Besides the thick black corals, keep an eye out for tarpon, large yellow tube sponges, and ginormous barrel sponges. September and October are clearly the least popular months to go because of a high risk of heavy rains along with hot temperatures. if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'scubadivegeek_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_14',101,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-scubadivegeek_com-medrectangle-4-0');The Cayman Islands has a tropical marine climate with two pronounced seasons: a rainy season that runs from May to October and a dry season from November to April. Even though July is a popular month, it is not necessarily a good time to go because of the reasons below. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. This 82 hectare (200 acres) protected area is the refuge of the largest red-footed booby population in the Caribbean and is a popular bird-watching site. If you find a good deal on DIVEIN, you click to the retailer, and you buy the product, we get a commission of the sale. Lionfish have become an invasive species and some of the dive operators offer culling excursions. It is easily possible to visit all 3 of the Cayman Islands in a single dive trip and be able to enjoy the diversity they provide. Of course, the Soviets didnt call her Keith Tibbets, she was renamed for a local dive operator after the Cayman government purchased the wreck for dive tourism. Navigate backward to interact with the calendar and select a date. Also known as the Mixing Bowl, Three Fathom Wall is the point where Jacksons Bight and the Bloody Bay diving areas meet. Give the perfect gift for your favorite ocean lover and explorer. The islands are warm year-round with average highs. Access to tools and resources at your fingertips, curated to enhance your diving experience. You can hand-feed wild Southern stingrays. 5. There is also an air pocket in a decompression chamber that you can pop into and chat with your buddy!! Pinterest As you enter the cave, you will realize that it is not totally dark as it is illuminated by streaking sunlight streaming from overhead cracks and crevices. I have stayed there several times at a dive resort with on-site dive operation. This is one of the deepest sea-walls in the world. The most striking and common marine life for me were the brightly yellow colored tube sponges. She met her end on the reef in the late 70s, allegedly due to mutiny aboard. Located in popular Bloody Bay, Donnas Delight is home to some classic Cayman wall diving: Giant barrel sponges, arching sea fans, and bright corals. The Caymans have one major event that also may impact the best times to go there. Our Original Diving experts, made up of marine biologists, Twitter Press the question mark key to get the keyboard shortcuts for changing dates. Perhaps because of this, the coral isnt looking a healthy as it could. For this reason, wreck junkies and aficionados often have the Keith on their to-dive lists. We could easily get to reefs and wrecks by ourselves from shore and take as much time as our tanks allowed. Cheeseburger Reef is located in George Town, Grand Cayman. Cruise ships visit here, so expect everything you would find in most international cruise ship ports. Resident Nassau groupers often keep divers company and if you look closely, you may be rewarded with seahorses and lettuce-leaf slugs. The most interesting topside activities for us were exploring the island in a rental car and driving on the left side of the road. It should not be a surprise that January through April also happen to be popular months to visit the islands via western Caribbean cruises because of their ideal combination of cooler temperatures and low rainfall. Just south of Seven Mile Beach and approximately 46 feet below the surface are Eden Rock and Devil's Grotto, two of the most popular diving spots on Grand Cayman. From full scuba certification courses to one-day experiences for those who've never breathed off a regulator, the Cayman Islands qualify as an scuba diving shrine. The islands are warm year-round with average highs holding steady in the 80s. The Cayman Islands is a world-class diving destination famous for its reefs, wrecks and rum. Photographers can make the worst dive buddies. For scuba diving, the best time to dive the Cayman Islands is pretty much any time except peak hurricane season. The water is about 100 feet deep, and there is a good variety of soft and hard corals. Canyons and drop-offs provide a varied topography making the site a firm favorite with photographers. If you want to escape the crowds of cruise ship passengers, the East End is the place to go. Located south-east of the Gulf of Mexico and close to Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti, diving in the Caymans offers classic Carribean underwater scenes and the chance to spot both large and small marine life. Diving is available year-round. A 50% deposit is required at the time of booking with the final 50% . The water clarity is typically amazingly clear. Little Caymans Bloody Bay is home to some of the most dramatic and spectacular drop-offs and swim-throughs in the Carribean. In general, the best time to dive in the Cayman Islands is between January and April, when the water temperature is warm and visibility is excellent. For beginners or those who get nervous in enclosed spaces, there are plenty of decks around the exterior to check out. Hotels, resorts and cruise ships dont like unsold rooms and cabins, so they are more likely to offer discounts to attract customers. Little Cayman, Cayman Islands. Princess Pennies Pinnacle is located on the North Wall in Grand Cayman. We were lucky enough to see the tail end of silversides on the wreck of the Balboa right in the Harbor too. If youre thinking Cheeseburger is an odd name for a dive site, you probably wont be surprised that this shore dive probably took its name after the Burger King that was located across the road! Many divers who have been diving in this area said that this is really an up close and personal experience with stingrays as they are literally touching and surrounding you. Look out for the big groupers who sometimes get inside the huge barrel sponges, turtle, the occasional shark, plenty of reef fish, and the macro life at the cleaning stations. You get to enjoy some of the warm weather, which is especially nice if you live in the northern U.S., where it's still winter. I stayed at an all inclusive where the food was exceptional, prepared by a world class chef. For shark diving, we suggest the Maze, Scuba Bowl and the Grouper Grotto which is also filled with lots of good-size groupers. My poker stick resembled the dive guides spears, so they followed me closely and would even "show" me where the lion fish were, confused when I didn't feed them. Cayman Brac offered multiple relaxed dive spots on reefs all along the edge of the island. We gave our Gear Lovers one job: The wall drop is not for the light-hearted as it can reach over 6500ft (2000 m), but along the drop, you can see yellow tube sponges, black and wire corals and waving sea fans. Macro photographers should seek the banded coral shrimp and divers licensed to 30m/98ft will enjoy the gorgonian fans in the cavern at this depth. I guess thats one drawback of guided dives, everyone is constantly on the move, not ideal for photography, especially macro photography. The ship has been opened up with large access holes so that you can swim through the interior of the ship. The Cayman Islands-- Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac--have been attracting scuba divers for decades, including beginners! For us divers, the financial self-sufficiency of the Cayman Islands is only the icing on the cake. Courtesy of IreneCorti/Getty Images/iStockphoto. The people of the island are friendly and culturally diverse. You may see hammerhead sharks if you are lucky. This is a shore dive, meaning that you enter the water from the shore, and then swim to Cheeseburger Reef. On Grand Cayman, I stayed at hotels on the west end along Seven Mile beach. Data sourced from the National Climatic Data Center. Plenty of schooling reef fish call Ghost Mountain home and the pinnacle is also carpeted in deep, bloody-red finger sponges. 4 of the Best Places to Go Shore Diving in Grand Cayman. 310-915-6677 There are also usually direct flights from Boston, Chicago, and New York. Only ten miles long and one mile wide, this is a place where you can truly focus on your opportunity to relax. When to go Best time Low season Off season Where to go when Honduras coast hosts the Bay Islands which is a compilation of eight islands and 53 small cays and these islands are one of the best scuba diving places in the world. Bloody Bay Marine Park is a particularly popular diving destination as it is home to 12 different dive sites, gorgeous coral, and diverse marine life. 6. Today, Cayman is one of the top dive destinations anywhere. You will need little more (and some prefer less) than a 3 mm full length wetsuit. There are over 15 PADI 5-Star Centers in the Cayman Islands, ready to teach you everything you want to know about diving. Bloody Bay Wall is located in Little Cayman. Generally, even with up to four dives per day on offer Cayman Islands scuba diving . Diving is available year-round. With over 40 operators and 365 sites marked with moorings, thrill-seekers from all over take the plunge here. If hot temperatures are an issue, it is better to visit the islands from December through April when they average in the upper 80s Fahrenheit. The best diving depth at this Cayman site, between 30 and 40 meters (98-130ft) means its best for deep certified advanced divers. Instagram, My Ideas Click here to learn more. Plus, along the wall, you can meet triggerfish, eagle rays, turtles, lobsters and many more! Best Time to Visit The Cayman Islands are mostly sunny and warm year-round, but it may be best to visit between March and June when the hotel rates drop. For big animals - you can find a good number of turtles and groupers, tarpon, nurse sharks, great barracuda, and stingrays. The rainy season spans from May through October though showers usually only last for a few hours at a time. There is shopping, bars to hang out in, and live music. Eels, rays, sharks, and turtles are frequently seen. Situated on a wide beach on the island's West End, the property offers 40 air-conditioned rooms (renovated in late 2015 and featuring soothing Caribbean . Grand Cayman is somewhat unique among major Caribbean destinations because it is one of the few islands that has average daytime temperatures exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer and fall. The non-divers with us were content to lounge by the pool, visit the spa, ride bikes, and go for walks. The top of the wall is around 9 meters (30ft) so the site can be enjoyed as a shallow or deep dive. . Usually you will see at least a few tarpon at this spot. No worries, the diving is world class on Bloody Bay Wall. September can bring rougher waters if there is a tropical storm, and that is also the month with a higher chance of a hurricane, although hurricanes are not common. The heat may be less of an issue for anyone planning to spend a week there mainly on the beaches during the day and shopping or having fun in the cooler evenings. This is a must do dive. There is also a restaurant, bar and dive shop at Macabuca. The protected Bloody Bay Marine Park lies in Little Cayman and offers magnificent marine life, great visibility, and spectacular bioluminescent corals. A shallow dive site, the colors here really pop making it a good choice for photographers. This site is a firm favorite among local dive masters, most likely because of the intriguing geological features but there is plenty of marine life here too. They make a difference for anyone visiting the Caymans by cruise who plans to spend more time shopping, dining and visiting attractions than spend time on the beaches. Before the USS Kittiwake was sunk, the Oro Verde was the wreck dive of choice in the Caymans. If you don't feel comfortable using my referral links, you can always go directly to their site and bypass me. There is a lot of marine life among the coral and resident angelfish and groupers are found at the stern of the ship. We conduct this course from our shore location where the water is ideal for new divers! As a diver, with a PADI account you can access your eLearning along with many more tools to help you on your adventures. We dived 3 days in February 2014, and they were all excellent and memorable dives. There's much to discover beyond theme parks in this Southeastern state. Before she was decommissioned in 1994, the USS Kittiwake was a Navy Chanticleer-class submarine rescue vessel. There is also a dive shop and restaurant. Choose from a selection of more than 250 vessels and 18,000 trips worldwide. Your dive profile in Stingray City is relatively shallow since your maximum depth is just only 6 meters (20 feet) when you reach the sandy seafloor. For macro subjects, you can see angelfish, morays, lettuce slug nudibranchs and many more. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Grand Cayman is the most commercial island, with a lot of resorts, great nightlife, and more tourist attractions. I am a scuba diving newbie, a Project Manager by profession, and an entrepreneur at heart.
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