Cayman Brac in the winter; risk of choppy seas and cancelled dives?

[morecowbells]

Typically we visit Curacao in Feb. Not only for the shore diving, but consistent warm temps. Due to last year's Covid restrictions, we visited Cozumel instead. We lost a couple of days diving due to a northern system moving through and making the seas too choppy for any diving. Is this a common occurrence in Cayman Brac? Airfares to Curacao, Bonaire and Roatan are outrageous from St. Louis. There are some reasonable fares to Cayman Brac. We were there a couple of years ago and thoroughly our vacation.

 

[AggieDiver]

i don’t think it is too big of a problem on Brac. They have good dive sites on the south side of the island for when the wind turns to the north and northeast. The channel from the lagoon comes out on the south side of the island, so about the only thing that completely shuts down diving is strong southerly winds. It can be a little more of a problem on Little Cayman because there are only a few protected sites on the south side, and they can get pretty murky with a strong northeast wind coming down both sides of the island.

 

[KathyV]

I was about to say the same thing as @AggieDiver. Although I have never been to the Cayman Sister Islands in the winter, I have been there during the fall when there were high winds and choppy seas. I like both Brac and Little Cayman for similar and different reasons. I think that they both have nice features but Brac is usually the safer choice when the weather is rough because you'll have more options for diving on different sides of the island depending on the direction of the winds.

Little Cayman has the Bloody Bay Wall and it is spectacular and perhaps the best diving I've experienced in the Caribbean, but when it's too windy to dive BBW there are few other dive options around LC and they are just okay. I remember one trip to LC when it was quite windy and we spent a few days diving the south side and we were underwhelmed, but when we finally got out to BBW it was really choppy and the Dive Masters tied down the ladder for a few days to make it easier to get back on board.

There's also a bit more to see and do on land on Brac, and if you haven't dived the Russian Frigate (Tibbetts Wreck) that's a fun dive to do and there are plenty of other good dive options, too.

If the weather is nice, the CBBR dive op usually offers guests the option of spending a day off Little Cayman diving Bloody Bay Wall; while the LCBR dive op offers their divers the opportunity of traveling over to Brac to dive the Tibbetts Wreck - and a good time is usually had by all!

You can never be sure that the weather will cooperate, wherever you decide to go, but we've always enjoyed our stays at both of the Clearly Cayman resorts on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman because they offer great diving, excellent food, and nice people in beautiful locations.

Have a great trip to Brac!

 

[PatW]

It can happen. Both LCBR and BBR are on the south sides of their respective islands. The docks are within a lagoon. They get access to the open sea via a “cut” through the barrier reef of the lagoon. If the weather is really rough, they don’t go out. Usually that occurs as a result of hurricanes and storms that make things really rough. Just because it is really choppy on the south side, does not mean they are not going out. They will just round the west end of the island and dive the sheltered north shore. LCBR tries to do the vast majority of their diving on the north side at Bloody Bay Wall. CBBR does most of their diving on the north side. However, some of the best diving at CBBR is on the south side. The Deep South side walls are really good as are the shallow sites.

I have dived the two resorts well over 10 times and I think the most I have missed in a week is 2 days. And I think it has happened just twice. The dive op will compensate by doing 4 dives per day rather than 3 until one is made whole (or at least they did, it might not be current policy).

I think we dove The Brac in the winter once. The weather was from the north. It was choppy on the south side but not bad. It was cool. I think it ran 70 degree with a stiff breeze. The water was fine about 78 degrees. But the surface interval got pretty cold. Oh, when the dive the south side at Brac, they often do the surface interval at the resort. Some of the nicest shallow sites are just a nearly 0 minute boat ride.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I was a dive instructor on Brac. Blow-outs are no more or less common than in Cozumel or other places in the Caribbean in the winter months and during hurricane season. One thing to consider is inland diving opportunities. That's something Cozumel has over Brac. You can always do a cenote dive day if you get blown out in Mexico. There isn't much to do on Brac if you are blown out, I used to go dry caving when not in the water on Brac. Most Brac operators go to Little Cayman as well. So, you may have the opportunity to dive a site like Bloody Bay Wall on Little Cayman during your Brac trip.

 

[AggieDiver]

I was about to say the same thing as @AggieDiver. Although I have never been to the Cayman Sister Islands in the winter, I have been there during the fall when there were high winds and choppy seas. I like both Brac and Little Cayman for similar and different reasons. I think that they both have nice features but Brac is usually the safer choice when the weather is rough because you'll have more options for diving on different sides of the island depending on the direction of the winds.

Little Cayman has the Bloody Bay Wall and it is spectacular and perhaps the best diving I've experienced in the Caribbean, but when it's too windy to dive BBW there are few other dive options around LC and they are just okay. I remember one trip to LC when it was quite windy and we spent a few days diving the south side and we were underwhelmed, but when we finally got out to BBW it was really choppy and the Dive Masters tied down the ladder for a few days to make it easier to get back on board.

There's also a bit more to see and do on land on Brac, and if you haven't dived the Russian Frigate (Tibbetts Wreck) that's a fun dive to do and there are plenty of other good dive options, too.

If the weather is nice, the CBBR dive op usually offers guests the option of spending a day off Little Cayman diving Bloody Bay Wall; while the LCBR dive op offers their divers the opportunity of traveling over to Brac to dive the Tibbetts Wreck - and a good time is usually had by all!

You can never be sure that the weather will cooperate, wherever you decide to go, but we've always enjoyed our stays at both of the Clearly Cayman resorts on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman because they offer great diving, excellent food, and nice people in beautiful locations.

Have a great trip to Brac!

It’s kind of funny, I used to feel the same way about the LC south side sites, but a few weeks ago we got to dive the south side sites with the wind straight out of the north. The seas were calm and vis was good and we had several really nice dives there. Unfortunately, most of the time you dive those sites it is with a ENE or NE wind that is rolling swells down both sides of the island. It creates a longshore flow through the lagoon that empties all the murky water right onto the only really sheltered sites on the south side. With a north wind, the south side was dead flat and the visibility was 100+ feet. Made a big difference in how I saw the sites.

 

[AggieDiver]

It can happen. Both LCBR and BBR are on the south sides of their respective islands. The docks are within a lagoon. They get access to the open sea via a “cut” through the barrier reef of the lagoon. If the weather is really rough, they don’t go out. Usually that occurs as a result of hurricanes and storms that make things really rough. Just because it is really choppy on the south side, does not mean they are not going out. They will just round the west end of the island and dive the sheltered north shore. LCBR tries to do the vast majority of their diving on the north side at Bloody Bay Wall. CBBR does most of their diving on the north side. However, some of the best diving at CBBR is on the south side. The Deep South side walls are really good as are the shallow sites.

I have dived the two resorts well over 10 times and I think the most I have missed in a week is 2 days. And I think it has happened just twice. The dive op will compensate by doing 4 dives per day rather than 3 until one is made whole (or at least they did, it might not be current policy).

I think we dove The Brac in the winter once. The weather was from the north. It was choppy on the south side but not bad. It was cool. I think it ran 70 degree with a stiff breeze. The water was fine about 78 degrees. But the surface interval got pretty cold. Oh, when the dive the south side at Brac, they often do the surface interval at the resort. Some of the nicest shallow sites are just a nearly 0 minute boat ride.

As you said, it is typically only shut down by a storm to the south of the Caymans. They will go out with big swells as long as the swells are not too steep with a short period between swells. My experience has usually been that it takes about 6 ft swells with a short period before they reach the point they won’t try to go out.

 

[morecowbells]

Thank you everybody for taking the time to respond, bringing up a lot of great points.

 

[KathyV]

@morecowbells If you are looking for a place with alternative options if the weather is rough, you might also consider St. Croix in the USVI. I've only been there twice, one of the trips was on a liveaboard and the weather was good and we dived the reefs on both the north (Christiansted) and west (Fredricksted) sides of the island.

The most recent trip was land based in November 2020 and we only did one dive on the North side because it was so windy and choppy the entire time we were there, but we were able to dive the rest of the time on the calm West side because our dive op (St Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures) had boats stationed on both the north and west sides.

I've never been there in February but during our experiences the diving was really good and we had opportunities to do wall dives, reef dives, wreck dives, drift dives, and the Fredricksted Pier is one of the best shallow water shore dives that I've done in years!

It reminded me of the Town Pier dive in Bonaire back when that was available to divers. It's a very long pier and sometimes the dive boat will drop you off at the far end of the pier on the way back from your afternoon dive. Then you can work your way toward shore along the pier and climb out when you are ready to exit.

We saw a wide range of sea life around St. Croix. Some big stuff like sharks and rays and small stuff like seahorses and octopus. There was some algae but the reefs were pretty healthy - but again we haven't been back since 2020, so I don't know the current status of the reefs.

However, it was quite easy to travel to St. Croix during the height of the pandemic because we weren't leaving the US. We did have to show the results of a recent negative covid test but we didn't need to have another test to get back to the US mainland. Plus our regular health insurance and our car insurance were both valid on St. Croix.

We didn't even need to show a passport to enter or leave the island, just an ID, but we did have to go through Customs when we were departing the island. However, each person is allowed to bring back 4 liters of liquor duty free (you can add a 5th liter if it is a St. Croix product like Captain Morgan or Cruzan Rum!) We brought back a lot of rum to give as Christmas presents that year!

One strange thing about the USVI is that they drive on the left side of the road even though they are American territories - because the islands used to belong to Denmark before the US bought them.

Anyway, if you have never been there then it's another option to consider.

 

[tkaelin]

I don't recall that Feb was a month of more frequently bad weather days. December was the month of concern with northers possible that could blow out multiple days.