It was my 12th trip on the Cayman Aggressor.  I did the LEAST number of
dives (17) in 5 1/2 days of diving, but dived the MOST number of sites (18)
on such a trip, while the Aggressor moored at only 12 different sites.  :-)
 It shouldn't be much of a challenge for anyone familiar with Cayman sites
to figure out HOW that could've happened.

DAY 1.  Doc Polson Wreck.
        Marty's (Martin's) Wall
        Rum Point
              Crossing to Little Cayman
DAY 2.  Randy's Gazebo
        Great Wall West
        Bus Stop
        Meadows
        Cumbers Cave
DAY 3.  Russian Wreck (Cayman Brac)
        Cayman Brac Wall
        Eagle Ray Roundup (Little Cayman)
        Jackson's Reef
DAY 4.  Great Wall
        Lea Lea's Lookout
              Crossing back to Grand Cayman
DAY 5.  Round Rock
        Trinity Caves
        Oro Verde
DAY 6.  Big Tunnel
        (Devil's Grotto: couldn't stand this one <g>)

The water was WARM (84F), the visibility was generally very POOR,
by Cayman standards.  Pea soup was the rule than the exception, just
as I observed in Cozumel a couple of weeks before, which makes me
suspect it's a Caribbean condition of the El Nin~o type.

It was windy, rainny, and sunny on most days -- rather atypical of Cayman
weather at this time of the year.  On Thursday, there was even a threat
of a possible hurricane when we returned to Grand Cayman.  On Day 5, the
North side of GCM was un-moorable because of windy conditions.  On both
Day 5 and Day 6, the wind-and-wave conditions made Stingray City
inaccessible (which was a first on all my trips, to my delight -- because
I am sick of Stingray City after about the 2nd time <G> and the substitute
sites -- Round Rock and Big Tunnel -- were much more interesting than
the stingrays).

It's hard to tell whether this crazy weather condition will continue
through the CAIV02NEDfest or not.

What else is new?

1.  The Aggressor Fleet has reduced its crew size to FIVE (from 7 to 9
    in previous years).  Capt Kurt said 9/11 and reduced bookings had
    been blamed, though the CA-IV has been almost always filled to
    capacity (18), including this week. Only 3 of this week's 5 will be
    at the June 8-15 week <g>, but I have warned Captain Kurt the NEDs
    are coming, but I refused to let them borrow Crusty's 2002 NEDfest
    shirt to greet the incoming passengers at the airport.  :-)

2.  The CAIV boat engine was ailing after the last dive of the week. As
    we left, one of the engines was still being repaired and it still
    couldn't moor at the usual Georgetown pier.  Friday night, passengers
    had to be shuttled to shore for dinner on the boat's only dinghy. :-)

3.  The Indian chef Savio (who has gone to Bombay today for his week
    off) will be back on the NEDfest week.  His cooking is generally
    excellent though his curry vindaloo was obviously toned down for
    the Gringo eaters.  :-)

4.  There are now THREE scooters ($10 per dive), two two-seater
    kayaks (free, I think) on board. There's the hot tub (and the June
    issue of Rodales which featured an article on Hot Tub and Hot
    Showers contributing to DCI -- and I noticed that magazine quickly
    disappeared from the dining/reading room <BG>).  Nobody used the
    hot-tub during the week.  Also nobody took the re-breather course,
    though I am sure they'll be available to the NED Terrorists.  :-)

I had adopted two new strategies for this trip:

(1) I brought two BCs, and had one always on air, and the other always
on EAN32, so that it's easier for both crew and me to dive on air in
the mornings (on walls) and EAN32 in the afternoons on shallower dives,
without having to bleed one tank empty over and over again when switching
gas.  It also made it less conspicuous when I chose to dive deeper than
advisable on EAN32.  :-)

(2)  The last THREE dives of the day (two in the afternoon and one at
night) were always at the same sites.  Sue and I had long given up the
night dives once having been warm and cozy at dinner.  :-) We fine-tuned
the warm and cozy feeling on several days (egged on by the murky vis on
shallow sand flats at the Jackson Bay sites) by combining two afternoon
dives into ONE -- by doing a 90 minute dive instead of two 45-minute
dives.  :-))   We COULD have done those as 120 minute dives had the
boredom factor not set in around the 90 minute mark.  That pretty much
explained the least NUMBER of dives we did for the week.  :-)

Now we're ready to get ready for the WARM and COZY feeling at the
Choo-Choo-mini-NEDfest on June 1!

-- Bob.