Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman lies just southwest of Cuba and is easily accessible via jet from the USA. Although it's a beautiful and fun place, it is not an secluded island hideaway - it's very developed and feels more like Florida than an island paradise, particularly on the east end. That said, there is still spectacular diving nearby, with steep dropoffs and a wide variety of marine life, large and small. A turtle farm on the island ensures frequent sightings of turtles on most dives, and snorkelling or diving at stingray city with the tame rays is a total blast if it's not too overcrowded with people.

I've been to Grand Cayman twice, once in 1992 and again in 1994. My buddies Derek van Bever and John Williams came on both trips, with family and other friends along as well in 1994. I really loved the ocean triggerfish we found at the top of the wall on a few dives - they're so beautiful and serene I spent a whole dive just sitting on the bottom in their midst. Queen Elizabeth II visited the island while we were there in 1994 and we got to see her disembark from the royal yacht.

I forget where we stayed, some fairly generic condos, but we dove with Fisheye and Ambassador Divers, both excellent outfits. Fisheye is a pretty big operation yet put us on small uncrowded boats; Ambassador was truly personalized with just our group and a divemaster.

Here are my dive log entries for the trip July 1992:

Dive No. Date Dive Site Max Depth Bottom Time Night? Notes
46 7/26/92 Zands Wall, North Wall 101 0:31 N 1st video w/wide-angle lens. Nice wall, others saw eagle ray. Big school of jacks above us in sunlight.
47 7/26/92 Hammerhead Hill 74 0:33 N Top of the wall. 2 great eagle rays, others saw distant shark. Ear pain after dive.
48 7/26/92 West Wall 70 0:37 N "Trench" wall. Drab compared to Australia. Big lobster, puffer.
49 7/26/92 Doc Paulsen's wreck 52 0:45 N New wreck, nothing special. Open flat reef. Great encounter & long swim w/stingray & pilot fish. Lots of tube worms in sand.
50 7/27/92 Gail's Mountain, North wall 104 0:31 N Spectacular wall w/great viz - great dive.
51 7/27/92 Pennie's Arch 45 0:51 N Very nice site of coral heads. Small shy green moray, great peacock flounder video, spotted by Derek. Excellent, comfortable dive.
52 7/28/92 No Name Wall, North wall 118 0:49 N Another spectacular wall. 3 spotted eagle ray fly-bys!
53 7/28/92 Robert's wall, North wall 96 0:36 N Another great wall, close eagle ray. Great trunkfish & filefish pairs in shallow. Pristine site w/lush gorgonians & fans. Big midnight parrot & big grouper.
54 7/28/92 Queen's throne 56 0:44 N Nice stingray in sand, big snapper on wall edge. Cute puffer at end, lots of small 'cuda.
55 7/28/92 Wildlife, West wall 44 0:49 Y 1st night dive w/video. Some current, missed better parts of dive site by not staying w/group. Others saw octopi, we didn't see much of anything.
56 7/29/92 Whitestroke Canyon, North wall 123 0:36 N Got a little narc'ed on depeest dive yet. Eagle ray came up under me. Very flourescent little orange coral. Black durgeons, squirrelfish, & chubs love Cheeze-Whiz!
57 7/29/92 Robert's wall 73 0:43 N Suunto down to 8 mins no-deco @73 ft. Ocean trigger @end near surface, thought it was a sunfish.
58 7/30/92 Black Forest Wall, North wall 121 0:51 N Nice wall w/lush gorgonians on top. Lobster on wall, nice school of blue tangs, big 'cuda on wall. John went to 146 ft! Poor sunlight.
59 7/30/92 West Gate, North wall 117 0:37 N Great wall w/4-6 eagle rays circling at close range. Cute puffer, school of ocean triggers being cleaned at top of wall.
60 7/30/92 West Gate, North wall 73 0:40 N Great dive. Derek found big grouper being cleaned, I had a magical interlude with the ocean triggers at top of the wall. Long tailed trunkfish, 1' scrawled filefish. Close to no-deco limit.
61 7/31/92 Princess Pennie's Wall, North wall 153 0:47 N 6-8' shark at 75', 6-8 eagle rays, some over the edge close-up. Chris of Ambassador found playful turtle. Broke John's depth record, then video housing exploded during safety stop!
62 7/31/92 Round Rock, West wall 120 0:40 N Not as sheer as North walls. Banded shrimp on wall, flounder in sand at top, arrow crab, camera stolen by turtle!.
63 7/31/92 Oroverde wreck 50 0:59 N Impressive wreck, tons of fish. Big groupers, snapper, huge parrot, pretty yellow grouper w/blue spots, cute goby in hole in reef. Big school of jacks, fry everywhere.
64 8/1/92 Eagle Ray Pass, North wall 99 0:35 N Big swim through tunnel cut in wall edge. Big school of 8" 'cudas circling above sand, 2 eagle rays just above us @100'. 3-ft tarpon, 2 lobsters together.
65 8/1/92 Sandbar, Stingray City 17 0:49 N Video'd by Ed of Fisheye. Bomber squadrons of rays charging at us over the reef! Hilarious experience being swarmed over by a dozen rays.

and here's my log for the trip of February 1994:

Dive No. Date Dive Site Max Depth Bottom Time Night? Notes
112 2/23/94 3B's, North Wall 109 0:40 N Familiar Cayman wall, nice pair of eagle rays. Colors drab compared to Dominica, water a little cold @80°
113 2/23/94 Lemon reef, North Wall 53 0:46 N Lots of fans, spotted trunk, cuda, cute conch
114 2/23/94 Turtle Farm 60 0:53 Y Our first "Jeep dive", thanks for tanks from Hank. Great site, great dive. Fuzzy chitons on rocks at entry, mini wall w/50' bottom. 4 octopi let us get close. Tons of soaps, huge slipper lobster. Spectacular topography. Severe ear pain after dive.
115 2/26/94 Main Street, North Wall 103 0:42 N Back after 2 days' ear rest. Spectacular wall, , jacks @start, huge grouper, big lobster out in open @end. Ears OK. Cold - from sunburn? 'Cuda @end hovering. Fan cutout around coral.
116 2/26/94 Bear's paw, north wall 65 0:46 N Very pretty reef, shallow spur & groove. Gorgeous queen trigger w/pilot, nice school of chubs, tame honeycomb cow. Still cold.
117 2/26/94 Chinese Wall, North wall 87 0:45 N Afternoon dive w/genius divemaster Brian. Spectacular wall, D. found yellow tunicate, scrawled file, friendly puers, D. saw eagle ray, video bttry ran out.
118 2/26/94 Eagle Ray Pass, North Wall 74 0:43 N Friendly ocean trigger lay down w/me in sand, grouper being cleaned, big conchs w/visible feeding, 5 cobia under ledge. Spent last 1/2 of dive 30' above reef to avoid deco dive.
119 2/27/94 Orange Canyon, West wall 101 0:41 N Beautiful site w/deep cuts to wall. Gave 2# of weight to D. Turtle at start, friendly French angels looking for handouts, pair of mammoth parrots, ocean trigger cruisin, great jellyfish video.
120 2/27/94 Spanish Anchor, west wall 51 0:48 N Saw the anchor, gold moray, D buddied w/French angel. Unusual "mottled" hogfish, big blue-spot cornet, tiny blenny, spawning Sgt. Majors, big honeycomb cow.
121 2/27/94 Turtle Farm 60 0:54 Y Return to site of #114 in search of octopi. Found none, but 5' nurse shark in big cave. Nice hermit crabs. Emptied tank, much warmer w/vest. Lousy viz.
122 2/28/94 Stingray City 15 0:44 N Francoise, Garance, & Pam snorkling above. Ripping current, rays, & 6' moray lunging at D. made for total mayhem!

back to Julia's scuba diving page

back to Julia's homepage