Thanks
@Divetech Cayman Tony
Would you consider doing the Kittiwake with a DPV? I have often wondered what sites off Cayman would practically be available from shore with a DPV. I would imagine that you and your colleagues from Divetech do some diving like that, in addition to the main wall off Lighthouse Point. Seems like Turtle Reef and Cobalt Coast would work and I have read about shore diving Babylon. I have tried to search for such information but have not been successful.
Thanks, Craig
Hi Craig,
You could scooter to the KW if you were good at navigation and knew exactly where you were going. That was one point I glossed over. When you leave from shore, there's no clear indicator of exactly which direction it is. There are people who have successfully dived the Kittiwake from shore, but they are generally very experienced residents or instructors who have dived the area hundreds of times and know the landmarks.
For reference, the outside of the main wall at Lighthouse Point is ~900 feet from the dock. We dive the main wall from shore all the time, and at a reasonable swimming pace it takes me 15 minutes from the dock to the large peaks of the main wall. The distance from Cobalt's dock to the main wall is about 1200 feet. I've never shore dived Babylon, but the DOE GPS numbers show the mooring is 1200 feet from shore. Same with the Russian destroyer in the Brac, it's 1000 feet from shore.
Scooters do open up some sites you don't normally see which is great. One thing we do is scooter from Lighthouse Point to Macabuca and back, which takes 30 minutes each way. Unfortunately we don't allow them off site unless with a staff member, to mitigate loss or damage to them.
All interesting stuff, but off-topic. To the OP, I lived in Fort Lauderdale for 11 years, and there are too many wreck sites to count up and down the South Florida coast. South Florida diving is largely underrated IMO. Your original question didn't seem to to limit these sites to shore diving, for Cayman, I'dd add in the Doc Polson which is tiny but very colorful, the Oro Verde is mostly wreckage but has good marine life encounters, and the Balboa is pretty cool if you can get on it. If you go to the Brac, the Russian Destroyer is 100% worth doing.
The 3 deaths on the Vandenburg since August is giving me a little pause.
This is likely a statistical anomaly. When I worked on the Spree we dived the Vandy every Sunday. Sometimes it has quite a bit of current, but tens of thousands of persons have dived it without incident over the years. Be careful and conservative and you'll be just fine.
I looked at the Oriskany off Pensacola Fl, but it is 20 miles offshore and doesn't seem worth it if you're not diving doubles. That is a long day for a 30 minute dive on a single tank.
Oriskany is a great dive if you do it as an advanced nitrox dive IMO. Again, on the Spree we did a few trips to the Mighty O where we camped out on top of it for 3 or 4 days. The most fun I had was scootering the entire length of the hanger deck on rebreather.
The problem as I see it with the Oriskany though is, the flight deck is at 140ish if memory serves, which has all the appeal of diving a parking log. So without tech diving, all you can dive is the island structure. It's small and 1/3rd of it is collapsed, so not a heck of a lot to see after a 30 mile trip out there.
Tony
