Little Cayman Day 7: St. Paddy's Day at LCBR

St. Patrick’s Day – woo! Our last day of diving – boooo. It was another beautiful day, same old blue sky, bluer water, warm sun and cool breeze. Simon and Ben, two of Paul’s (the dive manager’s) buddies from Thailand, joined us on our boat today, but some of our group took the day off to relax by the pool (which sounded terrific, but we can’t imagine giving up any dives on the last day). The diving here is so different from other places we’ve been. The visibility has been amazing, as has the truly awesome sheer wall. The underwater landscape is rich and full and has a little bit of everything. Beautiful coral and sponges, tons of small stuff, hiding in the coral, and in some places, many schools of fish. All that and the big stuff, too – spotted eagle rays, stingrays, sharks and turtles – lots of turtles!

Dive #1 — Randy’s Gazebo

Did I mention all the turtles? As soon as we got in the water, we were joined by a small hawksbill. As have the others, this one did not seem a bit concerned with us, and hung out and let us swim with him for a while. While we were still with the turtle, I saw a pair of balloonfish – one small and one even smaller – swimming about and popping in and out of a large red barrel sponge. They looked like they were playing a game, maybe hide and seek. Very cute!

Next, we swam through a small hole that led to a nice little swim-through (lots of those here, too), and we swam out right into a school of yellow and mahogany snapper. The coral around that spot was especially colorful, with lots of chromis, blennies, and pygmy puffers swarming around.

We dove a little deeper down the wall for a bit, and came to another wide pinnacle swim-through. It’s sort of like swimming through a corridor in an art gallery. It popped me out at about 80 feet, where Steve was waiting for me. Just as I turned to look out into the great blue, I felt something on my back, hanging onto my tank. At first I thought it might be Steve, tightening something up perhaps. But then there he was beside me, swimming off to the right. Just about the time I felt the thing on my back get a stronger hold and start to “giddy-up” on my tank, I realized Steve was taking a picture … a 360° turn revealed the sea monster (view the creature above) – Marc (our DM), hamming it up for Steve’s camera!

We then saw a couple of really large fish, some good-sized groupers and a big jack that came close when Marc made some slapping motions with his hands (he says it attracts them, but wasn’t sure why … maybe they think you’re ripping up some food – maybe?) A big gray angel (not many angelfish here, but the ones we saw were all quite large and pretty), and really big trigger fish, and two medium-sized groupers hanging on the sand, mouths wide open, getting a good cleaning.

We also saw a really pretty bright green cowfish, another balloonfish, a sleeping soapfish (I’m always afraid they’re dead!), a lone trunkfish, and then, while I was watching Trunky, I saw a really well-camouflaged scorpionfish – I think we’ve only seen two or three of those here.

Dive #2 — Mixing Bowl, our last dive

Unfortunately, there had to be a final dive. Some of the folks in the group put on the pressure, calling for a “four eagle ray dive,” bigger sharks, seahorses … We decided to just really enjoy our last hour in the water, whatever it brought us. Marc did mention that many of the few seahorses that had been spotted on Little Cayman had been seen here at Mixing Bowl, and that just last week he’d found a pipefish – “just a little brown stick” – here, near a "downed Gorgonian in a sandy patch just around the back side of the nearest coral head." We opted for a relaxing dive, hanging fairly shallow and mulling over the landscape for anything small we might find.

We saw a trunkfish with 4 distinct white spots on both sides of his head (I’m pretty sure I saw him earlier in the week), and as I was watching him, there right in front of me was a big old lobster, out and about. He took a little walk around, not even trying to hide from us. He stayed out for a while, and Steve got some good pictures. We saw Simon and Ben (Paul’s friends from Thailand) nearby, so Steve pointed out the lobster and they got some good video, I think, before he backed himself into a hole in the coral.

We also saw another large school of snapper, a couple of really cute pygmy puffers, a stingray foraging in the sand, some pretty flamingo tongues, a golden arrow crab, and a very curious diamond blenny that flitted about like a teeny hummingbird.

We looked for all around for that pipefish; we even found the exact spot Marc described (a great and quite precise description, we knew immediately that we were in the right spot) – but we never found him. No seahorses either, but it was still a completely enjoyable dive. To reward our patience, at the very end Steve found a very pretty and, based on the look of his tail, pretty big chain-link moray eel hiding in a coral. Only the second eel we’ve seen, and the first chain-link (even for Marc). We both got pretty cold on this last dive, especially after a full week of 79° dives, but there was no way we were getting back on that boat even one minute early.

Back on the dock, we took our time gathering our gear, having to deal with our BCs for the fist time all week. We were the last ones off the boat, and Marc looked at Brett and said, “See, what we have here is a clear-cut case of separation anxiety!” Indeed.
Our last lunch of the week was another feast: pizza, pasta, banana cream pie and cheesecake …groan! I had salad, pasta, and breaded eggplants, and enjoyed more than I would have if we’d had an afternoon dive scheduled. Steve tried a little bit of everything, including the cheesecake, claiming he needed the energy for all that napping and drinking planned for later in the day.

After lunch, it was back to the jacuzzi and then a nice afternoon poolside with the iPod. Steve came down about 3:30 and we made our first (of the day) trip to the bar. Stephanie made us a few daiquiris (strawberry for Steve, lime for me – it’s St. Patrick’s Day!), and the evening had begun.

Everyone came down to the bar tonight, partly because there was no more diving to be done, and partly because of the karaoke night that had been promised. We had a dinner break at around 7:00, and decided to eat inside to avoid getting any new mosquito bites on top of all the current mosquito bites. Mark and Lynn (of Long-Haired Republicans fame) joined us, and shared their bottle of merlot. Jim, the resort manager, came in after a while to introduce our dining staff one at a time. I made sure to let him know how well Chubby had treated me all week, and I also thanked Chef Tucker, a Jamaican man who, I had learned, was the vegetarian behind most of the delicious vegetarian meal options. Lucky for me!

Although Chubby had the night off, he’d passed on the torch of special treatment, and for my last dinner I was given a lovely vegan plate by John (I think that’s his name – a very tall, very dark Canadian man who beat us at trivia night because he was the only one who knew that the national sport of Canada was … not ice hockey (too obvious), not curling (our guess), but lacrosse. Lacrosse! Who knew?). My dinner was basmati rice, sautéed vegetables, and a beautiful tomato rose with pea pod leaves. Steve and the others enjoyed chicken vegetable soup, fresh rolls, marinated pork chops (they think, they could only be 100% sure that they were very good), crab and lobster ravioli, and a very big, very pretty apple pastry puff with whipped cream.

After dinner we all headed back to the bar, which was much fuller than usual – apparently the LCBR Beach Nuts bar is quite the happening place on Friday nights. I guess on such a little island, karaoke night has some extra-special appeal! It was an entertaining night all the way around, although Steve had to call it a night a little early (I’m sure it was the diving and not all the daiquiris and beer!).

Simon and Mayumi, our new friends from the other boat, were much fun. Simon is quite the karaoke veteran, and sang some Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, and Beatles for us, as well as some Elton John (Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart and Your Song) with Marjorie, the surprise star of the evening. Who knew she could sing like that? After the first couple of songs got the party underway, she sang a beautiful rendition of “Blue Bayou” that stunned us all. She had a good time singing along with the other stuff too, including our collective Cayman Sister group effort, “Sweet Caroline,” and a Beastie Boys number “sung” by Paul, the Thailand boys, and Andrew, the island paramedic that we finally got to meet (well, I met him … Steve had already crashed).

At some point Marc pulled out his Guinness “four pint” hat and some green Mardi Gras beads (which stayed on his neck), and then Lisa, the bartender, hopped up onto the bar and belted out a little cabaret number from A Chorus Line, pleasantly entitled “Tits and Ass” (officially "Dance: Ten; Looks: Three"). She did a great job, and the closet performer in her had no trouble coming out. Steve was sorry he missed that one!

It was great fun, but ended early, at about 11, when the party moved down to The Hungry Iguana (where, we later learned, the boys continued the party with much dancing on the bar!) But I said our goodbyes for both of us, and headed back to our last night in room 206.

VERDICT, day seven: A+. We will definitely be back!!