Scuba Monster
Contributor
Brac Reef - The Resort
Accommodations:
Comfort Inn quality, 3 star accommodations, the rooms are simple, clean with a tropical decor. We requested a 2nd floor room, which turned out to be the best option in my opinion. There are 10 rooms on the 2nd floor without a balcony and our room was the closest room to the beach with a balcony (room #212).
The Restaurant & Food:
Yummy ... buffet style for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There were plenty of choices such as omelets for breakfast, beef and chicken kabobs for lunch, fresh green salads for lunch and dinner, tasty pork cops with a peppery sauce, prime rib, and seafood pasta.
The Bar:
Entertainment (using the term loosely) almost every night with Orientation/Manager night on Monday, Wednesday Karaoke (not my personal favorite, but others seemed to enjoy it), Thursday night Bingo and movie, and Friday night BBQ (not part of the food package). Our resort package included 3 free drinks per day, which you could choose from soda, juice, bottled water, house wine, beer and well spirits.
Some Notes from My Dive Log:
Charlie's Reef: partly cloudy day, you can see Little Cayman from here, southern stingray at beginning of dive, I spotted 2 scorpion fish, no sign of Tristan the Turtle, barracuda, cluster **** of divers at the ladder on exit
End of the Island: large schools of chub, Caribbean spinney lobsters, found a lettuce slug, queen angel fish, 2 large spotted drum, Nassau groupers, tiger grouper, fire worm, my dive buddy was slipping into old bad habits and wandering off; excellent exit out of water by me in rougher seas, but not so much for the yellow fin lady
Wilderness Wall: mini nurse shark hiding in coral (not sandy bottom), swim throughs, southern stingray, at least 6 barracuda, rough at surface rope line out
Lighthouse Reef: cloudy day, has not rained on us yet; a youthful exuberant diver landed on my dive buddy, Ken Maynard, in a swim through entrance; the young diver did not see Ken and practically straddled his tank; once Ken was aware someone was on top of him, he swatted him off like a fly, took a deep breath, sank a little deeper and swam away; swimming nurse shark; rained after the dive
Airport Wall: hawksbill turtle, crab on wall, huge barrel sponges and one growing upside down on wall, 1st green moray of the trip, dolphin fish a/k/a mahi-mahi, family of blennies (3 of them), Nassau grouper
Kissamee Wreck: saw at least 5 southern stingrays, hawksbill turtle, big anchor and tugboat, long swim into current back to boat; one diver panicked and surfaced as he was running low on air, his dive buddy did not go up to help
Snapper Reef: today is beautiful, better visibility, Venus flytrap like clam; 2 anemone, large schools of grunts, mini spotted drum, 2 French angels, longhorn blenny (I think), mini hawksbill turtle
Buccaneer Reef : Brac Southern Stingray City! saw 3 rays, one of the better shallow dive sites of the trip, barrel sponges, 3 lobster, Nassau grouper hiding and thought I couldn't see him. I waved hello from a distance and scared him further under the rock; scorpion fish, honeycomb cowfish, bright and sunny day, slight breeze
Double Wall: one of my favorite dives of the trip, hawksbill turtle, 2 great barracuda (one chased my buddy), Nassau grouper, lobster, great barrel sponges, tubular sponges, queen trigger chased off southern stingray
The Wreck MV Capt. Keith Tibbets: Wreck dives usually are not my favorite, but this one is exciting and worth diving. For those of you that do not know about the wreck of #356, it was a Russian Destroyer built in 1984 and stationed off Cuba. After The Cold War, Russia abandoned the ship. The Caymanian Government purchased the discarded hunk of metal from Cuba and sank it for recreational diving in 1996. The ship must have been a colossal waste of money for Russians, but has become a renowned dive site and an interesting piece of history.
The outside of the wreck was longer than a football field - the biggest wreck I've dived. You could see the guns, turbine engines amongst coral, sponges, blennies, clams, scorpion fish, spotted eagle ray, stingrays in the sand and barracuda. For our night dive, we headed back to the wreck. Some of the night critters included two Caribbean octopuses (my favorite), a southern stingray, Spanish hogfish, and a GIANT yellow fin grouper almost at big as me!
I can't tell you about the inside of the wreck, unfortunately. We were with an oversized dive group the day we dived the wreck. Reef Divers took our regular group we were diving with that week, plus 5 more divers, 2 snorkelers, a videographer and the boat crew. We had 24 people on the boat that morning (my only criticism of Reef Divers). I named one of the dive groups on our boat, the "no buddy dive group." This group of eight was great at buoyancy control, monitoring their gages, and taking safety stops, but when it came to the buddy system, there wasn't one. For someone who likes to dive with their buddy, this type of dive group can be a challenging to dive with. At one point, I was lined up directly behind the dive master to follow her and a guy diving with her as a buddy into the wreck, suddenly the no buddy dive group descended in a pile, pushing me further away from the entrance. They were clueless that my buddy and I were next, or even there. I looked at my buddy, disappointed, but signaled to move on - not worth it!
Boat Crew
Our boat crew was Paul, Chloe, and Barbie. They were friendly, funny, courteous and always there for a good laugh or two during the surface intervals. Pee Paw, if you read this, Lindsey wasn't there until our last day, so I didn't have the opportunity to say hi.
Little Cayman (March '08) vs. Cayman Brac (Oct. '08)
Our dive package in this trip included a 2 tank trip to Little, so we were able to dive Mixing Bowl. We saw many of my favorites medium sized spotted drum, scorpion fish, 2 turtles, yellow spotted ray, 4 lobsters, a crab, Nassau groupers, and a nurse shark swimming. The sun was shining, the water was calm, visibility was great, coral appeared healthy - I loved this dive!
Mikes Mount was our 2nd dive for the day on Little, which was so-so. The visibility was poorer, the sun wasn't beaming we just didn't seem to see as much and the coral didn't seem as healthy on this site. Although, there are many other dives sites I really like on Little.
Back at the Brac, our dive site was the Fisheries that afternoon. One of my favorite shallow dive sites on Brac. This was a fantastic dive! We saw all kinds of marine life including a juvenile trunk fish, lobster, schools of snapper, 9 lettuce sea slugs, and schools of chub. I was so excited - it was my first time to spot a juvenile trunk fish the size of a pea.
Some of the wall dive sites I enjoyed on Brac were Airport Wall, Double Wall, and Wilderness Wall. These sites were similar to Little. For shallow sites, two that stand out were Fisheries and Charlie's Reef. We saw far more southern stingrays on Brac than when we dived on Little. We saw almost one stingray on every dive. If there was one ray, we usually saw at least one or two more. On our March dive trip to Little, we saw five reef sharks together circling above the coral, less the 25ft away from the boat - that was quite thrilling!
Topside, Cayman Brac has more to tour than Little. We took an afternoon off and explored the island by car. The bluff is quite impressive; beaches are dramatic with white sands and lush, green mangroves. There are also bat caves and hiking trails to explore. I was interested in finding the shop, Native Island Made, to purchase a Caymanite piece, which I did. On Little, we only investigated the West corner by bicycle, which was enjoyable too, but different. As a comparison, Brac has a bit more to see with gorgeous views from the bluff as well.
Brac Reef Resort and Little Cayman Resort, being sister properties are very similar. And the dive op is Reef Divers for both, so that is similar as well. The restaurants are similar, pools are similar, bar areas are similar, and dive sites are somewhat similar. I liked the bar atmosphere at LCBR better, since was decorated with all shapes and sizes of driftwood painted by divers that have stayed and dived there. However, there was a new outdoor bar built at BR, which didn't have the driftwood, but I liked the bar staff better. Cicero was a one of the bartenders at BR from Brazil, who was friendly and social. He also was a diver and liked to talk about diving! Ken Maynard and I enjoyed chatting with him in the evenings.
Overall, I think Brac and Little are fabulous islands to visit and dive. Even though they are similar, they still have their differences. If you need more topside stuff to do, then Brac might be the better choice. If you want to go diving, try them both! We'll definitely go back to the Brac and Little too.
Accommodations:
Comfort Inn quality, 3 star accommodations, the rooms are simple, clean with a tropical decor. We requested a 2nd floor room, which turned out to be the best option in my opinion. There are 10 rooms on the 2nd floor without a balcony and our room was the closest room to the beach with a balcony (room #212).
The Restaurant & Food:
Yummy ... buffet style for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There were plenty of choices such as omelets for breakfast, beef and chicken kabobs for lunch, fresh green salads for lunch and dinner, tasty pork cops with a peppery sauce, prime rib, and seafood pasta.
The Bar:
Entertainment (using the term loosely) almost every night with Orientation/Manager night on Monday, Wednesday Karaoke (not my personal favorite, but others seemed to enjoy it), Thursday night Bingo and movie, and Friday night BBQ (not part of the food package). Our resort package included 3 free drinks per day, which you could choose from soda, juice, bottled water, house wine, beer and well spirits.
Some Notes from My Dive Log:
Charlie's Reef: partly cloudy day, you can see Little Cayman from here, southern stingray at beginning of dive, I spotted 2 scorpion fish, no sign of Tristan the Turtle, barracuda, cluster **** of divers at the ladder on exit
End of the Island: large schools of chub, Caribbean spinney lobsters, found a lettuce slug, queen angel fish, 2 large spotted drum, Nassau groupers, tiger grouper, fire worm, my dive buddy was slipping into old bad habits and wandering off; excellent exit out of water by me in rougher seas, but not so much for the yellow fin lady
Wilderness Wall: mini nurse shark hiding in coral (not sandy bottom), swim throughs, southern stingray, at least 6 barracuda, rough at surface rope line out
Lighthouse Reef: cloudy day, has not rained on us yet; a youthful exuberant diver landed on my dive buddy, Ken Maynard, in a swim through entrance; the young diver did not see Ken and practically straddled his tank; once Ken was aware someone was on top of him, he swatted him off like a fly, took a deep breath, sank a little deeper and swam away; swimming nurse shark; rained after the dive
Airport Wall: hawksbill turtle, crab on wall, huge barrel sponges and one growing upside down on wall, 1st green moray of the trip, dolphin fish a/k/a mahi-mahi, family of blennies (3 of them), Nassau grouper
Kissamee Wreck: saw at least 5 southern stingrays, hawksbill turtle, big anchor and tugboat, long swim into current back to boat; one diver panicked and surfaced as he was running low on air, his dive buddy did not go up to help
Snapper Reef: today is beautiful, better visibility, Venus flytrap like clam; 2 anemone, large schools of grunts, mini spotted drum, 2 French angels, longhorn blenny (I think), mini hawksbill turtle
Buccaneer Reef : Brac Southern Stingray City! saw 3 rays, one of the better shallow dive sites of the trip, barrel sponges, 3 lobster, Nassau grouper hiding and thought I couldn't see him. I waved hello from a distance and scared him further under the rock; scorpion fish, honeycomb cowfish, bright and sunny day, slight breeze
Double Wall: one of my favorite dives of the trip, hawksbill turtle, 2 great barracuda (one chased my buddy), Nassau grouper, lobster, great barrel sponges, tubular sponges, queen trigger chased off southern stingray
The Wreck MV Capt. Keith Tibbets: Wreck dives usually are not my favorite, but this one is exciting and worth diving. For those of you that do not know about the wreck of #356, it was a Russian Destroyer built in 1984 and stationed off Cuba. After The Cold War, Russia abandoned the ship. The Caymanian Government purchased the discarded hunk of metal from Cuba and sank it for recreational diving in 1996. The ship must have been a colossal waste of money for Russians, but has become a renowned dive site and an interesting piece of history.
The outside of the wreck was longer than a football field - the biggest wreck I've dived. You could see the guns, turbine engines amongst coral, sponges, blennies, clams, scorpion fish, spotted eagle ray, stingrays in the sand and barracuda. For our night dive, we headed back to the wreck. Some of the night critters included two Caribbean octopuses (my favorite), a southern stingray, Spanish hogfish, and a GIANT yellow fin grouper almost at big as me!
I can't tell you about the inside of the wreck, unfortunately. We were with an oversized dive group the day we dived the wreck. Reef Divers took our regular group we were diving with that week, plus 5 more divers, 2 snorkelers, a videographer and the boat crew. We had 24 people on the boat that morning (my only criticism of Reef Divers). I named one of the dive groups on our boat, the "no buddy dive group." This group of eight was great at buoyancy control, monitoring their gages, and taking safety stops, but when it came to the buddy system, there wasn't one. For someone who likes to dive with their buddy, this type of dive group can be a challenging to dive with. At one point, I was lined up directly behind the dive master to follow her and a guy diving with her as a buddy into the wreck, suddenly the no buddy dive group descended in a pile, pushing me further away from the entrance. They were clueless that my buddy and I were next, or even there. I looked at my buddy, disappointed, but signaled to move on - not worth it!
Boat Crew
Our boat crew was Paul, Chloe, and Barbie. They were friendly, funny, courteous and always there for a good laugh or two during the surface intervals. Pee Paw, if you read this, Lindsey wasn't there until our last day, so I didn't have the opportunity to say hi.
Little Cayman (March '08) vs. Cayman Brac (Oct. '08)
Our dive package in this trip included a 2 tank trip to Little, so we were able to dive Mixing Bowl. We saw many of my favorites medium sized spotted drum, scorpion fish, 2 turtles, yellow spotted ray, 4 lobsters, a crab, Nassau groupers, and a nurse shark swimming. The sun was shining, the water was calm, visibility was great, coral appeared healthy - I loved this dive!
Mikes Mount was our 2nd dive for the day on Little, which was so-so. The visibility was poorer, the sun wasn't beaming we just didn't seem to see as much and the coral didn't seem as healthy on this site. Although, there are many other dives sites I really like on Little.
Back at the Brac, our dive site was the Fisheries that afternoon. One of my favorite shallow dive sites on Brac. This was a fantastic dive! We saw all kinds of marine life including a juvenile trunk fish, lobster, schools of snapper, 9 lettuce sea slugs, and schools of chub. I was so excited - it was my first time to spot a juvenile trunk fish the size of a pea.
Some of the wall dive sites I enjoyed on Brac were Airport Wall, Double Wall, and Wilderness Wall. These sites were similar to Little. For shallow sites, two that stand out were Fisheries and Charlie's Reef. We saw far more southern stingrays on Brac than when we dived on Little. We saw almost one stingray on every dive. If there was one ray, we usually saw at least one or two more. On our March dive trip to Little, we saw five reef sharks together circling above the coral, less the 25ft away from the boat - that was quite thrilling!
Topside, Cayman Brac has more to tour than Little. We took an afternoon off and explored the island by car. The bluff is quite impressive; beaches are dramatic with white sands and lush, green mangroves. There are also bat caves and hiking trails to explore. I was interested in finding the shop, Native Island Made, to purchase a Caymanite piece, which I did. On Little, we only investigated the West corner by bicycle, which was enjoyable too, but different. As a comparison, Brac has a bit more to see with gorgeous views from the bluff as well.
Brac Reef Resort and Little Cayman Resort, being sister properties are very similar. And the dive op is Reef Divers for both, so that is similar as well. The restaurants are similar, pools are similar, bar areas are similar, and dive sites are somewhat similar. I liked the bar atmosphere at LCBR better, since was decorated with all shapes and sizes of driftwood painted by divers that have stayed and dived there. However, there was a new outdoor bar built at BR, which didn't have the driftwood, but I liked the bar staff better. Cicero was a one of the bartenders at BR from Brazil, who was friendly and social. He also was a diver and liked to talk about diving! Ken Maynard and I enjoyed chatting with him in the evenings.
Overall, I think Brac and Little are fabulous islands to visit and dive. Even though they are similar, they still have their differences. If you need more topside stuff to do, then Brac might be the better choice. If you want to go diving, try them both! We'll definitely go back to the Brac and Little too.
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