Our local dive group's annual summer trip for 2010, was to Cobalt Coast Dive Resort on Grand Cayman. My wife and I were part of a group of eleven divers and non divers that began this adventure on June 26, and returned on July 3. We flew U.S. Airways out of Nashville, via Charlotte, and arrived on Grand Cayman, ready for a week of diving and relaxation.
Cobalt Coast Resort is depicted on their web site. A beautiful resort with great ocean views and wonderful people. Arie proved to be an outstanding host and could be seen early and late overseeing the operation of the resort. Each evening, he would share stories of his resort experience and the current World Cup events. The staff was always pleasant and helpful as they went about their duties.
Our group dove with Divetech, the site dive operator. We had the six day, two tank dive package that includes shore diving from the dock and at their Lighthouse Point location. Our boat dives were the typical deeper wall dive first, followed by a shallower reef dive. After three days, our group requested doing more of the shallow reef dives, and they accommodated us easily. All of the crews were professional and safety was a top priority. The dive briefings were thorough, and included detailed drawings of each site.
Some of our favorite sites and special sightings:
Mary's Garden: beautiful coral formations and nice variety marine life
Bear's Paw: (dove this site twice) moray eel, found 4 lobster in one coral formation, juvenille spotted drums, Divemaster captured 3 lionfish on one dive.
Lemon Reef: Large stingray and 2 smaller stingrays together, Large Green Moray eel
Ocean Point: lobster, trunk fish, and chain moray eel
Lighthouse Point: shore dive, juvenile trunk fish, turtle, lobster, eel, reef squid
Cobalt Coast Resort dock: (we dove this site 7 times, 2 night dives), flamingo tongue, turtles, (found one sleeping on night dive) huge lobstger, Queen trigger fish, octopus, stingrays, reef squid, crab, barracuda
Sandhole Reef: nurse shark
Tarpon Alley: 2 large tarpon, large turtle
Water temperature was 84 to 86 degrees all week. Some in our group wore skins, while others were more comfortable in 3 mm full wetsuits.
Several members of our group took a bus tour around the island one afternoon. They visited Georgetown, Pedro St. James Historic Site, and other areas of Grand Cayman.
We had breakfast included in our resort package. Each morning there was fruit, cereal, bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, and French Toast served at 6:45 a.m. We ate lunches in our room shopping at Foster's for our groceries and ate Subway for two meals. Each evening, the group dined at Cobalt Coast and the meals were wonderful. They had a special each night and a full menu with good variety of choices. They even accommodated those doing night dives, just asking them to place an order earlier.
Our return flights were uneventful, except for a slight delay in leaving Charlotte. Another great trip with friends, making new friends and seeing new places.
Cobalt Coast Resort is depicted on their web site. A beautiful resort with great ocean views and wonderful people. Arie proved to be an outstanding host and could be seen early and late overseeing the operation of the resort. Each evening, he would share stories of his resort experience and the current World Cup events. The staff was always pleasant and helpful as they went about their duties.
Our group dove with Divetech, the site dive operator. We had the six day, two tank dive package that includes shore diving from the dock and at their Lighthouse Point location. Our boat dives were the typical deeper wall dive first, followed by a shallower reef dive. After three days, our group requested doing more of the shallow reef dives, and they accommodated us easily. All of the crews were professional and safety was a top priority. The dive briefings were thorough, and included detailed drawings of each site.
Some of our favorite sites and special sightings:
Mary's Garden: beautiful coral formations and nice variety marine life
Bear's Paw: (dove this site twice) moray eel, found 4 lobster in one coral formation, juvenille spotted drums, Divemaster captured 3 lionfish on one dive.
Lemon Reef: Large stingray and 2 smaller stingrays together, Large Green Moray eel
Ocean Point: lobster, trunk fish, and chain moray eel
Lighthouse Point: shore dive, juvenile trunk fish, turtle, lobster, eel, reef squid
Cobalt Coast Resort dock: (we dove this site 7 times, 2 night dives), flamingo tongue, turtles, (found one sleeping on night dive) huge lobstger, Queen trigger fish, octopus, stingrays, reef squid, crab, barracuda
Sandhole Reef: nurse shark
Tarpon Alley: 2 large tarpon, large turtle
Water temperature was 84 to 86 degrees all week. Some in our group wore skins, while others were more comfortable in 3 mm full wetsuits.
Several members of our group took a bus tour around the island one afternoon. They visited Georgetown, Pedro St. James Historic Site, and other areas of Grand Cayman.
We had breakfast included in our resort package. Each morning there was fruit, cereal, bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, and French Toast served at 6:45 a.m. We ate lunches in our room shopping at Foster's for our groceries and ate Subway for two meals. Each evening, the group dined at Cobalt Coast and the meals were wonderful. They had a special each night and a full menu with good variety of choices. They even accommodated those doing night dives, just asking them to place an order earlier.
Our return flights were uneventful, except for a slight delay in leaving Charlotte. Another great trip with friends, making new friends and seeing new places.
