G'Mawnin' Scuba-SEers,
This trip report was written before June 3, and for inexplicable
reasons lost its way enroute here ... until now. :-) I am trying
to post it directly from the LISTSERV webpage ... if the spacing
is no better than that of Yahoo.com for this post ... sorry.
This week's charter was May 27 - June 3, the anniversary of the
mini- NEDfest May 30 - June 5, 1999 with Crusty, Danna, and Sue.
This is also my 10th pilgrimmage to the Cayman Aggressor since 1990,
and the 2nd anniversary on this new CA-IV vessel, since it came into
existence in November 1998. Before I get you all choked up about
these anniversaries, let's get on with the trip highlights.
Day 1. Getting there.
It was the SECOND easiest travel to any liveaboard to date (last
year's was the first). We left ATL at 10:50 (flying Delta) and we
were in Grand Cayman shortly after noon, and still had time to kill
before boarding the boat at the Georgetown Pier at 14:00.
One nice feature on this Cayman Aggressor is that there is only ONE
tank to each diver, "warm filled". That means once the BC is
properly secured on the tank, it doesn't have to be re-done the
entire week. All the diver does is to take the first stage of the
reg off the tank, leave tank cap off, and the crew will know by the
color of the cap (black or green) to re-fill it with air or nitrox
(EAN32). The diver would know the tank has been re-filled when the
cap is back on the tank. Ready for the next dive!
The crew was virtually intact from last year: Captain Tom and 2nd
Capt Courtney, Photo Pro Alan, DM Kurt; new members were DM Randy
and Chef Lenni. The passengers were mixed in all respects. 7 from
the East Coast, 5 from the West, 3 from Central, and 2 Frogs. :-)
One short of full capacity. All relatively experienced divers; all
dived with computers; all but two were diving nitrox by the third day.
Day 2. Eagle rays galore at Rum Point.
The normal daily routine is coffee ready at 5:30; fruit and cold
breakfast available at 6:30, and hot breakfast at 7. Two morning
dives at the same site beginning at 8; lunch 12:30; boat moves to
new site to remain the rest of the day. Two dives in the afternoon
beginning at 2; dinner at 6; night dive at 7 -- except today when
the boat starts crossing to Little Cayman at 7.
The first two dives were at Doc Polson's wreck - not much of a wreck
for a dive, but is only minutes from the Georgetown pier from which
we started. Last year, I wrote:
>Normally the second site would have been Babylon on the N.E. side of
>the island because it is a good site both for diving and starting
>the crossing to Little Cayman. Captain Tom had heard me saying in a
>chit chat about eagle rays that the most I had ever seen in the
>Cayman Islands was at Rum Point where we saw squadrons of threes and
>fours over and over again, and that the last time I dived there was
>in 1993. So, Tom changed the afternoon dives to Rum Point, not far
>from Stingray City. We weren't disappointed. Have to remember to
>ask for RUM POINT in future trips.
Didn't have to ask. Tom was still the Captain. He just took us there
for our two afternoon dives ... plenty of eagle rays and turtles.
The CROSSING to Little Cayman. Approximately in roughness as the
Coz99NEDfest seas at the Maracaibo -- for SEVEN hours. The Mexican
motion-sickness pill (just one) Sturgeron-forte REALLY worked! I've
never had such a comfortable crossing since 1991! I THINK I am ready
for the 30-hr crossing to Coco's Island in August. :-))
Day 3.
We were greeted by one or more reef sharks and at least two turtles
on EVERY one of my dives on Bloody Bay Wall in Little Cayman. My
dives today were:
Randy's Gazebo 8:15 102 fsw 54 min
Randy's Gazebo 10:43 72 fsw 75 min
Nancy's Cup of Tea 14:18 81 fsw 57 min
Nancy's Cup of Tea 16:52 95 fsw 44 min
Wot reverse profile? Those max depths were just dipping down to
kiss the shark at whatever depth they happened to be. :-)
Day 4. Cayman Brac, Russian Wreck, Dive with Wild Dolphin.
The CA IV left Little Cayman at 7 am and was at the site shortly
before 8. The wreck is now so broken up and twisted in the middle
that it was hardly recognizable from what I dived two years ago.
Hurricane Mitch did it. The novelty of the wreck itself was gone
since I had dived it six times already in previous years.
The wreck has been called the "Russian wreck", "Capt. Keith
Tibbetts", "356" for its length, or "Red September", an obvious
plagiarism of the movie title "Red October" involing a Russian
destroyer, and the fact that it was sunk in September 1996.
We were briefed on THREE new residents (since last year): A wild
dolphin; a 400-500 lb jewfish; and a green moray. Only one of the
three showed, but the 5-foot bottlenose dolphin played with everyone
and let herself be petted, but was partial to the free-divers over
scuba-divers. She remained next to the mooring buoy even as our
boat pulled away back to Little Cayman.
Day 5. More Bloody Bay Wall.
More Bloody Bay Wall. More sharks. More turtles. A few eagle rays.
Three Fathom Wall, 8:09, 10:41; Eagle Ray Roundup, 14:09, 16:34.
Day 6. The Great Wall.
This is the FIRST time I've dived this wall on the Cayman Aggressor.
As Kurt puts it quite aptly, "This is the wall all walls aspires to
be." 25 ft ledge to a vertical drop to the abyss, with hard and
soft corals abound. The undercut at 125 fsw was too much for me to
resist. As a result, these were my two deepest dives this week, all
on EAN32:
The Great Wall 8:02 131 fsw max 61 min
The Great Wall 10:36 129 fsw max 65 min
Two more dives at Lea Lea's Lookout completed this day of diving.
DAY 7. The boat left Little Cayman after the night dive, and we
were back to Grand Cayman at 4 am. We did the obligatory Stingray
City for an hour in the morning as the first dive; and Devil's
Grotto (same as last year) as the last dive of the trip.
Day 8. Back to Hotlanta and stayed there for the weekend ...
and then back to the Mad Mad Mad Mad World of ... Scuba-?? :-)
Good Diving Y'all,
-- Bob.
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