Red Sail v. Cayman Turtle Divers

[tkaelin]

Sorry for the jab but all kidding aside, you will have a great time and you are on the right track. If RS is on site found out where there boat departs, number of divers and dive times. Kimpton is so far up that if the boat leaves the property it is not likely to be full of cruisers. A couple emails to a couple ops should get you all the current info you need. I also always check Cruisett for any island I am on diving to see the schedule of ships and plan accordingly. Other than its disproportionately large size, Kimpton is on a great stretch of beach and I have to image it will be wonderful. Enjoy your trip

 

[diversteve]

I just related my experience with them - but I doubt the boat will be overly crowded - the boat we saw had to be close to 50' and didn't appear too crowded when they all arrived. Plus many have dual ladders and swim steps.

tkaelin makes a good point also - ask how close the operators boat is to the Kimpton to cut down on travel time - many are in the marinas on the sound behind that area so a few minutes away. Many shops have their offices onsite at resorts but their actual boats are elsewhere.

One way to ensure it's not is to go with one of the 6-8 max divers operations - there's a lot of them and they mostly use larger boats anyway.

Most of the operators list their max divers per trip on their websites and most show their fleet also.

There's really not a bad choice there - the competition is too intense for them to last - everybody dives basically the same area for about the same price so service is often the differentiating factor.

If the weather permits - you may be asked to suggest dive sites - Big Tunnels, Trinity Caves, Orange Canyon are all good west side options, Aquarium is good shallow 2nd dive. If they go north - Ghost Mountain. Jump on any trip going to Babylon - on the top 50 dives on the Caribbean lists. Not likely from there except on an extended trip - it's pretty far east.

 

[caydiver]

All the ops including Red Sail are pretty much awesome across the board. The Red Sail boats on the west side are big comfortable flat tops with lots of room for gear, heads, etc. Only a certain number of divers can go on the guided dive so even if the boat holds more guests, you will not all be in the same group in the water anyway. Not many ops go around to Ghost Mountain as they are on a timetable and it is pain if you get there and there is no mooring in place or too much current. I would add NW Pointe to the list of hopefuls. It is a great site but can be affected by current. We have a six pack op and I would love to say oh just go with the small guys -- they are the best, honestly, that is not true. Pretty much across the board all the ops are excellent (they have to be) and the level of service is pretty much the same with all. Pick who you think best suits you. Everyone will pick you up and drop you off if you are along the SMB corridor -- two companies do beach pick-up -- Red Sail (but I don't know if their boat gets on the Kimpton beach to be honest and Seasports which is us. There is absolutely no better or best! It is highly unlikely that you will be bothered by cruisers unless you actually go into GT and find one of the ops that is walking around the port with signage for guests. Ships do not dock here they tender and the ops that service them make arrangements based on the time constraints for those guests which is different from the everyday stayover tourist.

 

[Doctorfish]

Caydiver has this right. Cruisers come in later and I assume the dive ops that cater to them use different boats and schedule. I have never met a cruiser on a regular day boat in Cayman over 20 years diving there. I also have never seen a day boat go to Babylon unless a 3 tank day or leaving from East End.

I would leave it to your captain to pick sites. They know the conditions, tides and currents and want to dive the best sites they can, notwithstanding customer safety.

I suspect no dive op will let you stay down till out of air. They almost all do 110/50 and then 60/60. A few minutes is no big deal and you can always plan to try to be first off/last up but I would not force the issue. They have a schedule to try to keep to.

 

[tkaelin]

Especially on GC don't get hung up on picking sites. I think with most sites they are first come first serve and with 60 plus ops and 360 plus sites I have found it best to go with the flow (for the most part). In June three of us went out with the plan to dive ghost mountain. Got an early start, made it to the site, had it to ourselves but we found currents and green water. The dive op said he would dive it but it would be disappointing and he could get us to another site on the north wall in 5-10 minutes that would have much better conditions. We opted for better conditions and the dive was very nice.

On other islands ops have weekly schedules posted where they will be going that they follow each week and/or they are the only game in town or just about and have their pick of sites each day. That is not the case in GC or at least that has been my experience.

 

[mi000ke]

I suspect no dive op will let you stay down till out of air.

Of course not, but they generally let you stay down until whatever safety criteria they have set - usually ascending to your safety stop at around 700 psi and being on the boat with 500 psi.

 

[Alucard]

I have seen the Red Sail dive boats haul up at Calico Jack's, which is just south of the Kimpton, so even if they don't come in right at the Kimpton, you wouldn't have far to go.

 

[Damselfish]

I don't think anyone saying they want to use all their air literally means "out of air."

I think people want at least a reasonable limit, not something ridiculous like a 35 minute limit or anything too arbitrary, but I doubt anyone there does that anymore. 50/60 is not too bad, especially if they're ok with the "first in the water" time extension, let things slide if there is time in the schedule that day, and are just relaxed enough about things. I imagine some ops can afford to be a little more generous than others. But there's usually going to be a general desire to keep a schedule - if you're waiting for the afternoon boat or a class and it's late, you'll be complaining. Likewise if you're doing am and pm boats and have 7 minutes to eat lunch. (I tend to finish with 1300-1500, so no one is going to appreciate me finishing my tank.)

 

[Damselfish]

This is gross misinformation. 10 years out of date and based on one afternoon dive. Why bother posting something like that? Cayman Dive ops are competitive and therefore all try to please their customers. Many posters have their favorites based on various factors. Why not try the in house dive op for a day and see what it's like. If not to your taste and satisfaction, try the competition next door.

Out of date perhaps, but the fact that it was one dive doesn't mean it's an inaccurate description or isolated incident for the time. (And the stated point was that you should check.) This example is interesting in light of the other thread talking about East End ops and how Tortuga (part of Red Sail) doesn't deserve it's old reputation. The fact is, it's easy to get a bad rep, and more difficult and time consuming to gain a good one. It's something all businesses need to keep in mind, as things can bite them in the a$$ for a long time.

 

[Doctorfish]

"For the time" The time was 10 years ago. Totally irrelevant in 2018. I'm not trying to defend any one dive op. My point is that if you are going to comment, your involvement should be relatively current and hopefully based on significant experience.

Damselfish, Mike, of course I was not being literal re out of air.