fearnosurf:
How far of a swim is turtle farm from the shore?
A better question is how far of a taxi ride is Turtle Reef from the cruise port - 7+ miles up SMB. And it's in a pretty isolated residential area, so I'd make return pickup arrangements with your driver. And allow more time than you'd think - SMB road is the only major N/S road on the West end so it can be busy at times.
Note that the Turtle Farm and Divetech @Turtle Reef are two entirely different locations that are close by. The majority of tourists go to the Turtle Farm to see the turtles in pools of water and buy turtle skin souvenirs.
Since the Turtle Farm is south of there so you might see turtles in the water. Though they only sporadically release them so it's not assured. Since you're newbies, the dive to do is the mini-wall. I wouldn't try going out the the North Wall dropoff, first of all it's a healthy swim out, and you really want to go with someone more experienced.
The mini-wall is a really great vertical wall that you can slowly drift down that ends in a flat, sandy bottom. Sometimes there's tarpon schooling in the shadows. There's a million fish, resident eels, and maybe some turtles that you'll see slowly circling overhead. It's a ladder entry because of the ironshore, into a small protected cove, then maybe 40-50 yds. to the buoy that marks the mini-wall. If you go to
www.divetech.com and click on shore diving, the top picture shows it all. The white roofed building is the Cracked Conch/Divetech diveshop. You can see the entry cove, the mini-wall in green and the lighter blue sand area out past it. Ask the diveshop operators, they'll know what the current is doing, and give really helpful directions on where to see the best stuff.
You won't have to worry about your gear, everybody just leaves it on the dock. Nobody ever messed with my stuff at any Cayman shore dive site. And we dove them all on the West End.
If you don't want to make the drive, I'd go to Sunset House over Eden Rock. Sunset House is where they have the Amphitrite Mermaid in 50' of water, it's a good photo op. Also they have a really excellent reef system just offshore with lots of interesting macro animals. My Bar can't be beat for lunch - my buddy would go/stay there again just to go to My Bar - get the Jerk chicken sandwich. It's a really easy "cement pond" GS entry over the ironshore with ladders etc. Also if you're killing time between dives, see the Cathy Church photo gallery in the basement of the main building. Sunset House is just a short distance south of where the cruise tender will drop you in Georgetown, but too far to walk it with heavy gear. You won't have any problem finding a cab, Georgetown is open when the Cruise ships drop anchor, once they leave it pretty much shuts down.
The third option is Eden Rock, they have a nice operation that's walking distance - 100 yds. or less - from the cruise port. The dive there is Eden Rock/Devils Grotto, coral formations with swimthroughs. Some of them are a little tight. Personally it was my least favorite of the three sites, it's been over-dived for years by cruise traffic, there's less fish life, a lot of port trash -tires, cement, etc. and it ends in salt flats going out to where your boat is anchored. Also there's jetski's in the area, more annoying than dangerous - you'll hear them overhead, but it scares the fish away. And a lot of the coral is just nubs that's been worn down over time. After seeing spectacular forests of coral elsewhere, it was really discouraging. About the only fun part is going into some of the openings, but it's overhead restricted diving in some areas so you'll have to be able to deal with that. They're not very long, generally you can see daylight at both ends, but a couple end in closed passages. Upside is that it's generally shallow diving, I didn't break 40'. It would be last on my list of dives to do on Grand Cayman.
My other suggestion would be Stingray City, it's the most fun you can have in 15' of water. The rays are like big puppy dogs until the squid comes out, then they maul you(not really) to get some. There's also resident eels that you can get up close and personal with. Don't go on the cruiseship SRC trip though, they go to SandBar which is 4-5' deep. The non-divers in your party would enjoy it. If you decide to do this, make arrangements with a dive operator, they'll pick you up with their van and drive to the North Sound area and then out to SRC. You'll spend 45 minutes in the water playing with the rays. Take a camera, it's a blast.
Have fun, the water is crystal clear and warm. My best story about diving Cayman is one time I looked up from 90' and could clearly read the Scubapro "S" on the safety stop reg hanging off our diveboat. We were there this week 2 years ago so I'm sure your experiences will be similar.
Steve
