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View Full Version : Trip Report Little Cayman



shinek
06-03-2009, 04:38 PM
Had a week on Little Cayman and thought I'd let you all know how it went. If there's anything you'd like to know that I have forgotten to mention, just let me know.

We stayed at Little Cayman Beach Resort and dived with Reef Divers. Package included three dives a day (2 on the last day), 3 meals and 2 drinks a day. Travelled from Dallas via Miami and Grand Cayman. Be aware, Cayman Airways has pretty restrictive weight limits, one check bag at 55lbs and one carry on at 15lbs. I believe it is $0.50 per lb over that. Don't be surprised if you bags don't travel with you on the final leg as they fly small planes (Otters, I believe) but it will get there. Of the 17 of us, only one couple had to wait until the next morning for their bags, but they were still able to dive with a little beg, borrow and steal approach!

Firstly, the resort was excellent, rooms recently refurbed and very nicely done. Only one very minor negative was that the TV's didn't work as they had no signal. However, none of us were there to watch TV and so didn't see that as a problem, happy to get away from it for a week.

Food was great, buffet style, plenty of choice, all good quality and some very creative use of "leftovers", much credit to the chef and kitchen staff. While the food bell goes at set times, you get plenty of time to stroll in and eat and there was rarely a significant line at the buffet and I didn't notice them run short of anything. Always, soft drinks, tea and coffe etc. available.

Nice pool area and bar, Mark the resident barman and magician was always in good form. Seriously, his card tricks are as good as you'll see and he has a great patter to keep the tricks interesting and the audience distracted while he works his "magic". The bar lacked music but we were able to provide an iPod or two which they could plug in through their system. Also, the famous Friday night Karaoke night was cancelled as the machinery was broke and they were waiting for a part. Disappointing, but not the end of the world.

OK, to the diving. Reef divers have a very professional set up, leave your gear outside the room on the first morning and they take it to the boat. You set it up for the first dive and they take care of it for the rest of the week. They switch tanks between dives, carry your gear to you for each dive and rinse it each day ready for the next. They offer Nitrox at $10 per dive extra, but for most of the dives profiles you certainly don't need it. They also offer a night dive which, I think, was an extra $60 but none of our group decided to take it. They don't have a camera rinse bucket on the boat, but have a fresh water hose and they rinsed the cameras immediately as they took them from you when you came up from your dive. Camera table was big enough for 5 or 6 normal sized cameras with strobes.

Our boat crew was Neil and Dottie, both excellent people who made it clear that they were there to make it fun but safe for everyone. An aside, if you ever go, be sure to have Dottie do her impression of a Lettuce Leaf Sea Slug, it has to be seen to be believed! ;) They have a large cooler with water and also some snacks on board like, crisps (chips if you're American), maybe some fruit and you can just help yourself.

We had a thorough safety briefing before we left the dock on the first day, as good as I've seen anywhere, and great dive briefings before each dive. They drew pictures, told us what to look out for and where to find it, one was always in the water for a significant portion of the dive so you could follow them around if you wanted or just do your own thing. They put a 110 foot, 50 minute limit on the first dive and 60 foot, 60 minute limit on the second and third. This may seem restrictive but it ensured that everyone got back for lunch and they weren't anal about it just made it clear that those were the rules. I never saw them checking anyone's computer, but they would know if you stretched it by any significant amount. To make a suggestion, as they don't have the same time limitations in the afternoon, I think they could have relaxed the time limits on the third dive, but it wasn't a major issue.

The diving was great, reefs are in very good condition with plenty of life both soft and hard corals and all the usual fish species. We saw turtles on just about every dive, big grouper, Nassau, Tiger, Yellow Fin were all present. A couple of dives they were particularly friendly and you could even pet them if you want to. Point at a squirrel fish in the reef and they come over like bird dogs and just hang there motionless waiting for it to come out or, preferably, for you to spook it out for them. Plenty of Southern Stingrays in the sand and an occasional Spotted Eagle Ray cruised by. Morays were not in abundance, but we saw our share and got to watch them and the groupers hunting together.

If smaller stuff is what you are looking for, there's plenty to see. We didn't see any Sea Horses, but other divers did. Take a look in amongst the corals and there are all sorts of little things to see, Flamingo Tongues, Banded Coral Shrimp, Lobsters of all sizes, Slender File Fish hiding in the Gorgonians and we were treated to a Whitenose Pipefish, thanks to Neil.

They took us over to Cayman Brac to dive the Russian wreck, now called the Captain Keith Tibbets but that was an extra $30 and they needed 12 or 14 people in order to make the trip. Anyway, it was a good dive, I was on Brac in '05 and it was interesting to see how its changing. Understandably a little more broken up now, but also more life growing on it, sponges, corals etc. Plenty of fish life, got a couple of good shots of a Scorpion Fish and Barracuda. For me it was worth the extra $30.

Visibility overall was pretty good, in the 70-100 foot range, although it did drop a little on some dives do to run off from overnight rains, apparently. Water temps ranged from about 82 to 88. There was no significan current on any of the dives, very slight in one of two so you could just cruise around the dive site very comfortably.

The physical characteristics of the dive sites was, in some cases, spectacular. Deep canyons running through the reef, from sandy flats in 40-60 feet popping out on the wall at 70-100. Large coral heads that you could just hang around for the entire dive. Swim throughs, some just wide open caverns, others longer and a little tighter to manouver through and there was always the option to just follow above the reef as others went through.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable week and I would have no hesitation in recommending the resort and dive operation to anyone. :D

Final comment .... Lionfish! They seem to be fairly common, a couple of our guys spotted them and Dottie spent time on several dives trying to catch them. She got a couple which they hand over to the appropriate authority for analysis and ultimately, disposal. If you see one, they ask you to point it out to them or, at least, make a mental note of where you saw it, depth etc. and they'll go back and look another time.

diverchrispy
06-03-2009, 05:24 PM
If you don't mind, could you let us know the costs....dive package....airfare etc.

Thanks

Chris

shinek
06-03-2009, 05:31 PM
Dive/resort package was about $1700 each, we had enough airmiles to get to Grand Cayman, so I'm not sure what the usual flight cost would have been. Sorry.

ClaireOKC
06-04-2009, 02:28 PM
We're headed there next week...I am sooooo ready and soooo excited...a couple of questions - why did you think the trip to Cayman Brac was worth it?....have you been to other places on Brac?....this is our first trip to Caymans and we're sorta spoiled and like great sites - Little Cayman just sounds so wonderful not sure we want to trek elsewhere. Why didn't anyone else do night dive?...not good site?...other reason?

Another one - did they have juice in the morning or do I need to bring some?

Thanks for answering the other questions.

Claire

The Publisher
06-04-2009, 07:33 PM
Nice trip report SK! Pics by any chance?

shinek
06-08-2009, 12:18 AM
We're headed there next week...I am sooooo ready and soooo excited...a couple of questions - why did you think the trip to Cayman Brac was worth it?....have you been to other places on Brac?....this is our first trip to Caymans and we're sorta spoiled and like great sites - Little Cayman just sounds so wonderful not sure we want to trek elsewhere. Why didn't anyone else do night dive?...not good site?...other reason?

Another one - did they have juice in the morning or do I need to bring some?

Thanks for answering the other questions.

Claire

You'll have a blast! I'm jealous as it'll be a while before I get back there.

Firstly, in my view Brac trip was worth it as I thoroughly enjoyed the wreck dive and there's nothing like that on Little Cayman. Having said that, if the wreck doesn't interest you, there's no reason to leave Little Cayman, the diving there is superb. I'd say the same about the Brac if you stay there, no need to leave as there's plenty of great diving to keep you interested.

As for night dive, I'm generally a big fan, love night dives but a couple of our guys who'd been to this resort before said it wasn't that great. They basically just take you outside the cut in the reef in front of the resort and only then if there are enough people to make it worthwhile. A minor factor was that one of our weight saving options was to leave the big lights (and their batteries) at home. Could have still done the night dive but based on our friend's view, we just weren't that enthusiastic.

Juice in the morning at breakfast, but not on the boat, just water. We took water bottles and a couple of sachets of the Crystal Light stuff, but you could fill a bottle with juice at breakfast and take that with you.

Forgot to mention the video, sorry. As with most resorts, their resident videographer comes on one morning session and films everyone, the boat, the crew and pops up in front of you during the dives. He did a good job, the video was well made and fun. However, there was a little too much footage of us and not enough of the underwater critters for my personal taste but others may feel differently. The charge was $50 and that was sufficient for me not to buy one. Some of our group did, but I think if they'd charged something in the $25 to $35 range, they'd have sold one to every diver or couple on the boat. Hey, just my view.

I'll try to figure out how to post some photos in the next day or two.


http://www.scubamagazine.net/photo/data/556/medium/Diamond_Blenny_in_Anemone_2.jpg (http://www.scubamagazine.net/photo/showphoto.php?photo=1524)

http://www.scubamagazine.net/photo/data/556/medium/Yellow_Line_Arrow_Crab.jpg (http://www.scubamagazine.net/photo/showphoto.php?photo=1528)

edited in pics by ThePublisher

shinek
06-08-2009, 04:12 AM
I've uploaded a handful of pics from the trip, hope you like them.

http://www.scubamagazine.net/photo/showgallery.php?cat=556

If there's a better way to link the photos than just copying the URL in, just let me know. Thanks.

The Publisher
06-08-2009, 04:47 AM
Shine, I took the liberty of picking out my two favorite photos you shot and edited them into your post.

If you go to your album, select the pic you like, and near the file sharing code is a little icon with a paper clip chain link thing in it. I just copied the url and pasted it in.

shinek
06-08-2009, 04:16 PM
Cool, thanks, I'll know that for next time.