My first diving off Little Cayman was in 1989, while we were diving at the Brac we were offered a diving day at Little Cayman. What a treat, not to say that the Brac is bad at all but Little Cayman then was the best I ever saw in the Caribbean. Now as "hh" says it could use a rest. There are places that even though it might look good to you if you are a newer visitor, it used to be quite a bit more spectacular. It still is some of the best anywhere in the Caribbean but places like Bloody Bay have a significant pressure on them.
Well said. It is a mixed blessing that it is still so good in comparison to other destinations: it looks great to first time visitors, but us old greybeards reminisce about what it used to be like. I think I would
still be more than a tad intimidated even today by the ~8ft long "Banana Cuda" that used to hang out circa 1990. Don't know if I ever got a photo of that beast.
In any case, this is part of the reason why I encourage SB divers to ask their DM to take them to some less "famous" dive sites on Little Cayman. Sure, there's a few formations which are arguably not-to-miss (although I hope that Marilyn's Cut isn't inundated inside with Lionfish), but there's also a lot of real gems that get passed by because people don't know their name...do your DM a favor and ask him for a site that he hasn't been to for awhile himself.
BTW, I was just reviewing the archives .. turns out that the news that Cayman DOE was seriously talking about "resting" 11 of the 22 moorings was way back in the Fall of 2006. And it never happened. I'd suspect that it was somewhat overtaken by the events of the Lionfish invasion, which requires divers to be present and actively hunt out the invaders on a regular basis. That's an interesting trade-off.
I remember when Little cayman put in electricity, it wasn't long and Little Cayman Resort came along. I was sad when they tarred the runway, but of course I was sad when they started jet service to the Brac too.
The Brac before Jets predates me by more than a few years. I think one of my favorite Sister Island memories has to be the year that we flew my wife's parents down to spend a week with us on the Brac, and as it turned out, the best set of connections for them involved the final legs being on Island Air. I had known that my Father-in-Law had over a million flying miles from his work, but it wasn't until after they arrived that we learned that the Island Air flight did a puddlejump stop-over on Little Cayman (the old grass strip) ... and more importantly, that was when my wife tells me "BUT MY DAD HATES TO FLY ...". Egads, we had sent him up & down that bumpy grass strip on Little Cayman in a five seater.
Jack did enjoy himself that week though - - I actually saw him wearing a pair of shorts, which I discovered later from my wife was also a quite noteworthy event. What Little Cayman (and the Brac too) still have is a dose of the safe old "Mayberry RFD" small town community feel. And the diving's still darn good too.
A nice healthy ~2ft Nassau Grouper, Spring 2011 ... rising up to meet a DM with a lionfish spear to mooch from.
-hh