Diving with Reef Divers/Brac Reef in
Cayman Islands/Cayman Brac in 2003/06:
an Instant Reader Report

 St. John, Antiqua 

Dive Conditions

Recommended profile given for each dive, but not enforced.  Most divers on
the boat were VERY experienced -- 100's of dives.  

Nice tables on boats.  Divemasters hand you your camera once in the water
and take on return.  Very high quality rentals available in shop and good
developing and advice.  

Overall Rating

BRAC REEF RESORT: Nice location on the southwest end of the island, very
good condition, extremely friendly owner and staff. The dock structure is
wonderful and the hammocks there and on the beach rock. Nice pool and
hot-tub.  But did I mention that the hammocks rock?!?

NOTE: You need to rent a car at a place up the street (they deliver to the
hotel and they are cheap by the day) to bop around the island which is
fascinating.

FOOD: Buffet style American Plan (all meals included). Plentiful and good
but certainly not fine dining. Really well suited for dive days where you
just want to have no-hassle, relaxing meals.

For gourmet but expensive dining, there is a hotel up the street with a
very fine seafood restaurant.  It's worth at least one night out.

REEF DIVERS OPERATION: Valet-style to the max (I can't imagine what else
they could do for you)!   Boats are fairly large and very well equipped
(even with defibrillators).  Good nitrox service -- Nitrox tanks tended to
average 3100 PSI and generally 31.6% or so O2.

Craig was our lead divemaster for most trips.  With over 6000 dives, he
knows every site inside and out.  His pre-dive briefings were great. We
always had 2 divemasters -- usually Craig and Mark.  One stayed on the boat
and one was in the water finding interesting stuff. You could follow along
or do your own thing -- totally your choice.  Their style definitely favors
more experienced divers in that they don't really lead a parade tour except
on drift dives (we only did one); however, they were always willing to let
us follow them through swim-throughts etc and offered excellent coaching
post dive (my 14 year old son and I vastly improved our diving skills as a
result of their coaching and with help from the other more experienced
divers).

Dives: Great walls starting around 85 feet and unbelievable coral. Reefs
are in excellent condition for the most part -- we saw occasional damage on
some of the shallower dives in the afternoon. Plenty of tropical fish,
lobsters, some turtles, eagle rays, and mantas. Only saw a few nurse sharks
(others saw more).  Overall, the coral / reef quality exceeded the fish
quality, but no complaints on the latter.  We usually did 3 dives a day --
2 on the morning trip and 1 in the afternoon.   

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