Stingray City: snorkel or dive?

[EastEndDiver]

In July when I was on island I dove with Dive and Stuff when we dove the North wall we would do our surface interval at SRC .We only snorkeled with them in 10-14 feet and since we weren't feeding them we only had 4-7 rays stay with us.

I should add that with Dive and Stuff we did a few unusual dives for Cayman,we did one drift dive on the North wall going from one mooring to the next (this was all planned) with the boat following us,another was to drop in the deep ( about 100 yards from the wall) and head slowly towards the wall at about 60 feet hoping to see the hammerheads that were spotted earlier in the day.

I should also mention that on the "unusual" dives everyone on the boat was an instructor , they do not do these kind of dives regularly.

 

[diversteve]

Maybe I wasn't clear. Just about everybody does a 2-tank morning dive starting around 8AM or earlier. Typically a deep wall dive followed by a shallower second dive.

Then some of the diveops do SRC as an afternoon dive. But with a different boat. Most of them do not move them around to SRC - it's in the sound and approached only from the north wall - but instead have another boat docked at a marina near the south end of the sound that they shuttle you to via van for the SRC dive.

Our trip we did our two morning dives off the westside, came back for lunch and then around 1PM loaded up the van for the drive to the same diveop's SRC boat. Made a couple stops along the way to pick up others and probably left the dock around 1:30/1:45. Diveop is out of business now so I can't give you any contact info.

I doubt you'll find anyone who'll do SRC as a Dive as their second morning dive. The distance is too far for them to economically take the boat around every day. Maybe Divetech would, they're so far north that they could. It would have to be someone who normally dives off the North wall like the previous poster mentioned.

I suppose a private charter could take you there in the morning. Check with Indigo Divers - they used to do that. I wonder also if there's some sort of agreement with the cruise lines to keep the rays at Sandbar in the morning for the snorkelers. The second your boat drops anchor the rays start drifting over. And once they sense the squid is gone, they'll be off to the next boat.

 

[nwflyboy]

Hmmm. OK, please forgive my ignorance, but I'm trying to parse your last comment and understand the context. Looking over a map, it looks like SRC is on the north side of the island - I see it on an online map of dive sites. I'm guessing from your post that most the diving is generally done on the south side of the island, but I see online dive site maps that show some other dive sites on the north side (quite a few of them, actually).

So, just to clarify: I understand that it doesn't work for dive ops to take a boat all the way 'round from the south side to the north side. That's fine...but what if I don't care about diving on the south side of the island (since I don't)? Doesn't anybody regularly dive the north side? I see lots of dive sites scattered around the island's NW lobe, and even more off Rum Point and west. Are these sites not dived regularly? Nobody goes there and does SRC as the second dive?

Thanks again for the input.

 

[Cave Diver]

Hmmm. OK, please forgive my ignorance, but I'm trying to parse your last comment and understand the context. Looking over a map, it looks like SRC is on the north side of the island - I see it on an online map of dive sites. I'm guessing from your post that most the diving is generally done on the south side of the island, but I see online dive site maps that show some other dive sites on the north side (quite a few of them, actually).

So, just to clarify: I understand that it doesn't work for dive ops to take a boat all the way 'round from the south side to the north side. That's fine...but what if I don't care about diving on the south side of the island (since I don't)? Doesn't anybody regularly dive the north side? I see lots of dive sites scattered around the island's NW lobe, and even more off Rum Point and west. Are these sites not dived regularly? Nobody goes there and does SRC as the second dive?

Thanks again for the input.

I answered in this post something that may make more sense to you:

I recall hearing somewhere once that the SRC trips were under the authority of the Department of Environment and that their were limitations to the amount of trips because of the high level of animal interaction. However this is just a fuzzy memory and I can't cite a specific source for it.

Here is more info that may clear it up:

A new enforcement officer has been hired by the Cayman Islands Department of Environment to enforce regulations regarding stingray viewing and feeding in the Cayman Islands. Stingray City and the Sandbar are two popular areas for tourists, who come to see and feed the stingrays, about 170 of which congregate there. The officer replaces an enforcement agent that held the position for 2 months, and then left.

The officer will enforce existing rules regarding interaction with the stingrays, including ensuring that operators and visitors do not take the stingrays out of the water, that the boat operators are licensed and that the vessels anchor in appropriate areas. Twenty boats and 1,500 visitors are allowed in the area at one time, and boats may only stay one hour.

Source: Enforcement Officer Hired at Stingray City in Caymans

Abiding by the specific rules for SRC may cause conflict in dive op scheduling.

 

[diversteve]

Hmmm. OK, please forgive my ignorance, but I'm trying to parse your last comment and understand the context. Looking over a map, it looks like SRC is on the north side of the island - I see it on an online map of dive sites.

It is but it's also on the "inside" of the island in the North Sound.

I'm guessing from your post that most the diving is generally done on the south side of the island,

Not really - most of it is done on the west side of the island. Sunset House and maybe a couple others do dive the south side sites also. At certain times of year other diveops also move their boats south and drive you there in a van.

but I see online dive site maps that show some other dive sites on the north side (quite a few of them, actually).

For clarity, let's use the same map - this one: http://www.caymanactivityguide.com/Maps/MapDiveSites.jpg

See all the sites to the left of West Bay marked in Yellow? Starting with Hepp's Wall on down to Sand Chute.

Those are the "West Bay" sites typically dove from diveops located along Seven Mile Beach. Below that in Black are sites also dove in that area. Most of the diveboats are based on that side of the island.

The farthest north we ever went using one of those diveops was Hepp's Wall, most of them will not make the run around the entire West Bay peninsula and then into the North Sound for Stingray City. And the farthest south we ever went was Blackie's Hole. Our diveop was based mid-SMB.

So for SRC dives, most park a 2nd boat at one of a couple marinas on the west side of the North Sound and take you to it in their van. Actually most of them run you to their west side boats via van also, every morning we saw several vans picking up at the hotels along SMB.

South of there - the sites listed in black between the two wrecks are off Georgetown.

Any of the divesites located north of the North Sound - there are a lot of them - could be done from Divetech at Cobalt Coast and other diveops in that area - not sure if there are any others though. If you see the main road on the map, just about where it ends is where Cobalt Coast is located.

Or find someone with a boat based in the North Sound - I don't know who that would be.

To answer your question, those sites are typically dove less frequently. Besides distance, you've got the North Wall and it's depth, currents etc. to contend with.

The vast majority of tourists stay in the 7MB area - or are off the cruiseships in Georgetown daily. So their business is on that side.

Anything near the East End is typically only dove from Ocean Frontiers/Tortuga Divers on that side of the island. It's about a 45min. drive from Georgetown - maybe slightly less.

Before anyone responds to this, I'm just generalizing for the benefit of the OP. Some diveops do have more flexibility in how far north/east they go.

I've just never heard of one that does SRC as a 2nd morning dive.

 

[EastEndDiver]

nwflyboy there are several operators that keep a boat at the Yacht club which when you leave and head for the north wall you pretty much pass right by SRC.Try contacting Sundivers,Dive and Stuff,Wall to Wall,Ambassodor,Indigo divers,and Peter Milburn they all leave from the yacht club for some of their dives .Tell them what you are looking to do and see if they can help.

There are a couple of more but I can't think of their names.

 

[CJ's]

Just about every Dive operation in Grand Cayman does a 2-tank dive trip in the mornings every day. Very few will have Stingray City as the second dive for various reasons:
1) Stingray City is on the North side of the Island which can get very rough during the winter months meaning that it can often be too rough to get outside the reef to do a wall dive first. Most operations would rather guarantee 2 dives for their customers by diving on the West side of the Island in these conditions.
2) Most divers prefer to do 2 "regular" dives and dive Stingray city as an afternoon 1-tank. Demand for a wall dive followed by Stingray city most often comes from cruise-shippers or divers such as yourselves who will only be on the island for a short time. There are not usually many cruise ships in at the weekends so Saturdays are not the best days to get this trip done.
3) Most of the small group dive operations here have a high percentage of repeat customers, most of whom have been to Stingray City in the past and therefore do not generally want to use up one their morning dives there!

For these reasons, as stated in previous posts, many operations keep boats at the Cayman Islands Yacht Club or other locations so that they can run afternoon trips to Stingray city when demanded. With your schedule you couls quite easily do an afternoon dive (many leave around 12/12.30pm). With the dive being only 15ft deep it doesn't really count towards no fly time.

Hope this helps.
CJ

 

[soybeans1]

As far as where to stay in Grand Cayman, Dive Tech is located at a hotel. I can't remember the name of it but Dive Tech can tell you. It was very nice. There is a shore dive right out front of the hotel. The advantage of staying there is it is closer to Sting Ray City. It takes very little time to get there.

Sunset House is really nice and there is a good site right out front also. It really depends on what dive group you want to go with.

We stayed at Eldemire Guest House - $100/night. If you're expecting fancy, forget it. Ask for the large 1 bedroom apartment. I would not stay in any of the other rooms. It's a bit worn down, but safe and friendly. Our apartment was clean and very large. It's not right on the beach. It's close to Sunset House. It's owned by a local woman. We got it cheaper than what she was offering on her website so bargain. As a matter of fact, due to the American economy you can bargain with all these hotels.

Both hotels are 2 story (not high risers.)