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mi000ke

Contributor
Messages
1,139
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1,717
Location
Massachusetts & Grand Cayman Island
# of dives
200 - 499
Dive this coming week just cancelled for the 4th week in a row due to tropical storm/hurricane activity. Longest and most active storm season down here since they started counting. Going from bad to worse for the dive shops.
 
Dive this coming week just cancelled for the 4th week in a row due to tropical storm/hurricane activity. Longest and most active storm season down here since they started counting. Going from bad to worse for the dive shops.

That's hard! The business owners, staff, and residents are all really in a tough situation. Have you at least been able to shore dive the west side?

On the bright side, it was 29 F this morning here in the midwestern US so at least you are in a warm, beautiful place!

But I can't believe our luck! Last Saturday we returned from 2 weeks on St. Croix and we had perfect weather the entire time. There were high winds on the north side so unfortunately we couldn't dive Cane Bay Wall, but the west side was so calm it was like a lake and we got some great dives. I heard that they received heavy rains, winds, and flash flooding right after we left - but we missed it all - we were very lucky.

The USVI reopened in late September and they are requiring a negative covid test, taken within 5 days of travel, for admittance. They are also enforcing mask requirements. I hope that Cayman can also implement safe protocols that will bring back the tourism industry soon - and I also hope that this terrible tropical storm season finally dies down!

I would love to go back to Cayman in spring or summer but we'll have to see.

Good luck to us all!
 
I agree Kathy V. -- can't wait to get back to Cayman! Hope everyone is staying healthy and the dive shops and tourism in general can survive this.
 
Dive this coming week just cancelled for the 4th week in a row due to tropical storm/hurricane activity. Longest and most active storm season down here since they started counting. Going from bad to worse for the dive shops.

I agree Kathy V. -- can't wait to get back to Cayman! Hope everyone is staying healthy and the dive shops and tourism in general can survive this.

This link was posted on another site and it is about the possibilities for reopening in early 2021 but it is based on the early availability of a vaccine and that may be optimistic.

Kirkconnell: COVID vaccine could drive early-2021 border reopening - Cayman Compass
 
Have you at least been able to shore dive the west side?

Been pretty rough the past four weeks. Several restaurant decks in town washed out. This photo is mid SMB, and it's been much rougher north near lighthouse pt and turtle reef. And Iota (Iota?!) is on the way.

IMG_2848.JPG
 
In this case an iota makes a big difference.
 
Been pretty rough the past four weeks. Several restaurant decks in town washed out. This photo is mid SMB, and it's been much rougher north near lighthouse pt and turtle reef. And Iota (Iota?!) is on the way.

View attachment 624020

Good grief! I hope 7MB doesn't turn into a surfing destination!
 
Last Saturday we returned from 2 weeks on St. Croix and we had perfect weather the entire time. There were high winds on the north side so unfortunately we couldn't dive Cane Bay Wall, but the west side was so calm it was like a lake and we got some great dives.

Quick but worthwhile tangent; from reading over time, I've gotten the impression in St. Croix the reef sharks are mainly seen at sites off the north coast (where I saw plenty), not the west (where I've only had 2 boat and 1 pier dives). In your diving over a 2 week period at the west coast, did you guys see any reef sharks in St. Croix?
 
Quick but worthwhile tangent; from reading over time, I've gotten the impression in St. Croix the reef sharks are mainly seen at sites off the north coast (where I saw plenty), not the west (where I've only had 2 boat and 1 pier dives). In your diving over a 2 week period at the west coast, did you guys see any reef sharks in St. Croix?

Yes! We only did one dive on the north side at WAPA and it was rough due to high winds, but there were 3 reef sharks and they stayed with us throughout much of the dive.

On the (calm) westside we saw 4 reef sharks during a dive at Armageddon and 2 reef sharks at Deep Wrecks. We also saw Nurse Sharks at other westside sites like Cables and Sprat Hall.

I'm sure that we would have seen more sharks in St. Croix if we had been able to dive Cane Bay Wall but we still got to see a lot of big stuff on the west side like stingrays, large green morays, turtles, barracudas, tarpons, and a very large Eagle Ray, but no Groupers. We didn't dive every day but I think that you can expect to see quite a few sharks on various sites around St. Croix - including the west side.

And of course the small stuff you can see at the Fredricksted Pier is amazing. We saw seahorse, octopus, spotted and golden morays, a sharp tailed eel, lobsters, scorpion fish, porcupine fish, and more!

I am very glad that we had the chance to safely go on a tropical dive trip and vacation during this crazy year; and it seems that we got very lucky because if we had been in places like Florida, Cayman, or Cozumel during the same timeframe, we probably would have gotten stung by the rough weather; but I would still love to get back to Cayman some time soon!
 
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