The Cayman Islands consists of three seperate islands, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. Diving vacations can be based on all three of these islands, and each destination is previewed below. The Cayman Islands are a British Crown Colony and english is spoken on all islands. The caymans are best known as an offshore tax haven and major banking/financial center. The financial status and prosperity of the cayman islands means that the islands are not a budget paradise. The official currency is the Cayman dollar, but US dollars are accepted throughout the islands.

Grand Cayman Island

This is the largest island and contains the capital of the caymans islands, George Town. George Town is located at the west end of the island, and running north from George Town is 7 mile beach which is where most of the resort style accommodation for Grand Cayman is located.

Diving on grand cayman can be seperated into three seperate sections, the northern dive sites, the wetsern dive sites and the eastern dive sites.

The northern dive sites are grouped around the north side of the northern sound (a shallow lagoon) where the fringing reef encompasses the sound and then drops into the depths creating the northern wall. The fringing reef has cuts, swim throughs, channels running from the sound out to the deep ocean beyond. The diving available on the northern sites consists of these cuts, swim throughs, channels, the shallow fringing reef, and the spectacular wall drop offs into the depths of the ocean. A large variety of soft corals can be found on the wall, with large pelagics sometimes seen from the wall, and hard corals on the fringing reef itself. Typical pelagics include, southern stingrays, spotted eagle rays, green turtles, hammerhead sharks, black tipped reef sharks. Just on the edge of the northern sound is stingray city and sandbar, two sites where the southern stingrays are commonly hand fed, in depths shallow enough for snorkellers, and all divers to participate in. The hand feeding of the rays has produced very friendly and approachable stingrays for divers to get a close encounter with.

The western dive sites are the most popular dive sites due to their protection from the the weather, little or no current, and excellent visibility. The reef features a spur and grove formation where the spurs run perpendicular to the shore, seperated by groves, sandy bottomed channels, that create a labarynth of swim throughs of which to explore. The west end of the grand cayman is a protected reef area, which means that marine life is plentiful and friendly. Swimming through the reef leads down to a western wall which like the northern wall drops away into the depths of the ocean. Several of the dive sites along the western end of the island are appropiate for snorkellers, and several are also good shore dives.

The eastern dive sites are more exposed to high surf and current from the north eastern trade winds, and are consequently dived less than other sites. The terrain is characterised by large ironside canyons of intricate detail in pristine condition. These large canyons lead out to drop offs into the depths of the ocean, and pelagics are commonly seen from here. The canyons are decorated with swim throughs, caves, gorgonians, black corals, sponges, and soft corals. While there is accomodation at the east end of the island, east end dive operations can be reached as a day trip from the west end of the island by driving.


Cayman Brac

Cayman Brac has not received the attention that Grand Cayman has, it offers little safe harbour and cruise ships keep away. In addition to great diving, the Brac also has quite a few limestone cave systems carved out of it's limestone bluffs, which can be explored (bring a torch). The shallow dive sites inside the wall offer great snorkelling value for non divers.

Cayman Brac is a real treat for divers having high visibility, due to little to no island runoff, and little current. Fringing reef surrounds most of the island with the long torpedo shape of the island giving rise to two different diving environments. The wall extends all the way around the island, with the north side of the wall having more sponge life, including strawberry, large barrel and vase sponges. The south side of the island is more characterised by groove and spur coral formations that run perpendicular to the shore. Southern dive sites are spectacular with chimneys, tunnels and swim throughs. The trade winds generally come from the east, therefore most of the diving is done on the northwest side of the island.

One of the real attractions to dive is the wreck MV Capt. Keith Tibbetts (or russian frigate #356), which was sunk in 1996 in shallow water. The wreck, 330ft long and 68ft high, lies in about 60ft of water and is already starting to sink into the sand. Due to the shallow depth of the wreck, it can be clearly seen from the surface on snorkel. Cayman Brac dive operators also schedule dive trips to Little Caymans Bloody Bay marine park, which is a 45 minute boat ride away.


Little Cayman

Little Cayman has long been attracting divers to its 90 degree vertical walls in Bloody Bay marine park. The wall drop offs on this part of the north side of little cayman are a spectacle worth seeing. The northern side diving sites of Bloody Bay and Jackson Bay are predominately wall dives with swim throughs, caves and tunnels all adding good variety to the dive sites. The walls are filled with sponges of many colors and large pelagics can be seen regularly, including gropers, stingrays, turtles and reef sharks.

The diving terrain on the south side of the island is a spur and groove reef structure running perpendicular to the shore. This structure runs out to the top of the wall, which is deeper on the southern side than on the northern side, and does not drop off as vertically as the northern wall does. The southern side of the island has good coral structure that provides homes to many macro marine animals and the sandy bottom of the grooves provides an environment for sting rays.

While on little cayman check out Booby Pond nature reserve, a salt water lagoon which is home to the red-footed booby and the frigate bird.