Eddy's Scuba Blog

Days before today we were told about the excursion on Cayman Brac and the possible options on shore. You had option to rent a car, do a hike on the many nature trails or go on an excursion. A big group (from Tennessee) decided to go on their own and rent a van. I decided to join an excursion. Joe and Laura decided to come along as well. The excursion was a guided tour to the beach, the bluff, the "lighthouse", a botanical park, two caves and the maritime museum. The excursion cost was $US 100.

At noon we were to shuttled to shore using the 2 skiffs on board. These small boats were capable of carrying at least 8 people at the time. The transfer was pretty smooth. Although getting on the skiff was a little of challenge because of the waves. The skiff took us to the local port where we were picked up by an air conditioned van. It was really hot on shore and gals from the excursion fortunately provided us with bottles of water.

We first stopped for a bite to eat. They took us to a restaurant right on the beach (I could not remember the name). The prices as in anywhere in the Caymans were relatively expensive. Sandwiches were upwards of $US 7.

Our first point interest in the excursion was a bat cave. Caves in Cayman Brac were formed by coral formations that were once submerged in the ocean millions of year ago. When the ocean receded, it left a series of limestone formations which with the erosion of wind and water became caves. These became the home of bats. Following are pictures of these caves. You could also see the jungle forming on top and around it.

Afterwards we headed to a beach in front of the famous "Brac Bluff." This beach was littered with white pieces of dead coral. Since we could not touch anything from the bottom while we were diving, I took this opportunity to pick some souvenirs from the shore.

Minutes later we were atop the same bluff that we had seen from the beach bleow. The bluff was made of grey limestone with lots of holes. The stone looked like a a sand castle that had been rained on. This was the home of many species of marine birds like the native brown booby.

At this place there was also the "lighthouse" which was essentially a light a top a metal tower. We were "warned" not to expect too much from this particular lighthouse. I guess coming from the US you expect a full building with a spiral staircase, like the ones in New England.

From here we drove to the West side of the island to a place called "Peter's Overlook". It was a point atop the bluff overlooking downtown Cayman Brac. It also had a series of caverns that are used as a refuge when hurricanes hit the island. The opening of the cave was somewhat narrow and you had to crawl to get inside. It was really hot inside the cave.

Our next stop was the Christopher Columbus Botanical park. It was nice little park with trails, several gazebos and fountains. One thing that caught my attention was the ability of trees to grow on the limestone rock.

The base of this tree (limestone rock) seems so hostile for trees to grow. When seeing the jagged edges of the rock one can't believe that roots can get hold here, but mother nature finds its ways.

The excursion concluded at the Maritime Museum. It was a little house with 4 rooms depicting artifacts from the colonial era like a small boat, utensils, turtle shells, some jewelry. It showed how life was when the island was first populated. Overall the excursion was ok, I would not do it again, but since it was my first time in Cayman Brac I had to explore.

Twilight Dive: Radar Beach

At some time past 5:00pm we returned to the Nekton Rorqual where we would have dinner before our night dive. Captain Nelson made sure that took advange of all the time available to dive. Even though we went on a land excursion today, I managed to do three dives.

When we came aboard, the crew was rehearsing some safety drills, so we would hear announcements on the public announcer. Dinner was served at 6:00pm and after dinner we had a lecture on tunicates by Captain Nelson himself, who also did the night dive briefing. One interesting note about Captain Nelson, was that he is a dive instructor himself. So you would see him giving (very enthusiastic) briefings and even dive with you while another crew member is piloting the boat.

I don't remember exactly but it was today or yesterday, when US airports elevated its security condition to "orange" because somebody tried to board a plane with liquid explosives in Britain. So this is when the ban on liquids started. Most people on the cruise were flying in two days (Saturday).

Captain Nelson gave us the briefing on "Radar Beach", named -appropriately- after the radar tower that stands before it. He told us about several efforts to add underwater sculptures in Brac. There was a whole underwater city planned called "Atlantis"; however, we did not go there (it's near Radar Beach) because it was still being constructed. Captain Nelson told us about this bronze sculpture of dolphins and stingrays on Radar Beach though.

Radar Beach had an underwater telecommunications cable running along the beach, so that was a good reference for navigation. At the begining of the dive, I ran into a spotted drum fish. I don't know about spotted drums in Cayman, but they are really hard to photograph here. It would move around different places, unlike in Belize and Cozumel where they would go left-to-right, right-to-left, but staying in the same place. In the end, I only got a picture of its tail. So after more than 10 minutes, I decided to go where the rest of the folks in the group were going.

When we started the dive it wasn't quite dark yet, so this was a twilight dive. I did manage to find other creatures to photograph. So far, in the Caymans I had had not enjoyed the night dives too much. However, this one was becoming one of the more interesting ones. This was a good shot of a channel crab and an on-looking soldier fish.

This is a picture of a species of sea star that I had not seen before. The red piece of coral underneath makes it look even better.

One of the good things about night dives is that you can notice your fellow divers from afar by noticing their lights. Sometimes you would see lots of commotion and flashlights pointing to the bottom. That is when you know that somebody has spotted something interesting. This is what they were pointing to, a slip lobster.

When Captain Nelson gave us the lecture about tunicates after dinner, he told us to look under the propeller housing of the boat during our safety stop. He said we would find tunicates in there. Not only did I see a variety of tunicates there, but I also saw a tiny juvenile angelfish. It's just a little bit left of the center, with brown color right on top of the white spot in the middle. You can even see the eye of the diminute fish.

This was our last dive in Cayman Brac, and from the pictures that I managed to take, I would say that this was one the best night dives that I had in the Caymans. Next, the plan was to do the crossing back to Grand Cayman overnight and dive the East Side and Stingray City tommorrow which would be our last day on the cruise.