Shore diving at Lighthouse Point (video)

[Divetech Cayman]

No need for a boat to access excellent near vertical main wall diving! Although it does give you more options.

Start in the pool. Take the heading (if my memory serves me correctly its somewhere between 110* and 135*. if not i'm sure one of the helpful staff can correct me here or on site) to the coral finger. Swim out above the finger around 20-30 ft depth. Drop over the main wall and go right (current permitting) 2-3 passes at desired depth. cross back over to the sand, transit to the inner wall and follow the wall back to your return point for the pool or dock. It will not disappoint. I discovered this on my last trip when we decided to go right after a dive with a strong current coming south that pushed us through our normal left route. I have to say it is hands down my favorite shore dive now. It is much more vertical than following the same start and going left when you drop over the wall. We did the same dive the next 3 dives with the rest of our group. Having a scooter would make this even easier for the tranist over the sand/coral finger but I have no issues going to 130ft and still having plenty of time to play around on the way back. My dive typically l clocks out at around 55-70 minutes returning around 600-800 psi depending on workload/activity level.

Thanks for your nice comments.

The coral finger I think you are referring to is the one just north of our pool, the easiest way to find it would be to go out to the mini-wall, go north along it and after a few minutes you’ll see the finger coming out from the direction of the main-wall. Also our coral nursery is located between the tip of the finger and the mini-wall so a good landmark. Either way, you can’t really miss it!

The way I usually do a shore dive on the deep wall, is swim out straight to the mini-wall from either the dock or sea pool and you will see the Guardian of the Reef, the statue in the video at the base of the mini-wall. Next to the Guardian you’ll see a line on the bottom leading out to the main wall. I follow that line, but mid-water at about 30 feet instead of along the bottom at 70 feet. That conserves air and NDL, and keeps me safe from any boat traffic as I’m outside the shore dive marker buoys.
Upon hitting the top of the main wall I drop down as deep as I plan for and head right, current permitting. I then gradually shallow up to keep away from deco (on a non-deco dive) and end up at top of the main wall as the dive progresses. That usually brings me close the coral finger leading me back to the mini-wall. On the way back have a quick look at the coral nursery, and then make my way along the top of the mini-wall till I see the statue and head back in.

On headings, I usually use about 280 to get from shore direct to the wall, and naturally 100 to get back to shore.

We have a great map of the shore dive site on our page (click to expand): https://www.divetech.com/shore-diving

Menno

 

[KathyV]

Here's a news story about the Divetech Coral Nursery near Lighthouse Point

Coral nursery gets a scrubbing | Cayman Compass