Dive Sites

Up North And Out East
Visiting Grand Cayman's famed North Wall on the Manta - a custom-built, 45-foot catamaran owned by Sunset Divers that is regarded as one of the island's premier dive vessels - was a memorable outing.

 My dive buddy for the day, a University of Michigan geophysics professor who studies plasma, looked a tad nervous as we passed a crowd of horse-eye jacks at the base of giant pinnacle known as Ghost Mountain. But back on the boat he was all smiles and ready for more.

At Della's Delight, we followed other divers as they entered a narrow shaft and dropped out of sight. My depth gauge inched past 90 feet before I exited the passageway along the North Wall's sheer face. The coral-encrusted wall, which extends for miles in either direction, is draped with a multitude of sponges in every imaginable size, shape and color.

Later in the week, the adventure continued with a journey to Grand Cayman's sparsely populated East End. Leaving the crowds in George Town behind, we drove for 45 minutes past scenic coastal vistas, brilliant tree-sized bougainvillea and the occasional grazing cow.

The underwater visibility was astounding at the dive site called Babylon, which features a dramatic wall and pinnacle with dense stands of black coral. At the nearby Snapper Hole, I spent several spellbound minutes in a cramped archway observing a pair of Bermuda chub perform an intricate underwater ballet.

East End is also the site of Grand Cayman's newest dive attraction. Ocean Frontiers has launched a PADI Shark Awareness specialty course that culminates in an exhilarating shark encounter. The course is part of a larger research program involving efforts to tag and collect tissue samples from a group of about one dozen reef sharks that frequent the area.

After making 11 dives in five days on Grand Cayman, I was packing my bags as the sun began to sink Friday evening. From my beachfront room at Sunset House, I could see more and more people gathering near the seawall, gazing toward the cloudless western horizon. Deciding my dirty socks could wait a few minutes, I went out and joined in the ritual.

Silence descended as we watched the sun slide lower and lower. Then, as the flaming red orb sank into the cobalt sea, loud cheers and enthusiastic applause erupted from the spectators.

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