Jamaica and Grand Cayman Dive reports...

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Itote

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Polk City, Florida at heart, but my behind is in G
Well, I'm back. No worse for ware considering that I tried to drink all of the Meyers Rum that was available on the cruise ship(note to self: Self, it is not possible to drink all of the rum available on a cruise ship so dont try it anymore)That being said, I had a wonderful time. I made two unscheduled dives in Jamaica(by unscheduled I mean I hadn't planned to dive there but my friend Kevin talked me into it) Let me go back and say that Me and my family, my best friend of 25 years and his family and another very good friend of ours and his family all booked the same cruise so we could go together. Very good time had by all! Back to the dive stuff.... Anywho, Kevin and Bo(our other buddy) hadn't planned on diving but took there gear along just in case. I had my stuff cause I had already booked a dive for the Caymans. ..... So Bo and Kevin decided they wanted to dive while we were at Port in Jamaica and asked me to go along. After much argument(yeah right) I reluctantly agreed to go. Not having previously made arangements to dive we hussled off the ship and ventured forth to find a dive op. Turns out there was one right where you get off the ship.After a couple of minutes of discussion I had got us three spots on the boat(turned out to be the same op that was waiting for people off the cruise ship. We paid our $70 smackers and boarded. After loading everyones gear, we went out to our first dive site which was the Jamaica Grande. It was a wall dive. The DM said we were going to 70 feet and look around for a while then make our way back to the line and resurface as a group. Anyway, we descended and start to prowl around. I was shocked at the lack of life on the reef. We saw a school of blue Wrasses of some sort and a couple of Jumbo Caribbean crabs of some kind. If it wasnt for catching a glimpse of a big Eagle Ray the dive would have been like going diving in a pool. I mean there wasn't squat to be seen. The reef was white and covered in slime and the usual fishes wasn't no where to be seen. I forgot to mention that we wern't tied to a permanent bouy of anykind, the captain dropped anchor on the reef and when we got back to the line I noticed that the anchor had drug acroos the coral and broke a bunch of it off before finally getting hung up. Not that it much mattered because it was all dead anyway.Needless to say I was not impressed with the dive or the crew. We all ascended ok and got back on the boat after 28 mins. By the way, my max depth was 99 feet, the rest of the groups depth was 94 feet. Very irresponsible of the crew no? Second dive was to a wreck. It was the Kathryn. She sits in 50ft of water and is very intact. The DM said he wanted me, bo, and Kevin to be a team, so we all dropped together. Actually, me and kevin dropped and waited for Bo to group up with us. He was having a hard time with his mask I was about 2 or 3 feet off the sand just hanging out and he came down past me in a flat spin and made kind of a poof in the sand when he hit bottom. After fighting his mask for a minute or two, he signaled ok and we begin to look around. We swam around the wreck then we went up to the wheel house and penetrated it. It has an open top so it not really what youd call a penetration but why split hairs. There was more life on the Kathryn than on the reef so it was more interesting. After 10 minutes or so the DM motioned for the group to follow him. We swam 20 or 30 yards from the wreck and went through a maze of swim thrus in the reef. It was interesting, but I honestly dont remember seeing the first fish. After a few minutes of this we reboarded the boat and headed back to the dock. As far as the diving went , it stunk. No fish, and what was worse was the crew. That was absolutely the worst dive op I've ever been with. Me and a Gentleman by the name of Harry were the only two with an AOW. Everyone else was just OW. I'm not saying I'm better, but the depths we went to on the first dive was definitely what I'd call a deep dive.As for the dive op, if thats all I had to choose from, I'd quit diving and take up knitting or someting. They were hurry, rush, pay me!!!! Our SI was only like 32 mins or so and if it wasn't for my computer, I know I would have blew out a chart. Yet there reply was "It's OK Mon".
I dont recall the name of the Op but I will post it when I check my log book.
 
We left Jamaica monday evening about 5pm and sailed towards the Caymans.We arrived in Grand Cayman about 7am or so tuesday morning. After the ship tendered I caught a boat to the dock to hook up with our Dive op for the day. Kevin and Bo didn't dive with me that day, but my new friend Harry did. I had met him the day before in Jamaica on the dive boat. Turns out he was on the same cruise ship with us so we decided to be dive buddies for the Caymans. I'm glad we met. Harry is from Jacksonville Florida. I'd say he's probably about 60 or so. He was with his family and a church group on vacation. He is retired Navy with 27 years of diving for Uncle Sam under his belt. A nicer person you'll not find anywhere! Anyway, we hook up with our charter. It was Red Sail Sports. Let me say that the Captain and Crew were excellent!!! They were very professional and very safety conscious, and to date is the best op I've yet to dive with. They were very knowledgeable about the dive sites, and you could tell they were passionate about there jobs. A complete opposite from what I'd seen the day before in Jamaica. Harry and myself asked for Nitrox but there wasn't any on the boat. So what does the Captain do? He has four tanks delivered to the boat by way of jet skis just to accomodate us. 33% right on the money. Our first dive was the Eagle's Nest right on the Cayman Wall. It was named for a giant Barrel Sponge that used to be there back in the 70's. I guess the hurricanes took care of it, but the name stuck. If you havn't ever dived Cayman, then you just couldn't possibly understand just how blue and how beautiful it is. I saw everything on the first dive that you could ever wanna see. Turtles, Sharks, every kind of reef fish there is, A manta, barracuda, rays, grouper, hogfish, and snapper big enough to eat a small child.The deepest I hit was 91 feet on the side of the wall. It was awesome to look over the side and look straight down into the blue depths. I was told it's over two thousand foot deep down there. Can you imagine? Me and Harry swam out aways and turned and looked back at the reef. Just breath taking! We finished our dive and went back to the mooring line and made our ascent. While we were doing our safety stop a turtle came crusing by. There was a hookah rig down for us incase someone ran low on air. The crew said there was absolutly no reason to blow a safety stop.
Our second dive was on the wreck of the Oro Verde (Gold Green in spanish) The Oro Verde was a navy vessel turned banana boat turned drug runner that was sunk in a reef program. The Captain of the Oro Verde decided that he wasn't gonna make enough money haulin Bananas to retire comfortably so he decided that 15 tons of Jamaicas finest would help. He went ashore in Georgetown to take care of some business and the crew discovered his cargo. I guess maritime law states that all aboard a vessel get equal punishment for such activities. Upon the Captains return the crew pointed this out and told the Captain that since they shared the risk, they should share the wealth. In about two words the Captain told them what he thought about that. Shortly after they set sail the crew mutinied and tied the Captain to an anchor and tossed him overboard in about three thousand feet of water where, as far as anyone knows, he's still taking a permanent safety stop. It wasn't long after this that the crew realized they tossed the only one who was familiar with the waters around the islands overboard. Long sory short, they ran aground, jumped ship and blended in with the locals. The police didn't have a clue as to how to get rid of 15 tons of Gonja so they decided to burn it. Legend has it the predominant winds shifted and the whole island stayed high as a bat for three days. After sitting in the harbor for a few years Ol Bon Soto inquired about buying the 180ft vessel to become an artifical reef. Since he had never bought one, and since the Caymanian government had never sold one, nobody knew what kind of money needed to change hands. It ended up being sold for 1 cayman dollar($1.25 US). It was then cleaned up and sunk. Several hurricanes later, she sits in 50 feet or so of water. Hurricane Ivan went through and finished off what 20 something odd years of being submerged in salt water started. Now she's completly collpased and stewn all over the place. On our descent, we saw a turtle, a barracuda, a real friendly sting ray, and a huge school of Horse eye Jacks. When we hit bottom, there was life everywhere as well. Angels, wrasse, trunk fish, grouper. It was all there. We also saw Miss Piggy. She's about a 5 ft green Moray. I fed a couple of French Angels some orange peelings that I held onto after our 50 minute SI. I loved the diving here and If the good Lord allows it I will be back. I want to thank Harry for being such a great dive buddy and friend, and Red Sail for being such a great operation. Gregg and Kevin, ya'll are the best.
Chris

Oh yeah, pictures to follow soon.
 
Pics please! Let's see! Let's see!!!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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