just got back from a family vacation in Grand Cayman, wow, I've never enjoyed diving this much. I didn't shoot a single fish, spearing is only for residents over there but the diving was superb
I did 5 dives, all shore dives, some were tricky (on the east end) because of rough seas and having to negotiate around the reef to get out, but once you're out it was great. I couldn't do a good enough job to describe the structure, but I'll try.
water was 86 degrees, dove in shorts, cressi 2000HF, minima and omer snorkel
site 1: east end, cinderella's castle, diving depth 30-70', vis was only about 60' with 4-5' seas due to stiff easterly. a bit over a 1/4 mile swim, tricky entry/exit around the reef. structure is jagged rocks rising to 30', with massive caves underneath. did only about 20 dives and headed back early, too rough to stay out. saw muttons, a couple of small nassaus and blacks
site 2: west side, the sunset house pier, diving depths 20-90', vis at least 80'. nice easy entry. after a short swim of 50 yards you're in 65' of water. there is a wreck in 65' with some dog snappers, rockhinds. On my second dive to the bottom I hear a funny noise, just as I level off, the Atlantis Submarine is right in front of me!!! it started manuevering backwards and turning, I swam towards it as fast as I could and got to within 20' of the windows and waved hi :thumbsup2: then headed up. did some drops on the roll off to a max of 91', played with some muttons around the 75' area
site 3: the Babylon Wall, north side of east end, diving depths 50'-100', what a spooky dive! still rough with east wind, entry/exit was difficult, once on the reef, about a 1/4 mile swim, the wall drops from 55' to 4000!! :@ no matter how much I wanted to relax I just couldn't do it on this dive. I did a few drops on the cliff side of the wall to see if I could spot some big fish, I did see some big muttons only after I found this platform like rock formation (maybe limetsone) protuding out from the wall at exactly 97', I did 3 dives to it (short dives around 1:30). this was the most impressive dive site of all.
site 4: divetech pier on northwest side, a very relaxing experience, with a mini wall that drops from 40 to 70'. on this site I worked on my bottom times doing several 2 minute + 65-70' dives, I even ran into 2 scuba divers that took some pics of me at the bottom :thumbsup2:, not much fish on this site.
site 5: snapper hole on east end, finally the east winds subsided to flat seas so entry/exit was easy, still about a 1/4 mile swim to the site, much like cinderella's castle, sharp ledges with 30' drops, caves, with a sandy bottom at about 72'. saw a big cubera living amongst a school of tarpons in one of the caves, then played around with some nice size mutton on the sand.
in all, a great experience, I could have stayed there for another 6 months! going back again soon!
a couple of pics from site 4 courtesy of the scuba divers!