Where to stay/dive in the Caymans? Late Oct-Nov..HELP

[2Coconuts]

We normally dive Cozumel twice a year. We are looking to try something new. Among other places, the Caymans are on our short list. We have grown very comfortable with Cozumel, knowing where to stay, where to eat, where to go, and so on...now we need some help again. We are just not sure what island to stay on...what are the best dive sites and are the dive sites a long boat ride? Also of great importance, we also are wondering what the weather is like in late October to early November? We normally rent a house in Cozumel and would like to do the same where ever we decide to go. We stay away from the resorts. We also like to enjoy the local culture and food. Maybe do some sight seeing, not much into crazy bars, really touristy places, or that sort of thing. Although we are going to dive we would like to spend some time enjoying the beach and some topside activities. Any info you can provide on the islands would be appreciated. thanks

 

[Drew Sailbum]

First, the weather. October to early November typically brings some of the warmest seas of the year as well as calm waters (so long as there is no tropical activity). It is also a time of relatively high rainfall with passing weather fronts.

The smaller Sister Islands of Cayman Brac (population about 2,000) and Little Cayman (population about 200) are very laid back with little in the line of crazy bars or nightlife. On Little you would probably need to stay at one of the resorts as it is much easier for them to coordinate meals. Sightseeing may include watching iguanas scurry across the road (Iguanas have right of way!) or bird watching at a nature preserve.

Grand Cayman (population about 53,000) has the developed and very touristy western side of the island or the much quieter eastern districts. There are a few rental homes or condos tucked away in quieter spots on the west side and many more vacation homes in the eastern districts (primarily East End and North Side).

For all three islands the diving is close to shore and boat rides can vary from 5 to 45 minutes depending on how far along the coast your trip takes you that day. Deep wall diving is what Cayman is known for. Unlike in Cozumel there is rarely much current in Cayman and drift dives are rare.

Generally the coral is healthier in the Sister Islands or off East End in Grand Cayman. The west side of GC has most of the dive operators and does have some shore diving operators. There are only two dive operators in the eastern districts but no shore diving.

 

[2Coconuts]

Thank you for the info Drew. Just a couple more questions: So if we did decide to stay on the quieter West Side we would have better access to the dive operators/dive sites? Also, if we stayed on Grand Cayman is it still possible to dive the sites of the Sister Islands or would that require a long boat ride? What kind of weather and water conditions could we expect if we went down mid to late October or the first week of November? Thanks again.

 

[Damselfish]

the sister islands aren't dove from Grand Cayman, too long a boat ride not something any op does. (The Cayman Aggressor starts from Grand Cayman and sometimes doesn't even make it to Little Cayman if the weather is rough.)

Staying in the more touristy area of the west end vs. the quieter areas of the west end doesn't really make much difference in your access to the diving. There are just more choices of ops overall. If you stay on the East End you're talking pretty much completely different sites and operators than you would do on the west end. There's only 2 ops on the East End that aren't that far from each other, the only thing you really have to figure in is how far a trip it is from where ever you might rent.

 

[Caribbean Spring]

2Cononuts - The stuff you'll see on the east side of Grand Cayman is different from the west side.
On the east, you can do a drift dive along deep walls, see the wide deep, possibly a big shark. On the west, the dives are more like Cozumel, except without the current. Coral, sponge, tropical fish, eels, lobster, etc.

 

[2Coconuts]

Thank you all thus far for the info/advice you have provided...now for a very important question, where is the best diving...and least crowded diving? Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, or Grand Cayman?

 

[carriemak]

IMO, I would say the best diving is in Little Cayman because you have Bloody Bay Wall.

 

[Pearldiver07]

While I prefer Brac, for more varied diving. We stayed at Brac Reef Beach Resort and did a day over on the wall.

BRBR has a sister property on Little Cayman (LCBR), and the best testimony I can provide to BRBR's service is that the trip I led there arrived the day before an early tropical storm, and we left the day after the storm did. In that week we only cancelled the night dive, had great diving with excellent photo ops (BRBR is near the tip, so you can always go to the lee side where there's no turbidity).

NOT ONE customer complained during the trip. And we had a few who had stayed at LCBR and said that it was even better. Tho I find it difficult to believe given our service.

 

[-hh]

Thank you for the info Drew. Just a couple more questions: So if we did decide to stay on the quieter West Side ...

As a quick point of clarification, the West Side of Grand Cayman is the busiest spot in all three islands.

the sister islands aren't dove from Grand Cayman, too long a boat ride not something any op does. (The Cayman Aggressor starts from Grand Cayman and sometimes doesn't even make it to Little Cayman if the weather is rough.)..

Its around 85 miles one-way...several hours by boat each way, and there's no ferryboat like Cancun-Cozumel. Pragmatically speaking, your only choice is to fly to the Brac in a 737, or fly to Brac or Little in a Twin Otter Turboprop (with stronger baggage restrictions).

Thank you all thus far for the info/advice you have provided...now for a very important question, where is the best diving...and least crowded diving? Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, or Grand Cayman?

IMO, I would say the best diving is in Little Cayman because you have Bloody Bay Wall.

While I prefer Brac, for more varied diving. We stayed at Brac Reef Beach Resort and did a day over on the wall.

This type of question always gets a slight divergence of opinion (Little Cayman vs the Brac), with the consensus being that it isn't Grand Cayman.

And fortunately, you broke your question into two parts.

For least crowded, there's now more dive operations sharing moorings on Little Cayman than on the Brac, so based on this, you can expect to see reefs that have less diver pressure on the Brac. The question of which dive op puts fewer divers on each boat is a harder one to gage, particularly since the Reef Divers operation supports both LCBR and BRBR and are quite comparable. IIRC, Pirate's Point and Southern Cross each only have one diveboat, so the question of how crowded it is will depend upon accomodation levels.

For what is best, part of this depends on how you define quality. Personally, I've stayed on both islands multiple times and favor the Brac .. its as Pearldiver07 mentions: dive site diversity & variation. As much as I enjoy Little Cayman's Bloody Bay's very sheer walls, I have observed that since the dive ops there don't get much opportunity to go elsewhere, since each week's new batch of visiting tourists invariably want to go see the "famous" dive sites, the result is that there's roughly only around a dozen or so "beaten track" moorings that one always seems to go back to...and after several dives, even the sheer walls can get a bit monotonus and you're looking for a change of pace. It also doesn't help that because these moorings are frequently pretty closely stacked together, each one really isn't all that huge of an area to explore...before you know it, you've literally swum over to the next mooring and briefly explored two sites (IIRC, my personal record is three moorings) in but a single dive. However, the north side Bloody Bay sites do also tend to be relatively shallow reefs, so they also offer longer dive times, which is probably of interest for divers who are heavier air users, to still get a 60 minute dive in.

Best way to decide is to take a two week vacation and spend a week on each island to decide for yourself


-hh

 

[Drew Sailbum]

As others noted no day-trip dive boats leave out from Grand Cayman make the 90 mile trip to dive either of the Sister Islands. However the dive operators on the Brac or Little Cayman do generally offer a once-a-week opportunity to make the five mile crossing to dive a site on the other island.

Least crowded would have to eliminate the west side of Grand Cayman. The Brac, Little Cayman, and the East End dive operators on Grand Cayman each have little competition for the available buoys.

As to weather and water conditions mid to late October or the first week of November...
September and October bring the most rain of the year. Air temps will still be highs in the mid 80s most days with overnight lows in the low 80s to upper 70s. Occasionally we'll get a passing tropical wave that can provide grey skies and soaking rains as well as dropping the air temps by 5 to 10 degrees. Winds are typically lighter with relatively calm seas - essentially flat seas on the lee shore and waves 1 to 3 feet on the windward shore. Water temps will be balmy, around 86 or so from the surface to beyond recreational diving limits.

Of course October to November is the later part of hurricane season. The western Caribbean experiences peak tropical activity late in the season. It is possible you could find the seas very rough, the winds rather strong, the rain somewhat sideways, and the diving closed if there is a storm passing. Boat diving may be cancelled up to two days before a storm to make adequate preparations, so you could be looking at flat calm seas with zero wind the day before a storm and still have no boat diving.