Cayman Peaks

by Kirk Brown

Sister Peaks
The Cayman Airways plane took off before dawn on the 90-mile hop to Cayman Brac, which is situated next to its slightly smaller sister island, Little Cayman. By 9 a.m., I was on a dive boat pulling away from the dock at the Brac Reef Beach Resort.

My previous visit to the Sister Islands was mostly devoted to exploring Little Cayman's spectacular Bloody Bay Wall, which certainly deserves its lofty reputation as one of the Caribbean's best dive sites. But the recent day that I spent diving off Cayman Brac proved to be equally outstanding.

The day began with a deep dive on the island's seldom-visited south side. My return to the boat was temporarily delayed by the spectacle of a solitary eagle ray flying gracefully along a steep wall littered with coral buttresses.

Our next stop was at an even more rarely visited location - the base of the jagged 140-foot bluff that juts out of the sea at the eastern tip of Cayman Brac. The limestone bluff, which is the highest point in the Cayman Islands, includes a network of caves that sheltered the island's residents during past hurricanes. Stories abound about these caves - some say they contain treasure left behind by pirates while others insist that they are home to a mysterious woolly beast with super-human leaping abilities.

Over time, boulders have rolled off the bluff and into the water below. These boulders are the main attraction at a terrific shallow dive site called the Pillars of Hercules. Flamboyant corals and sponges grow on the boulders, which are piled in a haphazard fashion that leaves plenty of crevices where shy critters like nurse sharks, pufferfish and lobsters can seek refuge.

Back at the resort, the rest of the afternoon evaporated during a nap in a hammock under two palm trees on the beach. After dinner, I joined other divers at the outside bar for what passes as high culture on this remote outpost. You guessed it - karaoke.

Later, I wandered over to the resort's two-story oceanfront observation deck. Lights on the base of the wooden deck illuminated a group of tarpon hovering motionlessly in the tranquil water. The moon had already gone down and the sky was packed with more twinkling stars than I ever see at home.

It felt good to be in the mountains.

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