Cayman Islands
Grand Cayman is a beautiful dive destination with many options for accommodations and for diving. We dived 3 days in February 2014, and they were all excellent and memorable dives. The dive schedule would include a deep wall dive followed by a shallower reef or wreck. They were all guided dives. Dive conditions could not have been more perfect, flat seas (the north side is supposed to be more choppy but the day we dived Eagle Ray pass, it was just 2 feet seas, the rest of the dives were on the west side, where the sea was flat both days), warm water (80 degrees for our stay), clear water with awesome 90-100+ feet visibility (great for wide angle photography). I would like to mention 2 points though, one that it is a bit expensive, both the accommodations and the diving, and secondly, it looks like they allow open water divers to do the deeper wall dives, where you can be as deep as 100 feet, just an FYI, in case you’re not comfortable at that depth. The most striking and common marine life for me were the brightly yellow colored tube sponges. We did see some nurse sharks, sea turtles and a few rays. Having done a lot of dives in Florida, one thing we did notice was that there were not as many fishes on the reefs in Grand Cayman as in south Florida, but after looking at my pictures after this trip I did notice many small fishes and critters. I guess that’s one drawback of guided dives, everyone is constantly on the move, not ideal for photography, especially macro photography. I know there are shore dives that can be done, and we plan to do some of those next time. We did not make it to Stingray city, but did get to the other must do dive in Grand Cayman - the USS Kittiwake, a submarine rescue vessel. There is a separate fee to dive this wreck that goes towards conservation, and you also get a nice yellow diver medallion to keep. It was quite crowded with dive and snorkel boats when we got there, but it was no big deal once we got in the water. It’s a very easy and fun dive, we saw some angelfish and eagle rays. There are lots of options for great photography and for posing for memorable photos, such as by the Kittiwake sign, swimming by the prop, or pretending to steer the helm on the bridge. The ship has been opened up with large access holes so that you can swim through the interior of the ship. There is also an air pocket in a decompression chamber that you can pop into and chat with your buddy!! The most interesting topside activities for us were exploring the island in a rental car and driving on the left side of the road. Would also recommend spending an afternoon at Rum Point, where you can relax and also do some snorkeling if you like. The people of the island are friendly and culturally diverse.
