Grand Cayman – Northeast & North Dive Sites

[Scuba C's]

For the Grand Cayman – Northeast & North Dive Sites

We are a party of #5 AOW divers, 40+/- dives each, #100 ft o.k.

First time on Grand Cayman (be there New Years 2007 week). Been to Bonaire couple times. Boat diving with DiveTech out of CC.

Couple questions for the G.C. veterans:

* The one ‘must do’ G.C. dive site ?

* Top #5 suggested boat dive sites ? (Northeast & North sites)

* How long does it take the boat to get out to the dive sites ?

* Are all the Northeast dive sites fairly close for the boat trip ??

Thanks,
See You Diving.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

For North or Northeast sites:

#1 site, bar none, is Snapper Hole, a shallow (max 63ft) site wth innumerable swim-thrus, tunnels, and such. It is located off the northeast tip of Grand Cayman. Thsi is site highly weather dependent, as a strong wind or ocean swell can wipe it out.

Many others will give opinions on the other top five. Consideration can be given to, in no particular order:

Black Rock - a shallow site (ranging from 25 to 70ft) with broken off coral heads, a huge variety of fish life, and a carves canyonway and swim-thru.

Babylon - wall site in vicinty of Old Man Bay. A pinnacle tops out at about 55ft, with the cut between the pinnacle and the main wall bottoming at 88ft. Outside of pinnacle base is at 155ft, and the wall drops to several thousand feet.

Eagle Ray Pass - wall site near the Stngray City Sandbar, with (no prizes for guessing) reasonably frequent eagle ray sitings.

Leslie's Curl - a wall site with a section that goes a bit past vertical offering a real sense of vertigo.

Tarpon Alley - wall site nearer tot he original Stingray City, with teeming tarpon in two seperate cuts out onto the main wall


Boat travel time naturally depends upon departure point. Diving with Divetech out of Cobalt Coast, Snapper Hole would be a 1 to 1.5 hour ride out to the site, with a shorter return expected in a following sea. This site is, however, about a 10 minute ride from either Tortuga Divers or Ocean Frontiers, the two East End dive shops.

Cross your fingers. Winter often brings stronger winds from the northeast, or occasionally northwest. this can blow out diving along the north coast quite frequently.

 

[CJ's]

At that time of year it is unlikely that you will be doing much diving on the North wall due to the typical weather patterns we get then. As Drew mentioned we typically experience 10-20 knot winds out of the Northeast in early Jan which makes conditions fairly extreme on the Northside.
Mostly you will be diving on the North west point of the Island with Divetech, leaving from the West Bay public dock. The bonus is that the average journey time to the divesites is about 4 minutes!! Don't miss Northwest Point Drop-off as the best site in this area (nitrox recommended)...stacked with great corals, sponges and almost always numerous eels of all types.
If you are lucky we can get a break in the winds in which case the North wall is not far away. Either way you will not get to the Northeast of the Island with Divetech. Typically the furthest east they (or most other operators) will go when diving the North wall is the area around Rum Point. Drew, of course, is biased towards East End in his choice of dive sites as am I towards the North wall so I would recommend sites such as Ghost Mountain, Black Forest and Northwest Point as among my "unmissables" if weather permits!
Happy diving,

CJ

 

[Scuba C's]

Thanks for the input.

During our dives in Bonaire, a couple days the surface winds were fairly strong, but below the 30-70ft currents were really tame, it is only when we came to the surface that we got bounced around.

So with the surface weather being a controlling factor in Jan, how are the 50-75 ft currents, are they as unpredictable or ?

Also, can anyone suggest the 'best' (most comprehensive) internet web site for the Dive Sites around Grand Cayman ?

Diver Down,
Scuba C's

 

[Scuba C's]

Hey all, call me silly, my question was suppose to be....

* Top #5 suggested boat dive sites ? (NorthWEST & North sites)

Thanks CJ, you are right we will be in the North WEST part with CC and Divetech )

Still looking forward to Drew's suggestions also.

 

[CJ's]

Currents of any description are few and far between in Grand Cayman with the exception of a couple of areas, the most notable of which is the Northwest point area.
If current is running here then we simply move further south along the west wall to avoid it.

CJ

 

[worlddiver]

We are also a fan of Divetech @ Cobalt Coast Resort. They will dive the Northwall whenever weather permits. Some of your best dives will be at the shore dive in front of Cobalt Coast Resort and Divetech's other shop at Turtle Reef. We will recommend the following Northwall dive sites better than Drew's since we were just there 3 weeks ago with our family.

Ghost Mountain, Hepps Wall, School House Reef, Bears Paw deep & shallow, Princes Penny and Hammerhead reef. Bears Paw was our favorite 2 dives. We dove through a school (3,000+) of jacks and had a turtle follow us for over half the dive.

Have a great trip....

 

[padiscubapro]

Drew, I have done all those you listed, but my favorite by far is delia's delight (not sure If I spelled it correctly)

Its the last site on the Northside before the protected zone.. I did make a "mistake" once and swam about 45minutes in the "wrong" direction... Absolutely virgin territory..

 

[nipi]

my favorite by far is delia's delight (not sure If I spelled it correctly)

Delia's Delight is a good one as is Andes Wall next to it - in fact all that stretch of wall east including The Gallery & The Anchor Chain (both unmarked) is good.

The benefit of doing Delia's Delight from shore is that you park right next to Driftwood and so are perfectly situated for recompression purposes upon exiting.

 

[padiscubapro]

Delia's Delight is a good one as is Andes Wall next to it - in fact all that stretch of wall east including The Gallery & The Anchor Chain (both unmarked) is good.

The benefit of doing Delia's Delight from shore is that you park right next to Driftwood and so are perfectly situated for recompression purposes upon exiting.

I never knew that could be done as a shore dive... Great info.. All the occasions I got to dive it were off SunSet Houses's Manta.. Two of the diver were during Zero Gravity, So the limits were very liberal.. My first dive on DD I had a maximum depth of 300fsw with a run time of over 3.5 hours.. It was actually like 2 dives in itself, since the "return" trip was at a shallower depth than the swim "out"