Grand Cayman trip report 7-6-09

[jerrycsr]

Just got back from Grand Cayman where my group stayed 7-7-09 to 7-11-09.
A wonderful time was had by all. Here's some info, pics, stuff about our dives, dive ops, shore dives.

We stayed at Villas of the Galleon, prepared all of our own meals, dove with Cayman Diving School, Ocean Frontiers, and did shore dives with Dive Tech at both Lighthouse Point condos and Dive Tech at Cobalt Coast.





ACCOMMODATIONS: Villas of the Galleon

Villas of the Galleon is located on a very sweet spot of 7 Mile Beach. It sits between the Ritz Carlton and The Westin. The white sand beach was beautiful. It was interesting to note that the beach was not crowded in any respect. There were plenty of sun chairs to lay out on and there were shade trees and several umbrellas to get out of the sun.

Here are a few pics of the beach with sunsets which were spectacular:

 

[jerrycsr]

The Villas of the Galleon condos were clean and comfortable. We got a two bedroom unit. Number 54 if you're interested in knowing. The condo had television, a dvd player which played American format dvds, cd player, internet connection in the kitchen but you'll need to bring the internet cable to attach your laptop to it. Maid service was every day while we were there and she would bring us fresh towels and spruce the place up, make the beds, et cetera. The air conditioner worked great and kept us nice and cool in the heat of the afternoon. I would stay here again in a heartbeat. The only thing I didn't like was that the condo didn't have a safe but we secured our valuables another way so it wasn't a problem.

Here are some pics of the condo:

Master bedroom:

The other bedroom with an extra roll away bed:

kitchen:

We grilled practically every night on the bbqs behind the condo. Buy some charcoal and something to light it with. Yes, that's my nephew using a dive light to check if the bacon wrapped scallops are good to go.

Here's a low fi movie of living room area:

villaslrmovie.flv video by jlafortworth - Photobucket



Also convenient was that five minutes away by car was Fosters Food Fair, a well stocked supermarket. It had everything we needed and we ate all of our meals in. We brought with us on the plane a small igloo packed with lobster tails, shrimp, scallops and t-bones. We managed to get it through customs. If you want more details about this, email me.

Here's another lo fi movie of what the grocery store looks like inside in case you wondered:

Fostersmovie.flv video by jlafortworth - Photobucket

 

[jerrycsr]

We wanted to do some shore diving while we were in Grand Cayman so we went to Divers Supply. They had everything you need to rent. We picked up tanks and weights and one BC for our group. In retrospect, we could have rented gear from every place we had a chance to shore dive (Cracked Conch, Eden Rock, Compass Point, Cobalt Coast) but we wanted to dive the evening we flew in and Divers Supply is open until 9:00 p.m! We picked up our gear and headed to Eden Rock posthaste.

 

[jerrycsr]

Our first dive was the day we flew in about 8:30 at night, Eden Rock. Great night dive. I skipped Eden Rock and headed straight to Devil's Grotto which is the floating buoy to the left of the Eden Rock buoy. Along the way we spotted little schools of squid looking for food. One small squid came right up to my dive light and "tasted" my lens.

The next day we dove with Cayman Diving School also known as Cayman Six Pack Divers. They dive the west side primarily and the north wall as weather permits. Very professional, friendly and pleasant. We wanted to dive Trinity Caves as our first deep dive but the mooring was already taken. So our dive master tied up at the dive site called Round Rock and we added one of the "caves" of the Trinity Caves site at the end. Very enjoyable. Saw an eagle ray. Our secondary shallower dive was at a site called Angel Fish. Also a good dive. Lots of little fish everywhere.


Shot of the six pack boat.

Beginning the dive:

Shot of Trinity Caves here:

 

[jerrycsr]

The following day we got up early to dive on the East End with Ocean Frontiers. It took about an hour to drive from Seven Mile Beach to their location at the Compass Point Condominiums. Just look for the aqua blue building on your right.

The staff at Ocean Frontiers was everything I had heard. They set up our gear, were friendly and helpful and professional. They set up a couple of lines to hang onto for safety stops, and there was an air line set up also just in case.


There was some weather so we didn't get to dive our requests which was Iron Shore Gardens and Maggie's Maze. Instead we did Babylon as our deep dive, and then Little Bluffs as our secondary shallower dive.

Babylon is a great dive and we could have done it from shore but it was nice to have the convenience of the boat. great dive. You swim along the edge of the wall and then go through a swimthrough and exit out onto the wall. The corral buttresses tower above you and it's very impressive.

At Little Bluffs we were allowed to follow the dive master or go on our own. We went on our own and had a good time. Didn't spot anything big but the reefs were in better condition than they were on the west side.

Bottom line, I wish I had had more time to dive with these folks.

Lo fi movie of Compass Point condos where Ocean Frontiers is at:


compasspointmovie.flv video by jlafortworth - Photobucket




Doing a safety stop:

Towering buttresses at Babylon:

Here's a shot of the shore line while we were moored at Babylon.

 

[jerrycsr]

The following day we did the shore dive at The Cracked Conch. This is just a few minutes north of Villas of the Galleon. This is an excellent shore dive, just about our favorite, and little to no current on the day we went. You park in the parking lot of the restaurant, carry your gear up to where the bar is and suit up. There is a dive shop on site to get weights and tanks there. There is a ladder to get in in a protected U-shape area. A short swim out and drop down to 50 feet and head left along the wall. There was a good size school of tarpon hanging out which really made the dive special. If you're going to shore dive, definitely hit this spot.

Cracked Conch parking lot:

Tarpon

We timed it just right for the beautiful sunset there. We hung out and had a cold beer at the bar after we rinsed our gear and were drying out before we headed back to the condo.

 

[jerrycsr]

The next day we did The Cracked Conch dive again for one of our members who didn't dive the previous day. Then my brother and I headed to the first of the two Dive Tech locations for shore diving. Dive Tech is at Lighthouse Point Condos and also they have a shop at Cobalt Coast, the resort.

We drove to Lighthouse Point Condos and walked into Dive Tech, got our tanks rented a few minutes before they closed at 5:00. The dive is marked on a large diagram at the shop. You swim out to the buoy, drop down and follow the guide cable that takes you out to the wall. We swam out to the buoy marker on top of the water to conserve our air supply and we did fight some moderate current. Then we dropped down, located the cable and began to hand over hand it to the wall. It doesn't take long. About three minutes on the cable. You come to two pinnacles of corral and go through the cut between them and you're out over the blue abyss. We dived along the wall at 100 feet until we hit 1500 and swam up to the lip of the wall and over. We hit some pretty strong current we couldn't make headway against underwater the direction we wanted to go once we got over the lip. So we relaxed, did our safety stop and surfaced. Once we reached the surface, it wasn't a problem getting back. We parked our tanks, rinsed our gear and enjoyed another spectacular Cayman sunset.


Here's the map of the dive and it shows the cable out to the wall:

Lighthouse Point:

Sunset at Lighthouse Point:

Here's a lo fi movie of what the spot looks like:

DSCF3785.flv video by jlafortworth - Photobucket

 

[jerrycsr]

Another shore dive we did was at Cobalt Coast. Dive Tech is the resident dive shop there. This time we rented underwater scooters. We tried to swim out all the way to the buoy marker that marked where the cable line goes out to the wall but the current was a little strong. After a while, we dropped down, turned on the scooters, found the cable and headed out to the wall. Some of the divers had seen a hammerhead hanging out there but we unfortunately didn't see it. Enjoyable wall dive. It was my first time diving by scooter and it was much fun to skim over the sand and the corral with a minimum of effort.

We got in here:

Low fi movie of Cobalt Coast property:

cobaltcoastmovie.flv video by jlafortworth - Photobucket

Afterwards, we did a sail to Stingray City. People are no longer allowed to feed the stingrays by hand. That's a good thing. They were getting obese. Now only the dive master or swim master feeds them. It's a shallow area, a sand bar, and you stand around with hoards of people while the rays swim by you and to you looking for the squid. A number of people lifted the rays up out of the water. We went out on a large motorized trimirand sailboat. We made two stops and headed back. On the way back they hoisted the sail and it was very relaxing.

The following day we had to leave. We still had enough time to snorkel behind Sunset House. The corral looked good and the viz was really good. There is a wreck and a mermaid statue to see. Both were about 50 feet down. Wear a dive skin or some cover. We all got stung by something out there. We didn't use tanks as we were flying soon, but enjoyed freediving down to the wreck and statue.
This would be a great spot for a shore dive/night dive.

 

[txteachers]

Great report and loved the pictures!!!

 

[Jersey]

Thanks for the report, the pics are an added bonus! 1st timer on island in Sept... can't wait!