Little Cayman Beach Resort

Author: Albert Lin

Just a quick trip report. My wife and I went to Little Cayman Beach Resort from 2/15/99 to 2/21/99. We flew United from Chicago to Orlando and Cayman Airways to Grand Cayman and Cayman Airways from Grand Cayman to Houston and United from Houston to Chicago. No problems going there, but our luggage missed our connecting flight back to Chicago in Houston. An 1 hour layover was not enough time to retrieve luggage, clear customs, and check bags again. Island Air was fine and we had no luggage problems or flight delays (we were under their weight restriction). The weather was windy and cool for most of the week, however, Friday and Sat were beautiful. The temperatures on the windy days was 65-75, on the sunny days 70-82. It rained pretty hard one day. More importantly, we were able to get around the west tip of the island and dive Bloody Bay/Jackson reef (BBJR) every day but one. Since Reef Divers was running only 2 boats, even the afternoon dives were in BBJR. We were told that thay are limited to 14 trips per week into the marine park, so if they are busy and are running three boats... The southern dive sites were quite nice, but cannot compare to the electrifying nature of the BBJR walls. Reef Divers(dive op at LCBR) was pretty good. They do load up to 20 divers per boat, but the boats (Newton 42s) are pretty spacious. The trip around the western tip was quick, but on windy days pretty rough. They did take us out even on the afternoon dive on the day it was raining pretty hard even after alot of divers decided to cancel (only 4 divers went including ouselves). They provide general dive profiles of 100' for 45' for the deep dive and 60' for 50' on the repetitive dives for computer users. They, however, were not too strict on this and we often were able to stretch 50+ minutes on the deep dive guided by our computers and with a tank reserve of 500 psi. They provided extensive briefings of the dive sites and let all of us buddy dive. There were however few DMs in the water, and if you wanted a guided tour (we did not) you would be out of luck. They are all very friendly and professional. They made our dive experience excellent. The nitrox setup is very well done and user friendly. $10 (US) per tank. All tanks were filled with 32% O2. We did not try to request a different blend. All tanks were aluminum 80's filled to >2800 psi. The water conditions were beautiful was temps running from 77-78 and vis running from 60'-100'. Suffice it to say that BBJR lives up to all its hoopla in our opinion. The sheerness and pristine nature of the walls are astounding. Our favorite sites were: Great Wall West, Randy's Gazebo, Busstop, Marilyn's Cut, and Lea Lea's. The fishlife was bountiful, but the coral and sponge life was remarkable. The food and accomodations (we stayed in an oceanfront room)was excellent except for the beds (picky point) which were uncomfortablely soft and rickety. All in all an excellent trip.