Grand Cayman, 2/99, by Rocky

Our flight connections where just too tight and we barely made it, as did our luggage.

One couple, of our group of three had a poor initial night at Treasure Islands which they repaired by moving near our condo at GrapeTree/CocoPlum.

While the rest setup 'shop', my buddy and I decided we had time before our business dinner to get in a shore dive. Sort of a checkout dive and to begin a mongo-dive week.

Shore diving was nice, though we didn't see much and used the time to hone navigation skills.

A worthy note was water temps where 77 degrees, a drop from the normal 80 or so. This chilled me beyond my thick, polar-tech shorty. As you know, when the going gets tough, the weak go shopping. A 2mm head cap solved the heat loss, though I really needed a full length suit.

Next we hooked up for two tanks on the North Wall and found the sites in good shape with tarpon and some really big groupers. Best yet was the Bottlenose eating reef fish!

That afternoon we beat it over to the East End for two tanks. Jack Mckinneys was nice and two BlackTips where 'conveniently' on-site. Next was one of the best sites on the island. Snapper Hole provided a visual feast of abundant fish (including eels, shrimp, cowfish and two schools of tarpon), clear water and great coral formations. I do have a question about the large Spanish Anchor there… given its age, did the coral head lift the anchor vertically?

The next morning, we met at the South Side dock near the football field for three tanks and enjoyed Japanese Gardens - a top site. On another site I saw my first daytime squid - too cool! That afternoon, we dove the North Wall again (benefits of two boats) for a great site with big groupers, one that we got real close to because it thought it was hiding behind a big sea fan!

The next day another 4 tanks on just too calm water North Side. One of my favorites, Ghost Mtn, now as a mooring. Ghost Mtn supports the thickets black coral forest. This site is a must as you drop to 120, go through a tunnel and spiral up this Saba like pillar. This day the North Wall yielded Eagle Rays, turtles, tarpons, grouper, lobster and tons of breath taking relief.

The next day, again the North Wall was calm and we did London Bridge and a trip (for the floaters) out to stingray where we spent an hour exploring and watching two moray eel 'rodeos'. Also, the stingrays where considerably aggressive, and no, I did not have a secret squid in my BC!

The next two tanks on the North Wall where more challenging as the weather turned and seas where oh boy up! Diving was good though and we got real close to a 6 foot ... debatable waho or barracuda.

We finished on the South Side where seas where better and visibility was good.

All in all, I'd say that fish life was improving, the coral was nominally bleached and Nitrox is good. Also, I let DM's, and several others try my "Spilt Fins" (Bio-Fin Pros) and while I initially got an expected round of kidding, all, yes ALL liked them and felt they performed better, without penalty! No problems turning and I think because of their speed, all DM's should try these. Also, on all dives, I came up with an average of 1450lbs. on an average bottom time of 48 minutes which I attribute to the fin's efficiency.

We did hear about a pod of whales (could have been pilots) 4-5 miles off the North-East point and would have loved to have seen them.

We dive mostly with the Cayman Marine Lab and "O-F" on East End.