Trip Report Technical Diving in Cayman Brac With x100

[divezonescuba]

 

[NothingClever]

Good to know about storing the J cylinder at Western Auto.

 

[rx7diver]

@divezonescuba,

Nice video. How full were you able to fill your Alum 40 oxygen deco cylinders? (One of those little electric oxygen boosters would have been nice to have, probably. I wonder if TSA would have any issues with your traveling with one?)

rx7diver

 

[SelfDiver]

Chris,
I really like your videos and your wild gear configurations.
Please help me understand why you are going through all this pain when Bonaire is much much easier.
At least three dive shops offer full service technical diving.
You can rent any tank including twinsets of any mix, stage rigging, regulators in any configuration, backplate BCDs, Sidemount BCDs, scooters, rebreathers, sorb, ...etc.
There are 100 meter shore dives like Karpata and plenty of shallower sites for the afternoon.
Cayman Brac looks wonderful. Don't you think beginners will have a much easier time in Bonaire?

 

[divezonescuba]

@divezonescuba,

Nice video. How full were you able to fill your Alum 40 oxygen deco cylinders? (One of those little electric oxygen boosters would have been nice to have, probably. I wonder if TSA would have any issues with your traveling with one?)

rx7diver

We transfilled the first two AL40s to about 2300 psi. We used those for two dives and then topped off the tanks. The second set of fills was just over 2000 psi. We left a lot of O2 in the tanks since we only did three technical dives. If we had more people or time to do additional dives, it would have been more economical.

The booster is a good idea depending on how much it weighs. The ones that I have seen use compressed air for power and would be a piece of luggage themselves. I would think that if you can get a rebreather through that you could do the same for a booster. You might have to carry it onboard though to answer any questions.

 

[divezonescuba]

Chris,
I really like your videos and your wild gear configurations.
Please help me understand why you are going through all this pain when Bonaire is much much easier.
At least three dive shops offer full service technical diving.
You can rent any tank including twinsets of any mix, stage rigging, regulators in any configuration, backplate BCDs, Sidemount BCDs, scooters, rebreathers, sorb, ...etc.
There are 100 meter shore dives like Karpata and plenty of shallower sites for the afternoon.
Cayman Brac looks wonderful. Don't you think beginners will have a much easier time in Bonaire?

Technical diving on Cayman Brac is definitely more logistically difficult than diving in say Bonaire, as they don't have any. As you said, there are at least three shops on Bonare that can provide all the equipment that you need to do whatever you want. This trip to Cayman Brac was a logistical experiment.

There is a necessity to dive independent backmount doubles on Cayman Brac. In Bonaire it is more of a fill convenience and an economic thing. In Cayman Brac there is no other alternative other than sidemount to do technical diving for primary gas. I used a DTA 3.0 while the other technical diver used the plate slots. Because I used the DTA, I was able to switch easily in the late afternoon from independent doubles to a single tank evening or night dive. The other diver missed some of those dives due to the more arduous process of unthreading and rethreading the tank bands.

I find the underwater topography in Cayman Brac to be more interesting. It is actually my favorite place to dive in the Western Hemisphere. The diving entry is also generally easier as almost all the dive sites have ladders, steps, or boat ramps directly into the water. I have changed my technical dive plans many times on Bonaire because of the entry conditions. One time we kept having to go back to Windsock because of a wind reversal. Getting to deeper depths is also much easier in general than in Bonaire. However, I have not worked out the logistics of getting helium yet. I image that it might be possible to do the same thing as with the oxygen. Maybe next trip.

 

[SelfDiver]

Technical diving on Cayman Brac is definitely more logistically difficult than diving in say Bonaire, as they don't have any. As you said, there are at least three shops on Bonare that can provide all the equipment that you need to do whatever you want. This trip to Cayman Brac was a logistical experiment.

There is a necessity to dive independent backmount doubles on Cayman Brac. In Bonaire it is more of a fill convenience and an economic thing. In Cayman Brac there is no other alternative other than sidemount to do technical diving for primary gas. I used a DTA 3.0 while the other technical diver used the plate slots. Because I used the DTA, I was able to switch easily in the late afternoon from independent doubles to a single tank evening or night dive. The other diver missed some of those dives due to the more arduous process of unthreading and rethreading the tank bands.

I find the underwater topography in Cayman Brac to be more interesting. It is actually my favorite place to dive in the Western Hemisphere. The diving entry is also generally easier as almost all the dive sites have ladders, steps, or boat ramps directly into the water. I have changed my technical dive plans many times on Bonaire because of the entry conditions. One time we kept having to go back to Windsock because of a wind reversal. Getting to deeper depths is also much easier in general than in Bonaire. However, I have not worked out the logistics of getting helium yet. I image that it might be possible to do the same thing as with the oxygen. Maybe next trip.

Is it practical to leave a twinset and a couple AL40s in Cayman Brac next time you go?
Leave them with your favorite dive shop?
Maybe also leave the O2 fill whip?
Some places rent out lockers for a year, like climbing gyms, pools, golf courses...etc. Is there something like that?
I still prefer Bonaire and have not canceled a dive there yet. The Area9, TDS and VIP folks regularly do 90m certification dives from shore in Karpata so it can't be that hard to get to depth. A DPV will certainly get you there.
The problem is that there is not much to see at those depths in Bonaire. Like diving in a big pool. Great for practice and certification.
If you want to do a drysuit, deep, DPV dive-go to Bonaire to practice. If you can't do it on Bonaire, you can't do it in the north Atlantic.

 

[divezonescuba]

We once explored that in Bonaire, since we are usually down there for at least two weeks a year. We were going to get a small storage unit on the island. The cost of the unit did not make complete economic sense given the amount of money that we would save on rental equipment. No availability of equipment issues on Bonaire. But, it also got down to the inconvenience factor of having to continuously go to a fill station during operating hours when you can just pickup filled tanks anytime with Dive Friends if you are willing to dive independent doubles. An interesting point about some of the dive shops on Bonaire. They will fill private tanks, but will not fill other dive shop's tanks. Something to do with liability. So, as far as I know, the only place that will fill anyones tanks is BHM which has normal operating hours.

In Cayman Brac, there are no storage units. So, you would definitely have to use a dive shop. There is only one dive shop that serves the general public, the Brac Scuba Shack. I once asked them about storing a deco bottle there, they were ok with that at the time. I would image that they would be also ok with the transfill aparatus. But, I don't know if it would be worth storing a manifolded twinset because of the same fill issue as on Bonaire. It would definitely take longer to get that filled than to strap on another set of independent doubles. So it would be less convenient, there would be the cost of the tanks, the one time transportation, and you would not save anything on fills.

I think a lot of it boils down to what you are doing. The logistics convenience of o2 and helium makes Bonaire great for training. But, I find the underwater topography of Cayman Brac to be more interesting and I also like the ease of entry in Cayman Brac in comparison to a lot of the Bonaire dive sites particularly with multiple tanks.

My experience is the same on the deeper dives on Bonaire. There was nothing at 100 meters. We only did it to see if it could be easily done from the shore.