Little Cayman by SG

Little Cayman, 1999
Posted by Hitchhiker

Went to Little Cayman from august 21 to the 29, stayed at Southern Cross Club following Doc Vikingo’s recommendation (THANKS! THANKS! THANKS! I owe you two six packs). Overall, it was one of the most relaxed and incredible vacations I have ever taken. Diving was not as good as expected (expectations were really high), although it was very good. Max viz was 50 ft and corals were not in that good shape, but the wall is AMAZING, and there is a lot of medium size / small size fish life (Groupers, Rays, turtles). Southern Cross Club is just amazing. Personalized attention and the staff go out of their way to serve you. Will go back without thinking twice, they made the trip an unforgettable one. Don’t go if you are looking for 5 start accommodations (but for that matter, don’t go to LC either if that’s what you are looking for)

Flights: Flight from Miami to Grand Cayman (American airlines) was on time, but was packed. Arrived at GC and was happy to see most of the folks were actually staying at GC. Arrive at Island ticket counter for our 4:30 flight (only airline to travel to Little Cayman or Cayman Brac) at 2:30pm. They didn’t show up until 3:45. Just a little reminder that you are on the islands now, so better take it easy. We were a little worried about weight - 55 lbs/person max, including carry ons – due to some horror stories we have heard, so we send my sister and sister in law for the haggling (and flirting) and it seemed to work just fine. No problem whatsoever with either airlines. Hint: From talking to people in the island, apparently is cheaper to book your flight to Cayman Brac instead of Grand Cayman and then buy the Cayman Brac/Little Cayman ticket (about $30). So if you are planning to go, check that option before buying your tickets.

Little Cayman: Located south of Cuba, the Cayman Island consist of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. GC have more topside attractions and bigger hotels, but diving is not as good as in the other two. LC has only 120 locals, iguanas outnumbering population , so its not surprising to see “iguanas have the right of way” signs everywhere. It was very HOT while we were there, and weather was superb (sunny, calm seas). There is NOTHING to do in the island (just one restaurant “the Hungry Iguana”). Local currency is Cayman $ but American $ are accepted everywhere. (1 American $ is aprox. $0.80 CI, so make sure in what currency they are talking about before buying anything)

Southern Cross Club (SCC): SCC was what made this trip an incredible one. I have not been in a place that MAKES you relax even if you don’t want to. To quote one of the articles written about them “after three days I just realized that I was utterly and unreservedly happy”. Didn’t wear shoes or carry a wallet the whole week. Little Cayman has no crime whatsoever (left my camera and diving lights outside my room the whole week). And the staff is just great and very friendly. Their only worry is for you to have a good time. The plane for the GC/LC trip is a twin prop 18 seatter. After the short flight we arrive at Little Cayman “airport” - if you can call a grass/dirt strip with a small cabin doing the job of airport/post office/fire station an airport. After 3min a pickup truck came to pick us up. Baggage and people in the flat bed, we made the 3 min ride to the hotel. The place has about 6 cottages each with two rooms. The rooms are clean, spacefull and just right. No TV or phones (GREAT!). Two queen size beds in each room. Each cottage is about 10 yards from each other and all are 10 yards from the beach. We immediately sat down and with a complimentary drink were told about the times for diving/eating/etc (while our luggage was being placed in each room). The atmosphere is so relaxed that the bar doesn’t open until 5pm. However, if you want anything just go and take it. You just have to jolt down what you had in your “tab”. The place has a small pool and a “club house/dinning room”. A TV in a bar (mostly in weather channel following the hurricanes) A few hammocks and that’s it. Just perfect We met Peter Hillenbrand (the owner). He moved from Indiana after buying the place about 5 yrs ago. He spends every day on the grounds, tending bar, serving tables, and even acted as a dive master once. The staff is incredible. They will go out of their way to accommodate you (“the boat leaves at 2:00pm”- “can we make it 2:30, we need to take a nap” - “ok, 2:30 it is”…and many countless examples). They make you feel like part of the family immediately. The food was very good and plentiful (don’t miss the banana/apple/potato soup, or Miss Em’s fried chicken). Breakfast is from 7:30 to 9:00 am, lunch at 1:00pm and dinner either at 7:00 or 7:30 (your choice). The docks were 3 months old (Hurricane Mitch took care of the old ones), and on Friday just before coming back we had a party to celebrate the opening of the “end of the deck bar”. Happy hour and a beach bonfire (with s’mores), and Fireworks display. Just perfect. The hotel includes use of bicycles and sea kayaks. The first one were used to go and see the iguanas fighting over bananas brought by us. I went out in the Kayaks two times for a stroll around a small island just in front of SCC. A nice way to pass the time (other than the mandatory nap in the hammocks). SCC its not a luxury hotel (thank God). One day they forgot to put fresh towels on the room (which was solved by a quick “I don’t have any towels” followed by two towels and countless “I’m sorrys”). And the dining room is not air conditioned, and it can get quite warm during meal hours (despite the fans). However, It’s a place Im sure to visit again.

Dive Op: There is no difference whatsoever between the hotel and dive op. They are one and the same. Diving consist of a two tank boat trip in the morning (boat leaves dock at 8:30) and a single tank afternoon boat trip (around 2:30pm). On Monday and Thursday, you switch your afternoon dive for a night dive. You get there the first day and set up your gear. After that, no more work. They will switch tanks for you between dives, and after the day is done, you leave your gear in the boat. Hey will rinse it and have it ready for the following day. They have two boats. The boat I did most all my dives (Lucky Star) can carry up to 14 people. However, we were never more than 12 (for one afternoon dive) and most of the time we were 9 or 10 people (considering my group consisted of 6 people, that’s quite good). Boats are well equipped. The dive masters (Terry and Burt) know their stuff and are very helpful. The compressor of SCC went south prior to our arrival, so they were filling tanks in another location. A few times air in tanks was less the 2500psi, but since they had extra tanks there was no problem. After the first two days, we all checked our tanks prior to departure just to make sure everything was OK (that opening and closing vave sure took a lot of energy…hehehe) The Divemasters lead most dives, although you are free to dive your own dive/profile (they require a computer if you are diving computer profiles). The only restriction is imposed by the Cayman Island Watersport Association (or something like that) which restrict your first dive of the day to 100ft/50 min, and each subsequent dive to 60ft/50 min. The dive masters will ask you to do this, but I didn’t see them checking gauges…They are not babysitters, so you can do whatever you want. However, with 20 dives in a week, we followed the guideline with the occasional 110 ft on one or two dives. The divemaster gets back to the boat 30-40 min into the dive (to help people once they are done), and you spend the last 10 min of the dive below the boat at about 30 ft if you want. What we did most of the time was follow the divemaster through the countless swim throughs and then went our own way during the return. On 2 or 3 dives, there was no dive master leading the dive (mostly on the afternoon dives), but the briefing was very good and right on the money, so no divemaster was needed. The divemasters will take requests of sites you want to visit, so speak your mind. Three of our regulators (My sister-in-law’s, my brother’s and mine) free flowed during the last 2-3 days of the trip (more about this after I visit the dive store which serviced all reg one week prior to departure…). The dive ops lend us regs free of charge. Although it was only for a total of maybe 5 dives combined, it was an example of the type of service you will encounter in SCC.

Diving: Overall, very good diving with lots of fish and marine life. Water temp was 84-86 degrees during the week, with no significant thermocline to speak of (at least as deep as 110ft). Viz was and uncommon 50 ft max, with the worse being a dive with 25 ft viz. This is strange for this time of year (were 100ft viz is the norm). There were a lot of Corals formations and different types of Coral, but as previously discussed in a few posts, algae are everywhere. Talking to one of the staff, he said that every 4-5 years there is damage to the reefs due to the warmer waters (kind of like a cycle). Due to a strong el Nino last year, he calculates that 80% of the reefs were damaged, although some recuperation is already showing. Even with this, there is plenty of healthy corals and critters to see. But one can just imagine what a sight would be if all corals were in good shape. Most good dive sites are in the north side of the island. We did 3-4 dives in the south side and they are not worth it (worse viz, less fish life). Stay at the north side if weather permits. We were lucky that waters were extremely calm during most of our stay (they look like a pool). Fish are the most friendly I have ever seen. Groupers, snappers and black durgeons will come as close as 1-2 feet (obviously if you don’t do sudden movements with hands or feet). A photographers heaven. A few groupers will even let you pet them if you don’t do sudden movements. Tarpoon was less the 4 feet and a few turtles past by 4-5 feet away.

Fish Life: Saw one reef shark, plenty of turtles (3 in just one dive), a 5 ft Tarpoon, stingrays too numerous to count, black durgeons, schools of Horse eyed Jacks, Schoolmasters, Creole Wrasse, and yellow tail snappers. A LOT of juvenile/small fish life, sponges, lobsters, parrot fish, and a conger eel free swimming. But what surprise me was the amount of good size groupers. In every dive we saw 2-3 ft groupers, with the occasional 4-5 footer (the most famous was a 5 ft by the name of Ben) The walls (Bloody Bay Wall and Jackson Bay Wall) are AMAZING! They start at about 30 ft and go straight down to 3000ft (didn’t check personally, but I am told…). Fish swim sideways like if the wall was the floor. Its incredible to be looking away from the wall….just deep blue. My favorite dive sites were the Great Wall (both East and West), Randys Gazebo and Joyce Joy. Here is a short description of all dives and its highlights. Did a 3 min safety stop after each dive. All dive are at the North side and Viz is about 50-60 ft unless otherwise noted. Saw a lot of fish life in each, so will say only the highlife of the dive (might be garden eels instead of turtles…depending on what was seen before). Will not bore you with “wall was amazing” comments, so just place it before each dive…Most deep dives had a swim through or two to do.

1) Meadows. 65 ft for 48 minutes (morning 1st dive) First dive in LC! Wall is spectacular. Plenty of rays 2) Marylin’s cut. 68 ft for 42 minutes (morning 2nd dive) Nice swim through, going out only see deep blue. Saw my first of many turtles on this trip 3) Coconut Walk. 67 ft for 55 min (afternoon dive) Reef shark. A few more turtles

4) Fish eyed Fantasy. 97 ft for 42 minutes (morning 1st dive) A few Cowfish, groupers. 5) Jigsaw (south side). 39 ft for 48 minutes (morning 2nd dive) Not worth it 6) Sotos Wreck (South side) 50 ft for 37 minutes (Night Dive) Small wreck. Super Male parrotfish and big groupers sleeping (can pet the parrotfish). Nice night dive

7) Nancy’s cup of Tea. 100 ft for 37 minutes Black coral, sponges, and great fish life 8) Mixing Bowl. 62 ft for 42 minutes Rays galore. A lot of Fish life under boat. Ben (5 ft grouper) lets you pet it. A few Ben-wanna-bes (3-5ft). 9) Joyce Joy. 66 feet for 40 minutes Spend most of dive going thru this amazing maze of swim throughs. Recommend to Follow divemaster on this one

10) Bus Stop. 101 feet for 40 minutes (morning 1st dive) Garden eels. A few cow fish 11) Great Wall East. 58 feet for 46 minutes (morning 2nd dive) Site at which wall is most vertical. Just amazing 12) Wind Sock (South side). 52 feet for 42 minutes (afternoon dive) Viz a low 25 feet. Not worth it. Checking it out for next day night dive

13) Great Wall West. 99 ft for 42 min (morning 1st dive) Big Trunk Fish. Stingrays 14) Randy’s Gazebo. 60 ft for 40 min (morning 2nd dive) Spectacular. Nice shallow swimthrough (from 20 to 40 feet). School of Horse eyed jacks, snappers. Free swimming conger eel tried to find home in a coral head sorrounded by 3-4 ft groupers. Groupers didn’t like it and went crazy. Eel had to live and find home somewhere else. 15) Wind Sock (South side). Night dive Not much to see. 2 huge crabs and a horseshoe crab. Sotos wreck was a better night dive.

16) Charlies Chimeney. 110 ft for 45 minutes (morning 1st dive) Great swimthrough. 3 turtles on this dive 17) Grandy’s Garden. 48 ft for 53 minutes (morning 2nd dive) 5 ft Tarpoon 18) Gays Reef. 49 feet for 51 minutes (afternoon dive) Lots of fish life

19) Randys Gazebo (by request). 88 feet for 44 minutes (morning 1st dive) Deep swimthrough amazing (from 40 to 80 ft). Lots of fish life. My favorite site 20) Ringers. 30 feet for 30 minutes (morning 2nd dive) Last dive so tears didn’t let me see much. Stayed shallow and short dive to get out of water before 11 am (flight was at 11:00am next day).