Diving Grand Cayman

dmjsr  Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Adventure Review

My son, Chad, had recently certified as a PADI Open Water Diver and we were celebrating with a dive vacation to Grand Cayman. We stayed at the Morritts Grand Resort located on the east end of Grand Cayman, about a 40 minute drive from Owen Roberts Airport in Georgetown. The Red Sail – Tortuga Divers Dive Shop is co-located at the resort which makes it an easy walk to the shop and dock where the dive boat departs.

Our first dive was a 60 foot dive at the “Amazing Reef” to refresh our dive skills and check out our equipment.  I was using 32% Nitrox and Chad was on air.  The Nitrox helps me from getting so fatigued during the week  diving.  They call it the “Old Foggie’s Gas”, so I quess you can call me an Old Foggie because it works for me.

The underwater visibility in the Cayman Islands normally ranges between 150 to 200 feet but today the planton had it cut the visibility down  to 120 feet.  But who can complain, when I certified Open Water in Indiana, my dive buddy and I had to use a 6 foot rope to stay in contact with one another.  The visibility at White Rock Park Quarry in St. Paul, IN.  that day was 2 to 3 feet.  I knew my dive buddy was on the other end of the rope but I couldn’t see. An occasional tug on the rope kept me confident that he was still there.  The park is convient in Indiana  for a dive certifications but not recommended for underwater sight seeing.

The next two tank dive was at “Pats Wall”, a 100 foot wall dive.  The cool thing about wall diving in the Cayman is when you swim out over the edge of the reef you are 100 feet deep but the bottom is another 5,900 feet below you!  As you look down into the abyss you peer into utter darkness and uneasyness of the unknownfrom  below creeps over you.  This is no time for you to be  fooling with your netural bouyance as an open water diver your maximum deepth is 1120. It is important to keep an eye on your gauges and watching your bottom time and air consumption.  The Recreation Dive Planner calls for a maximum of 20 minutes for a no decompression dive.  The black coral growing along the wall is very beautiful and but very costly if you get caught taking it or touching it.

The second dive of our two tank dive trip, was at ”Snapper Hole”.  Snapper Hole is ranked by dive magazines as one of the top ten  best dive sites in the Carribean.  This was a 40 minute dive to 60 feet.  When you enter the water you drop down to the top of the coral at 30 feet.  Now the fun begins, the coral has many crevaces and swim throughs that allow you to drop down another 30 to 40 feet.  These smim throughs are perfect hidding places for young silver sides, tarpon, lobster, crabs, eels, barracudas and nurse sharks.   At times the silver sides are so thick in this area as you swim into the school your visibility drops down to 3 feet with silver side all aound you.   A 300 year old Spanish Anchor and Chain, partially cover by coral,  rests along the outside of the reef swim throughs and a great site to see.

Our last two tank dive included a site called “Babylon” and “Grouper Grotto”.  Both of these 60 foot dives were amazing with the total number and the large varity of fish and sea creatures to see.  Many different types of sponges and coral were seen during our 5 dives. When I try to describe the beauty of  diving in the Carribean I ask my listner to picture themselves floating though the most beautiful flower garden and add the magnificant colors of  tropical rain forest birds flying all around you and pour them both into the deepest blue water and you can begin to visualize what I have seen.