Help organize our dive trip?

[oregondiver]

We are staying at Sunset Cove on 7MB, Oct 13-21.

There are 4 of us who usually do about 22 dives during our week of vacation (we normally dive cold water in Washington and Germany respectively).

We would like to dive the Kittiwake and stingray city and it would be nice bonus to maybe do a dive on the East End.

We can afford maybe 2 days of boat diving. It would maximize our boat diving days if we had a dive op that allowed unlimited shore diving on boat dive days. So far I have located Dive Tech and Sunset House. Is there another op that you aware of that includes shore diving with their boat dive day?

Dive Tech offers unlimited shore diving for about $90 for 3 days, however we would be limited to their 2 locations. Since it works out to $30 per day....would it make sense to just use other local shops and pay their $10-$15 single tank fees? We would be doing a minimum of 3 dives per day, some days would be up to 5 dives.

Any other ops that offer unlimited shore diving?

I talked to Divers Supply (what a nice guy!) who provided informaiton about renting tanks and taking to non-dive op sites.

Any recommendations on how to structure it? We will have a rental Car

Shore dive ops that I located were Lobster Pot, Sunset, Eden Rock. Cracked Conch appears to be closed while we are there. Others?

Do not want to dive with Don Fosters or Red Sail. As a group of 4, it appears we may almost be our "own" boat as some posts say "they went out with just the 2 of us" etc. Heard great things about Dive Tech, Cobalt Coast, DNS, Off the Wall, Ambassador, Ocean Frontier.

Any suggestions or PM's for pro/con would be greatly appreciated.

 

[EastEndDiver]

Where did you hear that Cracked Conch/Olin - Sun Divers will be closed?

The dive Ops you listed are all good,your choice is basically location of each Dive Op.

I would prefer to dive at individual sites rather than be locked in for the $90. for shore diving that you mentioned.

 

[oregondiver]

EastEndDiver, It was on their website yesterday that they were closed from some (start) date to Oct 19th for the season.

Correction: Didn't remember/realize that Sun Divers and Cracked Conch were separate. Maybe Sun divers was open and Cracked Conch was closed. I will re-look into this. THanks!

 

[EastEndDiver]

Are you sure the dive shop is closed? They are seperate from the restuarant.

---------- Post Merged at 10:24 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:22 AM ----------

here is the phone number for Sun Divers if you want to call and verify:

345-916-0862

 

[diversteve]

Just about every operator dives Stingray City - usually in the afternoon. Some do it as their 2nd dive but IMO that's a waste of a good boat dive. Many stage a boat on the Sound - you either meet them at the dock or they'll pick you up.

On the East End, you'd be diving with Ocean Frontiers. The only other option out there is Red Sail/Tortuga Divers - you already mentioned you don't want to dive with them. I'd prefer OF anyway.

about Dive Tech, Cobalt Coast,

DiveTech is Cobalt Coast - same property (and I believe same owners) Their other property is Lighthouse Point, they have a smaller shop there also.

One of the Lobster Pot dive operators used to include a tank on Cheeseburger Reef there after your boat dives. IDK which one.

Know that anything downtown during the day is likely to be very congested till the cruisers have to queue up to tender back to their ships. Often 2-3 ships per day. Eden Rock might be a good one to try after 4PM - I think they close around 5ish? They're 100 yds. from the tender port so getting there can be a little aggravating.

If you're looking for an unlimited shore diving package to be used at multiple locations, that doesn't exist on Cayman. The closest is what you've found at Divetech. Many of the dive operators work off their boats from their marina slips or don't have a publicly accessible shop.

You've already found Divers Supply for tank rentals, the other option is Eden Rock, they have a 24hr. rental.

Kittiwake? Pick an operator: The Official Website for the Kittiwake Shipwreck - Home - the CITA list down the side is a fairly complete list of all the dive operators on Cayman also.

We stayed at Sunset Cove (formerly TICondos) about 8 years ago. It's quite a drive from there to Divetech - 20 mins. with no traffic. It's also 45mins. to the East End.

Cemetary Beach and Smith's Cove are two shallow sites that you can dive also. CB is on the north end of 7MB, Smith's is a short distance south of Sunset House. Dive Sunset House also, it's a decent shore dive, most people take pictures with the Mermaid, My Bar there has reasonable food and the Cathy Church Photo Gallery is on-site. If you're up for a swim - and it's relatively calm, you could try Babylon also. It's about an hour drive to that area and you'd want to bring tanks and everything else you might need.