Trip Report Cayman Aggressor IV Trip May 2016

[drrich2]

P.S.: I made a good faith trip over time leading up to this trip researching the Cayman Islands as a destination, and proof-reading my research notes. If I made any substantial errors or omissions, please let us know. It's not practical to meaningfully list every dive op. or place to stay, so I aimed to include some of the most commonly and positively discussed. I just read Dive Tech is about to announce a new location at the Holiday Inn Resort on the water in the North Sound of Grand Cayman, with a number of non-diver activity options, so this thread is open for people to share fine options that might interest someone considering a Caymans trip. My notes were compiled from info. by others, not my own experiences, so I linked to source material & cited references. After all, trusting someone else's info. is involved in planning any new destination. Hope it's helpful.

Richard.

 

[KathyV]

Excellent research and summary information, Richard - thank you! This is valuable information and I am sure that it will help many Caribbean travelers looking for a vacation destination. One minor comment, the Sunset House is immediately south of Georgetown and south of the Seven Mile Beach.

I see that you dived Devil's Grotto, we haven't dived there in a long time because the reef has been beaten up by heavy traffic; but I know that the silversides frequent that site during the summer - did you get to dive with the silversides, how was it?

Finally, what was your overall impression of the Caymans as a Caribbean dive or vacation destination? I recognize that it is an expensive destination but would you go back if you found another good deal? Of course, there are a lot of other places to visit - and so little time!

 

[drrich2]

Didn't see the silversides. Plenty of tarpon & horse-eye jacks. Only saw tarpon on this dive, and at the start of the trip when the boat was in its original port in Grand Cayman. No tarpon on the night dives off Little Cayman. We had some jacks (not horse-eye; bigger, sorta bluish, don't know what kind) follow us on late dives.

I really enjoyed the Cayman Aggressor. Along with Turks & Caicos and the Lighthouse Atoll & Turneffe Atoll regions out of Belize, Little Cayman is viewed as amongst the best of the Caribbean diving. Glad I went. Would enjoy it again. For someone who dives the Caribbean, seems like making it out to the Bloody Bay Wall strip off Little Cayman ought to be on the bucket list. My trip would've been worthwhile at regular price, but the 32% Aggressor sale made it a great buy. I hear the diving in Turks & Caicos via live-aboard tends to be deep; the Cayman Aggressor IV or one of the Belize Aggressors sound like better 'starter trips' to me, with T&C maybe later?

On a cruise ship stop, I've been to the Turtle Farm and done a dolphin swim and stingray encounter on Grand Cayman before, and one can use Trip Advisor or a cruise ship excursion list to get a sense of what's offered. For a family trip with broader interests, it'd be a good choice. If we're blessed with the means when our toddler is older, I'd consider it - but weigh it against Curacao, Cozumel, maybe Ambergris Caye in Belize?

If I were after better diving, I could aim for the east end of Grand Cayman, but that's away from the other action; why not head to Little Cayman Beach Resort? But that's mostly diving, and I'd need to bring a buddy or go with a group (to avoid paying a singles supplement).

Richard.

P.S.: Thanks; I still had time to edit & fix it so the original post put Sunset House south of 7 Mile Beach.

 

[KathyV]

Didn't see the silversides. Plenty of tarpon & horse-eye jacks. Only saw tarpon on this dive, and at the start of the trip when the boat was in its original port in Grand Cayman. No tarpon on the night dives off Little Cayman. We had some jacks (not horse-eye; bigger, sorta bluish, don't know what kind) follow us on late dives...

I've never seen the silversides but I have seen many more tarpon around Grand Cayman than around the sister islands. I've recently seen tarpon when snorkeling at the turtle nest inn and we saw loads of tarpon when shore diving Turtle Reef last year. They do a tarpon feeding event every night at The Wharf restaurant in Georgetown.

 

[dmoore19]

Great report!!

I had similar experiences to yours. I went 2 years ago with a group and had 10 days and 37 dives for the same price as the 7 day package.

The report you did was one of the best trip reports I have ever had the pleasure to read. Thanks.

 

[KathyV]

...I hear the diving in Turks & Caicos via live-aboard tends to be deep; the Cayman Aggressor IV or one of the Belize Aggressors sound like better 'starter trips' to me, with T&C maybe later?...

IIRC then most of the walls in the Caymans do start more shallowly than in the T&Cs, and I remember on our most recent T&C Aggressor liveaboard trip that a few of the divers stated they preferred staying near the top of the wall on some dives. And I recall one couple declining one or two dives because they were a little too deep for their preference.

But after checking my log book I see that most of our T&C dives were in the 60 to 100 foot range, some a little deeper and some a little shallower, but that was the typical range and about the same as our Cayman Aggressor dives. I think it may be a bit harder to find shallow sites in the T&Cs, so the Caymans may be better for a new diver or someone that just prefers shallow dives. But I think that most recreational divers will still be able to find a comfortable depth range in the T&Cs.

I had issues with air consumption rate when I was a newer diver and I learned to prefer shallow depths just to make my air last longer, but I was okay during our first T&C liveaboard trip more than 20 years ago. Even though air consumption is usually not an issue any longer, I still often tend to "shallow up" as the dive progresses and I've never had "too deep" issues in the T&Cs.

If the T&Cs are on your Caribbean diving bucket list then I suggest a liveaboard trip. That may be a bit presumptuous because I have never done any land-based diving in the T&Cs and a lot of people say that it's great. But I've read about long boat trips to the reefs and heard that the best diving isn't available from a land-based operator. The liveaboard diving around French Caye and West Caicos is fantastic. Beautiful healthy walls, lots of sea life, and many large animals including turtles, eagle rays, morays, and sharks on just about every dive. A bit different from Little Cayman and not many "friendly groupers" but on the same level of excellent diving as Bloody Bay Wall IMO. I have never done any diving from Grand Turk or the other T&C out islands so I cannot comment about those sites.

Perhaps someone that has spent more time diving the T&Cs and the Caymans can provide more information.

If you do take a T&C liveaboard trip some day, try to spend a little time on Provo, it is a lovely and enjoyable vacation spot. It is less developed than Grand Cayman but it is just as expensive IMO. Grace Bay Beach is fabulous, even nicer than Seven Mile Beach IMO.

 

[drrich2]

This is not the 1st time I've read of T&C compared to Grand Cayman, as a rather expensive destination with great beaches and excellent diving with things for non-divers to do if you go land-based.

That said, I'd aim for a live-aboard; both the Turks & Caicos Aggressor & Explorer boats have excellent reputations from what I read. If anyone's interested on that issue, check out the thread on Picking a Caribbean Live-aboard. My thinking on this:

1.) Get more of and the better quality of diving by traveling solo to a live-aboard trip.

2.) For an expensive destination, bringing along non-diving family ramps up cost substantially, yet binds me to land-based cutting way back on the number of dives.

3.) I am not heavily enamored of the 'beach experience' - I could lay in a lounge chair & roast on the back deck at home in the summer if I craved sunburns. I'm chubby and getting into my late 40's; I don't run around in sand chasing volley balls, either.

Richard.

P.S.: One other tip I meant to add. If you pack a scuba tool, put it in your checked (not carry on) luggage. On the way back, it was taken at Security, and the only way I could've gotten it back would've been to go back through security to get it into checked luggage. Travel makes me neither patient nor interested in new adventures. From I understand, it's not permissible to take a 'tool' into the plane in carry on luggage (I did explain it was not a knife).

 

[KathyV]

This is not the 1st time I've read of T&C compared to Grand Cayman, as a rather expensive destination with great beaches and excellent diving with things for non-divers to do if you go land-based...For an expensive destination, bringing along non-diving family ramps up cost substantially, yet binds me to land-based cutting way back on the number of dives...I am not heavily enamored of the 'beach experience' - I could lay in a lounge chair & roast on the back deck at home in the summer if I craved sunburns...

I am not crazy about the pricey beach experience either, I am fair-skinned and overheat and burn in the sun. That's one of the reasons we like Bodden Town with its' less expensive location and easy snorkeling when we are on Grand Cayman, but Grace Bay on Provo is truly a lovely spot.

Richard, I know that you sometimes take advantage of dive opportunities when on a cruise with family so I wanted to mention that Grand Turk has a cruise terminal and the island offers land-based diving, but I have never been to Grand Turk so I don't know what it is like. But I can guess that it will be expensive. The $US dollar is the official unit of currency in the Turks and Caicos but it doesn't buy much!

Going back to your trip on the Cayman Aggressor, how was the deep water crossing from Grand Cayman to Little Cayman? I remember getting very seasick during that crossing. I stayed on the upper deck all night trying to sleep and I remember that it started to rain (just to make me feel even more miserable!) so I dragged my lounge chair under the sun roof to try and stay dry.

I wasn't the only one up there, others were feeling ill also. One of the crew members brought towels or blankets up for us. But I was fine the next day and didn't have any more bouts of seasickness during the rest of the trip and we had fantastic weather all week. How was your crossing?

 

[drrich2]

We could definitely feel the 'motion of the ocean' on the crossing from Grand Cayman to Little Cayman; I'd liken it to lying on a water bed. Not bad for me, and IIRC I heard it was better than the week before. There was a group of Italians on board, and evidently one was prone to motion sickness; she was up on the sundeck in a lounge chair and throwing up. The return was less of an issue, and it's my understanding that's usually the case. My point is, our crossing may have been one of the better ones.

If someone is prone to sea sickness, that someone might want to have med.s known to be effective & well-tolerated for them, be on those med.s in advance (the old saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure comes to mind; preventing sea sickness tends to be easier than resolving it), and if it were me, I'd take some sort of (legal) sleep aid.

Thankfully I don't have much trouble with sea sickness, but my wife & my old dive buddy are quite prone to it. From what they tell me, it's an awful feeling, and debilitating.

Richard.

 

[tkaelin]

Thanks for your detailed informative and thoughtful report.