Eddy's Scuba Blog

Here is a review of the Nekton Rorqual on the Cayman Islands itinerary. Since the Nekton Rorqual is very similar to its sister ship, the Nekton Pilot, this review is a comparison to the Nekton Pilot, since I've written about the Nekton Pilot before (see my Nekton Pilot: Belize Central Review).

The Ship

The Nekton Rorqual was build a couple of years after the Nekton Pilot. It includes one major design difference which is the continuous strut on each side connecting the superstructure to the submerged pontoons that provide buoyancy. For that reason the Nekton Rorqual looks more boxy than the Nekton Pilot; however, this design improvement provides slightly higher speed and range than the Nekton Pilot.

The layout of the superstructure of the Nekton Rorqual is almost identical to that of the Nekton Pilot. The living space layout is almost the same. The Nekton Rorqual has three decks as well: A lower deck for mostly guests and crew quarters, a mid-deck for guest quarters, the galley and dining room, and the top deck or Sun Deck, which houses the bridge, a shaded meeting area and the jacuzzi and lounge area. The Rorqual has 16 guest rooms and is able to house up to 32 guests. It has all the amenities seen on the Nekton Pilot, although, I noticed that the Pilot has more audio visual equipment. On the port corner, the Nekton Pilot has a TV and VCR set, whereas the Rorqual doesn't.

The Diving Facilities

The diving deck, as in the Nekton Pilot, is movable, that is it can go up and down depending on the conditions of the sea or whether the deck is open or not. There three ways to make an entry into the water: two on the side, which require a 3 ft jump, and one through the stairs in the middle. The way back to boat is through the stairs. Underneath the stairs, there is a hang bar at 15 ft with an emergency air tank with regulator. This is where you can comfortably do your safety stop. At night, the hang bar is illuminated with with glow sticks and a beacon.

The nitrox measurement is done right before a dive. A crew member would measure it and you would have to sign your name on the Nitrox sheet.

In the middle of the dive deck there is a mask cleaning station with a bucket just for masks and a sprayer with cleaning solution (I believe it's vinegar). On the two sides beside the middle stairs, there are two containers with fresh water for camera equipment. This where you would leave your camera right before the dive. A crew member would hand you your camera once you are in the water.

The dive deck has two rows of "diving cubby holes." This is a space assigned to you for the duration of the cruise. That is, you don't have to change tanks, as the tanks are filled directly using a network of hoses that can serve all tanks. Below you can see a picture of the "cubby hole" I was assigned, right next to the starboard exit platform, so I was able to get into the water rather quickly. Below the bench, where you lay your tank and BCD, you can put your fins, masks, snorkel and other wet belongings.

Right before stepping into the dive deck there is a "check-in board" where you have to sign the time you start your dive. On the way back you have to sign out. A crew member would keep track of your times and make sure you don't exceed your bottom time. Although this is not policed very heavily, as most divers that come here have dive computers.

Right next to the check-in board there are two hot water shower heads and a rinse bucket (with Clorox) for wet suits and booties. Above the dive deck (on the mid deck) there are two camera tables, an air hose for cameras and rinse bucket for leak testing. Right next to one of the camera tables, there is a dryer. The exhaust of the dryer warms the towels stacked underneath the camera table.

The Food and the Crew

As in any dive trip, divers need their source of energy. The food on the Nekton Rorqual is served buffet style. On lunch and dinner, there's always rolls, a salad, a side dish or soup, and a main course. The picture below is of our last dinner, in which Capt. Nelson is serving enthusiastically each and everyone of us (bbq ribs). One thing that is very noticeable, is how much Capt. Nelson is involved with the operation. Since he is an diving instructor himself, he gives the briefings and even dives with you. And he doesn't skip galley duty either ;). It is really a pleasure to have him as a captain. You feel that he would go the extra mile for you.

Brett (making a face, above) is an excellent cook and he would come to you to serve you snacks during surface intervals (like the eggrolls below). 10:30am and 3:00pm are the times when snacks are served. Kat is another tireless member of the crew (above, on galley duty). She gives the Stingray City briefing and is also the resident photographer. She is also the MC for the picture competition and she is the one that compiles the CD that you can purchase at the end of the cruise. One thing that is noticeable as well (compared to the Nekton Pilot) is the quality of two of the briefings: the one of the MV Tibbets Destroyer and the one of Stingray City. Both of them were well-prepared and informative Powerpoint briefing presentations.

At dinner, there is always dessert at the end, like chocolate cake with vainilla ice cream and whip cream (below).

Cayman Islands Itinerary

The Cayman Island Itinerary is an itinerary that has lots of variety. It has a wreck (MV Keith Tibbets Destroyer), "petting zoo" (Stingray City), big animal encounters (Benji the Grouper and Spotted Eagle Rays) and wall diving with the best visibility on Bloody Bay Wall.

On this itinerary my favorite dive sites were Lea Lea's Lookout, Jackson's Reef and Wall, MV Keith Tibbets Destroyer, McCurley's Wall, Stingray City and Tarpoon Alley. Below is a table of the sites we visited. Click on the site names for detailed accounts and pictures and the littele map for the diagram that was presented on the corresponding briefing.

Day	Dive Site	Location	Highlights	Map
1	Jax Dax	Grand Cayman	Porpcupine fish, Spootted Butterflyfish, Snapper, Blue Tang, Rock Beauty
1	White Stroke Canyon	Grand Cayman	Trumpetfish, First Encounter with Big Stingrays, Lobster
2	Lea Lea's Lookout	Little Cayman	Benji the Grouper. Great Visibility
2	Randy's Gazebo	Little Cayman	Turtles, Groupers galore!, the Gazebo, Banded Butterflyfish, Dog Snappers, Green Tipped Anemone, Foureyed Butterflyfish, Lobster, Nurse Shark
3	Marilyn's Cut	Little Cayman	Groupers, Swim-thrus, Big Tube Sponges, Sea Fans, Barrel Sponges, Turtles, Green Moray
3	Magic Roundabout	Little Cayman	Two Reef Sharks!, Black Grouper, Turtle, Swim-thrus
3	Jackson's Reef and Wall	Little Cayman	More Groupers, Laberythn like Formations, Big Green Sea Turtle
4	Joy's Joy	Little Cayman	Black Grouper, Brain Coral, Barracuda, French Angel, Queen Trigger, Nassau Grouper
4	Randy's Gazebo	Little Cayman	Playing with Groupers, Turtle, Chasing Nurse Shark, Unicorn Trigger, Whitespotted Filefish, Lobster, Black Grouper
5	MV Keith Tibbets Destroyer	Cayman Brac	The Destroyer Wreck, Big Guns, Barracuda, Grouper, Garden Eels, Spotted Eagle Ray!, Banded Butterflyfish
5	Land Excursion	Cayman Brac	Bat Caves, the Bluff, Columbus Botanical Garden, Maritime Museum
5	Radar Beach	Cayman Brac	Dolphin and Stingray Sculpture, Channel Crab, Sea Star, Slip Lobster
6	McCurley's Wall	Grand Cayman	The Pinnacle, Black Coral, Whitespotted Filefish, Barracuda, Juvenile Yellow Stingray
6	Stingray City	Grand Cayman	Stingrays!
6	Tarpoon Alley	Grand Cayman	Tarpoon, Long Encounter with Spotted Eagle Ray
6	Jax Dax	Grand Cayman	Smooth Trunkfish, Ocellate Swimming Crab

Today we woke up to our last day at Bloody Bay Wall in Little Cayman. We had two days of great diving and great weather so far. Luckily this continued on our last day in Little Cayman. The plan was to have one more day of diving here and then move to Cayman Barac overnight.

That morning I took advantage of the great morning and sunny day to take this top-side picture of one of Rorqual tenders with Little Cayman on the background. Notice the transparent turquoise water that lets you see thru the bottom on shallow places.

Today's dive sites were Joy's Joy and Randy's Gazebo which we dove before on our first day at Bloody Bay.

Joyous Dive at Joy's Joy
Joy's Joy had a very shallow plateau (less than 20 ft) which then plunged into the wall. We were told that there was a "coral chain" at about 100 ft, if you followed a certain sand groove. My dive buddy, Nadine, followed the instructions but found no coral chain. After noticing that we had "missed the target" after reaching 122 ft, we proceeded to back to 50 ft. where ran into creatures like this french angelfish and this barracuda:

We also noticed queen triggers and several Nassau groupers. However, I kind of felt dissapointed that we did not find the coral chain that we were told about. So we returned to the boat. While swimming along the boat, I noticed that its starboard was facing East, therefore getting a lot of sun, while on my side (port side) was under the boats shadow. There were three divers on the starboard side, aparently returning to boat. That's when I took this picture that captures the silloutte of the Rorqual's propeller with the three divers. Notice how close the boat is to the bottom.

Benji's Family and Nurse Shark at Randy's Gazebo
After lunch we moved to our second site of the day, Randy's Gazebo which we knew from before. Lo and behold, we ran into Benji's family, a pair of groupers that followed us and even played with us.

Here's a movie that I took of Nadine, my dive buddy, petting and playing with a Nassau grouper. The groupers were so friendly that would not run away.

On the second dive at Randy's Gazebo, we explored the West side of the wall and run into a creature that I haven't seen before. It was a "whitespotted filefish":

It had an interesting orange color with white spots all around it. While I was taking a picture of this guy, I suddenly noticed some commotion with some other divers near me. So I looked up and I noticed a 4 ft. creature swimming along the wall and number of people behind it. Fortunately, they were swimming perpendicular to me so I had the chance to "intercept" them and get a close-up. It was 4 ft nurse shark and here's a video to prove it:

The guy after the nurse shark was Roy with a video camera. Roy was one of the most colorful guys on the boat. He was the one that always joked during the dive briefings.

After this dive we had the chance to relax and watch the beautiful Caymanian Sunset.
We had one more dive left here at Randy's Gazebo. It was also our last dive at Bloody Bay Wall.

The night dives at Cayman Islands had been disappointing to me so far, and this one was as well. Compared to Cozumel or Belize, I never saw any night creatures like an octopus. We did, however, see lobsters and groupers.

The second day at Bloody Bay Wall continued to be great and getting even better. The weather was great all around, it was sunny and visibility continued to be great (70-80 ft), but not as good as yesterday's (80-90 ft). The water temperature was in the range of 82-86 F. I was wearing my 1 mm wetsuit all the time, primarily for protection against scratches.

Today we were diving three sites: Marilyn's Cut, Magic Roundabout and Jackson's Reef and Wall.

Nice Coral Formations at Marilyn's Cut
On this site we had the chance see some big specimens of corals. Since this was our first dive of the day we went a bit deeper (88 ft.) and had the chance to see tube sponges, sea fans, and barrell sponges. Here's a collage of variety of corals that we found on this dive site:

On this dive we also saw many Nassau groupers. By the end of the dive, I was really mad that my camera was fogging and my battery was running out. There was a ledge that lead into the deep wall. A Nassau grouper was next to a green moray eel. I managed to take some pictures, but it came out foggy and the moray was undistinguishable. So I decided to return to the boat and follow some other divers that were heading in that direction. While I was swimming at the back of the boat, I noticed a small hawksbill turtle near the surface, as I was close to my safety stop (20 ft) I decided to chase it hoping that my battery will have one last bit of juice. This is when some other more amazing creatures appeared: squids. The turtle have led me to them. The squids were swimming close to the surface, perhaps at 15 ft. I tried to take a picture of them, but the battery was really dead. I was so mad. Anyway, I decided to follow them and continue observing them. They are so graceful when swimming with their flaps. They move in a strange way, almost like in space (perhaps because they look like from another planet). I also signaled other divers, since they were coming back to the boat as well. This was the first time ever that I saw squid on a dive.

Shark! at Magic Roundabout
We did one morning dive at Marilyn's Cut. The next dives (one morning dive, another afternoon dive) were going to be at Magic Roundabout. The name of this dive site comes from coral heads on the shallow area which you can swim around and swim thru. Most dive sites that we dove had a similar configuration with variations. They had a shallow area at about 30-40 ft and then a drop-off that plunged into 90 ft of deeper. On the first dive here, we did not bother with the swim-thrus, we went along the wall at about 78 ft. and were discovering big creatures like this black grouper:

I was lucky to get this shot since the grouper was swimming towards me and I happened to have my camera ready to fire. Sometimes you get shot like this and cannot redo them because it's very difficult to get the creature to pose. While I finished this picture, I took a look at Nadine, my dive buddy, and noticed that she was looking at something out on the deep water. Then she signaled Shark! Shark! with her hand on her forehead. And we started to chase what it turned out to be two reef sharks swimming on the deep water along the wall. I was kicking so hard to try to get closer, so was Nadine. We went easterly first and then westerly. By end of the chase we were really exhausted, breathing heavily and hot, but I managed to get this shot to prove it:

After the shark chase, Nadine and I headed back in a leisurely swim to the shallow area and towards the direction of the boat. I was ahead when I looked back and Nadine wasn't there. I swam back to try to find her, but could see her. So I decided to do my safety stop because I did not see the boat and I was towards the end of the dive. After the safety stop, I surfaced to look for the boat. I was away for long shot, perhaps 600 yards or more. I still had 700 psi of air, so I swam just below the surface to avoid the choppiness of the surface. This is when I noticed a small hawsbill turtle at about 20 ft.

Since it was close to the surface, I decided to chase it for a little bit and I got this brief movie out of it:

After taking this movie, I headed back to the boat.

That afternoon I was so tired that I took a little nap after lunch. That little nap turned into a long nap, to the point that Nadine, my dive buddy, didn't wait for me :( and wenton the second dive with Rodney, another of our dive buddies. We tagged along together as a group of three. Not to worry, one of the Nekton Rorqual's crew, Tucker, was happy to dive with me.

In the water, we did see Nadine and Rodney, exploring the West side of the wall. In the morning we were on the East side. We spend most of our time in the shallows going thru the swim-thrus. The dive was not ideal, because we were on a rush to finish by 3:00pm because the boat needed to reposition and we had started rather late on this dive.

Thru the Laberynth of Jackson's Reef and Wall

After the last dive, the Rorqual repositioned to Jackson's Reef and Wall. The plan was to have one afternoon dive and the night dive here. This dive site was very similar to Magic Roundabout in that there were lots of coral heads in the shallow area. We spent more time in the shallow area this time. On this dive I saw one interesting coral formation:

It was a bright yellow tube sponge, almost lemon yellow. The opening at the top of the sponge was not that wide and it had bumps all over. I could not find references to this particular kind of coral.

On this dive I also saw an anemone, black groupers and Nassau groupers being cleaned. It seems that there was a large number of Nassau groupers around Little Cayman. We saw them almost on every dive. It must have been "Benji" and his family.

The site on the shallow area looked like a laberynth. You could either swim right above the sand through the grooves or swim on top of the coral heads. This was a good opportunity to get silloutte shots since divers were passing overhead. I took this shot facing West. Notice the sun coming from the top left corner, the silloutte of the two divers and the coral heads underneath. If I had manual settings on my camera I could have gotten a better shot.

We did a night dive at Jackson's and spent all our time in the shallow area. I did not keep good track of the number of pictures I had taken with my strobe, so my strobe died that night. That was a lesson learned. However, I did manage to get one shot of this huge green sea turtle that almost everybody in the group got a picture of:

From then on, I was more disciplined in replacing the batteries in my strobe. The turtle was perhaps the biggest turtle I've ever seen in the Caribbean (over 3 ft in length). It was also at night and swimming right towards me.

On Sunday night, we started the crossing from Grand Cayman to Little Cayman. The weather was rough that night. Even though they claim this is a "no sickness" boat. The rough weather got to me, it woke me up a couple times and in the morning I felt pretty dizzy. I had to lay down to put up with the dizziness. I immediately took some Dramamine to get the dizziness taken care of. By breakfast, I was feeling a bit better, but not hungry at all.

I had paired up with Nadine, who was interviewing for a position at the Nekton. We met up at briefing on Saturday and we became buddies for the rest of the trip.

At 8:00 am we had our first briefing on Little Cayman. The briefing was given by Kat, one of the dive instructors. This time, I made sure to capture this briefing on Bloody Bay Wall, one of the top diving destinations of the world. The weather was great, clear skies, sunny and 80-90F of air temperature.

I did find out about the origins of the name "Bloody Bay". The Cayman Islands had long history of pirate and privateer activity in the 16th and 17th centuries. Bloody Bay was so named after an horrendous battle that took place in this bay that left the water blood red. While being on the subject of history, the Cayman Islands was first a Spanish colony and it was known as "Islas Tortugas" or "Turtle Islands" named after the numerous sea turtles that inhabited the islands. In one of those wars between Spain and Britain, it was ceded by Spain to Britain in the 17th century and became a British colony. It later became known as "Cayman Islands" because of the many caymans that were sighted the islands. I guess over the centuries, the caymans ate all turtles and later humans hunted all the caymans. Nowadays, most of the caymans are gone or emigrated to Cuba, but you can still see some turtles in the wild.

We were also told about "Benji the Grouper" (named by a local divemaster called Jerry), an extremely friendly grouper that is fed by the locals. I was very excited to get into the water. After my experience at Grand Cayman, I was expecting a lot more, and as one of the top diving destinations, Bloody Bay had better deliver. Our dive site for the two morning dives was Lea Lea's Lookout.

Finally we got into the water. My first impression of Little Cayman and Bloody Bay was that the visibility was incredible (no blood in sight ;))! There was at least 90 ft of visibility and you could see the little details on the coral floor. Another thing that amazed me was the health of the sea floor. You could see tiny sponges and tubes growing on the sea floor. You could distinguish the bright yellow, finger-size tubes against the white lime sediment floor. I have not seen something like it before.

Here's a picture of a yellow tube coral growing right on the sea floor. This one was about 1 ft tall, but the tiny yellow specs on the floor were actually yellow tubes as well! You had to be really careful about not touching the floor!

Encounter with "Benji the Grouper" and Friends

On the fist dive on Lea Lea's we went along the wall to a maximum depth of of 103 ft. We did not spend much time at that depth though and ascended to the ledge soon after. We saw groupers out on the distance going up and down the wall. But the big (pleasant) surprise was when returned to the shallow area (about 40ft.). On a small cave, there was this enormous Nassau Grouper sitting by its cleaning station. Unfortunately for me, there were 6 other divers (from our boat) already taking pictures. Since this was a sandy area, a lot of the silt had already been kicked up and the visibility was rather poor. I did manage to take several pictures, one of them is the first one on this set. This was the biggest Nassau grouper that we saw on Bloody Bay, so I presume it was Benji. It measured 3 ft. easily. This is the biggest Nassau grouper I've ever seen so far. This couldn't be possible if it wasn't for the protection given by the Caymanian government to these waters. I heard stories of the "scuba police" on Bloody Bay. This was a local goverment enforcement team that would "intercept" divers and check people wearing gloves (you get a stiff fine if you are found wearing gloves) or carrying "contraband" from the ocean.

Anyway, after having my chance at taking pictures at Benji, Benji decided that his spot was too crowded. So he swam away from the paparazzi.

On the second dive at Lea Lea's Lookout, I got a second encounter with Benji. After swimming along the wall and returning to the shallow area, I somehow ended up around the same small cave where we found Benji the first time. He was there again, being cleaned. But this time, I got him for myself! There were no other divers around. I spent close to 15 mins taking pictures, observing him and and petting him. I wanted to get a picture of Benji with my hand, to give the picture some notion of scale. His head was bigger than my hand.

I also had the chance to take this brief movie of Benji while he was being cleaned by wrasses:

Unfortunately, you can barely see the minuscule behavior that was going on. Benji was sitting still, opening his mouth and gills while wrasses were moving around his head and his mouth. This picture shows what was going on in better detail:

After watching Benji for a while, I started seeing other creatures "joining the party" as well. Small arrow cabs (I believe) were approaching the bottom right side of Benji's mouth which can be seen on this picture:

After this picture, my strobe battery was dying, that's why the picture came out greener.

In addition to Benji we also found "his friends", other smaller Nassau groupers that were also very friendly. These groupers would approach us, be pet and even swam along us. I thought that the friendliness was in the family and this was not going to be the last time we were going to see them at Bloody Bay. Here's a picture of one of Benji's friends, a smaller 2ft Nassau grouper:

Afternoon and Night at Randy's Gazebo

During lunch we moved to another dive site: Randy's Gazebo. The plan is to do two afternoon dives and a night dive here. This site got it's name because of an archway located along the wall at about 60 ft. The coral formations at this site were very healthy and creatures abundant and diverse. Here we saw lot black coral in addition to tube and barrel sponges.

So far, on every dive we had seen Nassau groupers of all sizes, occasional hawksbill turtles like this one:

And difficult to shoot creatures like the banded butterflyfish. These guys are usually found in pairs (I believe they mate for life) and are so difficult to shoot because they swim up and down along coral and never stay in one spot. I have read that the best strategy to get a shot at these guys is to wait in one spot that is in their travel path. That's what I did and got this picture of this banded butterflyfish. Unfortunately his (or her) mate did not come up that well in the picture:

So far, my night dives in the Cayman islands were uneventful. This one was going to be different. To begin with we found this beautiful green tipped anemone:

Here's a close-up of the same anemone:

Speaking of the difficulty of taking pictures of butterflyfish, I got very lucky that night. I saw couple of four-eyed butterflyfish and I was lucky to get this shot of a pair, swimming in opposite directions:

On the way back to the boat, I was following my buddy Nadine, who looked back at me and made some sort of signal. At beginning, I didn't know what she was signaling. Suddenly a 4ft brown creature swam toward me and passed me almost between my legs. When I finally understood Nadine's signal, I realized it was a nurse shark. Once she passed me, I tried to chase her a little bit, but she was too fast, but I managed to take this picture to prove that we had seen her. It was a shot from the hip, because I could see her on my visor and she was swimming too fast.