Diving in the Caymans by Piers Boileau Goad
On the 12th February the girls and I all went to the Cayman Islands Turtle Centre which turned out to be an absolutely wonderful day out for the family! After we left we went searching for lunch, lo and behold we drove to a place called Macabuca where my wife suggested we eat. Next to the restaurant was Indepth Watersports where I booked in for a two dive package including a dive on the USS Kittiwake as I had not yet dived it.
Dive 1:
Friday the 14th comes along and I wander up to West Bay public dock and waited a short time for everyone to turn up. The boat was loaded up and at about 08:15 we headed to our first site – a reef.
Kitting up was minimalist with a single cylinder (200 bar) and 5lb lead it was mere minutes before I was ready to go. There was a chap on a REvo CCR as well which was good to see. Infrastructure for CCR is available! The clear water enveloped me in its warm embrace as I grabbed the drift line and waited for everyone else. It felt bizarre to not be encumbered by multiple cylinders, and other kit I’m used to dive with hence I had a constant feeling of missing some piece of equipment or pre dive check.
With everyone in the water we all thumbed down and descended. All except two so I hung around in the water column with two others while the instructor sorted the other two. I had a steady apprehension of limited gas, not a worry on CCR, and saw it dwindling.
The water was crystal clear, visibility and easy 30m with lots of different corals in a multitude of colours. I don’t know anything about coral so hopefully the naturalists reading this will forgive me. There were corals attached to rocks like a mud splatter, there were fans and lumps of coral growing off rocks looking like new rocks.
Swimming around at the back of the group everyone was taking pictures, video with their go pros and me just enjoying being in the water watching my gas drop! We headed out until people started giving the ‘T’ symbol for halfway, in our case 100 bar. Until this dive I didn’t have a clue about this signal, always a school day! This was also the signal to head back to the boat and we met a turtle who was happy to join our group. Always nice to see and rather ironic given that I had signed up for these two dives because of the turtle farm! Could this chap have been one of those released years before?
We met at the shot line and began our ascent to the safety stops one at 20 feet (6metres) and another at 10 feet (3 metres). Again, lack of SMB’s made this all feel rather surreal and frankly easy.
Dive info:
Dive time: 32 mins.
Gas: Air
Pressures: 2900 in, 750 out (190 bar – 50 bar).
Depth: 90 feet estimated (27m).
Dive 2:
After a short surface interval of approximately 45 minutes we kitted up and jumped in 18m above a white sand plain touching a solid mass of rocks with an anchor lying as if delicately placed in the sand. With everyone ready we signalled and descended. Once more, the unrivalled embrace of the sea took us into her arms. Descending, we followed our guide (Tyler) to the USS Kittiwake and headed for the port quarter, swimming under the bridge and accommodation ‘super structure’ through the clouds of little fish swarming the wreck.
We swam into a little hole cut into the quarter and wandered through the wreck, passing through engine workshops, above compressors and where engines would have been and through a myriad other spaces snaking our way around. The wreck lies on her port side at an angle of about 45 degrees so quite disorienting – when you come through a hatchway and need to ascend up the deck plating. Even more strange was adjusting buoyancy using breathing in to ascend and out to descend. This wasn’t something I’ve had happen to me for a while and honestly it was a little annoying so adjustments going through hatches and other holes were needed.
As we reduced our cylinders contents we gathered outside the wreck with ‘smiles’ all around. One of the divers was on his very first day of diving after his open water certification so it was really good to see him making progress.
As I was diving in a shortie wetsuit i was getting quite cold (the water temperature was 20-25 deg C) I decided to head up while everyone else went for a bit more of a bimble. My safety stop at 20 feet and 10 feet went off without a hitch, even though I almost fell asleep on the last stop. Everyone seemed in such a hurry to ascend and seemingly got bored on the stops. I guess I’m just more used to hanging around. The flat calm sea made the boat move in a gentle motion with the underlying swell but it wasn’t exactly anything like you would have in the channel!
Dive info:
Dive time: 52 minutes.
Gas: air
Pressures: 3000psi – 750psi (200 bar – 50 bar)
Depth: 74 feet (22m)
Location: USS Kittiwake.
