Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point in
Cayman Islands/Grand Cayman (East End)

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Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point: "Great Week at Compass Point Diving with Ocean Frontiers", May, 2024, by Michael Cotter, VA, US ( 2 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 13081.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	In early May I saw I had an open spot on my calendar later in the month, so, after getting a kitchen pass, I planned a solo trip to Grand Cayman for May 20-27. With my dates only a few weeks in the future, I wanted to plan a straightforward trip. Having stayed there before in 2016 and wanting to avoid the bustle of the West End, I chose Compass Point (CP) Resort and their in-house dive operation Ocean Frontiers (OF) which luckily did have availability. It was an easy 1-800 call from the US to the resort itself to book a one-bedroom condo and get a spot on the boats for the dives I wanted to make (basically, all of them). The package rate included a rental car and daily breakfast. United flies directly to/from GCM from my local airport (Washington Dulles) so getting there was a breeze. The condo was perfect for my needs. The king bed was great. There was a nice sitting area with a TV and plenty of channels (NBA playoffs and Stanley Cup Final!). I used the washer & dryer midweek which allowed me to pack lightly. The balcony overlooked the dock where the dive boats tied up so coming and going couldn’t have been easier. It had a modestly-sized but perfectly fine kitchen with all the plates, glasses, utensils, etc. needed. After getting my rental car at the airport, I stopped off at Foster’s and stocked up for the week for lunch and dinner. Each evening, I walked across the street to CP’s pool area, where there are two gas grills, to cook dinner each night. I restocked once at the Foster’s just a five-minute drive to the east. On several evenings I shared some beer and stories with fellow divers at Eagle Ray’s (the restaurant/bar on the opposite side of the dock from my condo) prior to making dinner. When I got to my condo, there was a large plastic crate for my gear waiting at my door. After putting my gear in it, the staff did the rest…it was on the boat and set up for my first dive. With the exception of my computer and my camera, I didn’t need to take any gear to/from the boat. After diving, my gear was put through the dunk tank and stored in the building at the foot of the dock. It was brought back to the boat each morning and set up again waiting for me. Going on the 2-tank AM trip and the 2-tank PM trip each day plus the night dive, I made 25 dives over the course of the week. I repeated only two sites (and was asked on one if I was ok with that (sure, it was the site with the reef sharks!). The dives covered almost the entire "horseshoe" of sites from Old Man Bay on the North Side (Babylon) wrapping around the East End to Frank Sound on the south (Fantasea Land). The boat rides were as short as 5 minutes but never longer than 30 minutes. For the most part, there were about a dozen divers on each trip that were split into two groups each lead by a guide; air versus nitrox was the typical dividing line between the groups. On a handful of dives there were only three or four divers. I chose to dive with the guided group but going out in your own group was allowed; people did that on several trips over the course of the week. Nineteen of my 25 dives were an hour or longer. The longest dive was 1 hour 21 minutes. I dove nitrox on all my dives. The tanks were always generously filled and labeled with the O2 percentage. On my first trip, a guide provided me (and the other first-timers) with a thorough boat orientation (entry and exit procedures, camera procedures, head, towels, water/snacks, etc.) and safety briefing (first aid kit, O2 kit, underwater recall, radio, etc.). Prior to each dive, using a whiteboard of the dive site, a guide would go over the dive plan…route, expected sights, max depth, safety stop, turn around, gas reserves, buddy procedures, etc. OF did a perfect job keeping all the divers safe and informed. OF has three 46-ft Newton dive boats with virtually identical setups. A typical dive was out on one path (e.g., along the wall) looping back along a different path (e.g., the top of the wall) returning to the boat at about the 45-minute mark. At that point, the guides would make sure everyone was buddied up before surfacing to help people aboard. People were allowed to join other buddies and continue diving if their buddy surfaced. The guides never set a time limit though when at the further dive sites on AM trips, they did remind people that they might be pressed to squeeze in lunch and be on-time for the PM trip (and the guides too!). When there was only three people on one of the PM trips, we did a drift dive (not the weekly “X Dive”). On one of the morning trips around to the North Side, the visibility and current at the “formal” dive sites wasn’t optimal so we anchored in two different stretches of sand to get better conditions. The marine life was plentiful and varied with all the usual suspects. A stretch of sites right outside the reef from CP was 100% reliable for Reef Shark sightings; we regularly saw up to three different sharks at these sites. Being that regular and “friendly” (on several occasions they would swim by no more than 5 feet from us), the guides have named them; I recall two: Scarlett and Sheldon. At one of these sites, a large, solo Remora followed us around on the last half of the dive repeatedly tying to hitch a ride on us. Over on the North Side, we were lucky to see a Hammerhead cruising along the wall. On the same dive we got a long look at the beginning and then at the end of the dive at a pair of Spotted Eagle Rays rooting around in the sand for a meal. Also on the North Side, after entering the water and waiting for the group to assemble, I saw a Loggerhead Turtle swimming directly toward me from the wall; it was immense. I waited in place seeing that I was going to get a great, closeup look but had to scoot out of its way a few seconds before getting run over…it was not going to alter its course one inch for me. While there were some, I didn’t see that many lionfish. I really like some of the smaller fish and got to see plenty of Yellowhead Jawfish popping in and out of their burrows. On one dive, cruising around the coral tops at 15 feet doing my safety stop and burning my remaining gas, I found numerous Redlip Blennies perching on the coral heads and zipping among the crevices. On two of the deeper dives, we were rewarded with Queen Angelfish sightings…stunning colors. The Tuesday evening night dive, in the lagoon just a few minutes from the dock in 20 feet of water, was definitely worth a delayed dinner. OF provides flashlights with white, red, and UV modes. The anemones put on a fluorescent light show when illuminated in UV…a really cool sight. And somehow, we managed to spot a Scorpionfish blending into its spot on a coral head. If your thing is swim-throughs, you won’t be disappointed…they were available on many of the dives. I usually pass, but on a dive with just three of us and the guide, at Grouper Grotto we swam through a short but narrow passage called Rabbit Ears (so named because as you enter vertically, your fins look like rabbit ears just before you disappear into the reef). The minimum temp my computer recorded over the course of my 25 dives was 83.0F with the lowest average temp being 83.3F. Puttering around under the boat/safety stop temps were typically 85F. We didn’t experience any notable currents. I am not good at estimating visibility quantitatively but can say that it was good/very good throughout the week. With the exception of two sites (Cinderella's Castle and Big House each having a large single patch in the shallows under the boat in addition to scattered small patches), there was bleaching to some extent on every site...typically scattered small patches here and there. However, I didn't see anything as drastic as shown in the two Little Cayman videos @Joneill posted. Bleaching was worse, but not excessively so, than what I saw on Little Cayman a few months prior in February. I saw very little algae growing on the bleached patches. I’m headed back to CP in October for another week; it will be interesting to see the effect of the summer temperatures on bleaching; hopefully the temps didn’t get too high. With such a large and organized operation, there were quite a number of crew members, some of which I didn’t get a chance to meet but every one of which I did, did a great job and was fun to dive with. If you are on the boat with Hunter, be sure to ask him to do his orange trick. I saw it several times over the course of the week and enjoyed it every time. The office, housekeeping, and Eagle Ray’s staff were very friendly and did a great job. Diving, happy hours, grilling, and hockey…the perfect vacation for a solo traveler…can’t wait to return in October!
Websites	Ocean Frontiers Compass Point
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, St. Lucia, Turks & Caicos, BVI, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, Galapagos.
Closest Airport	GCM (Owen Roberts International Airport)	Getting There	Direct flights to/from IAD (Washington Dulles) and GCM (Owen Roberts International Airport). Avis rental car to/from Compass Point (~40 minute drive). No issues.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, no currents
Water Temp	83-85°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	50-75 Ft/ 15-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No dive time limit. Planned max depth was as deep as 100 ft. Guides requested divers not to go more than 10 feet below them. Groups not required to follow guides.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Two tables on boat (one of which was often cluttered with diver's odds and ends). Typical large, open tub served as camera tank. I'm not aware of any shore-based dedicated UWP facilities.

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Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point in Cayman Islands/Grand Cayman (East End)

Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point: "Great Week at Compass Point Diving with Ocean Frontiers", May, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point in
Cayman Islands/Grand Cayman (East End)