Trip Report Aggressor 5 - Jan26-Feb2 2019 - Report

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Personal taste. I do NIGHT dives because of the variety of critters I can see, that are not active during daylight hours.Getting out of the water by 6:30 pm in Cayman doesn't really afford you that opportunity. If you want to see mating behaviors, twilight is a prime time for a number of fish. If you want to see critters that are more cryptic wanting the cover of darkness to feed, move around, mate, the darker the water and later the dive the better. IMHO

Ok, 7:00pm nightdive with 8:00 dinner then... the point was more ‘dinner after the dive as opposed to before’

 

[scubadada]

Ok, 7:00pm nightdive with 8:00 dinner then... the point was more ‘dinner after the dive as opposed to before’

I was recently on the Cayman Aggressor V Cayman Aggressor V, November 24-December 1, 2018 On our last day we did a dive on the Oro Verde at 6 AM. It started off as a night dive, black dark, and slowly became a beautiful sunrise dive over the hour. It was fascinating seeing the usual night dive phenomena in reverse. This turned out to be a really great dive.

I'll be going to Bonaire with my wife in April and plan to do at least one of these sunrise dives

 

[tkaelin]

Early morning is my preferred time for a nite dive

 

[KathyV]

Awesome review, thanks for sharing.
Seems to be about 30-50% of the boats make crossing (only going off of what I have read on SB) so that is the only gamble. But all other conditions make it sound like a great boat to dive on.

Was there any WiFi or cell service? I hate to be that guy to ask, but just curious.

It will be interesting to hear others chime in, I am thinking of a liveaboard for next year this time and would probably be between Turks & Caicos and Cayman

Thanks again

Appreciate the report!
We do the Aggressor V in about 3 weeks and this will be our first liveaboard. The draw for us doing the Cayman Aggressor was the possibility to dive GC, LC and CB all in one trip. If that doesn't happen due to weather I know I'll be disappointed.
I'm not sold that I'll like the liveaboard thing as I'm not a great people person and being trapped on a boat with 20 other divers for a week doesn't seem like my cup a tea. I'm keeping an open mind and just looking forward to getting under water.

When we did our trip on the Cayman Aggressor IV we were told that they make the crossing to the sister islands approximately 75% of the time, but I have not seen more recent information. You might try checking the Captain's Log posts on Facebook to see if you can find current statistics. Or try calling the Aggressor and asking them.

We very much enjoyed the CA IV trip because it was the first time we dived the sister islands and we loved having the opportunity to dive off of all 3 islands. You are also easily able to dive some very popular sites off all 3 islands during one LOB trip like Bloody Bay Wall, the Tibbetts, Sting Ray City, the Kittiwake, night dives, etc.

The liveaboard also makes it easy to do a lot of diving if that is your inclination and the weather cooperates, you can easily do 4 to 5 dives per day because there is nothing to do but eat, sleep, and dive!

We were lucky and we had perfect weather and I would have been disappointed if we had been unable to make the crossing, but that is the risk you take; weather is always a variable for a vacation, no matter how carefully you plan.

We have had excellent, good, and "just okay" food on various LOBs, but it isn't easy to prepare so many meals for so many people in a small space while out at sea - but we are usually pretty hungry after all that diving so the food is generally eaten and enjoyed.

There are things that I like about both land-based and liveaboard dive trips, so my advice is to try them both! I hope that you have great trips.

 

[DreadnoughtNH]

Awesome review, thanks for sharing.
Seems to be about 30-50% of the boats make crossing (only going off of what I have read on SB) so that is the only gamble. But all other conditions make it sound like a great boat to dive on.

Was there any WiFi or cell service? I hate to be that guy to ask, but just curious.

It will be interesting to hear others chime in, I am thinking of a liveaboard for next year this time and would probably be between Turks & Caicos and Cayman

Thanks again

No WiFi, however, Grand Cayman has pretty reliable cell service. The closer you are to GC, the better the service. It’s never lightening fast, but I always had LTE coverage.

 

[DreadnoughtNH]

Great review. I cannot get my mind around doing a livaboard in Cayman. Did an Aggressor in The Galapagos and loved it but in Cayman I don’t see the pull. The new boat is absolutely limited on moorings, the restaurants in GC are awesome and the dive sites are so close I can’t imagine why you would do more than one dive anywhere. The sites you listed were all familiar, no Ghost Mountain etc. I guess I don’t understand the point of a livaboard unless you are going to things we don’t do everyday when you can sleep in a really comfy bed and have whatever you want for breakfast, lunch and dinner and have your choice of really incredible divers.

We did snap a few moorings. The boat is a Goliath compared with the other diver operators in GC. Part of the appeal I guess is the liveaboard experience. That being said, I also love getting into the local culture. IMO, GC doesn’t exactly have the best culture compared with for example Utila or Belize. It’s really a cruise ship stop island, and I’m not a fan of those.

 

[DreadnoughtNH]

sorry you did not get to Little Cayman

I still wasn’t disappointed. You can’t be disappointed by what you don’t know.

 

[DreadnoughtNH]

Quick question, did you ask to change the nigtdive to pre dinner? We did on day 2 on the Belize aggressor iii and they had no issue with it. Was a hundred times better imo. More of a twilight start dive and we were out of the water by 6:30 with dinner at 7.

I did not ask. Perhaps I should have...?

 

[caydiver]

Have to say I don’t think of my home as only a cruise ship island. We are a first world country and don’t have the same history as many of our Caribbean neighbors. Ironically we don’t rely on tourism as much as many of those nations do. Finance is our main industry and cruise ships do not even stay over night here. Our local is just as local as anyone else’s but happily doesn’t appeal to all.

 

[DreadnoughtNH]

Have to say I don’t think of my home as only a cruise ship island. We are a first world country and don’t have the same history as many of our Caribbean neighbors. Ironically we don’t rely on tourism as much as many of those nations do. Finance is our main industry and cruise ships do not even stay over night here. Our local is just as local as anyone else’s but happily doesn’t appeal to all.

My sincere apologies if I came across as negative or over-simplified towards your home, and I'd have to be living under a rock to not know that CI is a major financial center. Perhaps I got the wrong impression from what little I saw, and my fellow guests' and crew's low opinions about the island.