Cayman
Madness 2003
Date: September 18, 2002 - - September 25,
2002
Airline: Cayman Airways - - Houston, Texas
to Grand Cayman
Hotel: Seaview Hotel ($1300 including 2 tank boat dives for 5
days and air fare)
Dive Operator: Bob Soto's Reef Divers
Tips: $100 US
Food and Drinks: $200
Transfers to/from Airport: included in package.
Gifts and souvenirs: $30
Van rental and fuel: $40 / person
Total cost: $1670 (estimated)
Weather: Sunshine with an ocassional shower.
Divers: Suzanne Chambles, Amy Mayfield, Margaret Kolich,
Maritschka Springer, Mark Springer, Steve Fegette, Doug Renshaw,
Leslie Mamghani, Jody Springer, Tony McDow, Jim Clark, Cam Tate,
Suzanne Countryman, Cynthia Countryman, Jesse Johnson
Trips reports are best written the week after the trip rather than if you wait almost a year to write them! So this report will be limited by my ability to recall the high and low points of the trip which haven't been erased by time and the consumption of alcohol. The weather on this trip surpassed the previous year by leaps and bounds. We managed to pick a week without a hurricane pounding the shores of the island. There were a few showers but typically they passed quickly. Most of the diving this year was on the South side of the Grand Cayman, although we did make one trip to the North side to visit Stingray City.
Attendance at Cayman Madness has decreased over the years and many of the sponsors dropped out of the program this year. There were only two groups this week. Ours being the largest could have easily been twice the size of the other group. Most of the group has decided this may be our last year for Cayman Madness for some time.
Last year, a hurricane kept us from any shore diving at the hotel, so I tried to make up for it this year. The reef is conviently located behind the hotel and easily accessed via the diving pier. There is a wall but it's a bit of a swim. In between the wall and the shore is a nice reef with channel or valleys which run perpendicular to the shore. There is a sandy section between reef and the wall. A variety of sealife inhabits the reef including, green moray eels, lobsters, octopi, red lipped blennys, green turtle, scrawled file fish. I would select the Chinese Gardens as one of the best drives of the trip. There is a read algae which can only be found in this area of the reef and an abundance of red lipped blennys.
The low point of the trip occurred on a the Tuesday night dive where I lost my brand new Canon s45 Digital camera and underwater housing. A brass clip I used to attach the camera lanyard to my BC failed and the camera floated away. The biggest loss was not the camera but the nearly 400 pictures on the memory stick. Forunately, I had backed up about half of the pictures but the best shots were lost. Most of the early pictures were experiments using different camera setting and modes therefore the quality was low.
The high point of the trip came at the treasure hunt on the next to the last day of the vacation. Due to being bummed about the loss of my camera the day before, I originally decided to forego the treasure hunt dive. That would have been a big mistake. I had a blast on the dive and found for of the gold token coils. One of the coins won me a free trip back to Grand Cayman including air, hotel and diving. One of the other coins won me an underwater 35mm camera good up to depth of 20 meters.
Luck must have been on my side even though I lost my camera. Since I bought the camera on my American Airlines mileage card, I was able to claim the loss against the insurance provided by the MasterCard. I've replaced the camera with a Canon S50 (newer version) and another underwater housing. There are several lessons to be learned here. First, a floating camera housing can be a bad thing. If the camera were negatively weighed then it would have sank and we could have back tracked our path and found the camera. For night dives, a small light or tank light should be attached to the camera in case the camera is loss. Don't rely on brass clips because the springs can rust and fail at the wrong time.
The trip was an overal success. We made several trips to the Lone Star Cafe and one trip to Dirty Reeds. We found a new place that serves roated chickens with sides. Very reasonably priced although I don't remember the name but it is located in one of the u-shaped shopping strip centers. One of these days, I want to do a little more sight seeing and go out to the botanical gardens. But that's another trip!
Daily Dive Log
Water Temp: 80+
Tropical Shorty or Bare Full Polartech or T-shirt
12-14lbs
Dive Log No. 95-111
Computer Dives
September 19, 2003
Dive Location: Orange Canyon (??mn@??ft) Computer log wrapped
Dive Location: Hepp Pipeline (??mn@??ft)
Dive Location: Afternoon Seaview Hotel Shore (42@56)
September 20, 2003
Dive Location: Morning Seaview Hotel Shore (42mn@49ft)
Dive Location: Trinity Caves (41@101)
Dive Location: Harbor Heights (56@57)
September 21, 2003
Dive Location: Twisted Sisters (33mn@104ft)
Dive Location: Chinese Gardens (65@56)
Dive Location: Afternoon - Seaview Hotel Shore (39@58)
Dive Location: Night - Ora Verde - wreck (66@52)
September 22, 2003
Dive Location: Big Dipper(42mn@118ft)
Dive Location: Hammer Head(56@52)
September 23, 2003
Dive Location: North Wall - Main Street (37mn@76ft)
Dive Location: Stingray City (64@15)
Dive Location: Night - Seaview Hotel Shore (41@58)
September 24, 2003
Dive Location: Morning - Treasure Hunt - Seaview Hotel Shore (41mn@49ft)
