I've wanted to go to the Cayman Islands for a few years now and finally made it last week. My dive buddy, Aimee, and I left from Dulles airport early on Friday, October 14 en route to Miami. When we landed in Miami, we received an email from the group leader that a tropical depression from the Pacific ocean was crossing over into the Caribbean and might hit the Cayman Islands! I had been looking for storms in the Atlantic and never thought about one coming from the Pacific. We waited around Miami for a few hours then caught a short flight (about 1 hour and 15 minutes) to Grand Cayman Island. It actually takes longer to get to Key Largo from my house than it does to get to the Cayman Islands.
The weather looked great when we landed and we took a taxi to the Marriott hotel in Georgetown for the night. It's a lovely hotel located on Seven Mile Beach with all the amenities you would expect. Wifi was $7.95 for 24 hours and there were three restaurants on site. There was also every fast food chain from the US just off the main street, except for Taco Bell which used to be there but made too much money and had to close - that's the story I heard repeatedly and I have no idea what that means but it doesn't matter because I didn't go to the Cayman Islands to eat fast food from the US. Storms started to roll in late in the afternoon but cleared up that night. The next day we awoke to sheets of rain lashing across the island. We checked out of the Marriott and took a taxi to the Georgetown docks to board the Cayman Aggressor IV which we boarded at 2:00 pm local time. The rain had lessened to intermittent light showers. We meet the crew, set up our gear, talked with people from our group and cast off around 6:00 pm. We headed around the west end of the island and moored off a buoy near the Kittiwake which is located about 1/2 mile off shore on the north end of Seven Mile Beach. We had the meet and greet dinner on the main deck because it was too windy and rainy to eat on the upper deck. The wind picked up so the captain eventually moved us north around the tip of the island. I didn't get much sleep that night, I had never slept on a boat and this boat was moving in all directions.
We awoke to rough seas and squalls but were able to make two dives on Babylon, a wall on the north central part of Grand Cayman. It was very easy to drop down too deep because the water was clear and warm. We hit 85 feet on our first dive, looked at our dive computers and made mental notes to be more careful about our depth. The captain moved the boat further east and we did an after lunch dive on Julie's Place. We only got to do three dives instead of the expected five because the captain wanted to make the 70 + mile crossing between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman where the weather was better. The crossing was very rough with disorganized seas that had the boat pitching, rolling and yawing for nine hours. Only seven of the 18 passengers sat down for dinner, two looked at the food and pushed it away, one took a few bites then went outside to hang over the rails and the remaining three of us ate dinner and felt fine. We went below decks later to sleep and our cabins were littered with stuff knocked off the sink, bed and ledge around the porthole. Aimee was hit by a flying metal tissue box holder and got a cut on her ankle.
The air conditioning broke and the cabins got pretty hot so everyone woke up around 4:00 am. The two month old water pump that circulated the chilled water to all the A/C units had failed. We ate a huge breakfast around 6:45 am and then got our dive briefing at 7:15 am then onto Randy's Gazebo on Bloody Bay Wall on the north side of Little Cayman by 8:00 am for two dives. Absolutely breath taking! 100 foot visibility, calm water, walls that dropped straight down to 6,000 feet. We were careful and did not go below 80. There's a chimney that starts horizontally around 80 feet and then goes straight up for 20 feet, it's a little tight but worth the effort. There are many large groupers about a foot and a half to two feet long that are hand fed and will follow you looking for handouts. They will allow you to pet them and if you approach them from the front you can tickle their chin and gently roll them over. They like freshly speared lionfish and will follow you around like a dog begging for food. The afternoon and night dives were at Meadows nearby. Lots of sharks and lionfish. The sharks will take the lionfish off of the spear and appear soon after a lionfish is speared. They beg as much as the groupers but they won't let you tickle them. We stayed above 70 feet for all three pm dives. A mechanic was flown in with parts while we were diving. He was booked to fly back out of Little Cayman four hours later but the captain pressed him like the old British Navy did to get crews in the 1700 and 1800's. He didn't get off the boat until we did on October 22. The A/C was working by 8:00 pm. The crew busted their butts for us.
We dove Lea Lea's Lookout for the morning dives on October 18. Both dives went deeper than 80 feet. We saw turtles eating along the wall at 70 feet and a large crab hiding in a deformed barrel sponge at about 65 feet. The two afternoon dives and the night dive were at 3 Fathoms. We saw a very large octopus during the night dives. We had to keep a shallow dive profile for all the night dives because of stinging sea wasps. No tank lights were used and we had to ascend to the boat directly from about 20 feet with our lights off and purging air from our octos to create an air pocket to blow the sea wasps away from us.
On the 19th we dove Sarah's Set for some deep dives. We did some rope tying at 100 feet - square and figure of 8 knots. I've been rock climbing for years so I can do those knots in the dark, one handed. My first square knot turned into a granny and I was humiliated and obviously narced. We practiced buddy breathing at 50 feet and a simulated 8 minute deco stop at 15 feet hanging from a chain off the boat. There were lots of rays on the sand that gradually tilted to the drop off. Many of them had fish, but not remoras, hitchhiking on them. It was pretty funny to watch. The rays kept trying to ditch the fish but the fish kept riding on the rays wing. The wind started to pick up and we moved to Bus Top for one afternoon dive and then back to Randy's Gazebo for another afternoon and the night dive. We saw a sailfish approach the dive boat and then zoom off like it was going into warp speed. I could not believe how fast they are.
The captain moved the boat from the north side of Little Cayman to the south side over night. We dove Black Hole for a pre-dawn dive. It's amazing to descend in darkness and ascend in light. We did two more dives there and then moved to Wind Soc for the last dive on Little Cayman. The weather forecast was bleak and the captain had to cancel the last dive of the day in order to get back to Grand Cayman. The sea state was worse on the way back to Grand Cayman but most of the passengers were seasoned sailors by that point and almost everyone was able to eat dinner and keep it down. The A/C broke again around 7:00 pm but the captain couldn't leave the helm to fix it until 2:00 am. We anchored in the lee on the south central side of Grand Cayman for two dives on the 21st. The south side is not used much for diving so the groupers were actually shy and didn't want tickles. We finally docked on the 21st in the afternoon. We had a goodbye celebration in the early evening and then off to Casanova's Italian Restaurant for dinner. Most of us slept on board that night and then we were off by 8:00 on the 22nd.
I highly recommend the Cayman Aggressor. The captain and crew are exceptional. They made every effort to keep us comfortable, safe and happy. They salvaged what could have been a complete washout of a vacation. I'm a vegetarian and they fixed me something special for every meal and snack. The berths are small but each berth has it's own bathroom.
The diving on Little Cayman is spectacular, particularly at Bloody Bay Wall along the north side of the island.
Contact me if you want more information.
The weather looked great when we landed and we took a taxi to the Marriott hotel in Georgetown for the night. It's a lovely hotel located on Seven Mile Beach with all the amenities you would expect. Wifi was $7.95 for 24 hours and there were three restaurants on site. There was also every fast food chain from the US just off the main street, except for Taco Bell which used to be there but made too much money and had to close - that's the story I heard repeatedly and I have no idea what that means but it doesn't matter because I didn't go to the Cayman Islands to eat fast food from the US. Storms started to roll in late in the afternoon but cleared up that night. The next day we awoke to sheets of rain lashing across the island. We checked out of the Marriott and took a taxi to the Georgetown docks to board the Cayman Aggressor IV which we boarded at 2:00 pm local time. The rain had lessened to intermittent light showers. We meet the crew, set up our gear, talked with people from our group and cast off around 6:00 pm. We headed around the west end of the island and moored off a buoy near the Kittiwake which is located about 1/2 mile off shore on the north end of Seven Mile Beach. We had the meet and greet dinner on the main deck because it was too windy and rainy to eat on the upper deck. The wind picked up so the captain eventually moved us north around the tip of the island. I didn't get much sleep that night, I had never slept on a boat and this boat was moving in all directions.
We awoke to rough seas and squalls but were able to make two dives on Babylon, a wall on the north central part of Grand Cayman. It was very easy to drop down too deep because the water was clear and warm. We hit 85 feet on our first dive, looked at our dive computers and made mental notes to be more careful about our depth. The captain moved the boat further east and we did an after lunch dive on Julie's Place. We only got to do three dives instead of the expected five because the captain wanted to make the 70 + mile crossing between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman where the weather was better. The crossing was very rough with disorganized seas that had the boat pitching, rolling and yawing for nine hours. Only seven of the 18 passengers sat down for dinner, two looked at the food and pushed it away, one took a few bites then went outside to hang over the rails and the remaining three of us ate dinner and felt fine. We went below decks later to sleep and our cabins were littered with stuff knocked off the sink, bed and ledge around the porthole. Aimee was hit by a flying metal tissue box holder and got a cut on her ankle.
The air conditioning broke and the cabins got pretty hot so everyone woke up around 4:00 am. The two month old water pump that circulated the chilled water to all the A/C units had failed. We ate a huge breakfast around 6:45 am and then got our dive briefing at 7:15 am then onto Randy's Gazebo on Bloody Bay Wall on the north side of Little Cayman by 8:00 am for two dives. Absolutely breath taking! 100 foot visibility, calm water, walls that dropped straight down to 6,000 feet. We were careful and did not go below 80. There's a chimney that starts horizontally around 80 feet and then goes straight up for 20 feet, it's a little tight but worth the effort. There are many large groupers about a foot and a half to two feet long that are hand fed and will follow you looking for handouts. They will allow you to pet them and if you approach them from the front you can tickle their chin and gently roll them over. They like freshly speared lionfish and will follow you around like a dog begging for food. The afternoon and night dives were at Meadows nearby. Lots of sharks and lionfish. The sharks will take the lionfish off of the spear and appear soon after a lionfish is speared. They beg as much as the groupers but they won't let you tickle them. We stayed above 70 feet for all three pm dives. A mechanic was flown in with parts while we were diving. He was booked to fly back out of Little Cayman four hours later but the captain pressed him like the old British Navy did to get crews in the 1700 and 1800's. He didn't get off the boat until we did on October 22. The A/C was working by 8:00 pm. The crew busted their butts for us.
We dove Lea Lea's Lookout for the morning dives on October 18. Both dives went deeper than 80 feet. We saw turtles eating along the wall at 70 feet and a large crab hiding in a deformed barrel sponge at about 65 feet. The two afternoon dives and the night dive were at 3 Fathoms. We saw a very large octopus during the night dives. We had to keep a shallow dive profile for all the night dives because of stinging sea wasps. No tank lights were used and we had to ascend to the boat directly from about 20 feet with our lights off and purging air from our octos to create an air pocket to blow the sea wasps away from us.
On the 19th we dove Sarah's Set for some deep dives. We did some rope tying at 100 feet - square and figure of 8 knots. I've been rock climbing for years so I can do those knots in the dark, one handed. My first square knot turned into a granny and I was humiliated and obviously narced. We practiced buddy breathing at 50 feet and a simulated 8 minute deco stop at 15 feet hanging from a chain off the boat. There were lots of rays on the sand that gradually tilted to the drop off. Many of them had fish, but not remoras, hitchhiking on them. It was pretty funny to watch. The rays kept trying to ditch the fish but the fish kept riding on the rays wing. The wind started to pick up and we moved to Bus Top for one afternoon dive and then back to Randy's Gazebo for another afternoon and the night dive. We saw a sailfish approach the dive boat and then zoom off like it was going into warp speed. I could not believe how fast they are.
The captain moved the boat from the north side of Little Cayman to the south side over night. We dove Black Hole for a pre-dawn dive. It's amazing to descend in darkness and ascend in light. We did two more dives there and then moved to Wind Soc for the last dive on Little Cayman. The weather forecast was bleak and the captain had to cancel the last dive of the day in order to get back to Grand Cayman. The sea state was worse on the way back to Grand Cayman but most of the passengers were seasoned sailors by that point and almost everyone was able to eat dinner and keep it down. The A/C broke again around 7:00 pm but the captain couldn't leave the helm to fix it until 2:00 am. We anchored in the lee on the south central side of Grand Cayman for two dives on the 21st. The south side is not used much for diving so the groupers were actually shy and didn't want tickles. We finally docked on the 21st in the afternoon. We had a goodbye celebration in the early evening and then off to Casanova's Italian Restaurant for dinner. Most of us slept on board that night and then we were off by 8:00 on the 22nd.
I highly recommend the Cayman Aggressor. The captain and crew are exceptional. They made every effort to keep us comfortable, safe and happy. They salvaged what could have been a complete washout of a vacation. I'm a vegetarian and they fixed me something special for every meal and snack. The berths are small but each berth has it's own bathroom.
The diving on Little Cayman is spectacular, particularly at Bloody Bay Wall along the north side of the island.
Contact me if you want more information.
