Hi, all!
Wanted to report on recent trip to CCGC a couple of weeks ago.
First news: no algae on north and west coasts of Grand Cayman, compared with recent reports on the other islands. Reefs appear to be in fair to excellent shape, depending upon location, with fair to good marine life concentrations.
Cobalt Coast Resort:
Newly refurbished, with complete fixes to the two complaints of previous years: Wi-Fi is now excellent throughout the resort, and air conditioning is downright COLD! until you figure out how to adjust the thermostat. Also, don't make the rookie mistake I did of calling for assistance with "no hot water", lol! The HW is flash heated (never runs out!) but the European fitting is opposite direction for hot from what is expected, and takes 20-30 sec to reach your room.
The resort is a couple decades old, but the small house pool is in good condition, and chlorine is deftly adjusted. Hot tub adjacent was perfect. Rooms are large standard, and housekeeping was attentive. No problem with towels as they are supplied for rooms, for pool, and even for dive boats! No need to carry them around. We rented a "deluxe" room with a large living room/sofa/sink/refrig in front, for only $15/day more. Well worth it. There are also two "penthouse" rooms up on the third floor one of which our group leader rented that have the sitting room at the entrance to the suite, and the king bed up a few steps looking out the window at the ocean. Very nice.
Food service for our all-inclusive stay was wholesome and plentiful. Self service salad fixings every day at both lunch and dinner, plus fresh soups in addition to the entrees. Three entrees at each meal, usually a meat/fish/veg choice, with the veg choice including pasta. The white rice accompaniment was pretty bland, but the risotto was great! Cook staff were friendly and willing to switch sides among the various entrees. Dessert also self serve from the same area as the salads, and popular desserts occasionally ran out as folks learned to grab dessert early! That didn't happen again after the first day or so, as the staff learned to have extra.
If you like thick creamy soups, you'll be a little disappointed. But the fresh soup every day was tasty, and made locally from fresh fish and vegetables. Unlimited lemonade and tea with dinner, and of course beer and wine for purchase. Three or so whites and a half dozen reds of reasonable quality for $8-12 with meals.
Desserts usually included a flat cake, a pudding/mousse and fruit.
Morning rolls included reasonable pastry. The fresh fruit was packaged in individual glass jars and came slightly frozen, but the berries and melon were tasty, and thawed quickly in the heat. Surprisingly, the morning coffee was great! Locally roasted and very flavorful.
"Stuff to do"
CCGC is at the northwest shore of the island, so unless you rent a car or arrange for a van (easy to have staff do this for you), getting to Georgetown will be difficult. It's all local residences in the area just south of the shore, so there's nothing to see or go to unless you drive. It's all about the diving!
But we took our last pre-flying day in town with a very reasonable $15/person van trip. Usual port souvenirs in Georgetown, and the mall just north. Nice European/Calif "by-the-glass" wine dispensary in the mall, though a little pricey. Seven Mile Beach is of course gorgeous!
Wonderful soft sand and warm water, but bordering all the higher end hotels and resorts that we avoided by going to Cobalt Coast. Big Dive outlet right in Georgetown if you need stuff.
Temps were 80-90 daytime with high humidity. We'd pretreated a dawn/dusk set of long sleeve/pants outfit with 0.5% permethrin against the no-see-ums, but were pleasantly surprised! I saw two mosquitos the entire trip! The resort was bug free. No flies, either. Iguanas in the foliage, and occasional chickens that the staff would shoo away, so no irritations on that front. Perhaps the DEET wipes that we'd swipe on the back of our hands and neck made a difference, but I can't say that I ever saw more than those two bugs.
The Diving:
Water temp 83F from 40-110 feet. 84F to 91F water temp near surface depending upon how shallow and how much reflective sand. I'm a cold diver, so I ditched my 3/2mm long for a straight 3mm long for the whole trip, including evening dives, but lots of my buddies were in rash guards and the occasional bathing suit only. On the long dive days, I actually felt a little chilled coming in from the fourth dive, and just bought a new O'Neill 4/3mm for the next trip. A few clear jellies from time to time, and my wife has a little itchy stripe two weeks later, from her day with her shorty wetsuit, so keep that in mind.
Visibility never less than 60 feet, except at Stingray City shallows. Usually 100-120 feet clear blue, with little suspended stuff, made for great photos.
The "excursions" first: for Grand Cayman first timers, Stingray City and the Kittiwake are common add-ons to boat diving. Stingray City is a 15 foot shallows (even shallower for a larger snorkelers version nearby) where rays come every day for the squid that the divemasters bring out. It's worth doing once, but not more than once.
Our visit had about a half dozen rays that swept through, though other groups have had 20 or more. The rays are benign and gentle, and no accidents that I've heard of. But one of our group chose to wipe the piece of squid all over her wetsuit first, and was treated to being enveloped by two rays trying to find the piece. She ended up with a big purple hickey on her arm where the ray's suction pulled neoprene and a little skin into its mouth trying to get a meal. Hilarious to watch, but at one point she got a little frantic with all the attention. She spent the ride back to the resort explaining to the rest of us that she wasn't really trying to hit the ray, lol!
The Kittiwake is a 200 foot submarine tender deliberately sunk as a divable wreck with lots of cutouts and (at its longest) a 150 foot swimthrough if you go from the hatch in the stern to the one in the bow.
Lots of exits in between, and a nice polished wheel for gag shots on the bridge, though the most recent hurricane stripped the roof off the ship's bridge.
There are only two mooring buoys at the wreck, so it's not mobbed with divers at any given time. At 20-85 feet it's well lit and very divable - a good easy penetration even for recreational divers. It skirts the rules for a legal swim-through by PADI regs if you go down two deck levels into the bilge, but is very safe in general.
The original recompression chamber for submarine rescue is still on board, and enter-able. A couple of areas of trapped stale air in the bow and the chamber. Once again, a nice fun wreck for the recreational diver, though the sheer number of visitors means there is only the occasional fish hiding inside the wreck. The wreck shifted from flat to angled after the last hurricane, so the altered geometry from horizontal makes it more interesting for those who aren't wreck certified.
The divemasters were attentive and there were two keeping an eye out on the wreck dive.
Reef Divers:
This company has taken over dive ops for Cobalt Coast Resort and is doing a spectacular job. They have two Newton 42' dive boats (soon to be supplemented with a new Newton 46 according to the shop). Nitrox 32 is supplied for all boat dives by pre-arrangement at $12-15/day extra, and tanks usually arrived with 3200 psi in the warm sun, and short fills were rare. The Al80's were newish (2015 born date) and O-rings generally in good shape.
The dive shop promotes itself as "Valet Diving", which means that apart from carrying your mask, fins and wetsuit, and weight pockets down to the boat, they will handle everything else. They'll bring your bcd and reg set from your locked locker down to the boat, set up your gear, change your tank between dives and carry your gear back up to your locker afterward. For half our group, that was just the sort of service folks loved.
For the other half of us, if you planned a shore or night dive, they'd bring your gear up to the shop and leave it for you to set up for those dives. Always fifty tanks sitting in the setup area, day or night. There was only one day when (early in our week) they said diving was prohibited due to surge at the shore. Shore dive entry was via a ladder at the end of the dock into 5 feet of water. EDIT: Twenty yards brought you to 20' depth, and another 200 yards to the mini-wall that dropped to 70 feet or so. By the end of the week, a few would swim the add'l 200 yards to the big dropoff, but that was generally saved for the boat dives.
The dive crew worked with us, and finding us to be responsible divers, didn't place any further restrictions on shore/night diving, even though the 2-foot "surge" was just as high as the first day when they'd said, "don't go".
Wanted to report on recent trip to CCGC a couple of weeks ago.
First news: no algae on north and west coasts of Grand Cayman, compared with recent reports on the other islands. Reefs appear to be in fair to excellent shape, depending upon location, with fair to good marine life concentrations.
Cobalt Coast Resort:
Newly refurbished, with complete fixes to the two complaints of previous years: Wi-Fi is now excellent throughout the resort, and air conditioning is downright COLD! until you figure out how to adjust the thermostat. Also, don't make the rookie mistake I did of calling for assistance with "no hot water", lol! The HW is flash heated (never runs out!) but the European fitting is opposite direction for hot from what is expected, and takes 20-30 sec to reach your room.
The resort is a couple decades old, but the small house pool is in good condition, and chlorine is deftly adjusted. Hot tub adjacent was perfect. Rooms are large standard, and housekeeping was attentive. No problem with towels as they are supplied for rooms, for pool, and even for dive boats! No need to carry them around. We rented a "deluxe" room with a large living room/sofa/sink/refrig in front, for only $15/day more. Well worth it. There are also two "penthouse" rooms up on the third floor one of which our group leader rented that have the sitting room at the entrance to the suite, and the king bed up a few steps looking out the window at the ocean. Very nice.
Food service for our all-inclusive stay was wholesome and plentiful. Self service salad fixings every day at both lunch and dinner, plus fresh soups in addition to the entrees. Three entrees at each meal, usually a meat/fish/veg choice, with the veg choice including pasta. The white rice accompaniment was pretty bland, but the risotto was great! Cook staff were friendly and willing to switch sides among the various entrees. Dessert also self serve from the same area as the salads, and popular desserts occasionally ran out as folks learned to grab dessert early! That didn't happen again after the first day or so, as the staff learned to have extra.
If you like thick creamy soups, you'll be a little disappointed. But the fresh soup every day was tasty, and made locally from fresh fish and vegetables. Unlimited lemonade and tea with dinner, and of course beer and wine for purchase. Three or so whites and a half dozen reds of reasonable quality for $8-12 with meals.
Desserts usually included a flat cake, a pudding/mousse and fruit.
Morning rolls included reasonable pastry. The fresh fruit was packaged in individual glass jars and came slightly frozen, but the berries and melon were tasty, and thawed quickly in the heat. Surprisingly, the morning coffee was great! Locally roasted and very flavorful.
"Stuff to do"
CCGC is at the northwest shore of the island, so unless you rent a car or arrange for a van (easy to have staff do this for you), getting to Georgetown will be difficult. It's all local residences in the area just south of the shore, so there's nothing to see or go to unless you drive. It's all about the diving!
But we took our last pre-flying day in town with a very reasonable $15/person van trip. Usual port souvenirs in Georgetown, and the mall just north. Nice European/Calif "by-the-glass" wine dispensary in the mall, though a little pricey. Seven Mile Beach is of course gorgeous!
Wonderful soft sand and warm water, but bordering all the higher end hotels and resorts that we avoided by going to Cobalt Coast. Big Dive outlet right in Georgetown if you need stuff.
Temps were 80-90 daytime with high humidity. We'd pretreated a dawn/dusk set of long sleeve/pants outfit with 0.5% permethrin against the no-see-ums, but were pleasantly surprised! I saw two mosquitos the entire trip! The resort was bug free. No flies, either. Iguanas in the foliage, and occasional chickens that the staff would shoo away, so no irritations on that front. Perhaps the DEET wipes that we'd swipe on the back of our hands and neck made a difference, but I can't say that I ever saw more than those two bugs.
The Diving:
Water temp 83F from 40-110 feet. 84F to 91F water temp near surface depending upon how shallow and how much reflective sand. I'm a cold diver, so I ditched my 3/2mm long for a straight 3mm long for the whole trip, including evening dives, but lots of my buddies were in rash guards and the occasional bathing suit only. On the long dive days, I actually felt a little chilled coming in from the fourth dive, and just bought a new O'Neill 4/3mm for the next trip. A few clear jellies from time to time, and my wife has a little itchy stripe two weeks later, from her day with her shorty wetsuit, so keep that in mind.
Visibility never less than 60 feet, except at Stingray City shallows. Usually 100-120 feet clear blue, with little suspended stuff, made for great photos.
The "excursions" first: for Grand Cayman first timers, Stingray City and the Kittiwake are common add-ons to boat diving. Stingray City is a 15 foot shallows (even shallower for a larger snorkelers version nearby) where rays come every day for the squid that the divemasters bring out. It's worth doing once, but not more than once.
Our visit had about a half dozen rays that swept through, though other groups have had 20 or more. The rays are benign and gentle, and no accidents that I've heard of. But one of our group chose to wipe the piece of squid all over her wetsuit first, and was treated to being enveloped by two rays trying to find the piece. She ended up with a big purple hickey on her arm where the ray's suction pulled neoprene and a little skin into its mouth trying to get a meal. Hilarious to watch, but at one point she got a little frantic with all the attention. She spent the ride back to the resort explaining to the rest of us that she wasn't really trying to hit the ray, lol!
The Kittiwake is a 200 foot submarine tender deliberately sunk as a divable wreck with lots of cutouts and (at its longest) a 150 foot swimthrough if you go from the hatch in the stern to the one in the bow.
Lots of exits in between, and a nice polished wheel for gag shots on the bridge, though the most recent hurricane stripped the roof off the ship's bridge.
There are only two mooring buoys at the wreck, so it's not mobbed with divers at any given time. At 20-85 feet it's well lit and very divable - a good easy penetration even for recreational divers. It skirts the rules for a legal swim-through by PADI regs if you go down two deck levels into the bilge, but is very safe in general.
The original recompression chamber for submarine rescue is still on board, and enter-able. A couple of areas of trapped stale air in the bow and the chamber. Once again, a nice fun wreck for the recreational diver, though the sheer number of visitors means there is only the occasional fish hiding inside the wreck. The wreck shifted from flat to angled after the last hurricane, so the altered geometry from horizontal makes it more interesting for those who aren't wreck certified.
The divemasters were attentive and there were two keeping an eye out on the wreck dive.
Reef Divers:
This company has taken over dive ops for Cobalt Coast Resort and is doing a spectacular job. They have two Newton 42' dive boats (soon to be supplemented with a new Newton 46 according to the shop). Nitrox 32 is supplied for all boat dives by pre-arrangement at $12-15/day extra, and tanks usually arrived with 3200 psi in the warm sun, and short fills were rare. The Al80's were newish (2015 born date) and O-rings generally in good shape.
The dive shop promotes itself as "Valet Diving", which means that apart from carrying your mask, fins and wetsuit, and weight pockets down to the boat, they will handle everything else. They'll bring your bcd and reg set from your locked locker down to the boat, set up your gear, change your tank between dives and carry your gear back up to your locker afterward. For half our group, that was just the sort of service folks loved.
For the other half of us, if you planned a shore or night dive, they'd bring your gear up to the shop and leave it for you to set up for those dives. Always fifty tanks sitting in the setup area, day or night. There was only one day when (early in our week) they said diving was prohibited due to surge at the shore. Shore dive entry was via a ladder at the end of the dock into 5 feet of water. EDIT: Twenty yards brought you to 20' depth, and another 200 yards to the mini-wall that dropped to 70 feet or so. By the end of the week, a few would swim the add'l 200 yards to the big dropoff, but that was generally saved for the boat dives.
The dive crew worked with us, and finding us to be responsible divers, didn't place any further restrictions on shore/night diving, even though the 2-foot "surge" was just as high as the first day when they'd said, "don't go".
