Grand Cayman by Case

Grand Cayman, 1999
Author: Case

Posted by Case on September 15, 1999 at 18:05:31:

Well, I must say that compared to the Long Island Sound, GC is ok...

The Resort We stayed at a place called the Spanish Bay Reef, it's an all-inclusive on the north side of the island. Food was good, drinks were wet, and the bartender, Patrick from Ireland, was great to speak with. (actually most of the staff was really friendly) The resort has standard rooms and bungalows, which were very nice, not luxurious though, sort of like a Holiday Inn. But we only slept in them, so who cared? We got the dive package included and the dive shop is right in the resort.

The Diving Our first dive was a beach dive, we missed the boat and decided to just swim out to the first wall. Like most reef on the north side, there are bouys marking the wall, the dive was nice. nothing major to see, but man! the water was so clear! We went to Stingray City twice on the trip. Very exciting. I have three bruises from a damn ray, very aggressive when I had the squid. I took tons of pics here, the wife will remind me I used three shots on a small flounder, but it was cool, it had blue rings. Then I found one of the moray eels that live in the area. We had heard they were around the sand bar along with two nurse sharks. Didn't expect to have a 8 foot eel swim after me - took a couple of pics of it then I swam away, wanted my wife to see it, and the DM too. The three of us swam over and BOOM, the thing swims straight for us. The two girls bolt, leaving me to decide if the eel is hungry, pissed, or really horny. Well I swam for it too. We went back as a full group, a guy had a camcorder and wanted to see it. no probs, it stayed in the rock, posed for pics -I used all my film on the flounder!- and then we left it alone. We had 5 two tank boat dives. The best being Ghost Mountain. Although we didn't see any big fish it was my favorite dive. It just comes out of nowhere, this huge pinnacle in the water. We dove the turtle farm, which has abundant marine life due to the turtle farm flushing it's tanks twice a day -lots of nutrients! Hepp's Pipeline was good too it's a deep wall dive off the turtle farm, saw a spotted eagle ray. The Lemon Reefs (east and west) were nice dives, they are one of the breaks in the north sound. We saw three eagle rays cruising by. They say there have been some sharks playing in the area, but we didn't get to see any. The Oro Verde was a nice dive, we saw a few big groupers, lots of marine life here. but the wreck was all smashed up. The one night dive we did was fantastic. My wife saw a octopus, we saw squid, and could swim up on fish like you wouldn't believe. I fed coral for alot of the dive, "yes sweatheart, I know that's why I missed the Octopus" All the other dives were on the west. Saw some BIG lobster probably 12#'s - though I still say they were 20 ft long. But damn, where are the claws? Not like the bugs here in New England. Saw turltes too. Two of the could have been grabbed and caught if we wanted, they were so close. One guy got some great pics I'm sure! Fantastic dives!

Other Stuff I dove with just a swimsuit for all the dives, the wife used a skin. I couldn't believe people were wearing hoods and 3mils. I used my 3mil for the night dive, felt like a sauna. I almost stripped right there in the water! The boat was great, never more than 10 people diving with 2 DM's - most of the time it was 6 of us. Larry drove the boat and briefed the sites - a canadian living his second childhood - great guy. His birthday is the 8th (i think) of sept. We tried to make sure he was hung over on the 9th (well the day after anyway). Great little dive operation! Highly recommend it. Saw lots of boats with 20-30 divers!!! forget that!

The Restaraunt on Rum Point was fantastic. $126 American dollars for 4 drinks, a appetizer (salad), and two steak. Great meal though. the Barefoot man was on vacation....How can anyone from GC go anywhere for a vacation? Do they ask themselves - "Wonder if Connecticut is nice this time of year?" "wanna go to somewhere not tropical?"

Hell was ummm, great?. Sent the obligitory postcards and snapped a few pics, and saw the turtle farm. total time 45 minutes for both of them.

I was disappointed in Georgetown, seemed very cheap and really lacked any sort of style.

Didn't crash the Rocky, the wife thought I might crash it. I wanted to bring one home, they are cool, rental was included in the resort package - first come first serve three hour time limit. but in the off season they were always available.

That's it. Sorry it was so long. Any questions please feel free to ask.

Case