GC Shore dives & shallow boat dives

[bradsab]

Hi all-
Planning a mid July trip to GC; last family vacation before my daughter gets married. She has trouble equalizing, and is slow getting down. Shore dives would be ideal so we can take our time. Looks like most boat dives are on the walls and are deeper than we are certified (OW).

A few questions: 1.Since our max depth is 60’, are there boat dive sites worth doing, or is most diving above 60’ accessible from shore? If there are good boat dives, any recommendations? We’ve never dived on a wall before, and want to do that if possible.
2. My two kids dive, but my wife does not. Any good shore dives with a beach she can hang out at while the three of us dive? Or maybe snorkel along with us?
3. We intend to rent BC/Regs for the week. Haven’t seen weekly rates on dive shop web sites; do they rent weekly? We can rent here and pack it down there.

We’ll be staying at Turtle Nest Inn in Bodden Town, and have a car rented so we’re open to any location. Thanks in advance for your help. Don’t know if I’ll be diving with my little mermaid any more, and I want to make the most of this trip.

 

[Skinsfan1311]

In Georgetown, I dove with Eden Rock. My wife and son snorkeled, while I got in a couple of dives. They rent lockers, and there are many shops nearby. It's a few minutes walk from the cruise tender pier. There's plenty of parking. I'd avoid town, if there are any cruise ships in town. Good Luck

http://www.edenrockdive.com/

 

[wb416]

I used to do allot of shore diving from the Turtle Farm and also Cobalt Coast. That was before the last hurricane, so I'm not sure what shape they're in though.

 

[worlddiver]

We found the best shore diving to be at Divetech's both shops at Turtle Reef and Cobalt Coast Resort. Their reefs were untouch by the hurricane. They also can run a boat trip for your 60' profile. Recommend the wreck of the Doc Polison was 55'. They have a rental program, i think it was, rent for 7 days and pay for 5 days.

Sunset House has a nice shore dive. We avoided Eden Rock because of all the cruise ships.

Have a great trip.

 

[Pickled]

Bodden Town is about half way between Georgetown and East End. I do not believe there is any good shore diving unless you drive back towards Georgetown. Eden Rock, Sunset House, and Bob Soto's are all pretty close together and have decent shore diving in the 40 60 ft. range and rent equipment. Turtle Farm is good as well but is quite a drive from Bodden Town and the traffic through Georgetown and up past 7 mile beach is getting horrid. The West end has lost almost all of its small island charm.

If you are up for some boat diving I would highly recommend Ocean Frontiers in East End. Excellent operation, they rent equipment, no traffic,and great diving. About the same distance to the shore diving locations in Georgetown but it takes half, maybe a third the time to get there. Many of the dives will be on walls that start on the 40 to 50 ft range. You do not have to go deep if you don't want to. Also, they do quite a bit of training at Ocean Frontiers so they are used to working with open water divers. They will work to accomidate you.

 

[wb416]

Bodden Town is about half way between Georgetown and East End. I do not believe there is any good shore diving unless you drive back towards Georgetown.
[snip]

Ah Yes... silly me... my bad...

Scratch my recommendations. It would take you 45 min- hour depending on traffic through Georgetown and 7 mile beach.

 

[bradsab]

Thanks for the replies. We don't mind driving a little, especially if there's something for my wife to do while the three of us are diving. We'll probably do Turtle Farm, I've also read good things about Spanish Reef, which looks like the same long drive. Do they let outsiders shore dive at the resort? Also wondered about shore dives on the east end. The reason we chose Bodden Town was the central location on the island. Didn't realize you had to drive so slow. Live and learn.

 

[Misty89]

Ok, so your post about a 60' limit made me curious. I've had my OW for 7 years now, 75-ish dives, and have never been limited to 60' (including 3x on Cayman). So I Googled it and found this distinction: an OW cert places a 60' limit on divers not accompanied by a professional. So my understanding would be that if you are with a DM that you can exceed 60'. And Cayman dive ops don't allow you to exceed 100' anyway, so you may be able to dive more sites than you originally thought.

Anyway, regarding shallow sites - I really enjoyed diving a boat dive site called "Aquarium" a couple of years ago.

We also enjoyed East End diving in 2004 - uncrowded and pristine. That's where we'll be this year as well.

Sunset House doesn't have a beach but they do have a bar -) and your wife could also snorkel there.

Since they demolished the Sea View I'm not sure if there is still diving allowed at that site, but if there is, it's a good shore dive.

We're headed to Cayman 7/14 - 7/23, too

 

[Doc]

Essentialy GC is simply not a shore dive destination.

The one dive that would fit your needs dead-bang is Stingray City. Shallow, snorkelers welcome, tons of fun.

In my recollection, Turtle Farm dive was ho-hum, there was one (further North?) called Pipeline (?). I liked that better, but unsure of its current status.

East End diving is absolutely weather dependant, and if it is available, the reason for visiting that area might still require some depth. Larger fishies make this otherwise battered environment home. If it's calm and flat, you might see some big boys. Look to tarpon Alley for this, but again, 80fsw is the norm.

Yes, pretty much so everyone will give you a multi day rental. Do some quick comparison shopping, inquire/offer to buy X amount of boat dives and see what happens.

 

[Damselfish]

Cayman isn't an ideal shore diving destination, but it exists and largely within the depths you're talking about. But if you want a variety of sites to do, you mostly have to bounce among the operators that have shore dive facilities. These are all concentrated in 2 areas on the west end, none further east. Shore access to diving is otherwise fairly limited. I talked to people that shore dove at Smith's cove which is along the south side towards the east, I think. Shouldn't be too far so might be worth checking out. I think the shore diving at Turtle Reef is excellent and worth the drive if you're concentrating on shore diving. Just don't go at rush hour.

It's true that a lot of the boat dives are deep, part of this is not because there's nothing shallow, but because the walls are the signature Cayman thing and that's where the demand is. If you don't want to go deeper you should be able to do the top of the wall, you'll just miss some of the scenery and feeling of cruising along the wall. The south side of the island has some nice shallow diving but not many boats do it. Sunset House does sometimes, and they wouldn't be as hard to get to for you as places on the other side of Georgetown, but I don't know if they schedule it in a way you can rely on it. They also run some morning boat trips "shallow/shallow" meaning they don't do a deep wall dive on those at all. There will be other boats doing shallower sites too especially in the afternoons, a lot of times this is just the top of the wall. You will just have to ask the ops you're interested in. Since you have to drive anyway it might make as much sense to go to Ocean Frontiers on the East End and dive the top of that wall or some of the shallow dives there, as it does to drive to Georgetown. Less traffic and the dive sites are in better shape.

Ok, so your post about a 60' limit made me curious. I've had my OW for 7 years now, 75-ish dives, and have never been limited to 60' (including 3x on Cayman). So I Googled it and found this distinction: an OW cert places a 60' limit on divers not accompanied by a professional. So my understanding would be that if you are with a DM that you can exceed 60'. And Cayman dive ops don't allow you to exceed 100' anyway, so you may be able to dive more sites than you originally thought.

60' is of course not a magic number and most ops in the Carribean won't restrict you to that. Experience and comfort level is more important than what a card recommends. I think in OP case it's more related to comfort level, or the ear thing. (Although, if it's all about ears, once you're down that far the rest tends to be easy.) BTW they've eased up on the 100' thing in Cayman, at least officially, ops may vary.