with brilliantly colored sponges and gorgonians. In general small colorful tropical fish were plentiful, especially juveniles, but there was very little approaching eating size. Normal reef predators like Barracuda, Grouper, and Jacks were conspicuously absent. But that left room for a profusion of Blennies, Damsels, Butterflys, and Spotted Drum along with big schools of Blackbar Soldierfish, Creole Wrasse, and Chromis. Unusual critters like Electric Rays, Flying Gunnards, Spaghetti Worms, Nudibranchs, Frogfish, and Seahorse live here. Various types of eels, particularly Spotted Moray, appear to have filled the niche of top predator. One stand out dive started at Swiss Cheese, a giant rock and coral formation with multiple swim throughs and drifted onto Scotts Head Pinnacle then through a notch and out over the edge of the wall. Deepwater seafans, contorted barrel sponges, black coral bushes, and other healthy gorgonians burst off the side of the wall. We finned gently with the current poking our cameras into the nooks and crannies. Lots of sites here are called pinnacles but this doesnt indicate a gigantic underwater spire such as Eye of the Needle in Saba. In Dominica a pinnacle seems to designate a large coral bommie as in Danglebens Pinnacles which has five large profile coral mounds that link together into a fascinating maze of mini-canyons.