Trip Report Trip Report: Cayman Aggressor IV, April 28-May 5, 2018

[AggieDiver]

Kathy covered it somewhat, but the location of the moorings that are rated for the Aggressor's size and the direction and size of the swells would make the captain's decision for him. The best diving on LC is on the north side, although there are a few decent south side sites near the west end of the island. However, if the wind is coming from the due east...or northwest, the swells will come down the island and rake the south side sites as well, making for poor conditions there.

Regarding why they would leave without visiting CB, besides the issue of a rough crossing back to GC that was already pointed out, there is also the problem that with winds and seas come increased currents. And those currents stir up sediment along the shore that then is washed longshore into the reef areas creating poor visibility. So even if the conditions were there to allow you to dive, it may have been that the current was expected to wash out the visibility and make the diving less enjoyable. The best sites on CB are largely on the NW end of the island (with a few good, albeit deep, ones on the south side), so they would be the first to get blown out by a cold front.

As for the friendly groupers on LC, they have been there since long before lionfish culling became a thing. We first dived Little Cayman in 1995, and we were introduced to "Charlie" the friendly grouper who liked to be petted and hung around Marilyn's Cut/Hole in the Wall. The joke back then was that once you petted Charlie, he was yours for the dive unless you managed to pass him off to somebody else. There are certainly more that seem to be interested in following divers since the lionfish culling has begun, but it was not the source of their initial lack of shyness.

In answer to your question about what keeps people coming back over and over, for me it is the whole package of what I look for in a vacation. When I go on vacation, I want to relax and have as little to deal with as possible. That is the #1 thing I look for in a vacation. So shore diving in Bonaire, while it would allow me to have many more dive opportunities, also means carting tanks around, driving to and from dive sites, rinsing my own gear out, figuring out which restaurant I want to eat at each day for lunch and dinner, worrying about getting crap stolen out of the truck. On LC, I can wake up, eat breakfast, walk to the dive boat, dive 3 dives a day, eat very good food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that I don't have to whip out a CC to pay for at each meal, sit in a pool, have a drink at the bar, and get a massage at the spa, all without ever walking more than 150 yards or so from my room. It sounds like you and I really want very different things from vacations if you are dismissing locations based on the lack of unnamed nighttime entertainment options, but I figured I would at least explain why I keep going back.

I am sure I can find places with better diving and the same level of all-inclusive excellence somewhere in the pacific...but that would mean much longer and more expensive flights and probably higher prices for a week of diving. I can find at least similar diving (although I would dispute your rankings of relative Caribbean quality a bit) elsewhere in the Caribbean, but not the same level of low stress utter relaxation. So for me, LC is just the perfect balance of excellent low stress super easy diving, with super relaxing topside environment as well.

 

[Doctorfish]

I agree with Aggie, I have dived GC, Brac, LC Bonaire, Roatan, Utila repeatedly for the past 20 years and for me, the diving on the Caymans especially LC, is my preference. There is certainly less macro opportunity on LC than Bonaire, and less "dive freedom", but the ease of diving Bloody Bay, the shallow wall tops and opportunity to see schools of fish and possibly larger animals more than makes up for that. The tame Nassau Groupers and turtles are a bonus.

I don't see how the OP after only 2 days diving LC, can make such sweeping statements

 

[Ironborn]

Let me counter the question, why are you so quick to dismiss a place when you haven't really had much chance to experience it?

You ran into some bad weather during your trip and that is unfortunate, we have had that experience on Cayman and elsewhere and it is disappointing - but that doesn't necessarily mean that the place is sub-standard.

You like wrecks but didn't dive Brac at all and missed the Russian frigate, which is the best Cayman wreck IMO. You did a handful of dives off LC but not in the best weather. Then you did most of your dives on the west side of GC because of weather, and most divers agree that is not the best Cayman diving. The North Wall and the East End generally have the best GC diving - but not in bad weather.

We were lucky and had absolutely perfect weather the week that we were on the Cayman Aggressor. We dived great sites off of all 3 islands and spent most of the week at LC and the diving was fabulous. After we got off the Aggressor, we spent the following week on Grand Cayman and the weather turned bad, and the diving was disappointing. I remember driving around GC and seeing the Aggressor moored off shore at some west side sites and thinking "I'm really glad that I am not on that boat this week!"

We buy travel insurance but the weather is always a risk, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose - it's like gambling! And the reefs are always prettier IMO when the sun is shining, and the less visited and more pristine sites are more likely to be available in good weather.

How many times have you been to Bonaire and Cozumel? Were all your trips to those destinations fabulous? I think we've been to Bonaire 7 or 8 times and Cozumel 4 times - and they were usually 14 day trips so we have spent some time on both of those islands. We enjoyed all our vacations there but some trips were better than others, it's just the way it is.

Actually, we disliked Grand Cayman the first time we visited because it was "too developed, too touristy, and too expensive" although we liked the diving. We didn't come back for a decade and then only because my husband had won free diving with Bob Soto's dive op - no longer in business. We again enjoyed the Cayman diving and during that trip we learned that good shore diving was available - but we still weren't too crazy about the more developed aspects of GC, and so we stayed away for another long time.

Then we got a great deal on the Cayman Aggressor and discovered the fantastic diving available around the sister islands. Also during that trip we came to recognize that there is a lot more to Cayman besides George Town and the 7MB, if you look for it. After that trip we decided that "Cayman might not be so bad after all" and we have come to love it more and more with each visit, so that's why we return.

In the Caymans we regularly see nurse sharks and reef sharks (but not a lot) but we also see loads of turtles, tarpons, groupers - including some giant groupers - eels, rays, lobsters, crabs, and more - and usually lots of reef fish. I have enjoyed reefs that were loaded with life as well as some that were rather sparse, both around Cayman and Bonaire and elsewhere. We've had both good vis and bad, lots of life or only a little life - on the same sites on different days - it varies. We've seen large animals and good reef life pretty consistently in Cozumel, but we didn't always have much time to enjoy it as we zipped by in the current!

I agree with @drrich2 that the Florida Keys are a great place to go if you want to see a lot of fish life, and there are some popular wrecks off South Florida, but the Florida waters will be colder and the vis may not be as good. The reefs are usually less impressive and you may have longer boat rides. There are positives and negatives about most places, but that is all part of the experience.

I think that you should continue researching and trying different locations and hopefully you will eventually find your "scuba home" but never-say-never because you may change your mind some day, we did! Thanks for sharing!

Once again, I am not "dismissing" the Cayman Islands; that is an overstatement. I never said that I would never return. As I indicated in my report, I just did not see much - with one major exception - that would persuade me that it would be worth investing more of my limited vacation time and money in exploring the Cayman Islands further, when there are many other places that I have yet to sample that I might like just as much or more. I am still on the market for a "scuba home," as you noted, and I would like to give other destinations a fair chance.

That one major exception that I mentioned was the East End. Babylon was a very impressive dive site, and if that dive site is any indication of what I could reasonably expect from East End diving, then perhaps I might return to stay at one of the East End dive resorts. I specifically asked for feedback on this point, and I was hoping that perhaps you or other Cayman regulars could share your insights in that regard. Is Babylon typical of the East End, or is it one of those more special and distinctive sites, in the way that, say, the Devil's Grotto is quite distinct from the rest of the west side?

Your reference to "bad weather" is an overstatement. For the most part, the weather was quite nice throughout the trip; the water was relatively calm, the Little Cayman crossings were mild, and there was quite a bit of ambient light underwater. The weather that required us to leave Little Cayman was not "bad," it was merely the northerly direction of the winds (not their strength) that made the northern wall of Little Cayman unsafe for the CAIV. There was a bit of surface chop on the north side of Grand Cayman that prompted the captain to move the boat to the west side, which I thought was a bit on conservative side.

The Florida Keys are definitely on my "to do list." I can live with lower water temperatures and lower visibility as a trade-off for more marine life. What good is 100 ft visibility if there is not much to see?

 

[KathyV]

Actually, I had two opportunities to explore topside a bit. I had a few hours between my arrival and the CAIV's boarding time. I also had most of the afternoon and the night to explore Georgetown after we returned to port on Friday afternoon. As far as I could tell, Georgetown has Cuban cigars, expensive jewelry stores, and shops for touristy trinkets, and it turns into a ghost town at night.

The cigar stores were quite good; they had surprisingly reasonable prices (by Cayman Islands standards) for Cuban cigars, and they had wide selections, proper cigar storage, and some actual Cuban employees. Beyond the cigar stores, I saw nothing else that interested me, and now that we can have Cuban cigars legally in the U.S., the cigars alone are not enough of an attraction for me.

I don't think that I was quick to dismiss the place; I would instead argue that I simply did not see anything that persuaded me that it would be worth investing more of my limited vacation time and money to explore it further and give it a second chance.

My assessment that there is little or nothing of interest to me topside in the Cayman Islands is also based on sources other than my own admittedly limited observations, including input from friends who have been there and who told me that I would probably not like it, based on their personal knowledge of me and my own tastes. I am also going on what I have read in travel guides and other resources, including your posts and those of other Cayman regulars. The little bit that I did see validated what I had expected, based on that pre-trip input and research.

George Town is the financial business center and the cruise ship tourist stop and it pretty much shuts down at night. There's a lot more going on at night on Grand Cayman, especially on Seven Mile Beach, then you can find in George Town. We are usually not into night time entertainments on dive vacations and my posts have probably reflected that, but there's still plenty to do at night. The link below lists some of the "island happenings" and although they may not all be to your taste, there is certainly more entertainment available then Cuban cigars - and GC is not a ghost town at night. But if you ever decide to stay on the East End, then you will definitely be in a ghost town - and a long drive from most of the entertainments.

What's On & When – May 2018 - What's Hot

 

[Ironborn]

As to why the Captain decided to leave the sister islands and head back to GC so quickly? I don't know for sure but that can be a really rough, deep water crossing - especially in bad weather. He probably would have had several miserably sick people hanging over the rails and vomiting during the entire trip back if he had delayed.

The roughness of the return crossing from Little Cayman did not appear to be a factor in the captain's decision to return to Grand Cayman early. In his words, he told us that he rated the roughness of our outgoing trip to Little Cayman as a 1 on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the smoothest and 5 being the roughest), and our return trip as a 0. I am not aware of anyone getting seasickness.

The captain explained that the north wall was no longer safe for the CAIV because the northerly winds posed a risk of swinging the boat into water shallow enough for the boat to run aground. What was unclear to me was why the south side of Little Cayman, or perhaps Cayman Brac, were not suitable alternatives, if the north side of Little Cayman was no longer an option.

 

[Ironborn]

Regarding why they would leave without visiting CB, besides the issue of a rough crossing back to GC that was already pointed out, there is also the problem that with winds and seas come increased currents. And those currents stir up sediment along the shore that then is washed longshore into the reef areas creating poor visibility. So even if the conditions were there to allow you to dive, it may have been that the current was expected to wash out the visibility and make the diving less enjoyable. The best sites on CB are largely on the NW end of the island (with a few good, albeit deep, ones on the south side), so they would be the first to get blown out by a cold front.

That was not the explanation that we received from the captain. He said that Cayman Brac was deeper, and if we were going to have to dive deeper sites, we might as well go back to Grand Cayman. That did not make sense to me; while I certainly appreciate the advantages of shallower dive sites, I think most other guests and I would have preferred Cayman Brac to Grand Cayman. Another guest and I also had a special interest in diving the wreck there, and that one guest apparently had his heart set on Cayman Brac for some other reason and was disappointed to learn that it was off the table entirely - not just for this trip, but in general, if we understood the captain correctly.

 

[Ironborn]

As for the friendly groupers on LC, they have been there since long before lionfish culling became a thing. We first dived Little Cayman in 1995, and we were introduced to "Charlie" the friendly grouper who liked to be petted and hung around Marilyn's Cut/Hole in the Wall. The joke back then was that once you petted Charlie, he was yours for the dive unless you managed to pass him off to somebody else. There are certainly more that seem to be interested in following divers since the lionfish culling has begun, but it was not the source of their initial lack of shyness.
.

Thank you for the background on that, I had a strong sense that the lionfish culling could not be the sole explanation for the grouper behavior that we observed. I wonder why they might seem so interested in cameras, or why they like to sneak into photos.

The difference between the grouper behavior on Little Cayman and Grand Cayman was also quite striking. The Little Cayman groupers were quite sociable, but the ones on Grand Cayman acted like any other fish. The marine life on Little Cayman in general seemed more sociable, but the difference in grouper behavior between the two islands was the most striking.

 

[KathyV]

That was not the explanation that we received from the captain. He said that Cayman Brac was deeper, and if we were going to have to dive deeper sites, we might as well go back to Grand Cayman. That did not make sense to me; while I certainly appreciate the advantages of shallower dive sites, I think most other guests and I would have preferred Cayman Brac to Grand Cayman. Another guest and I also had a special interest in diving the wreck there, and that one guest apparently had his heart set on Cayman Brac for some other reason and was disappointed to learn that it was off the table entirely - not just for this trip, but in general, if we understood the captain correctly.

Below are links to the recent Captain's logs for the Cayman Aggressor. It sounds like your trip log began on April 28, because they only spent a short time on Little Cayman and quickly came back to GC to mostly dive the west side.

But the very next week, the trip logged beginning on May 5, they spent most of the time on Little and Brac and they dived the Russian Frigate.

It was the same Captain on board during both weeks so the winds must have been uncooperative during your trip, that is what I meant by bad weather. It can be sunny and beautiful outside, but if the winds aren't with you, you may not have the best possible LOB trip. The fact that you did so many Aggressor dives on the West side of GC suggests that the weather just wasn't cooperating, and that's a shame.

April 28:
Aggressor Fleet® | Official Site | Liveaboard Scuba Dive Yacht Trips

May 5:
Aggressor Fleet® | Official Site | Liveaboard Scuba Dive Yacht Trips

 

[Ironborn]

In answer to your question about what keeps people coming back over and over, for me it is the whole package of what I look for in a vacation. When I go on vacation, I want to relax and have as little to deal with as possible. That is the #1 thing I look for in a vacation. So shore diving in Bonaire, while it would allow me to have many more dive opportunities, also means carting tanks around, driving to and from dive sites, rinsing my own gear out, figuring out which restaurant I want to eat at each day for lunch and dinner, worrying about getting crap stolen out of the truck. On LC, I can wake up, eat breakfast, walk to the dive boat, dive 3 dives a day, eat very good food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that I don't have to whip out a CC to pay for at each meal, sit in a pool, have a drink at the bar, and get a massage at the spa, all without ever walking more than 150 yards or so from my room. It sounds like you and I really want very different things from vacations if you are dismissing locations based on the lack of unnamed nighttime entertainment options, but I figured I would at least explain why I keep going back.

Thank you for your feedback on the appeal of Little Cayman as a terrestrial destination. I asked about this on Scubaboard when I was still considering terrestrial options, including Little Cayman, and it seemed like everyone and their grandmother had their own different explanations and ideas, so I wasn't sure who or what to believe and ultimately decided instead to sample a wider range of areas on the CAIV.

I do not dismiss locations based on the lack of nighttime entertainment options, but I do need something to do at night, other than sitting alone in my room and twiddling my thumbs or drinking beer. I can do that at home, so it makes no sense to me to pay to fly to the Caribbean and stay at an expensive resort in order to do that. Perhaps this is less of an issue for those traveling in groups or with their spouses, but not having anything to do can be very boring for a solo traveler such as myself, and I do not go on vacation in order to be bored. I have a preference for night dives and would do one every night if and when it is possible, but some form of nighttime entertainment is a suitable alternative for whenever I cannot do so.

 

[Ironborn]

I agree with Aggie, I have dived GC, Brac, LC Bonaire, Roatan, Utila repeatedly for the past 20 years and for me, the diving on the Caymans especially LC, is my preference. There is certainly less macro opportunity on LC than Bonaire, and less "dive freedom", but the ease of diving Bloody Bay, the shallow wall tops and opportunity to see schools of fish and possibly larger animals more than makes up for that. The tame Nassau Groupers and turtles are a bonus.

I don't see how the OP after only 2 days diving LC, can make such sweeping statements

I have a specific interest in and taste for macro, and I also prefer the "diving freedom" of Bonaire, so that might explain the differences in our respective preferences, and why I preferred Bonaire to Little Cayman.

My comments on Little Cayman were not intended as "sweeping statements," but rather aimed to contribute to and clarify the discussion of why many people think Little Cayman in particular is so great. I specifically used the term "my two cents" in my report in order to caveat the fact that my observations reflected admittedly limited experience.

When I was still considering terrestrial options in the Cayman Islands, I asked about the reasons for the widespread preference for Little Cayman in this post on Scubaboard and received a wide variety of answers, ranging from shallow dive sites to the punch at LCBR. When I reread that thread in retrospect, I noticed that few mentioned the differences in the marine life in Little Cayman, which - in my humble opinion and on the basis of my admittedly limited experience there - were or would be the chief selling point or distinguishing factor for Little Cayman, compared to Grand Cayman. I wanted to share that observation for future readers considering Little Cayman as a terrestrial destination and wondering, as I did, why it is so popular, for which there appear to be a wide variety of explanations.