Just wanted to post a quick review of our recent trip to Grand Cayman and the fantastic dives we did. Also a huge thank you and recommendation goes to Chris & Kate Alpers of Indigo Divers - absolutely awesome dive op, extremely friendly and clearly love what they do. Considering my wife and I only had 7 dives each when we started, we especially appreciated their confidence and attitude as we got "dived-in". Can't find fault with them at all, from their choice of sites, assistance in identifying fish - the list could go on, everything we want/look for in a guide, they had. Huge thumbs up! The surface interval cookies are legendary.
Yes I know my nick is indigo - any similarity to dive ops living or dead is purely coincidental. It didn't factor into my decision to go with them, but did make me smile when I found them
In no particular order, just as they come to mind
Black Forest, approx max 100'
Tons of eels, spotted and green moray in particular, half a dozen lobster and our first ever lionfish sighting (including the subsequent spearing). First sighting of stingray of the trip too, seeing them was particularly cool. Great visibility too.
Lemon Reef, 60'
Superb visibility, saw baby barracuda, countless flamingo tongues and other nudibranch and a cute juvenile drummer.
Leslie's Curl, 100'
Really enjoyed this one, the wall curving out like the crest of a wave was atmospheric and we saw tons of fish of all sizes, more juvenile barracuda, literally countless fairy basslet, the largest French Angelfish I've ever seen and all manner of tiny critters.
Stingray City, 15' tops
Maybe it's cliched among more experienced divers but we really enjoyed this - without doubt the stingray interaction was great fun, but the actual reef dive afterwards was superb. Partly because the depth meant it seemed to last forever but the sheer diversity of stuff we saw meant we just didn't want it to end. Being approached by the blind ol' moray was another great experience - I must admit that having one come straight at me was a little nervy but very cool. The only dive of the holiday that I filled a 16gb memory card on
Turtle Reef, shore dive (not with Indigo)
Sadly my wife couldn't equalise so we scrubbed the dive and just snorkelled it. Even 60ft above the "action" it was clearly a nice site. Shame we couldn't go down but it happens. This was the first time my wife and I had gone out on our own, no guide etc. so was another boost to our confidence and I'm particularly pleased we handled the equalisation problem correctly, didn't force it, split up etc. We just accepted the dive was scrubbed and got the best out of it that we could.
Roundabout, 100'
First turtle sighting of the trip though of course he only showed up when we were on our safety stop
Nice dive, the highlight for me was seeing the largest parrotfish I've ever seen, at least 3ft long and the NOISE it made crunching at the coral was impressive!
Blue Peter, 60'
As soon as we saw the first turtle at Roundabout they all started appearing! Saw another two at this site and even managed to get reasonable close to a guy taking a break on the bottom. More lobster and this time I managed to even get video of a lionfish spearing. Spotting the lionfish myself was a highlight too, even though I think I knocked 5 mins off the dive time in the excitement and trying to get the DM's attention
Lemon Drop Off, 100'
Most memorable were the pics and feeling of the drop off underneath, somehow the sloping wall made it feel more "abyssal", if that makes sense? Seeing it curve off into the blue rather than abruptly end like on other walls made it look like it was deeper. More lionfish and eel here, as well as lots of small stuff.
Monet's Garden, 60'
All of our "this is what a reef looks like" photos for the family came from here, very picturesque. Tons more eel, numerous lionfish (finally got a decent photo of one here) and turtles.
Ghost Mountain, 100'
Favourite deeper dive of the trip. Seeing the pinnacle loom out of the blue was epic, circling around it and seeing tons of small stuff on the coral and being followed by the mutton snapper was great. Set a PB for total duration for a deep dive on this one too, 43 mins (not all at 100'!) which considering I'm pretty big is something I'm pleased with! Don't think I'd get bored of doing rings around the pinnacle here, it's great!
Hepp's Pipeline, 60'
Stingray City reef dive was the previous favourite, Hepp's blew it out the water. So to speak. Turtles, 4 different types of eel, countless fish, tiger grouper, lionfish, multiple nudibranch and worms - we'd have been happy with just that but seeing a couple of feeding eagle ray capped it all off. Absolutely fantastic, and set another PB for my shallower air consumption, 73 mins this time
USS Kittiwake, 60'
First wreck dive, I figured that a guided tour of something in shallower water when it was still structurally sound was the safest way to try out wrecks. I'm pleased I did it but I found it spooky and my wife downright didn't enjoy it. Don't think we're going to become wreck divers! Seeing how life was starting to move in was interesting, particularly the super cute secretary blenny Clearly nervous about being inside negatively impacted air consumption too - not in an unsafe way, but I'd rather spend an hour on a reef than 45 mins in a wreck!
Bear Claw, 60'
Last dive of the trip, saw yet more Moray eel, 3 or 4 sand rays, tiny blue shrimp and a porcupine fish - something about them reminds me of pugs (the dog) and they're very cute. Great dive to end our trip but a painful bout of reverse block wrote off our afternoon!
In all, a great mix of wall & reef dives. Favourites I've mentioned, least favourite was the kittiwake. It felt more like an experience, maybe a rite of passage almost, but reefs/walls were more interesting. Feel free to ping me any questions. Apologies if it's a little light on info but as you can tell we're still newer divers - this trip tripled the number we have under our belt though
(could a mod change the title of this to "Grand Cayman Trip Review, Indigo Divers" please?)
Yes I know my nick is indigo - any similarity to dive ops living or dead is purely coincidental. It didn't factor into my decision to go with them, but did make me smile when I found them
In no particular order, just as they come to mind
Black Forest, approx max 100'
Tons of eels, spotted and green moray in particular, half a dozen lobster and our first ever lionfish sighting (including the subsequent spearing). First sighting of stingray of the trip too, seeing them was particularly cool. Great visibility too.
Lemon Reef, 60'
Superb visibility, saw baby barracuda, countless flamingo tongues and other nudibranch and a cute juvenile drummer.
Leslie's Curl, 100'
Really enjoyed this one, the wall curving out like the crest of a wave was atmospheric and we saw tons of fish of all sizes, more juvenile barracuda, literally countless fairy basslet, the largest French Angelfish I've ever seen and all manner of tiny critters.
Stingray City, 15' tops
Maybe it's cliched among more experienced divers but we really enjoyed this - without doubt the stingray interaction was great fun, but the actual reef dive afterwards was superb. Partly because the depth meant it seemed to last forever but the sheer diversity of stuff we saw meant we just didn't want it to end. Being approached by the blind ol' moray was another great experience - I must admit that having one come straight at me was a little nervy but very cool. The only dive of the holiday that I filled a 16gb memory card on
Turtle Reef, shore dive (not with Indigo)
Sadly my wife couldn't equalise so we scrubbed the dive and just snorkelled it. Even 60ft above the "action" it was clearly a nice site. Shame we couldn't go down but it happens. This was the first time my wife and I had gone out on our own, no guide etc. so was another boost to our confidence and I'm particularly pleased we handled the equalisation problem correctly, didn't force it, split up etc. We just accepted the dive was scrubbed and got the best out of it that we could.
Roundabout, 100'
First turtle sighting of the trip though of course he only showed up when we were on our safety stop
Nice dive, the highlight for me was seeing the largest parrotfish I've ever seen, at least 3ft long and the NOISE it made crunching at the coral was impressive!
Blue Peter, 60'
As soon as we saw the first turtle at Roundabout they all started appearing! Saw another two at this site and even managed to get reasonable close to a guy taking a break on the bottom. More lobster and this time I managed to even get video of a lionfish spearing. Spotting the lionfish myself was a highlight too, even though I think I knocked 5 mins off the dive time in the excitement and trying to get the DM's attention
Lemon Drop Off, 100'
Most memorable were the pics and feeling of the drop off underneath, somehow the sloping wall made it feel more "abyssal", if that makes sense? Seeing it curve off into the blue rather than abruptly end like on other walls made it look like it was deeper. More lionfish and eel here, as well as lots of small stuff.
Monet's Garden, 60'
All of our "this is what a reef looks like" photos for the family came from here, very picturesque. Tons more eel, numerous lionfish (finally got a decent photo of one here) and turtles.
Ghost Mountain, 100'
Favourite deeper dive of the trip. Seeing the pinnacle loom out of the blue was epic, circling around it and seeing tons of small stuff on the coral and being followed by the mutton snapper was great. Set a PB for total duration for a deep dive on this one too, 43 mins (not all at 100'!) which considering I'm pretty big is something I'm pleased with! Don't think I'd get bored of doing rings around the pinnacle here, it's great!
Hepp's Pipeline, 60'
Stingray City reef dive was the previous favourite, Hepp's blew it out the water. So to speak. Turtles, 4 different types of eel, countless fish, tiger grouper, lionfish, multiple nudibranch and worms - we'd have been happy with just that but seeing a couple of feeding eagle ray capped it all off. Absolutely fantastic, and set another PB for my shallower air consumption, 73 mins this time
USS Kittiwake, 60'
First wreck dive, I figured that a guided tour of something in shallower water when it was still structurally sound was the safest way to try out wrecks. I'm pleased I did it but I found it spooky and my wife downright didn't enjoy it. Don't think we're going to become wreck divers! Seeing how life was starting to move in was interesting, particularly the super cute secretary blenny
Clearly nervous about being inside negatively impacted air consumption too - not in an unsafe way, but I'd rather spend an hour on a reef than 45 mins in a wreck!Bear Claw, 60'
Last dive of the trip, saw yet more Moray eel, 3 or 4 sand rays, tiny blue shrimp and a porcupine fish - something about them reminds me of pugs (the dog) and they're very cute. Great dive to end our trip but a painful bout of reverse block wrote off our afternoon!
In all, a great mix of wall & reef dives. Favourites I've mentioned, least favourite was the kittiwake. It felt more like an experience, maybe a rite of passage almost, but reefs/walls were more interesting. Feel free to ping me any questions. Apologies if it's a little light on info but as you can tell we're still newer divers - this trip tripled the number we have under our belt though
(could a mod change the title of this to "Grand Cayman Trip Review, Indigo Divers" please?)
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