Little Cayman Day 2: The Life Aquatic with Steve Who?

Our first day of diving! We were up at 7, no problem, excited to start the day. (The beds are not the resort's strong suit; comfy, but a little too soft and a bit tough on the back.) We packed our dry bag, set our gear bags outside the room, and headed out.

Breakfast was nice; Stephen was thrilled to see the omelet station, manned by Chubby – “like Chubby Checker.” I had a huge plate of very fresh fruit – melon, pineapple, grapefruit, kiwi. And good coffee! Chubby overheard me talking to Kristina (another diver in our group) when she asked if I am a vegetarian. He actually came over and started asking me: “So ... you don’t eat anything with a face, right?” Turns out he’s one of the head chefs, and tomorrow he goes off "breakfast duty" and on lunch & dinner duty. He said he wanted me to enjoy my vacation as much as everyone else, and that he would be sure I’d have some good lunches and dinners. Nice!

Diving: Full service; the staff truly does everything for you. Our DMs (divemasters) Marc and Brett set up our gear, double checked everything when we got to the dive site, then carried it to the back of the boat for us to put it on. Great briefings with whiteboard-drawn maps worthy of an art showing – so detailed I took pictures of them to add to my dive log (see above!). It’s weird diving with folks from our shop – everyone has “our” gear. All the ladies have the same black & purple Henderson hyperstretch suits. We all have TDS mask straps. THREE other people have my yellow force fins!! (Must remember to put my name on them.)

Also, stocked in the boat cooler was not just water, but fresh whole fruit, individual bags of Baked Lays potato chips, Nutra-grain bars, and Gatorade and Propel (the drinks cost $2.50, but they just charge your room and at least you don’t have to go back to the shop to get one).

There’s a dock dog (woo!), an old Irish setter named Paddy. He seems to take it all in stride, sitting in the middle of the dock in the morning, right where everyone can pet him on their way to the boats. But when we got back he was in the shade, out of the way while everyone (the staff, I mean, not us!) lugged gear.

Our boat for the week is the Cayman Sister, and all 20 of us are on it. It’s comfortable though, and not having to struggle into your gear on the bench right next to everyone else certainly does help!

Dive #1 — Jackson Hole & Wall

Excellent visibility, definitely over 100 ft., but often dark in the shadows of the wall, especially down around 80 feet. Cool (narrow!) swim-throughs that dump you out on the deep side of the wall. Fish are not as plentiful here as elsewhere (say, Bonaire or Dominica) but definitely unafraid. Lots of black durgeon, more than I’ve seen anywhere else. We saw a BIG barracuda and a turtle. Others saw a reef shark and an eagle ray, but we did not. There were also several large conch with endless trails behind them, a pretty cool sight. Water was about 82°, but we're still feeling chilly. Steve's new Underarmor jacket and beanie, however, not only keep him warm but cut quite the stylish figure, as you can see. He's the spitting image of Bill Murray as Steve Zissou, isn't he? Sans only the Glock in the leg holster, of course!

Dive #2 — Mixing Bowl, aka 3-Fathom Wall

Beautiful section of Bloody Bay wall, shallow with lots of crevices and more swim-throughs. Saw lots of barracuda, a good-sized male reef shark, a large eagle ray, 3 queen triggerfish swimming about together. Lots of black durgeon, yellow snapper. Also goatfish, squirrelfish, and parrotfish. More conch trails, 3 BIG “donkey dungs” (sea cucumbers), and a large pile of empty crab claws (big ones!). No hole nearby, so I don’t think it was an octopus house. And we saw another turtle on the surface during the ride back to shore, which took about 20 minutes - not too bad.

Lunch was salad, bread and stuff for sandwiches (meat and cheese), fried potatoes and onions, sliced meat, pork, tilapia. Chocolate cakes, coconut pie, and pastries; iced tea, juice, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Wow.

Quick nap for Steve and then back to the boat for our 2 pm dive … more later!

Dive #3 — Great Wall West

As Marc put it, this is the wall dive by which all other wall dives in the world are measured. Wow! It’s literally a sharp 90° angle, a sheer and straight wall that drops down about 6000 feet. It reminded me of diving the Blue Hole in Belize, only without the stalactites. Again, much less fish that you’d expect at the only “buffet” in the area (though it is quite a sizable buffet!). We saw much more on this dive than we did on the ones in the morning – a very big green moray getting cleaned, a big spiny lobster hanging out in a perfect little condo-hole in the wall, the back half of a good-sized nurse shark hanging out in a large coral. With him (her? I couldn't tell) were a big old grouper and a balloonfish. Lots of barracuda, more queen triggers and black durgeon. There was also a very cool black coral bush down around 80 feet, but I just eyed it from 60 feet; Steve went down and got a few pictures. This dive also reminded me of The Blue Hole, I just realized, because even though there wasn’t a ton to see, it was really, really cool – almost eerie – and I’m really glad I did it.

After we got back to the dock, I hung out in the jacuzzi for a while, then grabbed us a few drinks and headed up to the room. Steve worked on his pictures, I put on my iPod and took a nice little nap. At 6, we headed down for the Manager’s Rum Punch Party. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres on the house while the (new, as of 6 weeks ago) manager, Jim, introduced himself and all the staff – a great group. Marc and Brett told us that if we cheered loudest for them during the introductions, that they’d take us to the coolest dive spots. So we did, and I think we embarrassed them a little, actually! We chatted more with some of the other folks in our group today, they’re all very nice. There’s a nurse manager from Sibley (Mindy), and a doctor (medical director, I think) of some sort (Sarah), a patent lawyer (Kristina), another lawyer (Gail), a retired Army/government contractor from Springfield, Jeff, and his two daughters, Shannon and Dominique. Pete and Christopher are here from The Dive Shop, as well as another TDS instructor, Jim (he's with Mindy). Then there's Ken and Marjorie, from Vienna, Larry, Mona, and John (I think!). I know that's not everyone, but that's who I can remember right now!

Dinner was great. Chubby was watching for me, and came right over to show me what he had to offer: rice and fresh sautéed vegetables, and a beautiful pasta primavera. It was fabulous and I was stuffed, but when I went in to thank him and get a cup of coffee, he dashed into the kitchen and brought out my dessert – a small, beautiful plate of strawberries, kiwi, and pineapple. Must remember to let the new manager know how much this guy has gone out of his way for me! Sometimes I think it’s a challenge for chefs to come up with vegan cuisine, they often seem to really enjoy “having” to make my stuff.

Steve headed to the bar and I ate my fruit plate with Jeff, Shannon, and Nique. Then we all went to the bar and looked at Steve’s underwater photos and Jeff’s video from the day’s dives. The mosquitoes were out again, so we moved to the jacuzzi to soak our legs and chat about movies and such ... Jeff and the girls saw Eddie Izzard live in Philly! We were all envious.

Stayed out a bit “late” tonight (back to the room at about 9:15), time to sleep and get ready for tomorrow, another crappy day in paradise!

VERDICT, day two: B-B+ (but only because we were a wee bit cold, and we suspect the need to leave room for improvement! It just keeps getting better!)