Cayman Islands, Sunset House & Nekton Liveaboard

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I am back in Houston, less than 24hours at the moment. In brief, the trip was wonderful.

We started on a Thursday at Sunset House. The hotel is about 1 mile past town. They have shore diving, and the famous mermaid statue is right out there in about 50 feet. The water was 86F for the entire week, on GC, Little and Brac. It was 86F at 20 feet and the same at 120 feet.

Our room at Sunset House was nothing special and it cost $186 per night. It was small, clean and it had a window unit AC. The sliding glass doors looked out over the parking lot. Fortunately, the Caribbean was right there at the other side of the parking lot. All rooms, drinks and meals in the Cayman islands are expensive. We could not find a room for less than $174. Shore tanks were about $13 each, but it beat boat diving at $95 for two tanks.

The bar at Sunset house is very nice and it is a favorite hang out for the locals. By 5 pm that parking lot is full, the bar is full, beer is flowing and life is beautiful. A filling bacon cheese burger was about $10. Beer was a dismal $3.75 during happy hour.

I dwell on the prices because it shows what a great deal the Nekton is in the expensive Cayman Islands. We paid $1750 each and some of the passengers got it for only $1600 due to a last minute booking promotion.

The boat spends Sunday on Grand. I did 5 dives on the West side that day, including the Doc Paulsen, the wreck recently pictured in Sport Diver. This schedule was very fortunate as 2 guests had late luggage and three others did not arrive until late on Saturday night. The airlines were doing great, messing up 5 out of 13 divers.

Its typical Caribbean diving. Big sponges and soft coral. Turtles, really large lobsters and crabs, and a few nurse sharks. For some reason I did not see a single eel all week. That's right, 26 dives in 8 days, over 20 hours underwater and no eels. I guess the only sure way to see an eel is to order one in a Sushi place.

More to come..

 

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On Monday night we made the crossing to Little Cayman. This is where the Nekton starts to show its stuff. It rocks much less than any live aboard of conventional design, and has less engine noise and vibration as well. The wide design is very roomy. Cabins are larger than any other live aboard that I have been on, and that includes two Aggressors. Perhaps the only downside to the Nekton is that it is not all that pretty. You will not find any fancy woodwork.

The food was very good, and there was a lot of it. Between dives fresh baked cookies or fruit was served. My favorites were some of the Italian style dishes and the salmon served on the last night.

The crew is all US, young and enthusiastic. Every single member of the crew was either a DM or an instructor, including the chef and engineer, neither of whom had duties on the dive deck. The cook, Bret, is an avid diver, and was in the water whenever he had a chance. Heck, Nelson gave us one briefing while he was soaking wet.

You may have heard some good things about the Captain, Nelson. It is all true and more. He is a really nice guy who also well organized. A good captain has to be a Renaissance man. Weather, navigation, helmsman, engineer, public relations, manager and so on.

We dove on Bloody Bay Wall for two days. Tuesday morning I started out with an 85 minute marathon. You can do this easily because they give you steel 95's. I had 1000 psi left at the end. Generally, the sites along Bloody Bay Wall will have shallow areas to play in for as long as you want to stay wet, regardless of how stingy your computer is or how deep you started the dive. Exiting the water is easy as the boat has two fin ladders. I did two more dives that day and wound up paying for the long one with a long nap. When I awoke I was still too wiped out to contemplate a night dive so I opted for a major cocktail hour.

Those steel tanks are heavy. I dove without a weights all week, except for Stingray City. The Mermaid could not stand the steel tanks so they found her an aluminum 80. There was no point in her using a large tank. She could get by on a 63 and have lots of air left over after an hour.

Wednesday we headed over to Brac. The day started with a pre breakfast dive at 5:45 AM, on the Tibbits, the famous Russian destroyer. I did a total of 3 dives that morning and penetrated many areas on the sunken ship. It has 3 engines, one turbine and two diesels. The reduction gears for the turbine were something else.

That afternoon we went ashore while the Nekton was fueled. This is part of a deal they had to make to get their permits. The Divers go ashore in the hope we will spend some money. Nine of us rented a van and drove up to the caves, and later we stopped at Brac Reef Resort for beer and snacks. There was a night dive that evening, but I passed. In the morning we returned to Little Cayman.

On the first dive Thursday my ankle brushed up against some fire coral. It was just that little exposed area between a full suit and slipper fins. It hurt like crazy, so that dive was over in only 26 minutes. I had to swim back to the boat with one foot, it was that bad. Vinegar, and a few doses of benedril, and I went off dreaming for a few hours. In the afternoon it continued to hurt, but I did two more dives anyway. Actually, it hurt less in the water. The pain did not go away until after midnight, while we crossed back to GC.

Friday we did two dives at Babylon, a lovely black coral covered pinnacle on the North Wall of GC, and then headed over to Stingray City for the classic insane stingray feeding dive. That was it, two guys who were going to spend another night on Grand did the night dive. (You might note that many live aboard boats only have 2 dives on the last day, the Nekton has 4, and sometimes 5 in the Caymans.)

That was my second Nekton dive cruise, and it will not be the last.

-Ron

 

[Darnold9999]

Sounds like a great week. Was there the week before, was underwelmed by Caymans on land and Sunset House, thought the Bloody bay wall and shallows were the highlight. Cayman Brac night dive at Radar Reef was also a highlight.

Love the boat easy to dive from - ugly but slow.