As a postscript to the earlier discussion about shore diving on Little Cayman, I'm pleased to report that today my wife and I tried the entry I had in mind for Lea Lea's Leap and it was a cakewalk!
Surprise...this one turns out to be even easier than Great Wall, a shorter walk to the beach than at Cumber's Caves, and a shorter swim than Fisheye, the beach off Ken Wagnon's house, or even Great Wall East. At the moment, there is a "For Sale" sign by Coldwell Banker on the North Coast Road right by Lea Lea's. This is a couple hundred yards west of "Bloody Bay Resort" and maybe a hundred yards east of Toto's Retreat. Turn in the driveway at the for sale sign and drive up to the drop-off. It's a rocky walk down to the shore, but a short walk and it's not difficult. Going out from shore, I was surprised to discover there is not a fringing reef here after all. Watching the waves break either from shore or from the boats, I was positive there was a fringing reef here...but there isn't. There are a few big coral heads which come up very close to the surface, but it's easy to swim around them. The only caveat is that you can't start swimming on your back until you're into about 8' of water or else you're likely to bang into one of these coral heads.
We went straight out toward the mooring ball at Lea Lea's, then dropped down on the inside edge of the sand pits. Then we went down the inside edge of the eastern canyon and followed the canyon out to the wall. We cruised the wall down to the western canyon, but decided instead of coming in there to continue following the wall. We went all the way down past the pillar coral at Coconut Walk, then turned in and started poking along on top of the hard-pan back towards Lea Lea's. Just short of the mooring pin, we began angling in towards shore and came up in about 6' of water, when we were down to ~600 psi. Total bottom time was over 60 minutes, but we just poked the whole way and tried to keep our depth above 80' until we got to the double ledge at Coconut, then hung at about 60'.
For anybody contemplating shore diving on Little Cayman, I highly recommend this route. I honestly think this is easier than any other shore sites here besides Cumber's Caves. Why did it take me so long to discover it???
(Actually, I know the answer to that one. The vegetation used to be very thick along the road here, and it wasn't until somebody decided to clear the lot by Lea Lea's that it became easy to get close to the shore.)
Bruce
Little Cayman
Surprise...this one turns out to be even easier than Great Wall, a shorter walk to the beach than at Cumber's Caves, and a shorter swim than Fisheye, the beach off Ken Wagnon's house, or even Great Wall East. At the moment, there is a "For Sale" sign by Coldwell Banker on the North Coast Road right by Lea Lea's. This is a couple hundred yards west of "Bloody Bay Resort" and maybe a hundred yards east of Toto's Retreat. Turn in the driveway at the for sale sign and drive up to the drop-off. It's a rocky walk down to the shore, but a short walk and it's not difficult. Going out from shore, I was surprised to discover there is not a fringing reef here after all. Watching the waves break either from shore or from the boats, I was positive there was a fringing reef here...but there isn't. There are a few big coral heads which come up very close to the surface, but it's easy to swim around them. The only caveat is that you can't start swimming on your back until you're into about 8' of water or else you're likely to bang into one of these coral heads.
We went straight out toward the mooring ball at Lea Lea's, then dropped down on the inside edge of the sand pits. Then we went down the inside edge of the eastern canyon and followed the canyon out to the wall. We cruised the wall down to the western canyon, but decided instead of coming in there to continue following the wall. We went all the way down past the pillar coral at Coconut Walk, then turned in and started poking along on top of the hard-pan back towards Lea Lea's. Just short of the mooring pin, we began angling in towards shore and came up in about 6' of water, when we were down to ~600 psi. Total bottom time was over 60 minutes, but we just poked the whole way and tried to keep our depth above 80' until we got to the double ledge at Coconut, then hung at about 60'.
For anybody contemplating shore diving on Little Cayman, I highly recommend this route. I honestly think this is easier than any other shore sites here besides Cumber's Caves. Why did it take me so long to discover it???
(Actually, I know the answer to that one. The vegetation used to be very thick along the road here, and it wasn't until somebody decided to clear the lot by Lea Lea's that it became easy to get close to the shore.)
Bruce
Little Cayman
