Grand Cayman/Little Cayman

Author: Paul Marshall

If you wanna read this, disconnect now, it's long but worth it (IMHO)

Hi Guys, got back from CI on Tues (which is more than can be said about my luggage, but that's another story!) after spending almost 3 weeks there staying with relatives.

You remember that I posted in the group about 2 months ago wanting to find out about certification etc etc, so I went, got BSAC certified here in N Ireland & gleaming CCard in hand boarded the plane to Grand Cayman.

During my time there, I dived 7 times (not many but it was a family trip primarily as well as a diving one) 5 of those were shore dives from the West end and 2 boat dives on Little Cayman (Awesome).

Dive 1 - 2/7/99 - Seaview Dive Center, Just out of Georgetown. My first dive post-certification, I teamed up with some ex-pats living there who were friends of my cousins (we ended up doing all bar one dive together)

It felt rushed initally as one of the other divers had forgotten his cert card and all sorts of calls ensued to verify certification before his tank would be released to him. Whilst this was being sorted I waited in line whilst the rest of the group kitted up, by the time the card business was sorted, they were ready, he was getting ready and I was saying "hello I've never dived in tropical waters before and I'd like BC, Reg, tank, fins and weights please".

"How much weight do you want?" she asked, Hmmmm I thought (almost see the 'thinks' bubble). "I take 34lbs at home in a dry suit what would you estimate?" The lady gave me that look that tropical-only divers give cold-water divers that kinda says "you're MAD" and said "I have no idea, but my friend is just a bit taller than you and a bit bigger (read fatter) and he takes 12lbs" I opted for 11.

Carrying my stuff to the preparation area I was confronted with 4 prepared divers itching to go, so I assembled my gear, ran quickly thru my checks, said a quick prayer and proceeded to the ladder. At the ladder I insisted that I 'adopt' a buddy and I ran thru the checks I had been taught, and demonstrated the hand signals that I was familiar with. "Gosh you BSAC people are thorough aren't you" was the response. Nuff said.

I was given a brief dive plan which was to swim to a buoy, drop down, swim around the wall/reef, signal half air and swim back in sub-aqua.

On the swim out I lost my snorkel and realised that my reg had had the gripper bits bitten off, however I felt confident enough to continue... Just

We dropped in pairs to around 40ft onto a sandy base where we saw a turtle straight away, there were two 3ft hoops there (I've no idea why, but I assume for training for swim thrus or for amusement [?]). We continued onto the reef (not forgetting that this was my first post certification dive, and my first tropical dive) and I was amazed at how clear it was (although my buddies informed me later that it was unusually unclear because of inclement weather of recent days).

On the swim to the wall I encountered my first giant sponges, coral and many fish that I couldn't even have a go at naming, I regognised a huge grouper though. I felt overbuoyant, (however I later realised that I was overweighted and overcompensating with my BCD, also my inexperience meant that I was breathing deeply and quickly which caused me to become more buoyant, furthermore I had to dive with my hand holding my reg in my mouth as the grips were missing). My first wall was incredible, it sloped away rather than being sheer but big blue was there and the sensation of being suspended was wonderful, we poked around a bit and returned back to the sandy bit where we had initially descended, we swam back under the water to the shore checking out another turtle, some angel fish and loads of smaller fish. The coral on the swim back was less colourful and actually looked dead, but I was so exhilarated by the experience that I didn't really care.

On exiting I asked about the weighting and it appeared that about 6-8lbs was the average loading, although one 'athletic' chap, Keith, in our group used no weighting whatsoever.  I was able to cut back my weights to 4 lbs by the end of the trip.

Depth Max 25m, dive time 45 mins cost $26 CI (about £20)

Dive 2 - 5/7/99 - Divetech Turtle Reef, north west tip-ish of Island

We were joined on this dive by a BSAC instructor with 1000+ dives under his belt, so I immediately felt more comfortable. This was the Dive shop that I had been mailing for the last month so it was good to meet Nancy & the team, I gave her the small things I had brought for her and I exchanged currency for the same dive gear as previously, this time $CI 20.

Similarly, we swam out to a buoy about 150m off the ironshore, descended to 23m over sand where we saw a flying gurnard (apparently) and proceeded to swim around the small wall, it was awesome, plenty of swim thrus, although I was concentrating more on keeping pace than seeing what was there to be seen. Colin the instructor suggested that the group (5 divers) split into 2 smaller groups comprising fasties and slowies, I joined the slowies (3) and we spent time looking at stuff, which was cool. We saw turtles again and a vide variety of corals and sponges, even crabs living/hiding inside the sponges. We ascended on top of the reef to about 10m and swam slowly back over the top of the wall, which was ace as I could see the places that I'd just swam under, it was nice to leap wide gaps in a single kick!.

We made our way back to the dive ladder although I had a brief encounter with the ironshore that ensured that I'd stay well away in future!

Max depth 23m, dive time 48 minutes, cost $CI 20 (£16ish)

Dive 3 - 10/7/99 - Eden Rock

I was supposed to dive twice this day, this Eden Rock dive in the morning and a scooter dive at the turtlefarm that afternoon. The former is described below, the latter didn't happen - sadly.

Again, we were joined by the DI Colin who told us that the plan was to drop at the buoy, find the gap in the rock and go thru an enclosed swim thru onto sand where we'd tootle about & look for tarpon. We were also given an alternate plan which was to swim over the swim thru and meet at the sandy bit. His final words were not to be affected by the plaque in the swim thru which was a tribute to 2 divers who had lost their lives in that particular place. We all swam over!

We met on the sandy bit & entered the Swim thru from the big exit, we saw the plaque, paid our respects (I did anyway) and exited the way we came in. The rest of the dive was awesome, more swim arounds rather than swim thrus, and the Tarpon were there, Just hanging there, it's kinda eerie seeing your first Tarpon shoal, but a barracuda woke me up and we explored some more. This was an interesting dive, plenty of life, turtles, lobsters and those swim arounds/thrus. I enjoyed this immensely As with the previous dives I saw a turtle.

This was perhaps my favourite dive on Grand Cayman although the dunk tank and the shower were putrid (reservoir tank water).

Max Depth 11m - dive time 45 mins - cost $CI 25 (£20ish

Dive 4 - 13/7/99 - Seaview Dive Center

Only one of the previous divers was available to dive this day (the rest were working-aaah god bless 'em)

The weather had been hairy for the previous day so it was choppy and huge thunder clouds had been hanging around all day, we could see a water spout some way off but moving in a different direction. We essentially replicated the first dive but really slowly and without going so far along the wall, it was better than the first because we stopped and looked at loads of stuff. My buddy had problems equalising so it took about 5 minutes to descend.

Again we saw the turtles, I spotted a BIG barracuda (c 4ft - that's big to me!) with a smaller one in tow and a huge grouper poking it's head out of a hole.

Dive time 50 mins - Max depth 25m - cost $CI11 (I had managed to borrow BCD & Reg)

Dive 5 - 14/7/99 - Seaview Dive Centre - Night Dive

We had to think twice about diving this night, it was raining, there was an electrical/thunder storm and it was windy, however we went for it.

I had already dived Seaview twice & I was quite familiar with the layout underwater, however jumping into black water over ironshore on a stormy night is not a fun way to spend a Wednesday night! However, torch on, mask held firmly and a big step into the water sorted me out. We descended almost immediately and swam out. I found it vaguely familiar, which struck me as strange, even tho I couldn't figure out why (later to realise that it reminded me of my training in Strangford Lough!) There was not as much life as I had hoped, most of the fish seemed to be sleeping (strange how I had never thought of fish as needing to sleep), esp the parrot fish with their heads down in a nook in the rocks, we saw some lobsters and shrimp and we managed to swim far too close together with the result that I kicked Dympna's mask off (whoops sorry Dympna) however she recovered (only to tell me later that she had never totally removed her mask in the water, even in training), it was ok but not as much fun as the daytime stuff.

The lightning is awesome from under the water & I could have sworn that I heard the thunder too, however we got out safe & sound thanks to some nifty navigation by Keith and we had a hot toddy in the bar just to warm us up. (several if the truth be known!)

I would go again but in better weather conditions and with the understanding that we space out a bit more.

Max Depth 13m - dive time 39 mins - cost $CI 11 (£8 ish) (borrowed BCD & Reg)

Dive 6 - 17/7/99 - Bloody Bay Little Cayman

And to think this was only a week ago!

My cousins had presented me with an aeroplane ticket and villa reservation for a 1 night stay in Paradise Villas on Little Cayman, they muttered something about being sick of the sight of me! So I duly flew to Little Cayman at 7.45 am last Saturday in a Twin Otter island hopper, great flight, great view and what a place, we landed on a hard fill airstrip and they had to stop a car to let the 'plane taxi to it's halt (quaint eh!), we disembarked & I was asked to step off the baggage conveyor, a pallette! We were met by Marc and the beautiful Sabine from Paradise villas/divers who loaded our luggage into the back of his pickup and drove us the 20 yds to the hotel check in [:)], where I also ordered my gear.

We walked the 50yds to the villas and were picked up 20 mins later by Paradise divers (i.e. Marc) who took us, the women next door and, via the islands resort hotel, a retired GI (he was in vietnam you know) & his son for the 10 minute drive to Bloody Bay on the other side of the Island. We boarded the boat & sailed to Marilyn's Cut.

I stepped off the boat into an aquarium with its very own reef!. I cannot explain how clear this water was, those who have seen similarly clear water will know what I am talking about; without fear of contradiction, I could see 100 yds and then some. WOW!

A swim thru to 70ft (the aforementioned Marilyn's Cut) complete with green Moray eel led to the famous North Wall which was sheer and dropped 6000ft apparently (we didn't get to find out!). I use the word Awesome in its correct and proper fashion in describing the sensations, physically and visually, of hanging in space in the midst of beautiful yellow red green and purple sponges, every imaginable colour of coral and these velvet fish, all against a turquoise nothingness, whoooooaw.

I could describe this in intimate detail, so vivid was the colour and the feeling, however you get the drift!. We swam the wall for 20 minutes then returned to below the boat at about 10m where we spent the ramainder of the dive, exploring the reef; we were introduced to Ben & Jerry, 2 brown/green striped groupers, of 4ft & 3ft respectively (my perception) who liked to be hugged! I didn't get to be hugged because they had buggered off by the time I'd reached them, damn, next time maybe!.

Dive time 50 minutes-ish - max depth 20m - cost $US 34.50

We surfaced and boarded the boat & moved to the next dive site

Dive 7 - Cumber Caves - Bloody Bay - Little Cayman

Surface Interval 1 Hr

The first thing that struck me when we stopped the boat was the colour of the water, kind of a cobalt/neon blue. I realised why when I entered the water. We had anchored 15m over a pure white sand bed. On descending I noticed small black fish hanging around just off the bottom, as we reached the bottom, the dive leader waved his hand at the sand and a stingray appeared and swam off, closely followed by the small black fish, there were 30 or 40 of these things in a fish tank 40 yds square, with reefs surrounding 3 sides and a fall away on the fourth, *Awesome*. We swam over the reef on the side away from the shore which took us to the wall again, it was equally stupendous, with huge crabs and a dizzying assortment of small/med fish. I spotted a pair of Barracudas shadowing us and hastily tucked my silver talisman under the shoulder of my BCD.

We came back around the wall to the big aquarium again where we spent the rest of our time, If I could safely have done so, I'd have been like a kid in a sweetshop, just playing with being weightless, saw toothing, but I was too safety conscious for that and just luxuriated in bathing in the warm, colourful, vibrant and constantly changing environment that surrounded me. This is the life!

Oh yeah, one of the dive leaders was hanging off the line blowing air rings (probably an underwater chat-up thing!<g>), tacky but pretty cool to be able to do anyway.

Max depth 15m - dive time 50 mins - cost $us34.50

The dive over we boarded the boat and were taken back to shore and then, in the back of the pickup, back to the villas, 10ft from the door, now that's service!

The evening was passed away in the Hungry Iguana (as was lunch time come to think of it) and suitably pissed I tried to gain entry to my chalet but my buddy Keith had locked me out, so I slept on the Girls' couch (honestly Guv!), The next morning we lifted a couple of bikes (they belong to the hotels & are free) went for a swim/tub, lay in the sun a while, cycled to the villas, then went to see the iguanas (I got lunged at by one, and I have the video to prove it!), who have their own private road as well as having right of way on all the roads on the island, yes both roads! honestly!

I'll digress off topic but it's relevant to the caribbean experience. The Paradise Villas are on the beach, literally. open the back door & you step out onto a porch, step off the porch and you're on the beach, complete with grapenut trees that, yes you guessed it, had hammocks slung between them. The beach sloped down past some boulders (you'd imagine that they'd have had the decency to remove the boulders :) onto the ironshore and the crystal blue waters inside the reef which was 100 yds away.

For $50US each , it'd be worth it just to be there!

I has positively been the best holiday I've ever had.

Anyway I'm back with a suntan, jetlag, a conch shell, great recordings of thunderstorms, new friends, and wonderful wonderful memories. I just thought I'd share them with you.

Paul