So does this mean that those of us with poor circulation and chronically cold hands just have to freeze?
A
written medical note might help. But I'd also be discrete and keep the gloves in a BC pocket and then only put them on if you need them. Don't ever put them on pre-dive...and also be sure to take them off before getting back on the boat.
On the thread topic, it seems that nearly everyone above prefers Little Cayman over Cayman Brac. So I'm surprised that one of the local dive shop owners was emphatic in recommending Brac over LC.
Its a matter of personal preferences, as well as understanding that LC has gotten a lot of good marketing press.
Broadly speaking, LC's reputation comes from when Paul Humann ran the first liveaboard trips over to Bloody Bay, and people were unexpected and astounded at the drop-off.
IIRC, Stan Waterman's autobiography has just such an early account, and in Stan's prose, he describes looking off the bow at 'BORING hardpan shallows' (sic) and wondering why Paul had chosen this 'loser' site ... but Stan then goes to describe walking to the stern and seeing the deep blue of the drop-off.
Geographically, while that's still there, I personally have a hard time recommending Bloody Bay because I remember how much better it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, it is being "loved to death", and even the local authorities are
finally starting to talk about removing some of the dive moorings to force some rest...although that IMO won't happen during the current economy's downturn. This doesn't mean that its bad. It still is quite good...but simply no longer is jawdropping which was what its reputation was based on.
I used to work on the Cayman Aggressor and I went to all three Islands every week.
Unfortunately, the Aggressor generally has but one dive site that they visit on the Brac, namely the 356 wreck. As such, is this comparison being drawn based upon but a single divesite?
Of course, the 356 site is a poor one to choose from for what's considered "typical", particularly since it is surrounded on all sides by sand for a pretty healthy distance (hence, why they chose that site to sink a ship), and few divers venture off the wreck to go find coral reef.
For those who know, there's a pretty formation known by some as "Margo's Corner", approx 75yds due west (across the sand) from the bow: its a window/swimthru, not unlike the one that's found on the east side of Randy's Gazebo...and easily 95% of the divers onboard a random diveboat will never see it (let's keep it that way). I wasn't able to get there this past trip, as my buddy was an overhead junkie...so we instead went through much of the wreck, including into the rear engineroom passage.
What about spending a week on LC and a week on Brac? Is there enough diving on Brac for a week without going back to LC if I've already been diving there? Or would it be better to split them 10 days / 4 days? I like to make my trips two weeks because the traveling is so unpleasant that once I've gotten somewhere a week is an awfully short time to stay.
Agree wholeheartedly on the longer trips bit. Arranging a split itinerary if you stay with LCBR / BRBR should be pretty easy...they'll even occasionally do the transfer by Diveboat (skips any dive-to-fly penalties), although a morning hop on the Express is more likely.
In general, the decision on how to split the time is up to you and what your preferences are for what kind of dives you like. The Brac tends to have deeper walls, higher relief shallow reefs on larger dive sites, open sand chutes and 'canyon' swim throughs ... whereas the big appeal for LC is in Bloody Bay, which through multilevel profiles on computers, allows for long bottom times for air hogs
However thus said, I could use another trip myself to LC ... catch up with Gladys and others, and get back to a few "unfamous" spots like Grundy's Gardens (southside shallow reef on LC) to see how its Elkhorn corals are doing.
-hh
