New Shore Dive in Grand Cayman

[worlddiver]

Divetech has replaced it's old Turtle Reef shore dive with a new site 1/2 mile south of the Turtle Farm on the same coast line. This new shore dive site is called Lighthouse Point [www.divetech.com]. It has the same close mini-wall but the Deep wall is very close to the mini-wall for easy navigation. The Deep wall features a double pinnacle, Deep Canyons with many huge barrel sponges and a ton of marine life with rescent sitings of Hammerheads, Eaglerays, Turtles and yes a Manta. The new site is located on the Northwest Point away from the Turtle Farms discharge pipes. During the 1st months of it being opened for exploration there has been a mini-wall Cave and a Historical Wreck found (Cayman Gov't Site #33) from the early 1800's on top of the mini-wall making it great for snorkelers and divers to see historical artifacts.

Divetech also features another pristine snorkeling and shore dive at Sea Fan Reef located at Cobalt Coast Dive Resort which is open to all outside guest to explore. Divetech and Cobalt Coast Dive Resort offer a "Lunch & a Shore Dive" for $20.00 at both sites for a 30% savings. Shore Diving and a dive computer rental is FREE with a Divetech Boat package for those want to dive 24/7 and max. your bottom time.

 

[El Orans]

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[kimdave0]

I just returned from Cayman and the name of the site is Turtle Reef. It's at the Cracked Conch (which is an incredible restaurant) and a cool little beach bar called Makabuka. The dive shop is Ollin Miller, one of Cayman's first divemasters and someone we have been diving with a couple of times now. We would have went diving with Ollin when we were there but he was full on the days we had before going to Little Cayman.

The people there before were Dive Tech, who we also did ONE dive with, then canceled our remaining dives after being treated like newbies, going to shallow sites so they could do training, not going to the north wall and making up fake excuses about the weather, then finding out that many other boats went north that same day....

 

[Alex777]

Ollin Miller was 1 of the original boat captains for Bob Soto's, which was the first dive op in the Caribbean.

 

[dflaher]

Hi......My wife and I just booked a week at Cobalt Coast and we can't wait. Does anyone know how far Divetech's operation at Lighthouse Point is from Cobalt Coast?

We would like to shore dive at Cobalt Coast and at Lighthouse Point. Does Cobalt Coast provide transportation to Lighthouse Pt, or are guests at Cobalt expected to provide their own?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[diversteve]

Hi......My wife and I just booked a week at Cobalt Coast and we can't wait. Does anyone know how far Divetech's operation at Lighthouse Point is from Cobalt Coast?

We would like to shore dive at Cobalt Coast and at Lighthouse Point. Does Cobalt Coast provide transportation to Lighthouse Pt, or are guests at Cobalt expected to provide their own?

Thanks,
Dan

The West Bay Express! WBX! A Guided Drift/Scooter Dive from Cobalt Coast to Lighthouse Point:

Talk about beautiful untouched underwater reefs & canyons in Cayman, the North wall between our 2 operations offers virgin reef diving. It's a 60 minute cruise with time to stop at Hepp's Pipeline, Turtle Reef, Horseshoe Bay and cruise with lots and lots of turtles, beds of stag horn corals, and more. The dive profile is multi-level from 60 - 30 feet, runtime about an hour, scooters to get you there, and our dive boat offering top-side support just in case. What a blast! Guided Dive including tanks, weights and scooter rental: (min 2 divers) Afternoons 1:00pm check-in.

fwiw, unless you're planning to stay/eat/dive at Cobalt Coast, I'd rent a car. Seven Mile Beach and Georgetown are a drive from there. It's more of a residential area, off the top of my head the only nearby restaurant is Cracked Conch, located above the old Divetech (now Sundivers) Turtle Reef location. Turtle Reef is a must do dive also although people say Lighthouse Pt. is better - I've never dove it.

 

[ianr33]

Hi......My wife and I just booked a week at Cobalt Coast and we can't wait. Does anyone know how far Divetech's operation at Lighthouse Point is from Cobalt Coast?

We would like to shore dive at Cobalt Coast and at Lighthouse Point. Does Cobalt Coast provide transportation to Lighthouse Pt, or are guests at Cobalt expected to provide their own?

Thanks,
Dan

Its a 10 minute drive on windy local roads. Probably an hour to walk.

You might be able to bum a ride on a Divetech Truck. Also believe there is a local minibus/shuttle but have never used it.

A car makes life a lot easier.

 

[ianr33]

The people there before were Dive Tech, who we also did ONE dive with, then canceled our remaining dives after being treated like newbies, going to shallow sites so they could do training, not going to the north wall and making up fake excuses about the weather, then finding out that many other boats went north that same day....

That has never been my experience with them. To the contrary I dive with them as they dont tell me what to do. They bent over backwards to help us last Thanksgiving when the weather was rough. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cayman-islands/211792-cayman-trip-report.html

 

[dflaher]

Its a 10 minute drive on windy local roads. Probably an hour to walk.

You might be able to bum a ride on a Divetech Truck. Also believe there is a local minibus/shuttle but have never used it.

A car makes life a lot easier.

Thanks Ianr33 and Steve. We plan to rent a car, and I guess we will plan on hauling our gear (and tanks?) in the rental car down to Lighthouse Point, unless we decide to take the scooter, which also sounds like a blast!

Dan

 

[Damselfish]

They'll have tanks, no need to haul those. You might be able to bum a ride if they're going, or maybe there won't be anyone going when you want to go, in any event it's usually inconvenient and not a regular scheduled "service" of any sort. Remember once you're there, you've also got to bum a ride back. The scooter dive is fun, but it's a thing you'd do once not a regular way to get there. (I wonder how that goes now - when it was to Turtle Reef it was over an hour dive and some scooters, as well as some peoples air, didn't quite make it the whole way. It's further now. Anyone done it to the new place?)

A car is definitely the way to go when staying at Cobalt Coast. We've seen people start their stays there without cars and part way through the week they're renting cars. So much easier to head over to the other place for shore diving, check out the many restaurants, go shopping, tour the island, whatever. As long as you're ok with driving on the left the roads are very good.

The food at CC is pretty good but you probably won't want to eat all your dinners there. Another nearby restaurant is Pappagallo, maybe 2 miles away. There was a grocery store in West Bay that had a really good prepared foods section.

I agree with ianr about Divetech, the biggest thing I like about them is they treat divers like adults and they do go north as much as they can. We did have one experience with a couple days they didn't go to the North wall because it was too rough for many of the people on the boat at the time. I think we complained some it looked fine to us, and the DM did acknowledge this when we were the only people in the van. But when they don't do the north wall they at least do the sites at the far northern end of the west wall, which aren't as heavily dove. Still didn't treat anyone as newbies if they weren't.