We traveled for a good part of the night from Grand Cayman and awoke to find ourselves moored off Little Cayman. I have never been there and I was hoping that Bloody Bay Wall is as great as everyone says that it is.
Before I get started, I wanted to catch up on something that I missed on my first day of this trip. I want to tell you all a little about the people and the crew that we shared experiences with. Marty and Barbara are two lovely women. They hail from Texas and try to go on a women only trip every year. There are twelve women who participate and the number varies from year to year. Marty took a Nitrox course during the week and we didn’t realize it until the last night when it was announced that she was the newest Nitrox diver. She also had an incredible ability to blow ring bubbles (like smoke rings but underwater). I saw her do it at the end of a dive but I couldn’t get my camera going fast enough. It was impressive. Marty and Barbara are really good divers and they made our week much more enjoyable.
On to the diving. I started the day off by diving with my great friends, Warren and Robin Reed, at a site called Randy’s Gazebo. It is on Bloody Bay Wall and it was great diving. The visibility was at least 100’ and the water temperature was a comfortable 86° F. The three of us swam along the wall and marveled at the scenic beauty. At one point, we came upon a nurse shark but it had its head under a coral head and although I tried to get a photo with my Tokina 10-17 fisheye lens, it was difficult because of all the growth around the coral head. I planned on changing to one of my favorite fish and macro lens, the unbelievably inexpensive and incredibly versatile Sigma 28-80 macro lens. Long ago I learned a trick about removing a metal switch from the lens which let it focus down to 9” throughout the lenses range. Unfortunately, the lens isn’t made anymore. If you own one and want to know how to made this modification, send me an email. I have a PDF instruction sheet on how to do this.
I reached a maximum depth of 83 feet on my first dive and had a bottom time of 47 minutes. It was over way to soon. Our trusted pathfinder, Warren Reed, got Robin and I back to the boat as he always does. Robin and I are avid underwater photographers and we are both directionally challenged. Thank goodness that Warren is not. He always gets us back.
In our dive briefing, we were told that we would probably see turtles on many of the dive sites. I was excited. I really love turtles. After our surface interval, we were back in the water. Robin and I had both changed to our Sigma 28-80 lenses.
I looked for the nurse shark that I saw on the first dive and actually found it in the same place. I was able to get some better shots of its face.
Along the way, I encountered a white-spotted filefish, some Nassau groupers, flamingo tongues and two hawksbill turtles. I was able to shoot a lot of photos of the turtles and I was as happy as can be. On this dive, I hit 97’ and had an hour of bottom time. Most of my dive was spent at less than 30’.
After a great noon time meal, we moved to a dive site named Meadows. We learned that Little Cayman was home to the world’s friendliest Nassau groupers. I learned that this was true at Meadows. I spent a lot of time on a big sand patch trying to get photos of a Caribbean reef shark who never came close enough.
I did watch Robin Reed and another passenger, Mary Nelson, interacting with a Nassau grouper. Each grouper was probably 18”-24” long. The grouper would swim up to the diver and the diver would rub the grouper under its head. It would turn vertical in the water column and allow the diver to rub the underside of its stomach. These guys were like giant house pets.
We made a second dive here and it was starting to get darker. We didn’t have the best weather during our week. We had rain on a few days but what the heck – we were getting wet anyway. Since it was getting darker, I moved from my wide angle lens to the Sigma 28-80 and found plenty of friendly Nassau groupers that loved having their photos taken. I also got closer to a queen triggerfish than I have in a long time and was really pleased. I saw a few red lionfish which are becoming the scourge of the Atlantic and Caribbean seas.
After a five star dinner from Kimberly, it was time for a night dive. The crew saw that there were sea wasps in the water and gave us instructions on how to deal with them. I entered the water with my camera and headed straight to the bottom. Robin found a pink-tipped anemone that had tiny clinging channel crabs in it as well as a diamond blenny. We came upon a sleeping hawksbill turtle, plenty of sea urchins and our friendly Nassau groupers who scared the crap out of me when they appeared out of nowhere.
My crew member of the day is Lowell.
He is a big strapping guy that has some great stories. He was always around to help anyone with anything and he also has a Captain’s license. He reminded Veronica of her brother, Kevin.
Lowell is working towards a higher tonnage rating on his Captain’s license. He has a great tattoo on his back that he designed himself. You can’t help but love the guy. He was going to have command of the Cayman Aggressor IV the following week when Captain Allan heads west on vacation.
My wife, Veronica, doesn’t dive anymore because of her multiple sclerosis and she became friendly with all the crew during the week. There wasn’t a single one of them that she didn’t like immensely.
Our two fellow passengers for today are John and Mary Nelson from Ohio. If I remember correctly, John learned to dive to be with Mary who was already a diver.
Mary learned to ski to be with John. John was a diving maniac. He tied with Gerry Niel from Charlotte, North Carolina for the most dives of the week. I don’t think that John and Gerry missed a single dive.
As we boarded the boat after the night dive, the crew waiting with hot chocolate and hot towels. After downloading photos into the computer and have a glass of wine, it was time to turn in for another day of diving on Little Cayman.
If you would like to see more of my hawksbill turtle shots, click here. For more Nassau groupers, click here. You can also find any other marine subject that I talk about in my blog by visiting my Photo Gallery.
© 2010, Herb Segars. All rights reserved.
