Trip Report Little Cayman
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.
