Diving the Kittiwake with Wreck Certification

[caydiver]

Most of the moorings are first come first serve. There is/was certain times that a few ops had their scheduled Kittiwake dive/snorkel trip so I guess one mooring was taken for that. But there was more than one mooring and I believe that the mooring on Sandchute ended up being claimed as well. My first time on The Kittiwake was straight down a funnel to the bottom. There was not too much on the bottom decks. They were fairly cleaned out. My buddy (husband) got caught on a piece of stair railing in the dark but that was quickly remedied. There are different insurance requirements for that dive that are necessary to have the permit to bring guests there which apply only to that site. I don’t know why that is, I don’t know why we pay the extra insurance for it, don’t know why it alone has an entrance fee but those are the rules ops have to follow to visit the site in addition to what the guests can and cannot do. The cruise ship visitation thing is not a big deal although it comes up time and time again. Even when all the mooring balls are in place the number of boats on her is limited. Those boats can only bring so many guests whether there is one ship or 100 ships and The Kittiwake can only have as many guests as the boats that find an available mooring can bring. I have been there when a snorkel tour has been there and they are up and you are down and don’t interact. In fact it can even be fun to watch what is happening looking up. Had a similar experience in Islamorada (- wreck) years ago so it is not unique. Any op can provide a dive with a private DM so it is not hard to arrange with advance notice but as most can’t afford to just have an extra DM sitting around this is not always available in busy times. Some of this may be old now but having a small op on the west side who does not have a time slot, we have only rarely not been able to use the site for lack of a mooring and we cannot make reservations in advance to go. We would never have enough people to go on a regularly scheduled trip once a week and for insurance reasons cannot bring snorkellers so for most ops it is first come first serve. If any of this is total brain fart or fish fodder I would be happy to be corrected — Menno?

 

[FindingMenno]

Menno It is !!

How was your Rebreather dive?

Great! And super that I met you on the dock just before you jumped in!

We ended up doing a 177 min dive. My longest yet! From Lighthouse Point to beyond Macabuca and back. Didn't go too deep as I had a buddy on open circuit so didn't want to get him in too much deco.

Actually we planned to exit at Macabuca and have lunch, left a car there and some money. On the way back towards Macabuca as our plan was, we suddenly saw a colleague leading a shore dive. Hmmm, either he is doing a really long dive from Lighthouse Point, or we have completely missed the Macabuca exit.... so ended up back at Lighthouse.
Maybe next time first do a shore dive from Macabuca so I know how the reef looks at the exit!

 

[FindingMenno]

Regarding the moorings and insurance, AFAIK the mooring are not reserved and as @caydiver said first come, first serve. If it is busy, in general operators work well together. For example a bigger dive boat will be tied up to the mooring, and a smaller dive boat will tie up to the stern of the bigger boat. Captains will radio each other to inform when they need a mooring, or are coming off one. In my experience, I have only seen this happen sporadically in the absolute busiest weeks around Christmas and Easter.

I do not handle the insurance matters for my operator, so I'm not aware of any specific requirements in this area. I do know the Kittiwake entrance fees are uses for the upkeep of the wreck and other projects: Dive 365

 

[FindingMenno]

I was going to respond to @Adiron but see he is banned?

Anyways in response to his comment. I see where he is coming from, in that operators should judge divers, check for proficiency, and I respect that. In an environment as Scubaboard, that all makes sense. But people active on SB are already 'the top of the pyramid' in diving so to speak, they take an active position in their hobby/sport, seek and share information, and probably have a certain level of diving proficiency or are working on building that.

Having worked in various 'dive destinations' over the years, in my experience this attitude to diving as you find on SB is not reflective of the average vacation diver.
The average vacation diver might dive once a year, of every few years. They do not log their dives, often have lost their c-cards, have no idea how many weights they need, look at you as if they see water burning when asked to assemble their equipment, have minimal buoyancy control, freak out when their mask leaks etc. They also often overestimate their own capabilities, or try to be vague to avoid to be requested to do a refresher. It is not uncommon when a bit of further asking from my side when being told 'I'm a bit rusty' is that they mean they have done 10 dives 20 years ago before having kids etc got in the way of any diving.
I realize I sound a bit negative and maybe condescending here, that is not my intention but I want to share what we experience. I'm also aware that there a lot of vacation divers who do have an active interest in diving. I'm also aware and respect that for a lot of vacation divers, it's one of the many sports/activities they do in life, and a day of diving while on holiday is squeezed in between going for a round of golf, jetskiing, rum tasting, horse riding and what not, and is treated in the same casual manner. We're not all hard-core divers on our way to a 1,000 logged dives and a trimix cert. I do not see these as 'lesser' divers, just divers with a different attitude and view of the sport and you have to adjust your approach with this.

Next to this there is a massive commercial pressure (chances of getting rich in diving either as an employee of business owner are very slim!) to make that sale to make some revenue or a commission, as competition is fierce, margins are low, and divers mainly buy based on price.

Combine this commercial pressure, and the skill of the average vacation diver, you have a potential for safety being put in jeopardy. Therefore I'm happy that some diving destinations, such as the Cayman Islands, have diving regulations that err on the conservative side. It ensures safety is given priority, operators have clear regulations to follow, and in general it makes the destination a safe and high quality dive destination. I'll also admit it allows us in discussion with 'difficult' customers who are asking for unrealistic or unsafe dives for their skill level to refer to these regulations and make the discussion somewhat less 'buyer vs seller'.

So if you are in a vacation dive destination, and encounter some conservative regulations, or a 'nannying' dive guide, my apologies but experience has taught us to always expect the worst regardless of what people have been telling you about their experience and skill level...
When you show that you know what you are doing, most of us are happy to 'let you off the leash' and we can start chasing that person on an uncontrolled ascent as they don't know how to use a BCD...

 

[caydiver]

I agree with every word that Menno said. Thank you

 

[caydiver]

The requirements for The Kittiwake are different than any other site on the island. I suspect those requirements are dictated by the insurance company. Most of the ops have the same carrier. They are based in the United States. I found the diving in Australia to be more restrictive than what it is here. I do think however that if you are at a level that is beyond the norm it is best for you to go to places where you can be free to do as you want. I agree with Menno's point that most people who come here are not the same sort of divers who are here on SB and yes aside from The Kittiwake most ops will "let you off the leash". When we came as visitors it happened on a regular basis if the crew recognized us and if not we didn't grumble about it not happening. We were their responsibility if an accident occurred. If we rented tanks and went off on our own (which is possible to do) we could have done whatever we wanted except The Kittiwake

 

[EastEndDiver]

It's very simple ….Cayman island has their rules you can choose to dive Cayman or not...…...the reason for their rules are their choosing.

I may not agree but I follow their rules

 

[tursiops]

Of course Cayman Islands can choose to make and enforce whatever rules they want and scuba divers can choose to either dive under those conditions or take their tourist dollars elsewhere. That doesn't mean we can't a) complain about it b) state why we think it's unfair and c) make other divers aware of it so they don't go there expecting to do a solo dive on the Kittawake and be told it aint never going to happen.

I've been very few places in the Caribbean -- or anywhere -- that Solo diving was officially permitted, regardless of one's level of training, experience, and equipment. Nothing special about the Caymans this way.