2000 Chapbook

Grand Cayman is great for divers seeking familiar surroundings: it's Americanized and crowded, with traffic, Burger Kings, Ramadas, and Hyattsand it's expensive.... There are a seemingly endless number of safe and well-organized dive operations; depth and time limits are generally enforced, with some operations showing leniency to experienced divers (though others charge for special computer dives).... Avoid prepaying a dive package so that if you're disappointed with cattle boats or site selection you can switch to someone else.... Dive quality is declining due to development, and Seven Mile Beach reefs are beaten up. To beat crowds, endless youths, and Cayman Cowboys, stay on the North side, the East End (for the best diving), or north of Seven Mile Beach.... Brac diving is not up to the best of Cayman, but it's more laid back than Grand Cayman, and Brac outfits make frequent trips to Little Cayman from April to November; rough water often prevents trips at other times.... For Caribbean walls, clear water, and beautiful reefs, Little Cayman is nonpareil; a dozen dive boats a day can visit a two-mile stretch. The water's under 80 in the winter, when days can be cool, and in the low 80s in summer.... The Cayman Islands are in the hurricane belt.

Cayman Aggressor IV,March 1999, Tom Trammell (ttrammell@mediaone.net), Plymouth, MI. Vis: 80-150 ft. Water: 77-81 degrees. Weather: sunny. Water: calm. Restrictions: 130 feet. Nitrox. Great camera table, light boxes for slides, on board processing, slide mounting equipment. Aggressor IVis a new boat. Rooms all had semiprivate heads, TV, VCR. All amenities, including hot showers on dive deck. Crew great! Captain Tom, a good guy and consummate professional. Food great, Stingray beer was on-tap and cold, and the diving superb. Went to Little Cayman, the Brac, and some nice sites on Grand Cayman that aren't often visited. Excellent trip, an all-around 5! (AggressorFleet: Ph: 800-348-2628 or 504-385-2628; Fax: 504-384-0817; e-mail: info@aggressor.com;website www.aggressor.com)

Cayman Aggressor IV,March 1999, Jim & Julie Trollinger (Andinizzy@aol.com) Beltsville, MD. Vis: 80-150 ft. Water: 72-78 degrees. Great boat, typical Aggressorattention to detail. Took Nitrox course from Alan Roberts. Whole crew, Courtney, Jerrod, Tom, Scott, excellent. Wall diving superb. Russian wreck broken in two already.

Cayman Aggressor,April 1999, Robin A. Masson, Ithaca, NY. Vis: 50-75 ft. Water: 72-82 degrees. No restrictions. Healthy reefs; excellent service: crew worked as team; good food; stay at one site all ARE, another for 2 afternoon and night dives; nice boat, well appointed, lots of space, didn't feel crowded; snacks after first AM and PM dives; hot towels on dive deck! Individual lockers on dive deck with plenty of room. Nitrox; prompt tank fills, informative briefings. Open bar. Glenn Ellen Wine - we paid enough that they should have had at least a mediocre wine, it was awful! Steaming across to Little Cayman in rough seas, everyone was sick all night. Should have waited a day. They shouldn't charge for Nitrox - Peter Hughes doesn't.

Cayman Aggressor IV,April 1999, Craig Nemethy (NemoC@worldnet.att.net, Lake Peekskill, NY. Vis: 100-150 ft. Water: 78-80 degrees. Water: choppy. Restrictions: none. Great trip, perfect weather. Fish life not as abundant as expected. Russian destroyer was a great dive. Diving very good. Reefs in good condition. Good crew. Roy the cook puts a little heat on everything, but had no problems accommodating any request. Boat in great shape, comfortable. Dingy could use work. Took 10-15 minutes to start. Could be a problem in an emergency. Some divers lost their fins and mask off the dive deck in choppy seas, crew said sorry but Capt. didn't offer compensation.

Cayman Aggressor,September 1999, Maryann L. Gee, Atlanta, GA. Vis: 60-100 ft. Water: 84 degrees. Restrictions: 110 ft.

Little Cayman Diver II,January 1999, Joe Johnston, Mt. Olive, MS. Vis: 50-100 ft. Water: 76-80 degrees. Restrictions: 130 ft. Boat in bad need of major repairs (read disclaimer on back of gratuity sheet, unbelievable.) Both generators out part of the week. Personnel turn over again and again. Except Diane (cook and mainstay). No dinghy. No way to rescue at sea or get an injured diver ashore! Three days no luggage. Winston's ex-wife Denise wanted to charge me for dive gear until mine came on the 4th day! (Ph: 800-458-2722 or 813-932-1993, Fax: 813-935-2250)

Little Cayman Diver II,February 1999, Dan D. Oliver, J.D., Walla Walla, WA. Vis: 60-100 ft. Water: 79-80 degrees. Dive restrictions: 110' requested, but could exceed since no enforcement. Great dive sites. The Aggressordidn't make it to Little Cayman this week due to inclement weather. Byron, a NAUI Instructor, was excellent! Outstanding sketches of sites. Great freedom to dive your computer. Even allowed solo dives during the day. Food and condition of the LCDII do not meet the standards of other live-aboards.

Little Cayman Diver II,March 1999, C.W. Jan Wyandotte, MI. Vis: 60-100 ft. Water: 72-78 degrees. Dive restrictions: 120' + 500 psi near boat. We dove our computers. Crew worked hard to fix various mech problems. Did not interfere with diving. 5 a day plus "dawn dive" as requested. Divemaster Byron excellent. Briefings, general info. guided tours, overall help. All crew capable and helpful. Abundant fish including many large groupers. 6' reef shark, many sting rays and 5' long x 5' wide Jewfish. Much coral damage. Fins from many divers to be cause. Many day boats seen. Local dive operators could help themselves by limiting access or closing some sites to allow recovery.

Little Cayman Diver II,September 1999, Craig Davis (bizgoz@hotmail.com), Boca Raton, FL. Vis: 30-70 ft. Water: 84-85 degrees. Sunny. Water: calm, no currents. Restrictions: None. Accommodations were decent, diving was excellent. No smoking restrictions and the crew of 4 all chain smoked, even on the dive platform when you are suiting up and getting out! Food stunk. Never had food that bad on a dive trip. Cook was very creative. Quality of the meats stunk. Leg of beef one night cooked medium, was tough as leather. Most meals fit this profile. No seafood served! Not even a measly tuna sandwich. Service (not counting the smoking) was top notch. A second rate operation, which explains why the Cayman Aggressorwas booked for the next 5 months, and we were able to get on this boat in 4 weeks!

Little Cayman Diver II,September 1999, Ross Kaminsky (rossputin@aol.com), Chicago, IL. Vis: 50-125 ft. Water: 83-85 degrees. Sunny. Water calm. Restrictions: 110 ft. max. New crew working hard, and I think successfully, to bring operation back to upper ranks of dive operations. Craig, the new captain, is friendly, sociable, anxious to make sure the divers are enjoying themselves. Top fly fisherman, so you'll can talk for hours about it, and he might give you a lesson, maybe trying for a tarpon if you have time to get away from the protected areas of the wall. Damn fine guitarist. Ah, the wall. Now that's some nice diving. We moored at 10 sites. Most have access to Bloody Bay wall as well as nice flatish reefs and sand patches with lots of Southern stingrays and an occasional spotted eagle ray. Couple of gray reef sharks, and several nurse sharks. Far more prevalent were turtles. Octopus on 3 night dives, 2 spotted morays and one green moray on one night dive. Lots of queen triggers, parrotfish. large and friendly Nassau groupers, 2 or 3 juvenile spotted drums. Slight current on 2 of 20+ dives. Vis excellent first half of week but silty during the 2nd half, but still 75 ft-100 ft. Dive as often as we liked, good briefings complete with maps and location of critters. Claus, the Danish divemaster knew were anemones were lots of dive experience and an excellent balance of having a good time while not forgetting the responsibility of his position. We took a 75 minute dive at dusk got a yard from a feeding spotted eagle ray. Saw a rather goofy eel, which I think was a black-spotted eel, like the gold-spotted. Saw 3 soapfish during the week that I thought was pretty cool though they are rather silly fish. Diving about a 7/10, and more like an 8+ for the Caribbean. (I'm spoiled from diving the south Pacific.) About equal to the Turks, just a bit below Belize. Food not great, probably the least interesting of any live-aboard I've been on. Cook is friendly young guy named Matt who's willing to work around dietary requirements and is creative. If the owners had spent an extra hundred dollars or two, we would have had beef that was much less tough and enough eggs to last the week. Matt, unwilling to say anything negative about the setup, did seem a little frustrated. No fish. Great Jerk Chicken and good pork loin. Breakfast usually good, though too much greasy stuff. Excellent French toast! A customer on the boat who smoked which I found annoying. Dive deck adequate for the 8 divers on the boat, though it could get tight if the boat had its maximum capacity (12?) diving, only 7 bins for gear. My room was small, being in the bow, but rooms were generally spacious and nice, with a private shower and head in each, and a bathtub in one, though it really shouldn't be used much as it takes so much fresh water. Beds made every day. Little sun deck on top with long beach chairs with cushions for tanning, hanging out, Enjoyed my experience. LCD not up to the level of some larger live-aboards, but great crew more than made up for it. Also, it's cheaper.