Cayman Night Dives

[occrider]

Followup:

I did mean 20-30ft night dive with OF (at least that's the depth they told us). Anyway we decided to do the shore night dives at dive tech the past two nights, and it was spectacular both nights.

First off, nothing beats spending $10 for a dive. Second, we saw some amazing animals and reefs (I didn't know the miniwall dropped down to 55ft but we quickly found that out). Last night we saw lobsters, crabs, 2 green eels rockfish (or stonefish?), stingrays, 2 octopus, and a group of juevenille cuttlefish.

Tonight we saw a reef shark, a spotted eel, a wierd half lobster (it looked like a big lobster tail with legs and a stumpy head ... anyone know what this may have been?), feeding tarpon, and the biggest, fattest puffer I've ever seen (maybe a foot to a foot and a half long).

My only complaint about the second dive was that there was a group of 5 or 6 crazy divers who were just oblivious to everything. We entered the water 10 or 15 minutes prior to them, but they quickly caught up to us because they were arms flapping, finning like crazy to go as fast as they possibly could. You would think they we're running a race or something. Their lights never stayed in one spot for more than half a second and they had no discernable buddy team structure. My buddy and I were looking at the spotted eel when the motley bunch came up to us. Our lights were shining on the eel and we pointed at it to let them know it was there to no avail. One of the divers was so oblivious he nearly stepped on it. Anyway we decided to let them pass and stay as far away from them as possible.

Btw, I used the UK SL6 as my primary which turned out to be an excellent budget primary.

 

[Damselfish]

a wierd half lobster (it looked like a big lobster tail with legs and a stumpy head ... anyone know what this may have been?)

sounds like a Slipper Lobster

 

[nipi]

We celebrated my 500th night dive at Little Bluff Wall last night (112 ft; 52 mins) but didn't see the hammerhead we saw at Spotter Bay last Sat. Drew - have you had any sightings? I think you call Spotter Bay Turtle Pass.

 

[sdwho]

I'm assuming that this was Turtle Reef (rather than Divetech's other location at Cobalt Coast). Sounds like you went to the left when you reached the drop off, which is definitely the better choice (although there is cool stuff to the right as well, just not as much so on night dives in my experience).

And I know exactly what you mean about oblivious divers! We started moving our night dive times later and later so minimize the number of other divers we might encounter when we were at Turtle Reef last month. My personal pet peeve is when you've got other divers in the water near you and the group leader feels like he/she has to use their tank banger every 30 seconds to get the attention of the rest of their group!

 

[pelan-pelan]

sounds like a Slipper Lobster

First night dive - from Eden rock. First critter I found myself - slipper lobster.

 

[Willow]

Wow, reading all this I cant wait to do a night dive!! Hopefully when I go on my trip in Feb/Mar I can get some in!

 

[susan6868]

Yeah, I can;t wait either! I'm dying to do Turtle Reef at night. I'm going to email Divetech and see if we can get a guide though. First night dive and unfamiliar territory.
Anybody do this with a guide?
(I'm a chicken, I know, but it'll be the first time and it creeps me out so bad!)

 

[sdwho]

We've never done it with a guide. You might want to do it in the afternoon first so you get a sense of the layout. To be honest, I'm the world's worst navigator and even though I've done a couple of dozen dives at Turtle Reef (if not more), until this past trip I still managed to get "lost" once every trip! There really isn't any reason to get lost: you just follow the trench out to the drop off (there is a line and a buoy there) and then follow the wall around and then return following the edge of the wall. Where I've run into problems is where I stray too far in from the edge of the wall on the return and manage to miss the point where you turn back towards the entry ladder. If you do that, you can end up with a bit of a surface swim back.

One suggestion that worked well for us this year: we got a glow stick (you can find them at most dive shops or party stores) and tied one onto the buoy line at the drop off point. It gave us a target to shoot for on the return trip since we could see the light from the glow stick from a pretty decent distance.

 

[ianr33]

One suggestion that worked well for us this year: we got a glow stick (you can find them at most dive shops or party stores) and tied one onto the buoy line at the drop off point. It gave us a target to shoot for on the return trip since we could see the light from the glow stick from a pretty decent distance.

That technique works but if you do this PLEASE take the glow stick away with you.I picked up a couple this year that were just tied to a small rock and floating in the middle of nowhere

 

[susan6868]

Great idea, and I'll be sure to remove the glow stick on the way back. We're going to have to go it alone as Dive Tech does the guided night dive on Friday and Tuesday, the day we arrive and the night before we leave. Of all the rotten luck!
Good idea to take a test run in the afternoon. How deep is the dive? Is there generally a mild or strong current over by Turtle Reef? Who knows, maybe we'll be able to hook up with a few other guests who are more familiar with the area or even hire our own dive master one night.
Anyone know of another dive op that goes on nights other than Tuesday and Friday?