Cayman Brac or Little Cayman?

[worlddiver]

We stayed at the Conch Club, Little Cayman when it first opened. Beautiful Condo's, first class all the way. Grocery shopping was a issue because they only get one supply boat a week. So plan all your meals and you will have no problem. They had all our food deliveried before we arrived.
Grand Cayman, East End at Compass Point or Cobalt Coast Dive Resort West End are my first choices to avoid the small plane and the real small island hassles. They are both small (14 suites) first class resorts off the beaten path, but still a short drive to Civilization.

 

[-hh]

Over the past 19 years, I've been to the Brac 19 times and LC 3 times; I think we'll crack our 300th night on our next trip down.

There's a lot of similarities between the Brac & LC. For example, despite a comment here that infers to the contrary, they both have walls.

And while the Brac doesn't have the incredibly shallow "3 Fathom" dropoff depth, Little Cayman doesn't have any massive Sand Chutes, or a "rockpile" dive (Brac Bluff dive), although Splash House sort of comes close. LC's Magic Roundabout is similar to (but smaller than) Wilderness Wall; LC's Marilyn's Cut is similar to Tunnels (or Anchor); I'm not sure what the LC equivalent to Lighthouse would be...a shallow reef dive with 30ft of relief.

Probably part of the reason for my "Brac Bias" is because we have a timeshare at the Divi Tiara (yes, that part is still open, believe it or not), but I'd still not abandon the Brac because I find that there's lots of terrain variety and freedom on the Brac, probably because fewer divers are "hung up" about doing to the 'FAMOUS!' dive sites like they are on LC. Plus if you really want to go to LC, there's enough LC interest from visiting divers to have a daytrip over there a few times per week. As such, the Brac effectively has twice as many dive sites available, since its very rare for LC daytrips to the Brac, especially to anyplace other than the 356 or Atlantis.

In general, what I don't like about LC is that how the diving is limited because every new visiting diver wants to go to Bloody Bay Wall, regardless of how bad the conditions might be that week.

Ever dive on Eagle Ray Roundup with 10ft viz? Yes, I said TEN foot. How about Mixing Bowl with 6ft of horizontal surge? Yup. Paul's Anchor with it being 20ft viz of pea soup green? Ditto. The bottom line is that a famous site on a lousy day is still better than work, but it gets very frustrating to know that there's better stuff just around on the Lee side, but dang it, its not "FAMOUS", so we're not going to go there.

And because of this, while the 'famous' sites on LC's north side are quite impressive, with some nice sheer vertical walls, part of their weakness too is that many start in such shallow water (which is why novices like them), but this makes the shallows half hardpan or spot reef over sand, which gets pretty monotonous after awhile (YMMV as to your tolerance).

As such, I see LC's popular reputation is also its downfall...after your 2nd visit (or during the 2nd week of a visit), the odd are pretty good that you'll be repeating dive sites already. And while it doesn't mean that I don't want to go there, it does mean that I'll always be trying to talk the diveboat into going someplace off the now "too-beaten-path": Bloody Bay and Jackson's is IMO clearly overdived and damage has occurred; even Cayman Environmental finally made a proposal to remove 50% of the moorings there to finally give the location a rest and a chance to recover.

Finally, for someone looking at renting a house, I'd probably recommend the Brac. If nothing else, there's better grocery shopping and as of the last time I checked, a rental car will only be $250/week, instead of nearly $100/day.


-hh

 

[-hh]

Okay, I've had my Monday morning coffee, so I'm a bit less grouchy than when I wrote the above I didn't really want to "badmouth" LC per se, as much as I'm venting my frustrations that the now-faded 'famous' stuff invariably overshadows dive sites that today I consider to offer superior reefs and sea life, which exist on both the Brac and LC.




Click on image above to visit a small collection of images from my 2007 Cayman trip.


-hh

 

[Scuba Monster]

HH - Thanks for you input on Brac. I enjoyed hearing your positive description of the diving on Brac, which is still on our list of dive places to visit. But I am glad to say we didn't have the negative experiences you speak of on Little Cayman, including poor visibility on some dives and monotony of diving. Rental cars were not an issue - we didn't need one. We dove the Bloody Bay Wall Marine Park area, which had lots of marine life including tons of grouper & turtles, nurse sharks, reef sharks, lobster, schools of chub, enormous barrel sponges, tubular sponges, etc. Also, the winds were shifted and the Marine Park was calm and the Lee side was too rough to dive. Our friends dived the Lee side on a previous trip, because it was too rough to dive the other side, and probably would agree there is lots of great marine life to see there too. Thanks again for your input on Brac (nice photo too) - I look forward to diving it in the near future.

 

[caymaniac]

I would say over-all that LC produces a more shallow start to great wall dives and there-by maximizes your bottom time. Now, if you had Nitrox the Brac can easily compete. The wall on LC starts in a few places near 20ft., where on the Brac the wall (north side) starts at 60ft. which can limit your bottom time when dropping down another 30 to 40 ft., but there certainly have less dived sites at the Brac, especially my favorite Strawberry wall. There is an area you can consistently see flying gunards (Schoolbus wall), here the wall starts at near 90ft., the gunards are found at a plateau around 60ft. Then there's areas like East Chute, beautiful but you can get to 110 quickly. A big part of the problem has become who will take you to the dive sites that you want to go to on the Brac. Only one dive op - the Brac Reef Resort will take you out but their choice of dive sites is questionable for a veteran, or at the old Divi - Craig who has InDepth watersports will take you out, he has good choices but charges you a pot of gold to get to the sites. This makes the Brac less desirable for someone that's been to the Brac a number of times like me and we don't like paying big bucks to get to the dive sites.
East Chute

Northside Brac

 

[-hh]

I would say over-all that LC produces a more shallow start to great wall dives and there-by maximizes your bottom time.

These very shallow sites are the definition of Bloody Bay, with the six at the East end being some of the best-known: Mixing Bowl (aka 3 Fathom), Marilyn's Cut (aka Hole in the Wall), Donna's Delight, The Chimneys (aka Randy's Gazibo) and Great Wall East & West. The problem with this eastern half and these six mooring are crowded into a mere 860 yards of real estate, which averages out to less than 150 yards between each. That's only 1/4 of the Marine Park... and they all also have hardpan shallows; no spot reefs or spur/groove.

In the Jackson's Bight section, it initially starts at only 40-50fsw for the wall's main dropoff, but its also deeper to the sand on the inside...60 to 120...plus the wall's edge gets progressively deeper as you run west, with Cascades being quite deep (100ft). These walls are deeper than further east on the north side, as well as the walls in the Southwest corner, which both mirror the Brac. As such, the two islands average depths to the drop-off is not really as radically different as we might otherwise believe...its simply what we habituate to.

Now, if you had Nitrox the Brac can easily compete.

It does help, but it also limits your max safe depth. I find it a hard trade-off as to dive Wilderness Wall on air or 32%, as the school of Horse Eye Jacks there that school around the deepwater pinnacle frequently will go try to "hide" under the ledge on the west side at 130fsw. It can be hard to catch them out in the open:

Plus I've found that if you're chilling in the afternoons and only doing 2 dives/day, particularly with the 'regimentation' (limited bottom time allowances) of some of the dive operations, you don't really build up the N2 load to really need 32%...it tends to be more a question of how liberal/conservative one's own dive computer happens to be, and/or if you're willing to occasionally do a required 5 minute hang.

The wall on LC starts in a few places near 20ft., where on the Brac the wall (north side) starts at 60ft. which can limit your bottom time when dropping down another 30 to 40 ft., but there certainly have less dived sites at the Brac, especially my favorite Strawberry wall. There is an area you can consistently see flying gunards (Schoolbus wall), here the wall starts at near 90ft., the gunards are found at a plateau around 60ft. Then there's areas like East Chute, beautiful but you can get to 110 quickly.

And the barrel sponges there are bigger than any I've seen on LC.

Another interesting tidbit alludes to Anchor, Tunnels, Wilderness, Inside Out and Rock Monster, all on the South Side. An interesting contrast, as all of the Marine Park's walls are northside and thus, all always in shadow. Shadow can make for nice silhouette photography, but you'll never get any sunlight down into the deep along the face of the walls....a very different view.

FWIW, I've been trying to think of if there's a good equivalent to 'Lighthouse' on LC. The Brac's spur & groove frequently is of quite high profile, but I think that the "slot canyon" at Lighthouse is around 30ft of profile on a 50fsw reef.

A big part of the problem has become who will take you to the dive sites that you want to go to on the Brac.

And Little Cayman too, as there's always a diver who's never been to the island before that has his dive magazine punchlist, which is always the same few sites: 3 Fathom, Randy's Gazebo, Magic Roundabout, Marilyn's and if its a longer list, perhaps Eagle Ray or Blacktip Blvd and Great Wall West.

If you stay for 2 weeks, there will be some new divers the second week with the same exact request. Lather, rinse and repeat.

Only one dive op - the Brac Reef Resort will take you out but their choice of dive sites is questionable for a veteran, or at the old Divi - Craig who has InDepth watersports will take you out, he has good choices but charges you a pot of gold to get to the sites. This makes the Brac less desirable for someone that's been to the Brac a number of times like me and we don't like paying big bucks to get to the dive sites.

Over the past two years in particular, I've found both operations to be more willing to go to some new & different sites, such as the Prince Frederick. Plus they've been including some that are anchor drops, not moorings, such as Stingray Tower. I'll have to dig up the GPS coordinates & draw a site map; its a pretty nice one, although it can be deep if done as a second dive...although Jackson's has that same problem if you venture out through most of the swim-thru's.



-hh

 

[caymaniac]

Mixing Bowl, Randy's Gazibo

which both mirror the Brac. As such, the two islands average depths to the drop-off is not really as radically different as we might otherwise believe



the school of Horse Eye Jacks there that school around the deepwater pinnacle frequently will go try to "hide" under the ledge on the west side at 130fsw. It can be hard to catch them out in the open:



And the barrel sponges there are bigger than any I've seen on LC.

Rock Monster, on the South Side a very different view.


Over the past two years in particular, I've found both operations to be more willing to go to some new & different sites, such as Stingray Tower.

-hh

Mixing bowl at Little Cayman has remained one of my fav dives, and my opinion of Randy's Gazebo is that is has been diver trashed, remember the seahorse that used to live there?
Mixing bowl:

I still think the Brac's wall starts a bit deeper even than Jackson's Bight.
I've seen that big school of Jack's swimm around to the south west side occasionally

I agree the big sponges do abound off the Brac.

From Rock Monster:

I dove last year with Reef Divers and they were not very helpful when it came to going to suggested dive sites. During the week of diving Reef Divers repeated Atlantis, one of my least favorite sites. I did have a nice afternoon dive though at StingRay Tower which is an excellent dive site.

 

[-hh]

Mixing bowl at Little Cayman has remained one of my fav dives, and my opinion of Randy's Gazebo is that is has been diver trashed, remember the seahorse that used to live there?

Individual critters come and go, unfortunately. There was also "Butter Cup" at the Mixing Bowl mooring pin - a gold phase Coney that would swim into your macro framer (gosh, wonder how much peanut butter it took to teach it that trick?).

The good news for the area is that it looks like the amount of behavior modification of the Groupers is on the decline; it was really bad a few years ago, with a half dozen "hounds" pointing down at coral heads, looking for squirrelfish handouts. I still remember my first encounter in 1990 with the original "Charley the Grouper"...there I was, minding my own business while carrying a Nikonos with a Macro Kit, when something caressed my inner thigh...HOLY $&!T!!!!

"goawaygoawaygoawaygoaway!"

Mixing Bowl is pleasant, as I find it offers a nice amount of variety by being on the border between BB and Jackson's, so you can choose your topology, including doing both on one dive, or if Marilyn's is open, sneak down to do that without anyone else around to silt things up inside.

I still think the Brac's wall starts a bit deeper even than Jackson's Bight.

When you measure from the west end of Jackson's...at the miniwall into Mixing Bowl...you're right. However, once you get further "down in" to Jackson's, they're not really all that different. I'll have to check my logbook for some depth profile traces; I know that I have one for Cascades. Cascades is an "unpopular" Marine Park site because its very exposed to weather, which makes it hard to get to, plus it is deep (similar to Strawberry Sponge Wall), which limits bottom time...but it is part of the Marine Park

I dove last year with Reef Divers and they were not very helpful when it came to going to suggested dive sites. During the week of diving Reef Divers repeated Atlantis, one of my least favorite sites. I did have a nice afternoon dive though at StingRay Tower which is an excellent dive site.

I've generally found that their degree of accomodation will vary depending on what the customer makeup is like on the boat...if its a bunch of flailing novices, you're going to have a conservative set of site locations until they're gone. I hate to point fingers, but the worst seems to be a gang from a Texas diveshop, where the Instructor that came with them is doing AOW's for them all...they simply don't listen to the local staff or anyone else for information or advice on local diving conditions, including the Instructor. Just little tidbits like how not to attract sea wasps on a night dive.

Insofar as Atlantis, that topic is a local political football, and why there's been a crackdown on the use of dive flags for shore dives. My understanding is that generally they'll accomodate going there but only when a group has specifically requested it, but not impose it on groups that express no interest. If you're at Atlantis but not by choice, consider swimming away to the west (current permitting), down into the Duppy's Reef area. I've not been to Duppy's since Atlantis began, but it was very rarely dived and was in good shape and very clean. Topology was of a low profile spur with wide, clean sand grooves.


-hh

 

[Scuba Monster]

IMO, a great dive site on LC is Blacktip Blvd a/k/a Land of the Giants ... no black tip sharks, but the "a/k/a Land of the Giants" was appropriately named for the many giant barrel sponges on the dive site (simiar to the photo from Brac above). One sponge definitely was as fat, but the opening was even bigger. From the descriptions above, it seems that you can't go wrong with either LC or the Brac. Doing 3 dives a day, we didn't find a need for a car on LC. But for those of you that have been to Brac, would you recommend a car?

 

[carriemak]

Doing 3 dives a day, we didn't find a need for a car on LC. But for those of you that have been to Brac, would you recommend a car?

We have never had a need for a car on either island. Little Cayman for sure you don't need one!