Getting to Little Cayman

[keyshunter]

The Otters often go to 7000-8000 feet. A jet airliner is pressurized to about 8000 feet. So I see no reason to consider no fly time as time to jetliner flight as noted above.

Also, a round trip charter boat ride from GC to LC would cover about 160 miles. An ECONOMICAL boat of a size to comfortably and reliably make the trip would get about 1 mile or less per gallon--often much less. With diesel fuel at about $5.00 CI per gallon...LOL.

 

[lulubelle]

The Otters often go to 7000-8000 feet. A jet airliner is pressurized to about 8000 feet. So I see no reason to consider no fly time as time to jetliner flight as noted above.

Also, a round trip charter boat ride from GC to LC would cover about 160 miles. An ECONOMICAL boat of a size to comfortably and reliably make the trip would get about 1 mile or less per gallon--often much less. With diesel fuel at about $5.00 CI per gallon...LOL.

I base my no fly time on my first flight, period.

I knew that commercial planes were pressurized to 8000 feet, and that the Otters were unpressurized, what I wasn't sure of was at what altitude they flew at from GC to LC. I just remember some folks at LCBR saying that they were going on the next dive after I had timed myself out for our flight as they believed that the Otters flew at a low enough altitude to not be of concern. Sounds like they were wrong and likely didn't understand that the Otters and Jets were essentially providing the same pressure.

I'm with Aggie, save it for another time. In Depth Water Sports and probably others can get you to the North Wall of Grand Cayman which I understand is good diving.

 

[AggieDiver]

What my wife and I would often do on Brac or LC if we were on the early flight out the next morning is do the first am dive the day before like a normal dive, albeit with a shallower TD and alot more time spent shallow. We would do the second dive in the morning, but would stay above 30 feet...basically a long safety stop. The last few times, we have gotten on the later flights out of LC, and have been able to dive both morning dives the day before and still have a full 24 hour NFT.

 

[Doctorfish]

This trip to LC does not make a lot of sense. If you only have a few days to spend in the Cayman Islands, it would make more sense to stay on GC and book a trip to LC some other time when you can take a week. There is lots of good diving at East End and North Wall. Cayman airways flies at 7-8 thousand feet to LC, unpressurized.

 

[caymaniac]

The Otter used to fly at 5K, but not so much any more.

 

[hypersonic]

The Otter used to fly at 5K, but not so much any more.

The higher they fly...the less fuel they use.

For the record, the max cabin altitude for certified presurized airplanes is 8,000 ft.

Most airliners operate on a cabin pressure differential of around 8.3 psi (give or take a few tenths).

So for a typical flight back to the U.S. at 35,000 ft, the cabin would be pressurized to about 6,000 ft.

 

[releck97]

As good as the diving might be on LC, given all of the variables, why don't you consider going out to the east end of GC and diving with Ocean Frontiers? Time to fly is no longer an issue and the diving, IMHO, is pretty darn good out there.

Good diving,

Capt. Rick