wnctarheel:
I need some help on picking a shore dive in Grand Caymen. We are coming in on a cruise on the 3rd of May and we would like to do a shore dive there. We where looking at diving near the turtle farm,but I have just heard that the currents get pretty bad there.Can somebody give me some advise they are four of us diving and we all have between 30 and 50 dives
thanks
There's three options that I think are reasonable given the limited time you have before your ship sails. When we were there all the cruiseboats were gone by about 5-6pm.
The first one is Eden Rock/Devil's Grotto. It's literally walking distance from where the ship tender will drop you off. It's a series of reefs with a lot of swimthrough formations. Downside is that given their proximity to the ship port, they get a lot of traffic and the reef there has suffered for it. It was probably nice 20 years ago.
And it's a pretty shallow dive as well, once you get out past the Grotto area, it's mostly sand and junk (tires, cement blocks etc) after about 50'. And your ship will be anchored another couple hundred yards further out so you can't really go farther, I don't think it's legal to dive under your ship. Plus there's jetskis overhead in that area. I'd rank it the worst of the three options.
The next closest option would be Sunset House. It's located about 2-3 minutes by cab south from the tender port. I'm not sure of the availability of cabs post-Ivan, I've read a lot of vehicles were destroyed.
It's a very diver-friendly resort and they have good shorediving there, the world famous Amphitrite mermaid in 50 fsw, and a small landing craft wreck a short distance out also at 50'(ediited) so you can drop down there then swim back towards the mermaid - makes a nice dive. It's all really well marked but ask the staff to show you the right buoys, they also have buoys for their boats and the ship channel out there so it's a little confusing. They also have some really nice reefs in the area and lots of resident fishlife.
Great outdoor bar/grill called My Bar, just re-opened post-Ivan, for lunch and the Cathy Church U/W School of Photography is in the basement of the main building. Stop in to see her gallery.
The third option is Divetech @Turtle Reef as you mentioned. It's probably the most dramatic and interesting of the three, but it's also a 15 minute or more drive there, it's all the way past the north end of Seven Mile Beach. If you rent a car to get there, it's in a residential area so contact them for directions and you'll find it. The Cracked Conch restaurant is built on top of the diveshop so look for it also. That's what we noticed first.
It's a really good dive setup, their smaller diveshop is there and it's got anything you'd need. They have a permanent ladder that leads to a shallow cove since it's all ironshore bluffs in that area, you'd never be able to get out once you jumped in, it's probably 10' down to the water. The mini-wall is about 50 yds. out and well marked with buoys. The miniwall runs along that side of Cayman at no more than 50-60 fsw and you can follow it north or south. South will take you towards the turtle farm. There's tarpon hovering in the shadows, lots of fish and coral and it's pretty calm. Since it's just north of the turtle farm, you might see a turtle or two, although not necessarily as they're currently not releasing any.
Or if you're more ambitious swim out past it to the Cayman Wall. It's pretty close in that area, after the mini-wall there's about 100 yds or so of salt flats, and then it drops away to 1000' or more. Look at the shoredive section of their website, the diveshop is the white roofed building, the little cove behind it is the entry point, the green area is the mini-wall and the dark blue water is the Wall.
You could see some big Pelagics as they feed up the wall as well as all kinds of big healthy coral and fishlife. Watch for schools of eagle rays near the surface also.
Watch your depth, due to the excellent water clarity in Cayman, you can get too deep fast. We dropped down near the edge of the wall, I thought it was 60-70' however my buddy was signaling me to slowdown, when I looked at my computer I was at 105' as I came down over the edge. It's also a little eerie when you're hanging over the wall as there's nothing but blue below you. I read it's a 25000' drop on the East End, gotta see that sometime.
I was there last year pre-Ivan but I watch what's happened since on Cayman so this is still probably accurate.
Dive safe,
Steve
