Shore diving - where?

[pelan-pelan]

OK - slightly off topic. Does anyone know if Maggie Baldino is still on Cayman? Some years ago she was a Instructor and Boat Captain working for Bob Sotos.

 

[nipi]

On Little Cayman, there's shore diving from Sam's (as mentioned), plus a couple of other spots that typically require transportation to get to, such as Cumber's Caves. Officially, you're not supposed to dive at Salt Rocks, plus the exit/entry leaves something to be desired. IIRC, the ladder that used to be at Splash House was taken out by Ivan...don't think its been replaced. I have heard of individuals doing the Soto Trader (outside of South Hole Sound) as a shore dive, but as per my map, its a long 500m (EACH WAY) swim...that's further than swimming out to Owen Island, and at least the 'swim' to Owen can be half done as a wade (ie, stand up to rest). Overall, for a lot of this, you need a jeep to get around...its cheaper to go find a PM diveboat.


The wall off the Soto Trader is excellent. With the right conditions you can swim out from Pardise Villas over the Soto Trader to one of the wall buoys, descend and do the wall and then visit the Trader on your swim in. On your surface swim out you should have a look down & pick out a large coral head in the sand flats over wich you should swim back in to get to the Trader from the wall buoy. Yes - long swims.

 

[worlddiver]

Thanks for all the info.

Still looking at dive ops. Neptunes is obviously great but we can't use them as they don't have a marine head on the boat and there are family issues there. One of our tribe still has a "virgin" wetsuit and will not "add to the ocean".

We are looking at Red Sails but they seem to be a bulk carrier. I have emailed them asking how they deal with differing levels of skill and ratio of dive guide to divers.

So - please - any recommendations of ops on Seven Mile? Thanks for mention of divetech but they seem to be "round the corner".

Over Christmas - would it be advisable to book actual days diving? I wonder how busy/crowded diving will be.

Divetech will pick you up at any hotel on Seven Mile Beach, you don't have to stay at their dive resort, but their hotel and dive package is the best savings. They put 2 instructors in the water on every boat dive, for your new diver this would make them feel at easy to dive with a instructor. Divetech's 2 shore diving shops are just astonding with marine life. Their Turtle Reef shops is the easiest of the 2 with a stone throw, your in 60' of water on a wall with 50 Tarpon. Would recommend in pre-booking.

 

[pelan-pelan]

Thanks for info. We've decided that we will hire a car and specialise in shore dives. We like diving same place at different times of day (or night) as you see different things.

So far I have car park opposite old Turtle Farm Dive Tech, Spanish Bay Reef, Eden rock, Ocean Frontiers place at the east, and a few others.

Does anyone know about Divers Down - I read that they have a shore dive there?

Also the Cemetery - but am not sure where the access or appropriate dive shop is.

 

[diversteve]

Thanks for info. We've decided that we will hire a car and specialise in shore dives. We like diving same place at different times of day (or night) as you see different things.

So far I have car park opposite old Turtle Farm Dive Tech, Spanish Bay Reef, Eden rock, Ocean Frontiers place at the east, and a few others.

Does anyone know about Divers Down - I read that they have a shore dive there?

Also the Cemetery - but am not sure where the access or appropriate dive shop is.

Some info:

First of all the Divetech location is Turtle Reef. The Turtle Farm, which is just south of there is exactly that, a tourist turtle farm. The Divetech Turtle Reef site imho is one of the better shoredives on Cayman, there's both a mini-wall just offshore and the North Wall farther offshore. It's a long swim out to the North Wall.

There's a couple of good dives at Sunset House - just south of Georgetown. Get your picture taken with the Mermaid - it's only in 50'. It's a dive resort so during your SI visit the Cathy Church photo gallery in the basement of the main house. And there's great food at My Bar on the water.

Cemetary Beach is on the north end of Seven Mile Beach. There are no facilities there. The closest place for tank rentals is probably Divers Supply in the West Shore Center.

btw, not sure if you're aware of it, but don't bring tanks to most of the above locations since they're on private property and you're expected to rent tanks from the business owners there who've improved the facilities. I'm pretty certain this applies at Eden Rock, Sunset House, Divetech and probably other locations. We just hauled our gear and rented tanks on-site everywhere. As I recall the only place with gear lockers was Eden Beach also.

And most of the diveops won't allow you to remove tanks from their property. The exception to this is Divers Supply.

 

[Damselfish]

AFAIK Don Fosters also has shore diving at their facility near Eden Rock. No idea what the dive is like.