Trip Report A Week (25 Nov - 3 Dec) at Cayman Brac Beach Resort (CBBR)

[Hoag]

I personally don't bother shore dive while at CBBR because the boat diving is so effortless; but I have seen people leave the resort with tanks and gear.
I assumed they were going shore diving.
Again, I would suggest checking with Clearly Cayman for the official position on this.

And that has nothing to do with my trip report.

 

[Hoag]

That shipwreck picture is incredible. Well done!

Thank you. I was struggling with the colour balance and then I realized that I could just make my editing much more simple if I just converted it to B&W. Sometimes, the simplest answer is the best.

 

[Jonnyola87]

Thank you. I was struggling with the colour balance and then I realized that I could just make my editing much more simple if I just converted it to B&W. Sometimes, the simplest answer is the best.

Agreed 100%. Some of my favorite shots are those you just can't quite get right in color, but as soon as you make it B&W, it takes on that simple, ethereal quality. That plus the spacing and positioning of your shot make it very striking.

 

[scubadada]

@Hoag
You don't mention shore diving at all, does CBBR over tanks for shore diving as an add on?

Yes, there is shore diving off Cayman Brac. There is a relatively recent thread discussing the topic Of interest to people wanting to shore dive in Cayman Brac

You can obtain tanks at either CBBR or at Scuba Shack. You will need a rental car. I can easily see doing the 2 tank AM boat dives with CBBR/Reef Divers and then doing 2 or maybe 3 shore dives after lunch. I've always been a bit disappointed that Reef Divers offers just a single afternoon boat dive.

I started a thread back in 2017 when I discovered the shore diving off Cayman Brac on a visit to CBBR Shore diving on Cayman Brac?

 

[Doctorfish]

Thanks for the clarification Scubadada. I have previously asked about 2 tank afternoon potential at CBBR and the response from one of the DMs was that most of their customers were older and that they would not be interested or able to do 4 tank dive days. It would make for a pretty long day for the DMs as well. Their job doesn't end when the dive boat lands. I personally find that if I do the usual 3 tank profile, I am near NDL by the end of the third dive using conservative Suunto algorithm anyway. When I was there last March there was no nitrox available, so on air, I was uncomfortably close to NDL by end of third dive.

I guess if you stayed shallow it would be fine, but the Brac wall starts at 45-60 feet so one tends to go deeper. Diving LC with a generally shallower wall would be no problem for 4 tank dive days.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Doctorfish

I was assuming diving nitrox. I dive a more liberal computer than you do,

When I was on Brac in 2017, 1st boat dives were deeper with a average max depth of 103 (91-115) feet, a mean average depth of 60 (55-64) feet, and a dive time of 54 (52-57) minutes. These dives went out along the wall and then came back shallower. Crab Alley and Orange Canyon were the deepest dives, I was left with 15 min of NDL. The second morning boat dive and the afternoon boat dive were shallower with an average max depth of 53 (44-66) feet, a mean average depth of 35 (31-41) feet, and an average dive time of 68 (65-70) minutes.

During my visit, we dived four sites from the boat that are also available as shore dives, Buccaneer Reef, Radar Reef, Charlie's Reef, and Grunt Valley. In general, I don't think shore diving would be limited by NDL and would give nice, long dives with available gas. Now, the Tibbetts (Russian Frigate 356) is also accessible from shore. That would be a long swim and could give you a chance to push NDL and/or gas.

 

[Doctorfish]

There is a similar thread below started by divezonescuba. He states that CBBR no longer rents out tanks for shore diving and was posted recently.

 

[scubadada]

There is a similar thread below started by divezonescuba. He states that CBBR no longer rents out tanks for shore diving and was posted recently.

Same thread I linked in my response above. I communicated with CBBR after the post by @divezonescuba