Little Cayman

Author: DocVikingo

"There are basically only 5 places to stay on LC: Little Cayman Beach Resort (most upscale & $$ - new beachfront condos are dynamite; boats can be crowded & regimented); Southern Cross Club (laid back beach resort with good, uncrowded dive boats; my favorite); Sam McCoy's (isolated on other side of island; caters heavily to fishermen - great if any of you like Snook fishing); Pirate's Point (best food as owner Gladys Howard used to own/run a gourmet catering service/cooking school in Texas many years ago); Paradise Villas (basic but quite nice cottages near airport -- this can be you cheapest option; eat at nearby Hungry Iguana).

The difficulty here is that all of the Cayman Islands have an embarrassment of superior diving. Site-wise, you definitely will not be disappointed with any of them. IMHO, I would, if forced, rank order them as east end of GC, LC & CB, respectively.

Of course, you must remember that most CB shops make a trip or two a week (at a premium to the basic cost & weather permitting) over to LC to dive Bloody Bay & Jackson Walls, which are superior to any CB sites, while some of the LC shops (same stipulations), go over the CB to do the MV Keith Tibbets. So, you can do some mix & match. If cost is an issue, then CB may well be a better choice. My personal pick would be Southern Cross Club on LC.

LC is very quiet & not for non-divers who need any stimulation/entertainment. Once you've seen the red-footed booby preserve, the museum, the only freestanding bar/grill on the island (Hungry Iguana) & sea kayaked to little, uninhabited Owen Island off the Southern Cross Club, you've done it all. Little Cayman Beach Resort is the upscale spot, with very nice new beach front condo units but surprisingly "motelish" regular rooms. Has a nice tennis court. Boats were crowded & diving regimented, though. Also stayed with the Southern Cross Club next door & liked it much better -- both atmosphere & diving considerably more relaxed. Went over to Cayman Brac one day to dive the MV Keith Tibbets (named after the brother of Linton Tibbets, owner of the LCBR & potentate of LC). A 330" Russian frigate built for Cuba in 1984 & sold to CB for $275,000 in 1996 for wreck diving, it has aluminum decking & superstructure & is disintegrating daily. If you're into this sort of thing, better see it soon. LC ops do about 2/week at a small premium. Group at LCBR were very well-heeled, well-traveled & well-educated -- can be a bit pretentious. If you do LCBR, get the "All In Diver's Package" which includes everything, including alcohol (beer is $4+ per pop).

LC sites you will want to see include: Divers Delight; Pirates Point Reef-lots of finger reefs large number fish small number of crab & spotted eel; Great Wall West (part of the Bloody Bay Wall dive sites - Bloody Bay and Jackson's Wall are areas consisting of multiple dive sites) Tremendous vertical wall. Large turtles & some spotted eagle rays; Lea Leas Lookout; Grundy's Garden; Joy's Joy-an excellent wall dive with some Kool swim throughs; Mixing Bowl; Randy's Gazebo - IMHO opinion best chimney in the Caymans. It's just big enough for one. Watch for the lovely & semi-rare Florida coralimorphs at the exit; Sara's Set-multilevel coral reefs with sand trenches in between; Barracuda's Bight-shallow wall dive; Bus Stop; Nancy's Cup of Tea. Ben & Jerry, a couple of friendly Nassau Grouper, are often about. Light up a small morsel for them on your night dive (Blue Tang a favorite) & you'll realize that Hoover is strictly minor league."

This should get you started.

DocVikingo