Trip Report Trip report: Grand Cayman and Little Cayman

[Jake]

I recently returned from a two-week trip split between Little Cayman and Grand Cayman and thought I'd do a write-up. It's long, so may be useful as a sleep aid near bedtime.

I've only dived off California and around the Caribbean, so I'm not sure how these places might relate to other parts of the world for diving.

The very short version:

1. Little Cayman: sizable fish population, lots of turtles, healthy reefs, expensive, almost nothing to do on the island except for dive, eat, and lay out.
2. Grand Cayman: little to lots of fish, semi-dependable reef shark sightings, healthy reefs (at least on the east side), expensive, fair amount to do on the island, including a wide variety of dining options

If your primary goal is good diving, I would choose Little Cayman or Cozumel over Grand Cayman. If you want some place with ok to good diving which also has a fair amount of land based activities, Grand Cayman is your place. If your budget is tight, don't go to the Cayman Islands at all.

Short Diving Summary

I stayed at Little Cayman Beach Resort on Little Cayman and at Compass Point on the east end of Grand Cayman.

Little Cayman is mostly--or possibly entirely--a marine protected zone so its marine life is abundant and healthy. The reefs are teaming with fish, particularly where the reef drops off into a wall. The edge of the wall creates a good spot for feeding, so lots of life can be found there.

While Grand Cayman has protected areas, the reefs are over fished, primarily at deeper depths. I found myself bored on most of the deep dives. While the coral looked very healthy, there weren't many fish to see past about 50 feet. However, I found the shallower dives pretty fun, and the reefs were often very interesting geologically, with lots of canyons and underhangs and such for life to hang out in. I only dove the east end (with one exception), so can't speak to diving elsewhere, but was told that it was the best area on the island.

 

[Jake]

Longer Diving Description

Little Cayman (LC)

We stayed at Little Cayman Beach Resort (LCBR) and dove with their in-house operation, Reef Divers. The resort is right on the water on the south side of the island. For most of our trip the winds were blowing pretty strongly, so most days we headed to the north side to escape the wind. The upshot is the north side has amazing diving, including the famous Bloody Bay wall. The downside to that is that the boat rides could be longish (25 minutes maybe?) and the seas choppy until you got into the lee of the island.

The life on the reefs is typical Caribbean life, but on LC there's a lot of it. "Big" life includes frequent turtle and nurse shark sightings, and some of the reefs are jam packed with groupers, including some very large ones. We saw the occasional sting ray but no reef sharks.

LC has a barrier reef on the south side, so to get to other dive sites the boat has to drive through a cut in the reef. Fortunately LCBR's boats are new and very fast, so this wasn't much of an issue. However, our first day heading out was windy and the surf was up, so it was an exciting couple of minutes as we made the passage. Everyone literally clapped after we made it through. No other day was like that.

LCBR runs a somewhat conservative operation: you must enter the water as part of a team of two or more, and depths and times are strictly limited. Typically the first dive would be limited to 110 feet for no more than 50 minutes. The second dive would pretty universally be 60 feet for 60 minutes. Honestly though, the limitations weren't too bothersome and I think are enforced in part to get people back in time for lunch so they can make their afternoon boats.

Once in the water you can follow the DM for a tour or you and your team can go do your own thing, so long as you stay within the time and depth limits.

On the boat you are asked to take a seat at the rear in one of three places and your kit is brought to you (or taken from you on return). You then stand up and fall in. They also ask you not to change your own tank once you're back on the boat. I didn't mind this, but I made sure to put my AI transmitter on a short hose so as to avoid it being used as a handle repeatedly. It's all very easy, but I imagine it just destroys the backs of the DMs after a while.

All of the diving staff were terrific, happy people, and it really made diving with them fun.

The resort has numerous freshwater tanks waiting at the dock for rinsing gear. Separate tanks are provided for soaking cameras, and they also have an enzyme tank to soak your wetsuit in. Drying racks are provided throughout the resort to hang your stuff up on.

If you want, you can leave all of your gear with them; they'll rinse it and it'll be on the boat waiting for you next time. I usually take my regs, computer, and mask with me though and give them my own washing; everything else I pretty much left.

The resort has an easy to use Nitrox station with 4 analyzers. You grab a tank, hook up the wall mounted analyzer, and then crack it a bit to get a reading. All of their nitrox is 32% give or take a percentage. Once you have your reading you write it down on your boat's log, write your boat and name on tape attached to the tank, and set it aside. It'll be on your next boat for you.

All of the LC boats had an emergency regulator hanging in the water in case someone blew their NDL or was low on air. They also had a chain in case anyone wanted to hang on for their safety stop.

For the most part there was little to no current. Only once did I use my Jon line during a safety stop, and even then it wasn't really necessary. It was just a little more convenient in a mild current. All dives are done from mooring points, but you generally don't need to use the line for any reason.

 

[Jake]

Grand Cayman (GC)

We stayed on the east end of Grand Cayman, as we were told that the diving was better there. We dove with Compass Point and their dive op, Ocean Frontiers (OF).

Most of Compass Point is very close to the water, although there is one area of the resort which requires you to walk maybe 300 feet to get to the beach. It's easy either way.

Most of their boats are new and fast, but one of their boats was older and seemingly underpowered. The east end also has a barrier reef and its own cut you have to motor through. In the fast boats this was no problem, but I was told that in the slow boat it's sometimes not possible to get through if the surf is high.

We only had one "bad" day of wind on GC, but for the most part it was very calm. That meant the boat ride was maybe 5-10 minutes to the dive sites, which was really nice. They didn't need to travel very far to get to good areas.

That said, Ocean Frontiers runs something called the "Green Short Challenge," which encourages divers to dive all of the reefs available to OF. So while they could just go 5 minutes to local reefs, they often went farther afield to help divers check off sites on their challenge cards. For the most part I didn't mind this, as even doing that the rides were pretty short.

Most of the dives were done at fixed mooring sites, however, at one site they did drop an anchor which I was kind of disappointed in. While they didn't drag the anchor or anything, it did fall on a low lying rock with coral. That was the only time I saw them do this. That dive happened to be my favorite on Grand Cayman, so I have mixed feelings about it.

OF does not require you to have a buddy, and asks only that you stay near someone. If you want a buddy they'll help you find one, but otherwise will mostly leave you alone about this. Before the boat leaves the dock the staff will analyze your nitrox tanks in front of you and ask you to fill out a log. At the end of each dive they record your depth and time; I didn't ask why.

As an aside, we dove mainly an older crowd who were part of a club. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it seems that one of them grabbed the butt of a female captain we had one day. She took it in stride for the most part, but it was obvious she wasn't pleased about it so I think he did in fact do it on purpose. I hope this isn't something female dive leaders and captains have to put up with a lot.

OF is valet diving, albeit not quite as intense as at LC. They'll help you into your gear but then you walk to the rear to jump in. If you don't want to listen to the briefing, you can jump in whenever you want, and once you're in the water you can stay with the DM for a tour or do your own thing. I don't think they ever gave us time limits on our morning dives.

On Little Cayman the DMs were very active in finding life to point out. The DMs at Ocean Frontiers very seldom did this. This isn't good or bad, but if you're the type who wants to be shown lots of stuff, OF may not be your place.

Ocean Frontiers also puts an emergency regulator in the water and has two very long hang lines if you want to hold on during your stops.

After the dives they'll hang onto your gear and dunk it in a tank. When I saw them doing it they just dunked divers' crates once into a freshwater bath; I didn't consider that a very good cleaning, so for most of the trip I rinsed a lot of my gear myself.

The coral on the east end seems to be in great shape, but as noted above fish and other life is very sparse below about 50 feet. I didn't particularly enjoy the deep dives for the most part. My wife and I learned some sign language in order to communicate better underwater, and more than once we gave each other the sign for "boring."

That said, I really enjoyed the shallower dives. There was a lot more in the way of animal life. I wish we could have just done shallower dives twice each, but alas, that wasn't possible.

The reefs themselves were very interesting from a geological perspective. Where Little Cayman is mostly flat-ish reefs leading to mini- or full-scale walls, GC had large walls, dramatic cut outs, and lots of canyons and high rock outcroppings. The ocean seems to have beat up the reefs here a a lot more, which makes them quite interesting to swim around. Note that I only dove a limited number of places on either island, so it's possible the geography isn't like this everywhere.

The shallow dives combine interesting reef structure with a lot of life to make for generally enjoyable dives. On one of them a very active nurse shark hung out with us for about 9/10 of the dive, brought close by the lion fish hunted by another diver in the water. On that same dive we had two relatively close swim-bys by a reef shark.

On that note, we saw reef sharks on maybe 40% of the dives, although they seldom came very close. Lion fish hunting is not allowed in areas where they are more frequently seen. We did not see many turtles, large groupers, or any other larger animals besides the nurse and reef sharks.

We did a night dive one night, which is at a shallow spot inside the barrier reef. It was tremendous fun and I highly recommend it. The website says you get unlimited bottom time, but they ask that you be back in about 60-70 minutes in case people have dinner plans. The dive was usually shallower than 20 feet, so some divers could have stayed under a considerable amount of time.

 

[Jake]

Diving part 2: the wrecks

The USS Kittiwake is on the west side of Grand Cayman and is a short boat ride from the various docks there. A recent-ish storm knocked it over on its side, which makes for an interesting internal navigation. The ship doesn't have much in the way of encrusted life yet, but has a fair number of fish on and around it. There is a large bed of garden eels in the sand, and we saw grazing parrot fish and a large school of a big fish I forgot to identify.

I enjoyed the dive, but it wasn't my favorite wreck ever. My least favorite part is that it's a mandatory guided dive, so you couldn't really hang around parts that are more interesting to you. Nevertheless, if you're in GC I'd encourage you to dive it, particularly if you're new to shipwrecks (since it's a very easy dive).

The MV Captain Keith Tibbetts is a fairly big wreck laying just offshore from Cayman Brac, and is apparently one of the few Soviet-built warships you can dive in the western hemisphere. LCBR tries to do a weekly trip to the wreck, weather permitting. The winds were up for most of our trip but they ran a boat out one of the days when the wind had let up a little (still maybe 15-18 mph). It was a rough, long crossing on the way there, but the ride back wasn't bad. On a day with calm winds it would probably be a pleasant trip.

The ship was mauled by hurricane Ivan in 2004 and is now broken up into segments. While it was a prepared sinking, it's very "wreck-like" in that it's current state is similar to how a true shipwreck might appear. Where you can penetrate the Kittiwake easily and in relative safety, the Tibbetts has fewer options available and significantly more entanglement hazards. Definitely give this boat some respect.

The wreck is visually interesting and the large gun emplacements are a neat sight. There were several turtles swimming around, as well as a large variety of fish. A number of very large barracuda were hanging around too, including one who gave other divers a treat when it killed a smaller fish in front of them. I saw a very large one in a hold below decks as we swam overhead.

I absolutely loved this dive, and it may have been my favorite of the trip. My wife was loving it too until she took a jellyfish to the face during the last minute of our safety stop and had a bit of a panic attack at 15 feet. Fortunately she managed the pain ok and was able to do the reef dive that followed.

 

[Jake]

The Resorts and Islands

Since I've already typed a ton, I'll try to be brief here.

Little Cayman Beach Resort is a very nice place and I was happy with the staff and food. Drinks are very expensive. The buffet was different each meal and had a generally impressive selection. We had a spacious and well appointed ocean front room. Our walk to the dive shop and dock was maybe 100 feet.

Little Cayman has practically nothing to do outside of the resort. There's a small museum and a visitor's center. Both are worth a visit, but will probably only take an hour to do combined. The woman who staffs the museum is an iguana researcher and can also give you a tour of the grounds where a lot of the animals live.

You can rent a scooter and drive around the island, but that won't kill much time either. Plan on just relaxing.

There's a small market near the resort that we bought some stuff from. However, as the barge from GC was weeks overdue as a result of rough water, the store had a lot of bare shelves. The dive shop also had this problem. They had some really neat shirts we wanted to buy, but almost no availability until a barge could make land.

The flight to and from Little Cayman is in a tiny little plane that seats about 15 people. It's a short, pleasant ride. On the way back they were over their weight limit for luggage so they had to leave one of our bags behind and send it on the 4 p.m. flight. This wasn't too big of a deal since we were staying on GC for the next week, but dealing with Cayman Airways about this was one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had traveling. It wasn't just that they worked on island time; it was as if no one worked for them at all. This baggage situation was the only rough spot of the trip.

Compass Point Dive Resort on GC was also very nice. We had a fairly big ocean front condo with a full kitchen and washer/dryer. We had paid for the breakfast buffet, but as no one else did we were instead provided a cooked breakfast each day. While it was tasty and well made, our only choices each day were how we wanted our eggs cooked, what kind of toast, and bacon or sausage. It was pretty repetitive.

The rest of the time we ate at restaurants or prepared food we bought at a grocery store. Grand Cayman, like Little Cayman, is very expensive.

GC has a large variety of shopping, dining, and topside activities. We saw a movie at their very modern theater, visited Crystal Caverns, and just enjoyed our time driving around the island. We snorkeled at stingray sandbar one day which was fun.

One of the things I absolutely hate about Cozumel (and about Mexican tourist spots in general) is the aggressive shopkeepers. Neither island had any of this anywhere. It was great. Once you get into Georgetown though you're buffeted by traffic and cruise-goers. The east end is way sleepier but doesn't have nearly the options the city does. Either way, if you want diving plus a variety of land-based amenities, Grand Cayman is a good choice.

In short, I was very happy with the entire trip and very grateful to everyone on SB who provided advice before we left. I probably won't rush back to the Cayman Islands any time soon, but would definitely go back to either of the resorts we used.

The diving on Little Cayman is amazing. Grand Cayman is a mixed bag, but as someone who dives in the chilly California waters most of the year it was still a treat.

 

[caruso]

Thanks for the detailed and comprehensive report. As I'm headed there in August with a group that includes a few ScubaBoard members, I'm always looking for trip reports such as yours. Do you know if Reef Divers will go to the Kittiwake wreck? Our entire stay will be on Little Cayman. Thanks.

 

[flyboy08]

Well written report! Yes, the Caymans are expensive compared to other Caribbean get away....but worth it for the diving.

 

[Jake]

Thanks for the detailed and comprehensive report. As I'm headed there in August with a group that includes a few ScubaBoard members, I'm always looking for trip reports such as yours. Do you know if Reef Divers will go to the Kittiwake wreck? Our entire stay will be on Little Cayman. Thanks.

Reef Dives does not go to the Kittiwake, but does go to the Tibbetts. Note that their sign up for the Tibbetts is kind of strange, and is sort of based on interest from each boat. They also need a fairly full boat before they'll make the trip. I'd recommend stopping in each day and checking on whether they're going.

The Tibbetts is a much better wreck in my opinion, so I hope you're able to dive it.

 

[KathyV]

Thanks for the detailed and comprehensive report. As I'm headed there in August with a group that includes a few ScubaBoard members, I'm always looking for trip reports such as yours. Do you know if Reef Divers will go to the Kittiwake wreck? Our entire stay will be on Little Cayman. Thanks.

I can answer that one, the Reef Divers ops on both Little Cayman and Cayman Brac do NOT dive the Kittiwake, the Sister Islands are about 80 miles distant from Grand Cayman so the Kittiwake is not an option. Most of the dive ops on Grand Cayman do dive the Kittiwake however, including Reef Divers at the Cobalt Coast resort.

There's only about 5 miles between Little Cayman and Cayman Brac so Reef Divers at LCBR try to get over to CB to dive the Tibbetts (Russian Frigate) at least once per week. And Reef Divers at CBBR try to get over to LC to dive the Bloody Bay Wall at least once per week; but if the weather is bad neither group will make the crossing.

The Kittiwake is a bigger boat, but I think that the Tibbetts is the more interesting wreck with more sealife and coral growth on it. And the big gun turret on the deck is a favorite shot for UW photographers.

 

[flyboy08]

While staying on LCBR and diving with Reef, we did make a one day Dive trip to Dive the Tibbetts, so yes, they will if enough divers sign up.

My first trip to Cayman, I watched them sink the Kittwake. The second time, I dove it