Our second trip to Little Cayman and our second stay at Pirates Point Resort.
See here for the 2015 report. This report is only an update.
The big downer was that Valerie had a sinus infection and couldn't dive due to clogging until the last day. Sigh.
We did get to see Cuba:
and spend some time in the Grand Cayman airport (not highly recommended although the coffee bar outside was great):
As you can see, we're not talking lush tropical paradise, which is much better for no visibility destroying runoff:
The big changes at the resort were people. Gladys Howard, the creator, sadly passed away. Her daughter Susan has taken over and was in residence for part of our visit. It looks like there will be no significant changes - which is great! Brandon is a new chef and Tiago a new dive guide. Both fit right in and were a pleasure. Brandon loves to talk and do food so keeps the very high standard intact.
There were some interesting above-water sights, including how a coconut actually works:
and iguana porn (thanks Peter):
We did shift halfway through from our un-air conditioned oceanfront room to a not-so-oceanfront air conditioned one. We lost the sound of the surf and much natural light but also a number of degrees of Fahrenheit and percents of humidity.
There was a 9-person group already at the resort when we arrived and they dove as one group. That left six of us (including Val) as "Group 2". A name which we clung to even when the other group had departed.
Fun diving and chatting with Floridians Peter, Merribeth, Greg and Ann!
Peter and Merribeth:
Greg and Ann
and me on the boat ride:
and behind the lens:
(Thanks to Peter for both.)
The resort encourages guests to leave a little something behind and has an annual contest. Group 2's contribution was an idea by Merribeth with a watercolor by Valerie based on a photo by Andy with a frame of found items by Ann & Merribeth which was glued together by Greg and hung by Peter.
Here's a map of the dive sites off Little Cayman with the resort's location shown. The Cayman Islands have really promoted diving (their largest industry) with the idea that there is a mooring site for each day of the year across all three islands. So they've added a few off Little Cayman since we were last there. The most famous dive sites are on Bloody Bay Wall (northwest side); fortunately we had great conditions with very little wind so we could get to those sites every day. The Yellow Rose (appropriate name for the dive boat as befits the Texan founder) had problems with one engine overheating so the rides were a little slower. But they never cut short on going to the best sites for diving.
The resort is beautifully balanced between hard core diving, great food and a very very relaxed pace. The two dives are done in a leisurely style, with no demands to keep the dives short. Breakfast is at 8:00, departure for the boat at 9:00 and we would get back to the resort around 2:30 pm with lunch waiting for us; hors d'oeuvres were at 6:30 and dinner at 7:30.
Eat, Dive, Dive, Eat, Eat, Sleep.
Bottom line:
- As relaxing a dive trip as 2015.
- Andy's 10 hours 53 minutes were spread over 10 dives bottoming out at 101 feet (one foot beyond Cayman's legal sport diving limit) and Val's 2 hours 22 minutes over (sniff) two dives bottoming out at 73 feet.
We do look a little relaxed (again, thanks Peter for the photo):
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On to the photos!