Outside the Reef
To do a night dive outside the barrier reef is all dependent on the weather. If its calm enough, that's where we prefer to do our night dives.See the caribbean king crab, octopus, lobster, shrimp, slipper lobster, parrot fish, moray eels and the other night time predators. No current to worry about at all, and no chance of seeing another group of divers is the real beauty. The dive you will spend at a depth of 40-60ft up on top of the reef. An average the dive time will be shorter 35-45 minutes due to the increased depth.
Hol Chan
I am going to say it again. It can either the be the best or the worst night dive you have ever gone on, just depends on the tide and the current.Because of the shallow depth (30ft) the dive can last anywhere from 15 minutes to an 1:15 minutes. Really depends on you as a diver taking your time and going really slow. On average I would say that the dives we do there last 50-60 minutes.
You have the chance to see lots of southern sting rays that have buried themselves in the sandy bottom. Moray eels abound at night chasing fish in and out of the reef. Allot of the time they will be followed by a snapper hoping to catch the prey before the eel does.
We see octopus probably 8 of 10 dives there. Lobster and shrimp abound and there can also be Tarpon and Spotted Eagle Rays that cruse the channel at night. You'll find parrot fish in their protective bubble at night.
Pretty much, you have the best chance of seeing anything and everything that you will find on the local reef there at night.
Depending on how bust the time of year is ... you will also have a very good chance of seeing allot of other divers as that where everyone goes for night dives. I have seen up to eight boats full of divers there on night dives during the peek season.
