Cayman Aggressor IV Captain's Logs

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Cayman Aggressor IV Captain’s Report September 7 – 17, 2013
Unique 10 Night Charter

Air Temp: 29C / 85F
Water Temp: 29C / 85F
Rash Guards and Shorts!

Saturday 7th Sept: 11 of our 12 guests made it aboard during the afternoon and evening. Welcome back Maxine, Kevin, Larry, Paul and Sandy who have been diving with us before. A great dinner, unpacking, and settling in for the night, ready for Ten Days of excellent diving and dining aboard the Cayman Aggressor IV.

Sunday 8th Sept: The West side of Grand Cayman for the Doc Poulson and Marty’s Wall was the first stop of the week. A small wreck, covered in life on a sandy bottom in 50ft of water. The perfect dive for everyone to get reacquainted with their dive gear and cameras. Stingrays feeding in the sand, garden eels shrinking away as we pass over, heading down the chute on to the wall checking out the formations and the deep blue before heading back for lunch. Today is a ‘Wreck Day’ with the Kittiwake up next. Sunk almost three years ago it is a fun dive as you can access all areas of the ship, from the shaft to the bridge. Pockets of silversides dancing before the cameras, fun poses throughout the wreck, a large turtle cruising past the prop and the giant rudder spotted at the end of the dive. The night dive entertained us with three octopus, lobsters, a slipper lobster and corals feeding on masses of bloodworms.

Monday 9th Sept: Wow, Wow, Wow - Big Tunnels was up first. Incredible dive. Archways, swim thrus, tarpon, black coral, sea fans, a couple of turtles and silversides! But not just any old school of silversides, this school had three free-swimming green moray Eels feeding on them! We never see that! Just Incredible. Neptune’s Wall was next for the day with the wall rolling off the deep but with beautiful pinnacles and sponge formations just behind the boat. To end the day, we spent the late afternoon dive and night dive on Angelfish Reef. Lots of yellow-headed jawfish and a super friendly turtle that let us all take pictures. It was just a beautiful place to spend the afternoon.

Tuesday 10th Sept: Round Rock/Trinity Caves was first up this morning. As we approached Round Rock, two turtles feeding captured our attention. Touring around the reef and the caves, more silversides and another moray eel, out and about were spotted, along with angelfish in pairs all over the reef. This site has stunning coral and sponge life on the outer edges of the reef and the many through cracks and arches. We were all just wishing we could stay there forever. To coax us back up onboard an amazing lunch of crab cakes and fish chowder soup – my favourite! Leaving the west side of the island behind we headed north to Hammerhead Hill, which was the afternoon and dusk dive site. What a wall! Knobbly and knarly, full of overhangs, black corals and sponge life, lobsters, an abundance of fish life and yes, a hammerhead was spotted by Paul and Tom!!! NICE.

Wednesday 11th Sept: We continued moving east along the North Side to Rum Point, or ‘Lobster Heaven’ as we saw lobsters all over the reef. While we were underwater a couple of heavy squalls came over causing dusk-like conditions and the lobsters came out to play between the intricate patterns of black corals and sea fans, that were seemingly reaching out into the blue. Blue chromis and snapper were also seen patrolling the edge of the wall. A great spot for wide angle, and the classic ‘window’ shot as Kevin found out! Babylon – Kevin’s favourite site in Cayman was the afternoon and dusk dive site. He also provided us with a map and a fantastic briefing – Thanks Kevin! The highlight of this dive is the pinnacle. You can spend a whole dive just ‘corkscrewing’ slowly around and up the pinnacle with such an array of sponges, fans, black corals, and cleaning stations. It is also a hot spot for neck crabs and is simply a beautiful site.

Thursday 12th Sept: Waking up to thunderstorms and torrential rain we hunkered down inside for breakfast, prayed to the ‘Weather Gods’… and hey presto, the rain went away and the sun came out! Trekking further east to Anchor Point and Old Number 12 dive sites. A treat for guests and crew as we don’t usually get to dive here. A hole and crevice dropping down into the reef and popping us out at 100’. A turtle feeding right under the boat, Sandy came face to face with a green moray eel, soft corals, black corals, a very healthy reef system, bizarre shaped sponges – Sponge Bob is real! We have many photos to prove it :cool2:. Top Secret was the afternoon stop, no wonder is it top secret – with a friendly turtle leading the divers out to the wall, ‘Fric and Frac’ of the North (two Caribbean Reef Sharks) who were very, very curious, and a beautiful healthy reef. Right under the boat three lobsters out and about. Very happy divers returning back to the boat for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, as is tradition on board the Cayman Aggressor IV, which was followed by a night dive for the three hard-core divers Ralph, Kevin and Janis on Babylon. A spotted moray hunting on the pinnacle, neck crabs, arrow crabs and channel crabs completed a great, relaxing night dive!

Friday 13th Sept: Friday the 13th! Gotta be a great day for cool critters. Starting the engines up early and moving from the north around the island to the south side. On the edge of the Cayman Trench, the dive site, Tunnel of Love was magic. This dive site was going off today! Amazing visibility, schooling Bermuda chubs, snappers and rivers of Creole wrasse. Dropping down through the ‘Tunnel of Love’ (we thought Anthony was never going to come out), we popped out on the wall at about 100’ in time to meet a huge loggerhead turtle meandering past. He was an old guy, covered in algae, very impressive. We continued winding around pinnacles and ledges, swimming under the reef to pop back up in the shallows. It was one of the those dives where you just don’t want to come back up. Another fantastic lunch up on the sundeck, then ready for an action dive on Crusher’s Wall. Pete’s 50th Dive, and boy oh boy, it was a dive he will never forget! Lionfish hunting, breathtaking pinnacles, huge hawksbill turtle, nurse sharks, and then the reef sharks came in. Action – as we began searching for the lionfish, chasing off the snapper, circling around surprising Paul, finally finding the lionfish that was following us all the way back to the boat, incredible! Always a buzz when everyone is hootin’ and hollering when getting back on the boat! Woohoo!

Saturday 14th Sept: Day 7 of diving and we are still on the south side of Grand Cayman at Lighthouse Wall and today is Nick’s 75th Birthday and his 50th Dive :D. Just in front of the mooring is a tremendous swim through where two Caribbean spiny lobster waved us through and out onto the wall. Once everyone was through the wall, a medium-sized loggerhead turtle cruised out over the wall and swam right through the whole group. Katmo was the turtle magnet! Ledges, schools of fish, deep ocean triggerfish in large numbers, overhangs and arches all made for a fantastic dive. We also collected enough lionfish to serve them up for lunch! Can’t get fresher than that! Pedro’s Castle was the spot for the afternoon and dusk dives. Deep pinnacles just waiting for something big to appear, but the most amazing scene was in the shallows… millions of silversides schooling in the crevices, lionfish and tarpon feeding. The silversides were so thick you couldn’t see your way through. Magic – Magic - Magic.

Sunday 15th Sept: A full day ahead as we are still heading west along the south side to Bullwinkle with its finger reef system, archways, and swim thrus, along with a big school of tarpon. A fun couple of dives were had here. Eagle Ray Rock was next and a beautiful stop on the southwestern corner of the island. Once again we had silversides packed into a swim thru right under the boat, very healthy soft corals, and reef life, clear water with a giant snapper lurking in a crevice - stunning dive. The Oro Verde was the site for the late afternoon and night dive with findings of three green moray eels, an eagle ray, lobsters and plenty of schooling fish. The night dive delighted with an octopus that put on a great display for 10 minutes solid – can’t wait to see those photos!

Monday 16th Sept: The Final diving day of the ten-day charter. Devil’s Grotto was the hot spot for the morning. This is the place where diving really began in Cayman with long tunnels, swim thrus, schools of chubs, jacks and tarpon, and yes the silversides are still here, though slowly being eaten up, so they will only last another month or so. A perfect dive to finish up an amazing week of diving.

It has really been an incredible week and we have seen everything you could hope to see in Cayman waters.

Congratulations to Nick and Pete on ticking off dive number 50, happy 75th Birthday Nick. A big thank you to everyone for being a part of one of the best weeks of the year. We hope to see you all again soon on the Cayman Aggressor for more eating, sleeping and diving!

Until next time - Safe Diving
Cayman Aggressor Captain and Crew
 

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