~/trips/2024/grand-cayman
Grand Cayman
10 dives · 9h 49m underwater · max 26 m · 30–38 °C · Air
gear: Canon PowerShot G9 X Mark II · Sony A7R V · FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II · FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G · Fantasea FG9X · INON S200 · Weefine Smart Focus 5000 · Suunto EON Core
A fortnight on Grand Cayman at the end of the summer, with ten dives in the first week with Living the Dream Divers. The water was 30–31 °C, as warm as it gets.
The reefs off the west side are all sea rods, sea fans and sponges. There were nurse sharks resting under ledges and cruising over the reef, a hawksbill turtle feeding, a moray tucked into a crack, a Caribbean reef squid and flamingo tongue snails grazing on the sea rods.
The highlight was the USS Kittiwake, a US Navy submarine rescue ship scuttled off Seven Mile Beach in 2011 to make an artificial reef. Her name is still clear across the stern, and you can look into her engine room and passageways with the light coming in through the openings.
Out of the water there was Stingray City: standing on a sandbar in a metre of water in North Sound while southern stingrays glide around your legs. The evenings were for sunsets over the water.
Underwater on the Canon G9 X Mark II in its Fantasea housing, with an INON S200 and a Weefine Smart Focus 5000. Topside on the Sony A7R V.
