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

[Ironborn]

Just to add my two cents to the discussions about chumming and moving the boat:

1) I certainly saw no evidence of any chumming by the CAIV crew during this trip. In fact, I did not even see them throwing leftover food overboard, as I did see on the BAIII. I noticed that the BAIII seemed to be magnet for marine life (perhaps because of that practice), whereas that did not appear to be the case with the CAIV. One might see a few jacks or barracudas under the boat during a safety stop, but that was it. The only animal feeding was the Stingray City dive, for which they gave us squid to feed the stringrays.

2) During this trip, the CAIV did move the boat a bit more frequently than what I take to be standard Aggressor procedure, i.e. two dives in the morning at one spot and then two afternoon dives and a night dive in a second spot. At some spots, we only did one dive. On two afternoons, we only did two dives at those spots (the Oro Verde and Babylon) and moved to another spot for the night dive.

 

[Saboteur]

I don't know of anyone who tosses food over here. We used to throw orange peels over after eating the oranges but even that stopped long ago. I am guessing that there are regulations about where vessels that have overnight guests put their food waste on longer trips. I doubt that any of the private charters or the livaboard are doing any dumping near the dive sites. Years ago it was a big thing for tourists to feed CheezWiz (sp?) canned fake cheese with a nozzle to fish but thank goodness that has stopped too. Now if we could just do something about plastic straws, bag and cups and of course flipflops!

I know of one dive op and a few DM's were throwing orange peels overboard on my trip in May. I don't know what the harm is to marine life or the seascape, do they degrade quickly or are they edible to marine life? It's not like its tossing a garbage can full of waste overboard, but I thought it set a bad example to guests.

 

[runsongas]

Cheap Material Made From Orange Peel Can Suck Mercury Out of The Oceans

orange peels are biodegradeable and make good fertilizer

Orange is the new green: How orange peels revived a Costa Rican forest

 

[caydiver]

Big changes are in the works for The Aggressor fleet in The Cayman Islands. Many times when something new is being introduced there me be special pricing. Well worth keeping watch if this is something you are considering.

 

[KathyV]

Big changes are in the works for The Aggressor fleet in The Cayman Islands. Many times when something new is being introduced there me be special pricing. Well worth keeping watch if this is something you are considering.

I think that a new boat will be unveiled soon, is that correct?

 

[Joneill]

Big changes are in the works for The Aggressor fleet in The Cayman Islands. Many times when something new is being introduced there me be special pricing. Well worth keeping watch if this is something you are considering.

Do tell....

 

[Dogbowl]

I think that a new boat will be unveiled soon, is that correct?

Yes there will be a new boat in Cayman but I’m not sure if it’s a second boat or a replacement?

 

[caydiver]

The word is that the new boat (bigger) will stay around Grand Cayman and the older boat will stay around the sister islands. Not sure if the new boat will also go to the sister islands but at least for now it seems like there will be two boats spread between the three islands. I honestly cannot say how definite this is as I don't know that all the kinks (ie moorings for bigger boat, overnight moorings, etc) have been sorted yet but when the new boat is ready there may be some special pricing. The pricing part is a supposition on my part, I did not hear any word on that, but it seems the norm when something like this occurs

 

[KathyV]

The word is that the new boat (bigger) will stay around Grand Cayman and the older boat will stay around the sister islands. Not sure if the new boat will also go to the sister islands but at least for now it seems like there will be two boats spread between the three islands. I honestly cannot say how definite this is as I don't know that all the kinks (ie moorings for bigger boat, overnight moorings, etc) have been sorted yet but when the new boat is ready there may be some special pricing. The pricing part is a supposition on my part, I did not hear any word on that, but it seems the norm when something like this occurs

Interesting, because one of the drawbacks of the current Cayman Aggressor is that it may be a rough crossing, or that it may not make the crossing at all due to weather.

So if a boat was stationed around the Sister Islands, you could fly directly to Brac (most likely - bigger airport, more flights, and bigger planes than Little Cayman) and then board and spend the entire trip diving around Little and Brac, because right now the time required to do the crossing can limit the time available to dive the Sister Islands.

My personal opinion is that, when the weather is acting up and you cannot dive the more popular Bloody Bay Wall, you usually have more dive options around Brac, so if their home base is in the sister islands, they could more easily pick and choose the best dive sites between the 2 islands. Right now they usually stay put around GC or quickly head back to GC if the forecast is poor. We know that large supply barges travel to the sister islands regularly, weather permitting, so they must have the ability to harbor large boats - it could work.

But I am not sure of the feasibility of a liveaboard permanently diving around GC, the dive sites are close to shore and there are many dive ops and lots of land-based attractions - so they might still want to do the crossing to the sister islands when the weather cooperates.

But some of the advantages of a GC- dedicated LOB is the easy, one-stop (turnkey) appeal it offers by including accommodations and diving. And you can do a lot of diving for a set price; including popular dives like the Kittiwake and Stingray City, and night dives almost every night.

You also don't have to worry about paying a hefty "single supplement" to a dive resort if you are traveling solo, as long as you are willing to share a cabin with a same-gender diver. And I am sure that they could also offer some shore excursions, that would allow guests to take advantage of some of the popular attractions of Grand Cayman, if desired. I've taken advantage of shore excursions on other LOBs.

So 2 boats might work, Cayman has seen a significant increase in tourism recently, even though nearby Cuba is now more open to US travelers. Partly this is because they got lucky last year with the hurricanes, and it may also be partly because it is easy to get there from many places; and it is generally considered a safe and welcoming location, and you don't have to take special food, water, and disease precautions. And also because they are one of the few spots in the tropics that is not on the CDC's Zika Warning List. I know several young women of child-bearing age who (wisely) feel that is very important.

Interesting news indeed, and you are right, they will probably offer some special deals when they launch their new venues! We will have to wait and see what happens!

 

[Dogbowl]

Another thing...with Cayman’s prices for accommodations, food and diving, a liveaboard’s prices aren’t that much more.