Reidster
Contributor
Grand Cayman:Cobalt Coast Dive Resort / DiveTech Trip Report
March 30 - April6, 2013
We made our firstdive trip to Grand Cayman and stayed at Cobalt Coast Dive Resort. It was a 3 and a half hour nonstop flight fromDetroit to Grand Cayman. Cobalt Coast is a small resort - one building, maybe20-25 rooms on the north/northwest side of the island. My wife and I traveledwith another couple and we stayed in a 2 bedroom suite on the 2nd floor- rooms 20& 22. To get to our gear, we justhad to make a few steps down the stairway to where the lockers are located. The room was plenty large enough. The meals were served outdoors right below usand right along side of the pool. Theydo have an inside serving area in case of inclement weather-which was used thelast morning we were there as winds were very high. The wait staff were very efficient . Breakfastwas very good - opened at 6:45 every morning and served buffet style. There was fresh fruit available every day, alongwith scrambled eggs, pancakes, french toast, bacon, sausage, muffins, potatoes,etc. Dora, the manager was very, verynice and we even saw her on a dive later in the week!!! Arie, the owner returned midweek from being off the island. He came around and chatted with people duringa couple of the meals. Very nice, hospitable individual.
We got the mealplan (and wife the all inclusive plan - which included up to 5 premium drinksper day). Lunch was ordered off of the same menu every day - fish sandwicheswere very good as were the burgers. There was a menu for dinner, but they also offered a special each night. Dinner consisted of an appetizer or salad,main entree and dessert. Overall, thefood was good. I'm a picky eater and Idid not go hungry. Dinner was served from 5-8:30-if you do a night dive you canlet the wait staff know of your choice and when you get back they will have itready for you after you've had a chance to clean up. Very accommodating.
DiveTech is thedive operation on sight. Its office isliterally a few feet from where meals are served and right below where ourrooms were. They are an extremelyefficient operation with 2 boats. Uponarrival on Saturday afternoon, we were hoping to get in a shore dive, but theconditions were too rough: 4 - 6 footers crashing into the dock. We were bumming, but Mother Nature was incharge. They did not have their 2 boats docked out front. It had been too rough to bring them in thereso they were kept elsewhere. Afterchecking in and learning shore diving was not available, we learned how theprocess would work in the morning: get your gear from the lockers, load it into apickup truck and hop into one of two 10-passenger vans and get shuttled to theboats. This initially caused me to getskeptical: I was hoping we would just walk down to thedock and hop on the boats, but conditions would not allow that while we were there. The shuttling wasn't bad-about a 20 minutedrive to the farthest point and maybe 10 minutes to the shortest. It offered a nice chance to chat with theother people who were on the boat and see the other parts of the island.
All of the DiveStaff were very friendly, helpful and fun to be with. Typically, they put two dive masters or divemaster and instructor in the water - one to lead, one to bring up therear. The option was given if buddyteams wanted to go off on their own. Thedive briefings they gave were the best I've ever experienced: before each dive the lead DM would make a 3Ddrawing on white marker board, using different colored markers to describe thesite (as a teacher - I was impressed and appreciated their efforts). Each dive was to be about an hour - mostpeople were on the boat in about 40 minutes, but some were able to get thathour dive in. The first dive of themorning was a deeper wall dive, the 2nd dive a shallower reef dive. Most divesites registered 79⁰ F and the visibility was outstanding on most sites - 100 feet+. We found the coral to be in very goodcondition.
Below are the divesites we visited and the highlight of the dive. We dove Nitrox all week and were on the same boat all week"Atatude".
Sunday, March 31
Dive #1: RoundRock. 74 Feet / 34 minutes. My wife hadsome issues with her BC- very subtly self inflating-making it difficult todescend. Ended up disconnecting theinflator hose (She has an Pearl i3) and dove without it unattached the rest ofthe week. Typically a nervous diver,especially at the beginning of a trip, this did not kick the week off very wellfor her.
Dive #2: Oro Verde(wreck). 50 Feet / 50 Minutes. Coolleopard flatworm (?). Some of the usualsuspects.
Dive #3: Kittiwake(Submarine rescue ship- sank January 2011). 63 Feet / 43 Minutes. $100 chargefor this. Awesome dive!!! The boat was divided into two groups - each lead by a DM - those that wanted do alot of "penetration" and those that minimally wanted to"penetrate". It is opened upvery well. The rooms we went into there clearly was a way out - actually wentinto the bathroom and the mirrors were still on the wall - cool. We never went into an area where we had toturn around - always an opening to swim towards. Did see a spotted eagle ray pass by while wewere outside the wreck at one point.
Monday, April 1
Dive #4: HeppsWall. 104 Feet / 39 Minutes. Swimming Green Moray Eels / many snapper.
Dive #5: OceanPoint. 71 Feet / 53 Minutes. 1st Turtleof the Week. One DM did some lionfishhunting - brought back about 8 of them.
Dive #6: CobaltCoast House Reef. (Shore Dive) 69 Feet / 34 Minutes. The House Reef - the mini wall is quite aways out and with the surge coming in, it took awhile to get out there. Should have done a surface swim a lot fartherout than we did. Spotted Moray Eel,Turtle, and Scorpionfish in the shallow water on the way in.
Dive #7: CobaltCoast House Reef (Shore Dive - Night Dive). 72 Feet / 49 Minutes. Bummer - nooctopi or squid. 3-4 Spotted Moray Eels, a Southern Stingray and several YellowStingrays. Several lobster. We did a much longer surface swim- muchbetter.
Tuesday, April 2
Dive #8: BigTunnels. 103 Feet / 44 Minutes. SeveralTarpon waiting for us in the crevasses (not really tunnels).
Another freeswimming Green Moray Eel and spent some time close to a small turtle.
Dive #9: BonniesArch. 71 Feet / 57 Minutes. Coolarchlike structure right at the beginning of the dive. Very "fishy" dive.
Dive #10: LighthousePoint. 65 Feet / 40 Minutes. (Shore Dive). This is DiveTech's other location. Let them know over at Cobalt Coast that you want to dive over there(about 10 minute shuttle ride) and when you're ready, they take you over- justlet them know. Complete outfit -weights, tanks, rinse tanks, snacks, gift shop, , etc. Nice set up. The mini-wall is much closer in than the Cobalt Coast location. Surface swam a ways out. Yellow stingrays and2 turtles along with a peacock flounder that was fun to follow on our way in.
Wednesday, April 3
Dive #11: OceanPoint Ledge. 95 Feet / 43 Minutes. Quite a few lionfish on this dive. One large turtle.
Dive #12:Catamaran. 61 Feet / 52 Minutes. A little bit of a current on this dive.
Dive #13: StingRay City. 13 Feet / 57 Minutes. 81⁰ on this awesome, shallow dive. DM fed squid to the Southern Sting Rays - it is cool to do this dive atleast once!!!
Dive #14: CobaltCoast House Reef (Shore Dive - Twilight Dive). Water very "surgey" . Did the surface swim out and the surgeseemed to change directions on the way in - came in a little off target! 2 turtles.
Thursday, April 4
Dive #15: PrincessPenny's Pinacle. 102 Feet / 48 Minutes. Saw one of the coolest events - a poor octopus was yanked out of acrevice at about 130 feet by some snapper - that attracted several more snapper- the octopus would get away for a bit then another one came and got him . . . he'd get away thenanother one would come and get him . . . poor octopus (the only one I saw onthe trip!) . . . the fish won thisbattle. Taylor Hicks - winner ofAmerican Idol a few years was on the boat this day - my wife recognized himright away!!!!
Dive #16:Harlequin. 61 Feet / 57 Minutes. Beautiful dive. Very fishy. 2-3turtles.
Dive #17:Lighthouse Point. 66 Feet / 48 Minutes. (Shore Dive). Went the opposite we wenton dive #10. Very fishy dive.
Friday, April 5
Dive #18: MainStreet. 106 Feet / 42 Minutes. Swim through at about 100 feet. 1 large turtleand very fishy up on top of the wall.
Dive #19: Last one- bummer. Spanish Bay. 63 Feet / 61 Minutes. Few Yellow Stingrays, came upon a sleeping nurse shark (only one of thetrip) - woke up and scurried away. Very fishyup on top of the reef. Scorpionfish whowas sitting on top of a coral head spread his fins - beautiful colors! Usuallythey are sitting still barely able to tell them from other parts of the reef.
Saturday, April 6
DepartureDay. The waves were huge - 6 - 10 feetthis morning!!! Sad to be leaving. Overall, we had a great time - met some nice people from St. Louis,Chicago and Canada. It was also KidsSeaCamp the week were there - young kids getting to experience dive instructionfrom DiveTech's staff while their parents went diving.
Coabalt Coast is a"no frills", homey resort. Itwas not crowded at all. DiveTech's staff were very professional, helpful,knowledgeable and accommodating. They dohave some resort pets - a cat actually found her way into our room and wassnuggled up on our friend's bed the day we arrived! There are a couple of dogs who are veryfriendly and will visit you during your meals - if it bothers you, they willsense that and stay away.
Our trip home toDetroit via Atlanta was an adventure. Wewere supposed to land in Detroit at 8:30 Saturday night. Wearrived at 10:15 AM Saturday morning for our 1:00 PM flight to Atlanta - endedup not leaving until about 2:30 AM Sunday!!! The incoming plane developed a flat tire - a new one had to be flown in,resulting in the crew timing out - thus leaving at 2:30 AM. Thankfully, we were able to leave the airport for about 12 hours . . .could not imagine staying in that small airport for that long, as many of thepeople did. We landed at about 5:30 AMin Atlanta with no flight to Detroit. Wewere sent to one gate to try to get on a 7:20 flight - we arrive at the gate -no seats available. Sent to anotherterminal and gate to try to get on the next flight to Detroit - 9:10 (which ourfriends were able to get on) but no seats available for my wife and I -wewaited and waited until they released the last two seats to us. Arrived back at our house at about 2:00 PMSunday. What a way to end a fabuloustrip!!!
March 30 - April6, 2013
We made our firstdive trip to Grand Cayman and stayed at Cobalt Coast Dive Resort. It was a 3 and a half hour nonstop flight fromDetroit to Grand Cayman. Cobalt Coast is a small resort - one building, maybe20-25 rooms on the north/northwest side of the island. My wife and I traveledwith another couple and we stayed in a 2 bedroom suite on the 2nd floor- rooms 20& 22. To get to our gear, we justhad to make a few steps down the stairway to where the lockers are located. The room was plenty large enough. The meals were served outdoors right below usand right along side of the pool. Theydo have an inside serving area in case of inclement weather-which was used thelast morning we were there as winds were very high. The wait staff were very efficient . Breakfastwas very good - opened at 6:45 every morning and served buffet style. There was fresh fruit available every day, alongwith scrambled eggs, pancakes, french toast, bacon, sausage, muffins, potatoes,etc. Dora, the manager was very, verynice and we even saw her on a dive later in the week!!! Arie, the owner returned midweek from being off the island. He came around and chatted with people duringa couple of the meals. Very nice, hospitable individual.
We got the mealplan (and wife the all inclusive plan - which included up to 5 premium drinksper day). Lunch was ordered off of the same menu every day - fish sandwicheswere very good as were the burgers. There was a menu for dinner, but they also offered a special each night. Dinner consisted of an appetizer or salad,main entree and dessert. Overall, thefood was good. I'm a picky eater and Idid not go hungry. Dinner was served from 5-8:30-if you do a night dive you canlet the wait staff know of your choice and when you get back they will have itready for you after you've had a chance to clean up. Very accommodating.
DiveTech is thedive operation on sight. Its office isliterally a few feet from where meals are served and right below where ourrooms were. They are an extremelyefficient operation with 2 boats. Uponarrival on Saturday afternoon, we were hoping to get in a shore dive, but theconditions were too rough: 4 - 6 footers crashing into the dock. We were bumming, but Mother Nature was incharge. They did not have their 2 boats docked out front. It had been too rough to bring them in thereso they were kept elsewhere. Afterchecking in and learning shore diving was not available, we learned how theprocess would work in the morning: get your gear from the lockers, load it into apickup truck and hop into one of two 10-passenger vans and get shuttled to theboats. This initially caused me to getskeptical: I was hoping we would just walk down to thedock and hop on the boats, but conditions would not allow that while we were there. The shuttling wasn't bad-about a 20 minutedrive to the farthest point and maybe 10 minutes to the shortest. It offered a nice chance to chat with theother people who were on the boat and see the other parts of the island.
All of the DiveStaff were very friendly, helpful and fun to be with. Typically, they put two dive masters or divemaster and instructor in the water - one to lead, one to bring up therear. The option was given if buddyteams wanted to go off on their own. Thedive briefings they gave were the best I've ever experienced: before each dive the lead DM would make a 3Ddrawing on white marker board, using different colored markers to describe thesite (as a teacher - I was impressed and appreciated their efforts). Each dive was to be about an hour - mostpeople were on the boat in about 40 minutes, but some were able to get thathour dive in. The first dive of themorning was a deeper wall dive, the 2nd dive a shallower reef dive. Most divesites registered 79⁰ F and the visibility was outstanding on most sites - 100 feet+. We found the coral to be in very goodcondition.
Below are the divesites we visited and the highlight of the dive. We dove Nitrox all week and were on the same boat all week"Atatude".
Sunday, March 31
Dive #1: RoundRock. 74 Feet / 34 minutes. My wife hadsome issues with her BC- very subtly self inflating-making it difficult todescend. Ended up disconnecting theinflator hose (She has an Pearl i3) and dove without it unattached the rest ofthe week. Typically a nervous diver,especially at the beginning of a trip, this did not kick the week off very wellfor her.
Dive #2: Oro Verde(wreck). 50 Feet / 50 Minutes. Coolleopard flatworm (?). Some of the usualsuspects.
Dive #3: Kittiwake(Submarine rescue ship- sank January 2011). 63 Feet / 43 Minutes. $100 chargefor this. Awesome dive!!! The boat was divided into two groups - each lead by a DM - those that wanted do alot of "penetration" and those that minimally wanted to"penetrate". It is opened upvery well. The rooms we went into there clearly was a way out - actually wentinto the bathroom and the mirrors were still on the wall - cool. We never went into an area where we had toturn around - always an opening to swim towards. Did see a spotted eagle ray pass by while wewere outside the wreck at one point.
Monday, April 1
Dive #4: HeppsWall. 104 Feet / 39 Minutes. Swimming Green Moray Eels / many snapper.
Dive #5: OceanPoint. 71 Feet / 53 Minutes. 1st Turtleof the Week. One DM did some lionfishhunting - brought back about 8 of them.
Dive #6: CobaltCoast House Reef. (Shore Dive) 69 Feet / 34 Minutes. The House Reef - the mini wall is quite aways out and with the surge coming in, it took awhile to get out there. Should have done a surface swim a lot fartherout than we did. Spotted Moray Eel,Turtle, and Scorpionfish in the shallow water on the way in.
Dive #7: CobaltCoast House Reef (Shore Dive - Night Dive). 72 Feet / 49 Minutes. Bummer - nooctopi or squid. 3-4 Spotted Moray Eels, a Southern Stingray and several YellowStingrays. Several lobster. We did a much longer surface swim- muchbetter.
Tuesday, April 2
Dive #8: BigTunnels. 103 Feet / 44 Minutes. SeveralTarpon waiting for us in the crevasses (not really tunnels).
Another freeswimming Green Moray Eel and spent some time close to a small turtle.
Dive #9: BonniesArch. 71 Feet / 57 Minutes. Coolarchlike structure right at the beginning of the dive. Very "fishy" dive.
Dive #10: LighthousePoint. 65 Feet / 40 Minutes. (Shore Dive). This is DiveTech's other location. Let them know over at Cobalt Coast that you want to dive over there(about 10 minute shuttle ride) and when you're ready, they take you over- justlet them know. Complete outfit -weights, tanks, rinse tanks, snacks, gift shop, , etc. Nice set up. The mini-wall is much closer in than the Cobalt Coast location. Surface swam a ways out. Yellow stingrays and2 turtles along with a peacock flounder that was fun to follow on our way in.
Wednesday, April 3
Dive #11: OceanPoint Ledge. 95 Feet / 43 Minutes. Quite a few lionfish on this dive. One large turtle.
Dive #12:Catamaran. 61 Feet / 52 Minutes. A little bit of a current on this dive.
Dive #13: StingRay City. 13 Feet / 57 Minutes. 81⁰ on this awesome, shallow dive. DM fed squid to the Southern Sting Rays - it is cool to do this dive atleast once!!!
Dive #14: CobaltCoast House Reef (Shore Dive - Twilight Dive). Water very "surgey" . Did the surface swim out and the surgeseemed to change directions on the way in - came in a little off target! 2 turtles.
Thursday, April 4
Dive #15: PrincessPenny's Pinacle. 102 Feet / 48 Minutes. Saw one of the coolest events - a poor octopus was yanked out of acrevice at about 130 feet by some snapper - that attracted several more snapper- the octopus would get away for a bit then another one came and got him . . . he'd get away thenanother one would come and get him . . . poor octopus (the only one I saw onthe trip!) . . . the fish won thisbattle. Taylor Hicks - winner ofAmerican Idol a few years was on the boat this day - my wife recognized himright away!!!!
Dive #16:Harlequin. 61 Feet / 57 Minutes. Beautiful dive. Very fishy. 2-3turtles.
Dive #17:Lighthouse Point. 66 Feet / 48 Minutes. (Shore Dive). Went the opposite we wenton dive #10. Very fishy dive.
Friday, April 5
Dive #18: MainStreet. 106 Feet / 42 Minutes. Swim through at about 100 feet. 1 large turtleand very fishy up on top of the wall.
Dive #19: Last one- bummer. Spanish Bay. 63 Feet / 61 Minutes. Few Yellow Stingrays, came upon a sleeping nurse shark (only one of thetrip) - woke up and scurried away. Very fishyup on top of the reef. Scorpionfish whowas sitting on top of a coral head spread his fins - beautiful colors! Usuallythey are sitting still barely able to tell them from other parts of the reef.
Saturday, April 6
DepartureDay. The waves were huge - 6 - 10 feetthis morning!!! Sad to be leaving. Overall, we had a great time - met some nice people from St. Louis,Chicago and Canada. It was also KidsSeaCamp the week were there - young kids getting to experience dive instructionfrom DiveTech's staff while their parents went diving.
Coabalt Coast is a"no frills", homey resort. Itwas not crowded at all. DiveTech's staff were very professional, helpful,knowledgeable and accommodating. They dohave some resort pets - a cat actually found her way into our room and wassnuggled up on our friend's bed the day we arrived! There are a couple of dogs who are veryfriendly and will visit you during your meals - if it bothers you, they willsense that and stay away.
Our trip home toDetroit via Atlanta was an adventure. Wewere supposed to land in Detroit at 8:30 Saturday night. Wearrived at 10:15 AM Saturday morning for our 1:00 PM flight to Atlanta - endedup not leaving until about 2:30 AM Sunday!!! The incoming plane developed a flat tire - a new one had to be flown in,resulting in the crew timing out - thus leaving at 2:30 AM. Thankfully, we were able to leave the airport for about 12 hours . . .could not imagine staying in that small airport for that long, as many of thepeople did. We landed at about 5:30 AMin Atlanta with no flight to Detroit. Wewere sent to one gate to try to get on a 7:20 flight - we arrive at the gate -no seats available. Sent to anotherterminal and gate to try to get on the next flight to Detroit - 9:10 (which ourfriends were able to get on) but no seats available for my wife and I -wewaited and waited until they released the last two seats to us. Arrived back at our house at about 2:00 PMSunday. What a way to end a fabuloustrip!!!
