Grand Cayman East End

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"Sheet of glass" calm is very rare for Cayman. A handful of days each year.

Agree - I would say a handful of days every 2-3 years even. Here we are shore diving Blowholes that day (attached).
 

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We did one East End dive during our 2 week/10 dive vacation.

I have one word for you...


ROUGH!

If you are not prone to sea sickness, don't mind a really rough boat ride, want great diving at any price, and price IS HIGH THERE! Then do a dive or 2 at the East end, it was the Ocean Frontiers place. Great service though!

The dives on the North side, also pretty rough some days, just as good and MUCH CLOSER.

But the best dives on Grand Cayman are the WEST WALL. Thats where all the famous sites are: Trinity Caves, Big Tunnel, Little Tunnel, dozens more. Very cool! Westward ho!
 
But the best dives on Grand Cayman are the WEST WALL. Thats where all the famous sites are: Trinity Caves, Big Tunnel, Little Tunnel, dozens more. Very cool! Westward ho!

Well everyone is entitled to their opinion but IMHO you are dead wrong. :D
 
Well everyone is entitled to their opinion but IMHO you are dead wrong. :D

We did one East End dive during our 2 week/10 dive vacation.

I have one word for you...


ROUGH!

If you are not prone to sea sickness, don't mind a really rough boat ride, want great diving at any price, and price IS HIGH THERE! Then do a dive or 2 at the East end, it was the Ocean Frontiers place. Great service though!

The dives on the North side, also pretty rough some days, just as good and MUCH CLOSER.

But the best dives on Grand Cayman are the WEST WALL. Thats where all the famous sites are: Trinity Caves, Big Tunnel, Little Tunnel, dozens more. Very cool! Westward ho!
yeah, I also disagree. Those sites are famous because they've been dove for so long by so many people. Which tends to make the diving not the best anymore.

The East End will be rougher most of the year, but how rough will vary. And lots of people don't mind it at all (or are willing to deal for what are the best sites on GC.) :eyebrow: ANd THe East End sites are closer if you , well, stay on the East End!

Pretty much everything is expensive on GC.
 
We did one East End dive during our 2 week/10 dive vacation.

I have one word for you...


ROUGH!

If you are not prone to sea sickness, don't mind a really rough boat ride, want great diving at any price, and price IS HIGH THERE! Then do a dive or 2 at the East end, it was the Ocean Frontiers place. Great service though!

The dives on the North side, also pretty rough some days, just as good and MUCH CLOSER.

But the best dives on Grand Cayman are the WEST WALL. Thats where all the famous sites are: Trinity Caves, Big Tunnel, Little Tunnel, dozens more. Very cool! Westward ho!

Same here! It was quite rough and comparably long boat rides to what was only equal to the dives at the north wall. Some of the west sites had been a little over-dived, but I think they change the moorings to give some of them a rest.

As far as staying in East End, if I wanted to be that far away from everything, I'd go to Little Cayman, where I have been, and the diving is much better than north, east, whatever side of Grand Cayman. There's just nothing to do but dive, like East End. For an extra $100 or so in airfare, I'll take the superior diving of Bloody Bay Wall if I want to get away from it all, including all the great restaurants and other activities.

There is no one answer to this anyway. It's all subjective and depends on what kind of diving vacations people perfer.

There is no disputing though, that the East side Grand Cayman diving is very rough compared to any other area, almost any time of the year, and it is more expensive with Ocean Frontiers at over $100 per dive! We use Neptunes, or other small operators that charge at least 20% less, and give much bettter service with only 8 divers.
 
Ocean Frontiers at over $100 per dive! We use Neptunes, or other small operators that charge at least 20% less, and give much bettter service with only 8 divers.
uh, that's for a 2-tank dive, not per dive.

Neptune's lists a single 2-tank dive at $100, OF $115.
If you do the typical week of 6 2-tank dives, Neptune's would be $80, OF $90.

so sure, slightly cheaper (not surprising since there's little choice of ops on the East End.) But in the grand scheme of a trip to GC probably not the main thing to base your decision on. Pick based on the op you like and the location they dive.
 
Would it be safe to say that the East End would appeal more to advanced divers?
 
Did a two-tank yesterday with OF's. I recorded 87 degrees on the second dive and 85 on the first.

On the first dive we saw 2 +-8ft reef sharks at a site called Jack's wall. Its directly out in front of OF outside the reef. Its close to "The maze" which is well know for shark sightings.

Interesting note. when we were diving Jack's wall and were coming back to shallower waters (from the boat we went directly to the wall, then headed north a few hundred feet and then back in via a large "valley"). In that valley, water temperature shot up dramatically ; it was not the guy in front of me relieving himself which was my first instinct. We all saw the "water distortion" due to the hot water. Although we did not see it, there was definitely a hot water spout somewhere there.
 
"Interesting note. when we were diving Jack's wall and were coming back to shallower waters (from the boat we went directly to the wall, then headed north a few hundred feet and then back in via a large "valley"). In that valley, water temperature shot up dramatically ; it was not the guy in front of me relieving himself which was my first instinct. We all saw the "water distortion" due to the hot water. Although we did not see it, there was definitely a hot water spout somewhere there."

The earth under Grand Cayman is getting active.:redhot:
 

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