I wanna go back…NOW!
Well, another trip has come and gone…and, another trip was totally awesome! I will post a more “trip” detailed review at some point over on the Cayman Activity Guide website. I will focus mainly on the diving here.
We arrived early on a Friday afternoon and processed through customs and immigration at the normal “island” speed. After a small mix-up at Andy’s Car Rental, we headed straight to Sunset House for an afternoon dive. Everything went as smooth as silk and we enjoyed a wonderfully easy first shore dive with little current at a max depth of 88 feet. The highlight of this particular dive was a freighter passing directly overhead while we were at max depth...boy we could certainly hear and FEEL that! A little over an hour later, we climbed the ladder, rinsed our gear and enjoyed the first of many Ironshore Bocks before heading over to Colliers and our fantastic 2 br. condo at the Reef.
On Saturday morning, we headed down to Ocean Frontiers for the first of 3 boat dives with this world class operation. With the seas lying down, we headed north to one of my favorite dive site: Babylon. There was no current and because we know this site quite well, we chose to dive it on our own. The pinnacle is so awe-inspiring and breathtaking every time I encounter it. We went around in concentric circles, first at 100 ft, then 70 and finally at around 45 to take in the entire thing. We finished off with the normal boat dive profile on the reef, breathing through every last pound of “allowable” air…surfacing with 500 psi. The second dive was at Kathleen’s Reef. It was my first dive there and one (we were told) is difficult to get towards the “Green Shorts Challenge”. It was a very pleasant and beautiful dive.
Sunday was Easter, so we didn’t start out until the afternoon. After renting tanks from Ocean Frontiers, we headed out to Rosebud Dr. and dipped in with a plan to get back to Babylon for a pass-through from (what used to be) Julie’s ball to just past Babylon. Everything went exactly as planned and we cruised around the Babylon pinnacle before departing the wall through the chimney just to east of the pinnacle…this is always one of my favorite swim-throughs! We cruised back west on the edge of the wall before cutting back through the Babylon Gardens between 35 and 20 feet. This is one of the most breathtaking reefs anywhere! After exchanging tanks, we ventured over to our favorite location on the entire island. It is a little cut in Breakers which is just to the west of the South Coast Bar and Grill. It can be a gnarly channel to get through and is quite difficult to return into due to an almost always present under tow. Patience is your friend to get back through the cut without incident. Waiting for the next set of waves makes it a heckuva lot easier to deal with. Bottom line on this one, know before you go and don’t even think about doing it without a lot of local knowledge and with even moderate wave height in the area. PM me if you want more info on this one. The reward is the most pristine, un-dived area that I have found anywhere on Grand Cayman. The wall has dozens of swim-throughs. Each one more spectacular than the next! We started down a tunnel at 94 ft. and popped out on the wall at 108. After we got the hairs on the back of our necks to relax and our eyes back in their sockets, we quickly ascended to a much more reasonable depth of around 88 ft. to maximize our time out there. After 20 minutes or so, we began the swim in towards the beach following one finger after another and encountering tarpon, lobsters, a nurse shark and tons of other critters who were not expecting to see divers.
Monday is always our Macabuca day. We usually sleep in and then head over to West Bay in the afternoon to do 2-3 dives with Sun Divers and enjoy the fantastic BBQ at Macabuca. We were totally bummed to find out that the wind forecast for the day was all wrong and that it was quite rough over there when we arrived. Ollen called down to Eden Rock to find that they had pulled their ladder, so we stayed. We did one uneventful, but gorgeous dive to the south and noticed a mild S-N current. After that dive, we decided to put back an Ironshore Bock and partake in the buffet. A group of 8 instructors showed up to do a night dive and 2 of them got completely blown off the wall and had to be rescued a good ¼ mile north of Macabuca. I’m really glad we called it after one dive!
On Tuesday, we headed back to the Babylon area, but dove a little further west this time, mainly Julie’s to McCurley’s. We stretched this dive out to 70 minutes…Boy, I really love how easy the diving is on the north side when the winds are down. The afternoon found us heading to Georgetown for an afternoon dive at Devil’s Grotto…our first dive there ever! It was fun and interesting, but after diving the east end of the island for years, it pales in comparison to what you can dive on that side, however it is an inexpensive shore dive. We saw a monstrous green moray eel and a green turtle using it’s front flippers to hold food while it ripped it apart with it’s beak…a pretty cool site!
We missed our connection on Wednesday to dive the West Wall and Kittiwake and had to settle for an afternoon at Turtle Reef. We swam out to the Pipeline and headed south for a beautiful first dive. Our second dive took us north on the mini-wall…always one of my favorite dives. No disappointment here! A huge lobster, spotted eel and great critter interaction kept me fixated the whole dive. The seas were flat and the current was a negligible N-S.
Thursday morning we headed back to Breakers and found yet another swim-through to the wall that we haven’t experienced before. Gawd, I love the wall there! We kept our profile a little on the shallower side this morning because we were scheduled for Ocean Frontier’s “X Dive” that afternoon. The X Dive is a free swimming dive which involves maximum time on the wall without having to worry about circling back to the boat. The boat follows us and picks us up at a ball further down the wall. We saw a few guys in “grey suits”. The only downer on this particular dive is that the captain mis-judged the current and we ended up fighting it the whole way, which affected our bottom time considerably.
Our last day of diving was Friday and we elected to keep the sand out of our equipment and dove with Ocean Frontiers one last time…Good choice! Again, the boat went North and we ended up at Black Rock Drop-off. I spotted a free swimming green moray eel and a large adolescent drum which was particularly breathtaking! After cruising the wall for the last time on this trip, my buddy and I hung motionless for a good 5-6 minutes at the edge of the wall taking in as much as we could before bidding it adieu until next time. Our last dive of the drip brought us to Snapper Hole, one of the sites on the east end of the island which totally puts the Eden Rock/Devil’s Grotto area to shame…but it is a boat dive and one that is oftentimes impossible to get to due to wind/waves. Well, bonus of the trip: SILVERSIDES! Although there were not yet 10’s of thousands of them, there were still thousands and with a flashlight in hand, made for a very spectacular event in one of the tunnels! After 70 minutes under the water, I reluctantly surfaced with 800 psi left in my tank because my buddy sucked his air too quickly…
I prefer shore diving. Most of the shore diving east of Georgetown is for advanced divers only. This does not make it impossible or particularly difficult. It does mean that you will have to endure long, but beautiful snorkel swims out (if you wish to go to the wall). It does mean that you need to monitor and understand the waves, winds and tidal influences on your planned dive. If you are interested in diving beautiful, un-touched reefs, the swims are much shorter and the dives are longer ;-).
The shore dives on the west side of the island vary from very nice to WOW. Each person has their own “wow” factor. At this time in my life/diving experience, it takes a lot to “wow” me.
We always stay out east and do it on the cheap. I haven’t added everything up yet, but I’m sure my trip will come in under $1,500 USD for flight, condo, diving, food and lots of beer. We do not skimp, but do eat the majority of our meals in.
Feel free to PM me if you have individual questions. I hope you enjoy my little wrap-up and hopefully it will spark a memory or two in some of your water-logged memories. LOL!
Well, another trip has come and gone…and, another trip was totally awesome! I will post a more “trip” detailed review at some point over on the Cayman Activity Guide website. I will focus mainly on the diving here.
We arrived early on a Friday afternoon and processed through customs and immigration at the normal “island” speed. After a small mix-up at Andy’s Car Rental, we headed straight to Sunset House for an afternoon dive. Everything went as smooth as silk and we enjoyed a wonderfully easy first shore dive with little current at a max depth of 88 feet. The highlight of this particular dive was a freighter passing directly overhead while we were at max depth...boy we could certainly hear and FEEL that! A little over an hour later, we climbed the ladder, rinsed our gear and enjoyed the first of many Ironshore Bocks before heading over to Colliers and our fantastic 2 br. condo at the Reef.
On Saturday morning, we headed down to Ocean Frontiers for the first of 3 boat dives with this world class operation. With the seas lying down, we headed north to one of my favorite dive site: Babylon. There was no current and because we know this site quite well, we chose to dive it on our own. The pinnacle is so awe-inspiring and breathtaking every time I encounter it. We went around in concentric circles, first at 100 ft, then 70 and finally at around 45 to take in the entire thing. We finished off with the normal boat dive profile on the reef, breathing through every last pound of “allowable” air…surfacing with 500 psi. The second dive was at Kathleen’s Reef. It was my first dive there and one (we were told) is difficult to get towards the “Green Shorts Challenge”. It was a very pleasant and beautiful dive.
Sunday was Easter, so we didn’t start out until the afternoon. After renting tanks from Ocean Frontiers, we headed out to Rosebud Dr. and dipped in with a plan to get back to Babylon for a pass-through from (what used to be) Julie’s ball to just past Babylon. Everything went exactly as planned and we cruised around the Babylon pinnacle before departing the wall through the chimney just to east of the pinnacle…this is always one of my favorite swim-throughs! We cruised back west on the edge of the wall before cutting back through the Babylon Gardens between 35 and 20 feet. This is one of the most breathtaking reefs anywhere! After exchanging tanks, we ventured over to our favorite location on the entire island. It is a little cut in Breakers which is just to the west of the South Coast Bar and Grill. It can be a gnarly channel to get through and is quite difficult to return into due to an almost always present under tow. Patience is your friend to get back through the cut without incident. Waiting for the next set of waves makes it a heckuva lot easier to deal with. Bottom line on this one, know before you go and don’t even think about doing it without a lot of local knowledge and with even moderate wave height in the area. PM me if you want more info on this one. The reward is the most pristine, un-dived area that I have found anywhere on Grand Cayman. The wall has dozens of swim-throughs. Each one more spectacular than the next! We started down a tunnel at 94 ft. and popped out on the wall at 108. After we got the hairs on the back of our necks to relax and our eyes back in their sockets, we quickly ascended to a much more reasonable depth of around 88 ft. to maximize our time out there. After 20 minutes or so, we began the swim in towards the beach following one finger after another and encountering tarpon, lobsters, a nurse shark and tons of other critters who were not expecting to see divers.
Monday is always our Macabuca day. We usually sleep in and then head over to West Bay in the afternoon to do 2-3 dives with Sun Divers and enjoy the fantastic BBQ at Macabuca. We were totally bummed to find out that the wind forecast for the day was all wrong and that it was quite rough over there when we arrived. Ollen called down to Eden Rock to find that they had pulled their ladder, so we stayed. We did one uneventful, but gorgeous dive to the south and noticed a mild S-N current. After that dive, we decided to put back an Ironshore Bock and partake in the buffet. A group of 8 instructors showed up to do a night dive and 2 of them got completely blown off the wall and had to be rescued a good ¼ mile north of Macabuca. I’m really glad we called it after one dive!
On Tuesday, we headed back to the Babylon area, but dove a little further west this time, mainly Julie’s to McCurley’s. We stretched this dive out to 70 minutes…Boy, I really love how easy the diving is on the north side when the winds are down. The afternoon found us heading to Georgetown for an afternoon dive at Devil’s Grotto…our first dive there ever! It was fun and interesting, but after diving the east end of the island for years, it pales in comparison to what you can dive on that side, however it is an inexpensive shore dive. We saw a monstrous green moray eel and a green turtle using it’s front flippers to hold food while it ripped it apart with it’s beak…a pretty cool site!
We missed our connection on Wednesday to dive the West Wall and Kittiwake and had to settle for an afternoon at Turtle Reef. We swam out to the Pipeline and headed south for a beautiful first dive. Our second dive took us north on the mini-wall…always one of my favorite dives. No disappointment here! A huge lobster, spotted eel and great critter interaction kept me fixated the whole dive. The seas were flat and the current was a negligible N-S.
Thursday morning we headed back to Breakers and found yet another swim-through to the wall that we haven’t experienced before. Gawd, I love the wall there! We kept our profile a little on the shallower side this morning because we were scheduled for Ocean Frontier’s “X Dive” that afternoon. The X Dive is a free swimming dive which involves maximum time on the wall without having to worry about circling back to the boat. The boat follows us and picks us up at a ball further down the wall. We saw a few guys in “grey suits”. The only downer on this particular dive is that the captain mis-judged the current and we ended up fighting it the whole way, which affected our bottom time considerably.
Our last day of diving was Friday and we elected to keep the sand out of our equipment and dove with Ocean Frontiers one last time…Good choice! Again, the boat went North and we ended up at Black Rock Drop-off. I spotted a free swimming green moray eel and a large adolescent drum which was particularly breathtaking! After cruising the wall for the last time on this trip, my buddy and I hung motionless for a good 5-6 minutes at the edge of the wall taking in as much as we could before bidding it adieu until next time. Our last dive of the drip brought us to Snapper Hole, one of the sites on the east end of the island which totally puts the Eden Rock/Devil’s Grotto area to shame…but it is a boat dive and one that is oftentimes impossible to get to due to wind/waves. Well, bonus of the trip: SILVERSIDES! Although there were not yet 10’s of thousands of them, there were still thousands and with a flashlight in hand, made for a very spectacular event in one of the tunnels! After 70 minutes under the water, I reluctantly surfaced with 800 psi left in my tank because my buddy sucked his air too quickly…
I prefer shore diving. Most of the shore diving east of Georgetown is for advanced divers only. This does not make it impossible or particularly difficult. It does mean that you will have to endure long, but beautiful snorkel swims out (if you wish to go to the wall). It does mean that you need to monitor and understand the waves, winds and tidal influences on your planned dive. If you are interested in diving beautiful, un-touched reefs, the swims are much shorter and the dives are longer ;-).
The shore dives on the west side of the island vary from very nice to WOW. Each person has their own “wow” factor. At this time in my life/diving experience, it takes a lot to “wow” me.
We always stay out east and do it on the cheap. I haven’t added everything up yet, but I’m sure my trip will come in under $1,500 USD for flight, condo, diving, food and lots of beer. We do not skimp, but do eat the majority of our meals in.
Feel free to PM me if you have individual questions. I hope you enjoy my little wrap-up and hopefully it will spark a memory or two in some of your water-logged memories. LOL!
