anyone been to Cayman Brac or Little Cayman since hurricane?

[nipi]

I met 2 tourists on the plane from Miami to Cayman yesterday who were heading for the Brac to dive. Can't remember whether they said they were staying at Brac Reef or the Divi but one must be operational now.

There are 2 cruise ships in GTown harbour this morning, too.

 

[-hh]

This sort of depends on how you define "lost"! ... Little Cayman Beach Resort has all three Newton 42 dive boats running now.

Good to hear that. BTW, it sounds like Ivan may have done Reef Divers a favor in getting rid of those Rob Shirley Pro42's - please tell me that none of these turkeyboats survived

Sorry, I don't know a thing about what's happening at Brac Reef Resort. I would assume they're fully operational as well, though.

IMO, that's a bad assumption, at least for the Dive Ops.

BRBR claims that the hotel and food service is open for business, but info in regards to Reef Divers - - especially how many diveboats they have onhand - - is less than minimal. Which to me means "No News is Not Good News".

It is known that the diveboats were taken to Grand Cayman where Ivan trashed them to varying degrees. Personally, I suspect that the Brac has "zero" Reef Diver boats onhand, as it makes more business sense to get any operational diveboats over to LCBR to get them back in business first.

Maybe there will be better public info next week. But in the meantime, Divi Tiara has reported that they're up and running and with dive operations underway. They've further reported that Island Fever II has been refloated, and provided photo's of their dock rebuilding project (which is going well IMO).



From an information dissemination perspective, Divi's doing much better than BRBR (yes, a pleasant surprise), and until your unofficial news post, better than the LCBR too. Might want to suggest to BRBR that they need to catch up on the news they provide to the public...afterall, those of us planning trips are obligated in the absence of good information to take the more conservative approach.


-hh

 

[zf2nt]

From an information dissemination perspective, Divi's doing much better than BRBR (yes, a pleasant surprise), and until your unofficial news post, better than the LCBR too. Might want to suggest to BRBR that they need to catch up on the news they provide to the public...afterall, those of us planning trips are obligated in the absence of good information to take the more conservative approach.
-hh

It took me one stab with Google to search for "Brac Reef Resort" and get back a URL for their web page. Right at the top of that web page there is a link for "Hurricane Report", and when you go there (http://www.bracreef.com/hurricaneUpdate.html) they give complete details on their status. Here's a partial summary:

--------------------
ARE YOU OPEN? DID YOU SUFFER MUCH DAMAGE?

Brac Reef Beach Resort suffered minimal damage and is fully operational.

ARE THE DIVE TOURS RUNNING? WAS THERE DAMAGE TO THE REEFS?

Our dive tours have resumed full operation. The reefs are intact and seem to be even more active than before the storm.

CAN I GET TO THE ISLAND? I’VE HEARD AIR TRAVEL TO THE CAYMANS IS RESTRICTED...

Yes, you can easily get to us, as there are no restrictions on air travel to the Brac. While there is still a ban on tourist travel to Grand Cayman, you are allowed to fly to us through Grand Cayman, as long as both flights are on the same day."
-----------------------

I'm sorry, but I don't see how they could do a better job of getting the word out. The same is true here at Little Cayman Beach Resort, by the way. We have info on our web page as well. Check out www.littlecayman.com/Resort.html. And I guarantee we are very much open right now! I just got home from the Monday night Rum Punch Party. (Hic)

Bruce

 

[-hh]

It took me one stab with Google...

And I've been checking that webpage 2x-3x per week (LCBR's too) for information. Its information for Ivan has been lousy.

True, it did finally change this week, but the information is still extremely vague - - vague to the point that I consider it to be marketing "spin", not real news.

I'm sorry, but I don't see how they could do a better job of getting the word out.

I'm sorry, but I can:

1: Specific information on what Ivan did, with Photo's.

2: Specific information on rebuillding status, with Photographs, and their rebuilding plans.

3: Including "As of" dates on information on their website.

C'mon, this stuff isn't rocket science.

For example, Divi has previously not been very good at sharing information, but the new leadership has had the lightbulb go on: they realized that the Internet means that the truth is going to get out anyway, so if they share it in a timely fashion, it builds trust and customer loyalty instead of the "look at what they hid from us" bad press.

To this end:

A) They've shared photo's of their trashed dock.
B) ...shared photo's of their one beached diveboat.
C) ...listed where their major property damage was.
D) ...shared details of what employees have left.

E) ...reported their diveboat refloating in a timely fashion.
F) ...and reported/updated other major repairs.
G) ...shared photo's of the dock rebullding
H) ...and their rebuilding plan is for ithe next few weeks.
I) ...and what repairs are low priority.

...and...

J) Unlike Brac Reef, they've also talked about specific divesite damage that they've found. For example, the hit that East Chute took (incl. Cayman Mariner wreck).

The same is true here at Little Cayman Beach Resort, by the way. We have info on our web page as well...I guarantee we are very much open right now!

Bruce, I believe your personal comments a lot more than the website of the your employer. For example, it claims:

"With the passing of “Ivan the Terrible”, we are happy to announce that the Little Cayman Beach Resort, The Club and Conch Club Condominiums were lucky enough to come out of the storm with minimal damage to our facilities and grounds."

YMMV, but I hardly call having all of your diveboats tossed out of the water on a devistated island 75 miles away and losing your dock to constitute "minimal damage"...

...unless you're the spin doctor who's responsible for the resort's advertising.

The bottom line is that detailed information gives greater credibility than vague "All is Well" claims that lack substance.

FWIW, I don't doubt that BRBR/Reef Divers will become fully operational in the relatively near future. I simply don't believe that they're fully operational as of right now, today.

Sorry for my cynicism, but this year will be the 15th {correction: 16th} consecutive year that I'll be travelling to the Sister Islands, so I'm not some clueless Brac/LC virgin. Until I see it for myself, I'm going to "Missouri" it and wait for a photo of RD's 3 refloated diveboats sitting next to BRBR's brand new dock to really be convinced that they've put their "lost" boats back into service.


-hh

 

[AggieDiver]

-hh,

RD has a total of 16 boats if I am not mistaken, if you include the Bob Soto's boats. Since Sotos will not be reopening anytime real soon, they have more than enough boats to go around between BRBR and LCBR. I just returned from LCBR, and they had 3 boats operational, and we saw at least one of the Brac boats on Jackson's Bight on Thursday. Nearly all of RD's boats were indeed on GC, and several were indeed tossed up on land. Cayman Sister wound up in the ditch adjacent to one of the roads (I have seen the picture). I am sure hearing such stories and seeing such pictures makes people immediately assume the boats were destroyed or severely damaged requiring months to repair. However, I spent last week diving from Cayman Sister, and can assure you that other than missing some paint on the hull where it was patched up from the scraping it took along the road, the boat was in fine shape. As for facilities, LCBR lost their dock, drying shed, and the door to the photo shop. I am told BRBR had similar damage to their dock. Considering that the owner of both resorts owns a lumber company, the barge line serving the sister islands, and the local hardware store, it is not surprising that both resorts were among the first to recieve the supplies needed to repair their facilities. I will post pictures of the new dock, drying shed, and airfill area at LCBR soon in a trip report and will be glad to link to them from here. However, your assumption that Divi is the only operation up and running simply because they are posting pics to prove it is somewhat off-base. There has been a fairly strong debate among locals on all three islands about the posting of "destruction pics". Many feel that posting pics of their destrction or rebuilding can only hurt them, by exposing the amount of destruction that occurred. I know the other side argues that the uncertainty is far more harmful to potential tourists. All I can say is that I was assured prior to going that both BRBR and LCBR are fully operational, and after diving with nitrox mixed at LCBR from LCBR's boats for a week and seeing BRBR's boat on LC, I have no reason whatsoever to doubt their claims.

AggieDiver

 

[zf2nt]

-hh,

RD has a total of 16 boats if I am not mistaken, if you include the Bob Soto's boats. Since Sotos will not be reopening anytime real soon, they have more than enough boats to go around between BRBR and LCBR. I just returned from LCBR, and they had 3 boats operational, and we saw at least one of the Brac boats on Jackson's Bight on Thursday. AggieDiver

Actually, we were running with just two boats last week--Island Sister and Cayman Sister. The third boat was over on Cayman Brac, since they only had one working after the storm. The third boat you might have seen at the LCBR dock was Sea-esta, which is operated by Conch Club Divers. However, we got our third boat back over the weekend because this week we have a large (48?) group here for a medical convention. We're now running all 3 boats, plus Sea-esta, off the temporary dock (which can only take two boats at a time). Besides being tight on space, the temporary dock doesn't have a fill station down next to the boats. Thus all the tanks have to be pushed up the dock on carts, filled, then pushed back down again before reloading. My shoulders are aching!

AggieDiver--I'm still trying to place you from last week! Were you the good-looking girl from Houston with the Minolta 4040 in an Ikelite case?

Bruce

 

[-hh]

-hh,
However, I spent last week diving from Cayman Sister, and can assure you that other than missing some paint on the hull where it was patched up from the scraping it took along the road, the boat was in fine shape.

Glad to hear that.

My point has been that it is once again that it is specific information that provides meaningful credibility.

As for facilities, LCBR lost their dock, drying shed, and the door to the photo shop.

Now this specific information directly contradicts another party's claim of "minor damage". Who do we now believe?

IMO, the answer is that neither is a flat-out lie, but the one was "liberally interpreted" by their marketing spin doctor.

However, your assumption that Divi is the only operation up and running simply because they are posting pics to prove it is somewhat off-base.

That's not what I assumed, nor said.

What I've said is that items such as photo's allow for an objective assessment of claims, which provides additional credibility versus what someone's Spin Doctor might say.

Please note that I've not accused LCBR or BRBR of lying, but simply that their claims cannot be verified through the information that they themselves have provided.

All I can say is that I was assured prior to going that both BRBR and LCBR are fully operational...

Fully operational? With a temporary dock, no dock fill station and without their standard compliment of diveboats?

Someone has an interesting definition of "fully operational", and my point is that this is blatant spin-doctoring.

Now we could say that I'm just getting hung up ona few words and are nitpicking, but I prefer to call it being concise when purposefully being vague will misrepresent the facts.

The facts of the matter are that all of these dive op's have resumed operations, but none are currently fully back up. Sure, they'll be fully operational soon, but at present they simply are not.

There has been a fairly strong debate among locals on all three islands about the posting of "destruction pics". Many feel that posting pics of their destrction or rebuilding can only hurt them, by exposing the amount of destruction that occurred. I know the other side argues that the uncertainty is far more harmful to potential tourists.

Well, it should hopefully be clear by my comments that I agree with the latter group.

As I said before, the truth will inevitably get out, and in the long run, attempting to hide the truth will cause more damage than the truth itself, because reputation and credibility can't be as easily repaired as a mere dock or diveboat.


-hh

 

[AggieDiver]

Bruce,

The good looking blond with the Oly 5050 in the Ike housing is my wife. I was the guy talking to you about your website for your house and the dive sites around the west end. I was for some reason under the apparently mistaken impression that Conch Club was part of the Reef Divers family, so I was indeed including Sea Esta in my count of 3 boats.

-hh

As far as "fully operational", I saw no difference between what I saw at LCBR with what I had seen in 1995 at Divi, and I by no means felt Divi was not fully operational in 1995. Since I haven't been to LCBR before this trip, I wasn't aware that their dock had a fill station immediately adjacent to the boats in the past, and the current setup involving moving tanks about 100 feet on a rolling cart seemed more than adequate given that it is identical to what I have seen at other resorts all over the caribbean. The resort was fully equipped both with boats, nitrox and air tanks for all divers, and newly remodeled acommodations for every guest they had there the week I was there. Having only room for 2 boats on the temp dock was not a problem at the time, and I could see it as being only a minor issue even with 3 boats operating there. As for what is "minor damage" versus something more serious, I guess it is in the eye of the beholder. Loss of a dock to a hurricane is not at all an uncommon occurrence at any location, and to me it isn't a "major" thing to have to rebuild it. As for the drying room, it is made from a few boards and a bunch of thin wooden lattice. Its like losing a garden gazebo. It was also easy to rebuild apparently and not something i see as a huge thing when compared to the absolute destruction that occurred on GC and the total loss of several entire cottages down the beach at the SCC. In the end I think we are arguing two sides of the same coin, and I think your point about lack of concrete detailed information from RD is well taken. My read on the difference in approach by Divi and RD probably represents more of a philosophical difference in the approach to remarketing the islands more than any outright attempt to mislead anybody about the state of their properties.

 

[Damselfish]

A fill station down by the boats is a newer thing at LCBR, I've been there 4 times over the years (though last time was in 2000) and they never had it, always moved tanks on carts. I'm sure the fill station was convenient but certainly not a huge deal.

Docks seem pretty much disposable. I can't think of anyplace I've stayed in the Carribean that hasn't had it's dock wiped at least once in the last 10 years by something. I think LCBR lost theirs at least once before.

As mentioned, the drying shed is a mostly a bunch of lattice. They didn't have that the first time I was there either. We survived.

 

[-hh]

(edit: quotation from the bottom first):
In the end I think we are arguing two sides of the same coin, and I think your point about lack of concrete detailed information from RD is well taken. My read on the difference in approach by Divi and RD probably represents more of a philosophical difference in the approach to remarketing the islands more than any outright attempt to mislead anybody about the state of their properties.

I agree. I'd say that part of the basis behind the differences in philosophy rotates around their respective concept of control (with real vs perceived control being a contributing element).

As far as "fully operational"...

The down-to-earth reality is that operational logistics on a small island - - especially one that's in the middle of nowhere - - depends strongly on your supply line, and its can be an ongoing thorn in the side to keeping a business running, even without a hurricane to disrupt things.

IIRC, the leadtime for shipments to LC and the Brac had been 4-6 weeks when the supply ship only ran once every two weeks. The supply barge now runs 1x/week, but since it takes 8+ days to steam 1000miles (Tampa's 500+ miles) at 5knots @ 24hrs/day, I don't think they've changed the route. As such, the leadtime probably hasn't improved too much...3-4 weeks at best.

The consequences of this, plus the physical docks on LC and the Brac are that winds blowing down the slot can prevent delivery (recall the accident that occurred on LC) is that their shipments are pretty easily disrupted.

Personally, I've been on Little Cayman when simple bad weather caused the supply barge to have to skip them repeatedly, and at the time of my visit, they had gone 6 weeks without resupply: the entire island was out of eggs, milk, bread, fresh friuit and fresh vegitables. Suffice to say that the meals were getting interesting

Granted, you can air-express stuff from and/or thru Grand Cayman, but the part and the need needs to be worth the shiiping cost. Generally, this is reserved for when a diveboat is down and needs to be up ASAP.

And a more recent "logistics nightmare" discovery are PC's. It turns out that small island electrical grids are generally pretty darn dirty, and wires on poles are often the island's high spots for lightning strike (surges). How long will your PC survive before it gets at least its modem fried? FWIW, I do know of one small Cayman operation who couldn't get email for a month because they couldn't locally obtain the $19 modem card they needed to perform repairs.

As for what is "minor damage" versus something more serious, I guess it is in the eye of the beholder.

This beholder was on-island when Hurricane Lily did a direct hit on the Brac two years ago. Lily defined "minor" damage, as it did less damage than TS Isadore had done a week prior: zero docks were washed out, zero diveboats were taken out of service, and so forth. Because this then meant that zero supply barges were needed to bring material to the island to rebuild, the downtime was effectively zero: We were back out diving within 48 hours* of the storm's passage.


-hh

* - I'm not sure if it was 48 hours or not: it might have been 24 hours; I'll have to check my logbooks.