(about LCBR)
As for the diving. I have the good and the not so good. The dive guides were all great. Professional, polite and very knowledgeable about their jobs and the areas they dive. They took their time helping you with your gear, set up, discussing dive profiles, where to go, what to look for etc. On the flip side they did not guide the groups on full dives. They would go into the water last and those who were willing to wait would, from my perspective, were led on a half tank tour of the dive site. I am sure this is the resort's policy.
It is. Basically, the policy follows CIWOA guidelines to have a DM in the water (and one topside with the boat) and to provide the 'Valet' aspect, the diving DM can't go in until all the customers have splashed...and then needs to be back out when the first customers start to return - - basically, a "LIFO" (Last In, First Out). If you figure it takes 20 minutes to get everyone in and 20 out, for an hour long dive that just leaves 20 minutes where everyone is in the water .. hence why their "half dive" duration is typically only 20 minutes or so.
But, to have a boat full of divers(most boats had 13-15+ divers and one dive guide) and show them a picture of the reef and say ok go explore isnt right in my eyes. I really didn't mind that much and I just went with it, but I would think it makes sense to have at the very least one dive guide in the water for the full dive leading the group?
There's not necessarily a simple yes/no answer to your question. Its a question whose variables include: (a) the divers' experience levels; (b) personal preference; (c) dive conditions.
For Little Cayman, this isn't drift dive territory off of a live boat where a group really should stick together. There's basically no current, so the boat is moored and divers are very free to choose to go in pretty much any direction. Personally, I usually prefer to be my own rather than clustered with a gaggle of a dozen other divers.
I saw aborted dives because the divers went the wrong way and got lost, divers going too far and not making it back to the boat with enough air, missed landmarks(swim-throughs) because they weren't easily spotted etc. In my opinion for the prices that were paid every dive should have been guided and in smaller groups, and if people want to go off on their own so be it. This can be debated but it is just my 2c.
Understood. Reef Divers usually gives very good briefings (with the whiteboard 'map' too), so a lot of what you saw I'd probably say were...how to put this politely? Ah! "...divers who need more skill development."
A friend's observation (a stereotype, but unfortunately as true as not) is that it seemed to always be a lake diver from Texas who get lost.
A good rule of thumb for any new dive destination is to hang out with the DM for the first day or two to get a handle on local dive conditions before you decide if you want to head out on your own.
As far as the actual diving, the reefs and the walls at Bloody Bay was simply breathtaking. The colors and the health of the reef was so nice. The groupers were letting you scratch their chins, I guess they are getting ready to spawn in a few days, that was pretty neat.
Yes, its a nice stretch of sights, although IMO (my first Little Cayman dive was in the 1980s) they are overdived and need some recovery time. Insofar as the groupers, that's behavior modification that's been around for decades. A bit over 25 years ago, it was fish feeding by divers which started it; more contemporarily, it has been a grouper+diver interaction to help them hunt for squirrelfish. The good news is that the Cayman government has also banned fishing for grouper while they're spawning, which has really improved their numbers locally.
If you like pleny of BOTTOM time you will get it. You were allowed to dive until your air was gone. Most dives were 60 min which is perfect for me.
Well...there have been some comments over the years that their dive plan is usually for
only 60 minutes of bottom time (to get the boat back in time for the hotel's lunch). It comes down to a question of how good your SAC is and how shallow one stays. I've been occasionally guilty of doing a FILO (First In, Last Out) to get in more than an hour when that bothered me; these days I just come up with 1400psi or whatever.
Overall well worth the time and money. This place is a no brainer. Check it out. I will post pix shortly.
It is a nice place.
...I think all the boats here are 40+ feet, so everyone goes on a boat and when that one gets to capacity which has to be 20+ divers the next boat goes. The nice thing about about the big boats are, getting to the reefs. It gets pretty rough and a small, say a 15ft foot panga, would be dangerous when the waves are up, which they were everyday I was there. When I go back I will stay here again.
Their boats are all Newton 42's or 46's. When they first opened back in 1993, they started with a pair of Rob Shirley "Pro 42" jetboats, which were utterly unsuitable for the bluewater conditions that Little Cayman sees, particularly on the northside in the winter...these hulls earned the nickname "Vomit Comet", although they actually weren't that fast at all once you put a rack of tanks and a couple of divers on them. On top of everything else, they were also a very wet ride in non-flat sea conditions (ie, nearly every day in the Sister islands) and being rudderless jetboats, they were more vulnerable to crosswind crabbing .. (which was learned on their day of delivery: #1 hit the reef trying to enter South Hole Sound).
We had a similar experience last May when we had a group at the Little Cayman Beach Resort. We had an almost full boat of 16 divers and they still added 4 more divers. They said the boat held 20 divers comfortably. The boat was comfortable, but they gave us the slow bus, I mean boat. It would not have mattered but we were always being rushed to get back for lunch. The food was excellent!
Wait until you see Kona Honu divers in Hawaii...I've been part of a crowd of ~30 stuffed onboard the same sized Newton diveboat...
-hh
