Diving in Grand Cayman, flying to Little Cayman on the same day?

[Altitude2010]

Hi,

Is it dangerous to dive in Grand Cayman in the morning and then take a flight to Little Cayman on the same day in the afternoon?

I guess that the plane does not fly at a very high altitude during the flight from Grand Cayman to Little Cayman. So, it would be possible to dive and fly on the same day.

Many thanks for your replies.

Altitude 2010

 

[Alex777]

Do not do this! The plane flies at well above 1000' feet so, yes, it is "dangerous."

 

[jdcpa]

The plane gets up to about 6,500 feet.

You can research previous threads and you will find several regarding this issue.

Scubaboard has a wealth of knowledge contained in the previous threads. Use it to the full potential.

I'm with Alex, don't try that!! You could end up having a bad vacation.

 

[AggieDiver]

Actually, on our flights last month, I sat in the front row looking at the altimeter on flights to and from LC and the plane was flying at 7500-7600 feet. As was said above, don't plan to do that. As for your other post asking about little vs grand...I haven't dove GC, but LC is the best diving I have experienced in the Caribbean and I can't wait to go back again.

 

[Altitude2010]

Many thanks for your replies.

Other question about diving and flying. Let's say that I will dive on Saturday and that I will fly on Sunday. Can I fly on Sunday morning or do I have to fly on Sunday afternoon?

Thanks very much.

Altitude 2010

 

[Roombaguy]

18h is the recommended surface time before you fly.

See item 4:

© Diving Science and Technology

 

[terrylowe]

Different people will tell you different things about flying. All of them feel that they are correct. I just default to the DAN rules.

* For a single no-decompression dive, a minimum preflight surface interval of 12 hours is suggested.
* For multiple dives per day or multiple days of diving, a minimum preflight surface interval of 18 hours is suggested.
* For dives requiring decompression stops, there is little evidence on which to base a recommendation and a preflight surface interval substantially longer than 18 hours appears prudent.

 

[terrylowe]

It looks as if you are trying to scoot over to LC to get a day of diving in. It is really hard to do that.
What many people end up doing is spend the entire time on LC and than go to GC just because you have to go that way to get home.


Grand Cayman: good diving. More crowded. More tourist things to do like $$hop.
Little Cayman: better diving. More of a get-away-from-it-all feel. No shopping. I rent a house on Little Cayman and bring my own food.

 

[Altitude2010]

Hi,

Thanks very much for your replies.

I asked the question because last year I dived in Culebra (an island located near Puerto Rico) and flew back to Puerto Rico on the same day. It worked out and I had not health problems. Of course, I did that because the Culebra diving operator said it was safe to do so.

I understand that for the flight Grand Cayman-Little Cayman I cannot do the same because the airplane flies at a very high altitude.

Altitude 2010

 

[-hh]

Unfortunately, just because someone tells you that it is "safe" doesn't necessarily mean that it is.

It sounds more likely that you were able to "safely" (asymptomatically) tolerate some post-dve altitude due to a combination of whatever surface interval before the flight, and dive profiles which did not put you at significant risk by having N2 ongassed loads that were close to the non-deco limits.

In other words, while you were under the 18 hour SI policy, because that policy is what's required to adequately clear basically "all" rec dive profiles, all your observation did was to illustrate that some rec profiles can be adequately cleared in less than 18 hours.

-hh