Red Sail v. Cayman Turtle Divers

[Tienuts]

Jump on any trip going to Babylon - on the top 50 dives on the Caribbean lists.

Babylon is on the top 50 dive sites because years ago, someone wrote about it in a magazine, and since then it’s developed this reputation which is largely unfounded. There are many sites far better than Babylon.

Full disclosure, I work for Divetech. When I first arrived on Grand Cayman, Divetech partnered up with Ocean Frontiers to do the annual Innerspace event. The DT staff quickly made friends with the OF staff who right away told us that Babylon was way overrated. After diving it several times that week, they were correct. Many of the other sites they took us to were far better.

Especially on GC don't get hung up on picking sites. I think with most sites they are first come first serve and with 60 plus ops and 360 plus sites I have found it best to go with the flow (for the most part). In June three of us went out with the plan to dive ghost mountain. Got an early start, made it to the site, had it to ourselves but we found currents and green water.

Great advice. There are more like 25 dive ops, but it feels like 60.

Ghost Mountain is a very requested (and another very overrated) site. It’s a very nice, but very small pinnacle, on an otherwise unremarkable section of wall. The big issue with Ghost Mountain is unless you are staying at Cobalt Coast, it’s a pretty far trip from the docks. Once a captain makes the decision to go there, they are committed. If the mooring is missing, or another boat is already on it, you’re screwed.

Also as mentioned, many north wall sites are subject to the “green monster,” which is the tidal outflow of the North Sound.

Listen to your crew. As a boat captain I want you to be happy. My income depends on your tips, and a happy customer tips more. I want you to have the best dive experience ever, so trust us when we pick other sites to go to.

Tony

 

[mi000ke]

I was curious so went back to my dive log and computed the average bottom time for deep (first) vs shallow (second) dives for 5 dive ops on GC (including Red Sail) that I had a least 5 dive trips with, and they all came out to about 50 min deep/60 min shallow, give or take a minute or so. So, FWIW, Red Sail was no better or worse regarding average bottom time than the others, who were no better or worse than each other, in my experience. Interesting finding for me, as that's now one factor I won't have to consider when choosing among any of those dive ops. Enjoy your diving with whatever dive op you choose!

 

[Alucard]

The only time on Cayman that I have been time-limited by the Op was Stingray City, where they wanted everyone up after an hour. Even on guided deep dives, the DM would bring us back to the mooring, and let us tool around in buddy pairs until we hit our various air limits for heading up for a safety stop, etc.

 

[KathyV]

My general experience with Cayman dive ops (on all 3 islands) is that during the briefings they tell you 50 mins for deep dives and 60 minutes for shallow dives. However, if you want longer dives just make sure that you are one of the first off the boat.

As long as you stay safe and don't make all the other divers hang around for a long time waiting for you to get back, they don't care if you exceed the stated times. They also say that you can follow the dive master or that you can do your own thing with your buddy.

The Kittiwake and Sting Ray City are the only 2 dives that have stricter criteria IMO and they want you to a have a buddy if you are not diving with the DM.

 

[caydiver]

Things are changing as they need to. You will now often hear on the boat with 500psi and do not go into Deco. Since everyone has computers now it only makes sense.

 

[sara v]

We have been diving with Red Sail and with Reef Divers - both extremely professional outfits with plusses and minuses

Red Sail -

pros: they are big boats but never crowded - I actually like more space and appreciated the bigger boats - also hubby tends to have a bit of mal de mar and the catamaran type boats tend to be more stable in the water and limit that a bit. I like that they have one DM for every 8 divers - as a relatively new diver it helped me feel safer - always able to use all/most of my air while diving.

cons: they certainly help with gear, but don't expect the kind of 'valet' service that some of the operators give. we had to lug our gear bags every morning and every afternoon - and got some, but less, help gearing up on the boat. Still better than when I go lake diving here in Arkansas, but not what I'd call 'valet'

Reef Divers -

pros: true valet service - you get a mesh bag or a locker for your gear the morning of the dive and the next time you see your gear, it's on the boat and ready to go - they help you get it on and into the water - no issues at all with that. Also huge boats but not as big as red sail - I will say that the boats were great on Brac when they weren't crowded - a little less nice on GC when the crowds were bigger - Cobalt Coast needs another boat (that's a pro and a con) - the biggest pro for me with Reef Divers was the excellent and indepth dive briefings -

cons: in the water - too many divers per DM - As a relatively new diver, I like the security of having someone to guide - I am getting better with this, but don't want to end up like Open Water..

 

[Doctorfish]

Many operators offer big boat/ small dive group service with valet experience. Wall to Wall, DNS and Living the Dream to name a few that I have personally been out with. It is impossible to find a bad operator on GC, just different styles.

No one else in my experience offers the total valet package that Reef provides or the detailed briefing with maps if you like that sort of thing.

 

[caydiver]

I agree with Doctorfish. Red Sail never really offered valet service for gear that I can remember. They used to make detailed maps (sometimes even multicolor) of the dive sites in the briefings. Haven't been on one of their west side boats for years now so don't know if it is still part of the pre-dive brief. Most of the six packs do offer full gear service. Having it rinsed, hung to dry and back on the boat is the normal drill. The dry part gets a bit hard when there is a night dive followed by a morning dive, or humidity that prevents the drying, but they still try For many people it something that is just so much nicer than just having a rinse bucket and a locker, but anything is better than bringing it back to a small hotel room. Brings back memories. I did a dive with Red Sail on Saturday at Stingray City. Haven't been for years to the actual dive site and went last minute with a bunch of local friends. We had a blast. The briefing was great and done with a great sense of humor (thanks Crispy) and overall despite not great viz, the dive was a hoot. Will have to do that sooner rather than later next time

 

[mi000ke]

Red Sail does very good briefings with hand drawn maps on a white board (other dive ops on GC do this as well). While not "full valet," they - like most of the ops - will do just about anything you ask, and often ask me if I need any help (must be something about me that way ). I never store gear with the dive ops so that's not an issue I can comment on. I don't mind the full valet service provided by other dive ops, but I always prefer to set up my own gear and often want to take off and rinse my gear by myself (While diving with another dive op, I once got yelled at - nicely - for not sitting down after entering the boat post dive and letting one of the DMs take off and rinse my gear for me). And as Doctorfish said, there really are no bad dive ops on GC in my experience.

 

[Alucard]

I have done dives with Divetech, Indepth Watersports and Cayman University Divers and have found consistently good briefings with all of them. I have been encouraged to dive up to my limits, but not exceed them, and haven't felt limited in any way.

While I don't like hauling gear around, I do acknowledge that it's part of diving. IIRC Indepth and CUD staff both do the setup and tank change-overs, but that is mostly because they are on small boats and having everyone flailing around getting their stuff set up would cause chaos and a not terribly pleasant experience. I haven't dove from a Divetech boat in a long while, though, not since they changed ownership. All reports I hear from our guests, though, say that they still do a fantastic job, as do other ops.