Little Cayman or Cayman Brac?

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Bloody Bay is spectacular. 2 boats from Brac plus the 2 or three LC dive boats along with private divers usually adds up to about 50 people in the water. Throw in the Liveaboards and the number may exceed 50. The area is large enough to support the number, but people tend to flock where other people are. It's human nature. I doubt there is a nicer dive than Bloody Bay in the Caribbean, but you will see a bunch of divers there on a calm day.
 
The diving is similar but I prefer LC because the reef starts shallow and you can do a multilevel dive while staying on the reef the entire time . At the Brac, the reef is too deep to do that.
Hello divers!

Looking for your reco on where to dive in cayman - little cayman or cayman brac. What has better diving and/or more sites or are they both about the same?
 
I'll throw in my two cents. I've been to both islands, more often at LC than Brac because I prefer the diving there. Brac is OK but LC is superb. The diving is quite different on the 2 islands. I Don't know of anywhere else in the Carribean where the walls start so shallow as at Mixing Bowl on LC ( vertical wall at 18 feet. You can do your safety stop on the wall ). Reefs are healthy and because it is dived regularly, the fish are not skittish around photographers. There might be 4-5 dive boats out at the same time at LC but there are over 20 named sites on bloody bay and Jacksons wall spread over a few miles. I'ts pretty rare to run into strangers underwater. The LCBR boats tend to moor and dive relatively near each other so that if there is an emergency, they are mutually supported; a strategy I agree with. The Aggressor tends to hog the same mooring all day when they are there.

LCBR, Pirates and Southern Cross are all superb small dive lodges with different attributes depending on your preferences and price point.

The shore diving on LC is very good as well, as there is beach access to Jackson's wall and a short surface swim out. You can also access Bloody bay from shore. Most people don't shore dive on LC as the resorts tend to offer afternoon dives as well as the AM schedule, but you certainly could if you had transportation. The dive lodges are all on the south side of the island where there is no shore diving access.

If somone offered me a trip to the Brac I would definitely not say no, but given a choice, I would opt for LC every time.
 
The LCBR boats tend to moor and dive relatively near each other so that if there is an emergency, they are mutually supported; a strategy I agree with. The Aggressor tends to hog the same mooring all day when they are there.

False about the LCBR boats. True about the Aggressor.

Current, vis and previous sites dived permitting, the LCBR boats tend to moor pretty far from each other so as not to create the crowding issue noted above. Site selection is completely at the captain's discretion. Because the boats are fast, and the area is small, if assistance is needed, it is never far away.

The Aggressor, because of its tonnage can only moor on sites with a double pin mooring. However, they do tend to "linger" on some of the more popular sites.








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By near, I meant 2 LCBR boats at Jackson's or at Bloody Bay within visual. I agree with keyshunter, they do not moor on top of each other. Have never felt crowded at LC or the Brac, unlike GC where there is a competition for moorings.

---------- Post added July 31st, 2013 at 02:54 PM ----------

Linger is a very polite word for tying up at Randys or Mixing bowl all bloody day.
 
Yeah, the only time I have ever seen divers from another boat underwater at LC was when we were there while a hurricane was passing 100 miles or so south of GC. The way the wind and waves were coming, most of Jackson's Bight was washed out with current and sediment, and wraparound swells were hitting the west end of the Bloody Bay section pretty hard. So all the boats were kind of stuck in the middle within a few moorings of Mixing Bowl. Because we had boats on adjacent moorings, we saw a few of the more far ranging divers from the other boat, but that situation is extremely rare. You are much more likely to have no boats within a half mile or so.
 
To their credit, the current Aggressor crews are a bit more concerned than previous crews. Even though they still stay longer on the popular sites than many would like, last year the Aggressor crews replaced 2 of the moorings that they broke--Randys was one of them. Previous crews just left the damaged moorings and moved on.
 
No worries, the Brac is boring. Little Cayman it is.

Yeah, that is exactly what everybody must be saying right? Because it is impossible to like both places and just like one a little better than the other right? If people like LC, they must really hate CB and not ever want to go there again because it is so boring right? Jeesh...
 
Yeah, that is exactly what everybody must be saying right? Because it is impossible to like both places and just like one a little better than the other right? If people like LC, they must really hate CB and not ever want to go there again because it is so boring right? Jeesh...
Boring can be good. Cheers
 

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