LCBR Trip Report

[AggieDiver]

It beats getting to the airport in FLL Saturday am and having them say "sorry, your flight to GCM is cancelled and all the flights leaving FLL are full...good luck with Irma". Or getting down there and being unable to come home if the FLL airport is damaged by the storm. I wouldn't mind the not coming home part...it is the paying for the extra days in paradise and being out of vacation days at work that would be the sticky part. Fortunately I was able to get a full refund of my points and fees on SW, LCBR changed my dates with no problem or cost, and Cayman Airways waived the change fee and just charged the fare difference (about $30 pp). So I didn't even have to tap into my trip insurance and managed to talk them into sliding the dates of coverage to the new trip window with no fee. All and all, a pretty painless process...hope that doesn't mean the pain is coming somewhere else. I already broke a toe last week kicking stored furniture that was indoors while Harvey was raining his heart out over us. Don't really need any more of that.

 

[flyboy08]

The dive gods are looking out for you! I'll go out on a limb here and say on your third dive, you'll come across a whale shark.

 

[AggieDiver]

I'd settle for flat seas and calm weather. I am going to remember your guess though and suggest the boat crew needs to make it happen. I remember being on a boat there a few years back and there were several folks asking about eagle rays. The boat captain Ron took us to a dive site (Bus Stop or Sarah's Set maybe?) and told us to look around the sandy areas at 9:15am. Sure enough, midway through the dive, out in the sand, here comes an eagle ray. I looked at my watch and it was 9:13am. Not a bad call by Ron. Hope your forecast is just as good!

 

[Doctorfish]

I don't understand the" lack of big fish " comment. Just got back from LC and we saw 3 nurse sharks, 3 eagle rays, multiple big green morays, copious barracuda and more turtles than we could count. There are large nassau groupers everywhere and many tiger, black and yellowfin groupers. I thought the reefs looked healthy and well populated.

 

[KathyV]

I don't understand the" lack of big fish " comment. Just got back from LC and we saw 3 nurse sharks, 3 eagle rays, multiple big green morays, copious barracuda and more turtles than we could count. There are large nassau groupers everywhere and many tiger, black and yellowfin groupers. I thought the reefs looked healthy and well populated.

Good to know since we will be there in the fall. Was there a problem with Sargasso weed and trash long the shore while you were there? What was the typical water temp?

 

[Doctorfish]

There was lots of sargassum but very little trash. Water 86 F, no thermocline.

 

[Ironborn]

If one want to just dive dive dive, 4 dives a day, then LCBR is the place to be....I took over 700 pictures and Ill try to add a few of them here...

Happy to answer any questions...

I looked into LCBR, and their website only lists options for two or three tanks a day, not four. How would one get four dives a day there?

Also, the website says nothing about night dives. Do they offer night dives at all? Do they need a minimum number of divers for night dives?

 

[KathyV]

I looked into LCBR, and their website only lists options for two or three tanks a day, not four. How would one get four dives a day there?

Also, the website says nothing about night dives. Do they offer night dives at all? Do they need a minimum number of divers for night dives?

They only offer 3 dives per day. There are places on Grand Cayman that offer 4 days per day like Compass Point. There are also spots on GC that give you 2 boat dives per day plus unlimited shore dives on the house reef, like Sunset House, Lighthouse Point, and Cobalt Coast (weather dependent).

If you really want to do a lot of dives on the best sites on all 3 of the Cayman islands, take a look at the Cayman Aggressor liveaboard. When do you plan to travel? The Aggressor usually offers a big sale for the rest of the year in February.

LCBR offers night dives twice per week, but there is an extra charge and they need a minimum number of divers. They also offer a morning trip over to Cayman Brac to dive the wreck of the Russian Frigate for an extra fuel charge, but they also require a minimum number of divers for that, too.

 

[Damselfish]

2 tanks in the am morning and one in the afternoon has always been the standard routine there. Night dives require a minimum, which they don't always get. (It's the sort of place that makes people lazy. What sounds like a good idea early in the day to at least some, seems to get less enticing to people as the day goes on.)

 

[KathyV]

Good to know since we will be there in the fall. Was there a problem with Sargasso weed and trash long the shore while you were there? What was the typical water temp?

There was lots of sargassum but very little trash. Water 86 F, no thermocline.

Apparently there is a lot of sargassum washing up on Grand Cayman after Hurricane Irma:

‘It keeps washing in’: Sargassum chokes beaches in wake of Irma | Cayman Compass