Sunset House to Stingray City?

[aussiescubamick]

Hi Barry,

Red Sail Sports will get you to stingray city for a reasonable price and a great day.

Michael

Hi,

I'm heading to Grand Cayman (& Little Cayman) on Friday for a 9-day dive trip. I'm curious what divers familiar with the Caymans consider the best dive sites on those two islands (best in terms of marine life).

Also, I definitely want to dive Stingray City but the people at Sunset House where I'm staying have been noncommital about getting me there. Any suggestions to make sure I don't miss out on SRC?

Thanks.

Barry

 

[divingkim]

Hi Barry,

Red Sail Sports will get you to stingray city for a reasonable price and a great day.

Michael

Red Sail is the most expensive and crowded company there is. Try some of the places run by locals like Bayside or Sotos Cruises for the best price and service.

 

[ScubaTexas]

Barry Goode - If you go back to the first response to your original post you'll see it was from "CJ", which is Deanne and Giles from Wall to Wall Diving on GC. They run a great dive operation and keep a second boat in the yacht club to use for trips to Stingray City with small groups. In fact, when we went out with them, it was just 3 of us. Doesn't get any better than that.

 

[diversteve]

Hi,

I'm heading to Grand Cayman (& Little Cayman) on Friday for a 9-day dive trip. I'm curious what divers familiar with the Caymans consider the best dive sites on those two islands (best in terms of marine life).

Also, I definitely want to dive Stingray City but the people at Sunset House where I'm staying have been noncommital about getting me there. Any suggestions to make sure I don't miss out on SRC?

Thanks.

Barry

GC - I second Big Tunnel - it's deep 110' but worth it. And look up while ascending, we had a turtle follow us all the way up. He let us get within about 10' near the surface. The Turtle farm outlet is right near there so I guess it's prety common.

Also Trinity Caves in the same area.

For a second dive, the Aquarium, more fish than I've seen anywhere else on GC. Only about 40' or so.

You don't really want to run all the way around GC from SH to SRC, there's a dock on the north side of the island that most of the dive ops run from, it's in a yachting area - I don't know the name - but it's a 10 min. ride out from there. Make sure you get on a dive boat going to SRC, not a snorkel boat going to SandBar - stay off the cruise ship operator's boats...Most of the dive ops will pick you up if you don't have a car.

I second the opinion about Red Sail, it's a cattleboat and pricey. They do the cruise ship traffic. Go with Wall-to-Wall or Neptune's if they're running out there, I think Soto's is still rebuilding and I just heard (sadly) that TIDivers has closed due to post-Ivan problems.

 

[MarkTina]

Red Sail is a cattle boat that costs way more and goes to the worst sites. Try Neptunes or Absolute Divers if you want small groups and the best dive sites.

 

[zf2nt]

Best sites for marine life in my opinion:-

Grand Cayman - Big Tunnel/Turtle Farm

Little Cayman - Randy's Gazebo

Well, nobody is going to be diving Randy's Gazebo for a while unless they EARN the right to dive there by going out from shore. I saw the Aggressor tied up at Randy's all morning on Tuesday, and when they left they took the mooring ball with them. We took Holiday Diver over to see if the line could be repaired easily, but it's going to take a whole new line. The eye splice on the mooring ball popped open, so the Aggressor left with the ball and the mooring line in the back of their tender. Bummer. Since Jimmy left a couple of months ago, we have had no marine patrol officer here on Little Cayman. That means no maintenance on the mooring lines. The Brac fisherman are starting to get bolder, and now there's no way for the dive boats to tie up at Randy's. The latter might be a good thing, though. I've seen way too many divers come down here who don't believe they are properly weighted unless they make a good "thud" sound when they hit the bottom on their way down. And some of the coral on the hardpan at Randy's is starting to show the effects of that.

Bruce, Little Cayman

 

[caymaniac]

Well, nobody is going to be diving Randy's Gazebo for a while unless they EARN the right to dive there by going out from shore. I saw the Aggressor tied up at Randy's all morning on Tuesday, and when they left they took the mooring ball with them. We took Holiday Diver over to see if the line could be repaired easily, but it's going to take a whole new line. The eye splice on the mooring ball popped open, so the Aggressor left with the ball and the mooring line in the back of their tender. Bummer. Since Jimmy left a couple of months ago, we have had no marine patrol officer here on Little Cayman. That means no maintenance on the mooring lines. The Brac fisherman are starting to get bolder, and now there's no way for the dive boats to tie up at Randy's. The latter might be a good thing, though. I've seen way too many divers come down here who don't believe they are properly weighted unless they make a good "thud" sound when they hit the bottom on their way down. And some of the coral on the hardpan at Randy's is starting to show the effects of that.

Bruce, Little Cayman

Last time I was at LC...about a year ago, I noticed Randy's was getting a bit worn.

 

[CJ's]

GC - I second Big Tunnel - it's deep 110' but worth it. And look up while ascending, we had a turtle follow us all the way up. He let us get within about 10' near the surface. The Turtle farm outlet is right near there so I guess it's prety common.

Also Trinity Caves in the same area.

For a second dive, the Aquarium, more fish than I've seen anywhere else on GC. Only about 40' or so.

You don't really want to run all the way around GC from SH to SRC, there's a dock on the north side of the island that most of the dive ops run from, it's in a yachting area - I don't know the name - but it's a 10 min. ride out from there. Make sure you get on a dive boat going to SRC, not a snorkel boat going to SandBar - stay off the cruise ship operator's boats...Most of the dive ops will pick you up if you don't have a car.

I second the opinion about Red Sail, it's a cattleboat and pricey. They do the cruise ship traffic. Go with Wall-to-Wall or Neptune's if they're running out there, I think Soto's is still rebuilding and I just heard (sadly) that TIDivers has closed due to post-Ivan problems.

Please note that there is absolutely no correlation between proximity to the turtle prison (oops, I mean farm ) and turtle sitings. You can however buy any kind of turtle part you like at their "outlet" (shells, meat etc).

Seriously, turtle releases from the farm have been very few and far between since Hurricane Michelle in 2001. I believe that approx 20 have been released in the last calendar year. Upon release I imagine that the first thing on those turtles minds is to get as far away from there as possible.

The vast majority of turtles that we see whilst diving here are immature Hawksbills who spend years feeding here before returning to Cuba to breed. The Farm breeds and releases Green turtles which we do see occasionaly but not often enough I'm afraid!

The areas offshore from the Farm do happen to be particularly turtle friendly due to the abundance of their favourite sponges to snack on which oftens leads to this misconception.

Here's wishing for many more turtles everywhere!
CJ

 

[nipi]

Bruce - will be over for a shore diving weekend on Apr 15. Randy's will be our Sat or Sun morning dive mooring ball or not.

 

[zf2nt]

Bruce - will be over for a shore diving weekend on Apr 15. Randy's will be our Sat or Sun morning dive mooring ball or not.

Well....try to go out some place east of McCoy's "Bloody Bay Dive Resort". I went out from there this morning and angled over toward Ringer's. I kept trying to point myself east of Ringer's, but there was surface current and I ended up at the Ringer's buoy anyway. Then I did a surface swim east on top of the wall as long as I could stand it, but was fighting current all the way. Finally I went down about half way between Ringer's and Randy's. It was a struggle, but I made it up to the gazebo and went round to check on each of the green tube tunicates I know that are there. Then I cruised the wall back to the west. Wheee...I did cruise! Somewhere along the way a very large turtle came up from the deep and started cruising with me. He was only about 5' away, and if I went up, he went up...if I went down, he went down with me. What a trip! The two of us cruised a long way together. I even got in front of him just so he would know I wasn't chasing him, but he stayed with me anyway. He didn't have any AAS that I could see, but he made a good dive buddy anyway. When I got down to 700 psi, I figured it was time to come in. So I came up over the wall and right there in front of me was the buoy. Perfect timing, I thought. But oops...it was a small buoy, not a large one. I had come out at Great Wall West, not Great Wall East!
Net: this was NOT the way to do Randy's. Find a way to go in further to the east. The tides are very high this time of year, so it's an easy game to get out there.

By the way, if you're into green tube tunicates...the biggest one I know is in the meditation chamber off the east canyon at Lea Lea's. Look on the back wall, about 4' off the floor, and slightly off to the left as you go into the chamber. That mother looks like it's a foot long! I measured it, and it turned out to be 9". My book says 4"-6" on these things, so 9" is right impressive.

Have fun on LC. I'll be back diving the trench at Monastery (Carmel, CA) by the time you get here. You know...dry suits, 32# of weights, 48 degree water, 50 foot visibility. Believe it or not, I like that stuff just as much as LC!

Bruce