Heading back in after our last dive with Reef Divers out of the Little Cayman Beach Resort.
Looking back toward the sea where all the good diving is.
Wonderful azure waters in the little bay.
A native rock iguana greeted us on the dock on your return to land.
Our dive boat for the week, the Sea Dreamer. Also sometimes called the Sea Dragon. Also once called the Sea Dremer.
Looking into the Little Cayman Beach Resort.
We borrowed a pair of bikes from the hotel and took off on the road around the island to check out the sights.
We stopped off at the booby pond. This pond has a rookery of red footed booby birds and a companion (or some might say parasitic) rookery of frigatebirds.
I gave Heather her non-silicone engagement ring up on the viewing deck at the booby pond. I proposed to her underwater a few days before.
Another big old rock iguana chilling out next to the road. They folks on the island are very serious about protecting their iguanas. There aren’t many rock iguanas left an they are fighting off an invasion of non-native green iguanas.
Welcome to Little Cayman!
The runway at Edward Bodden Airfield is on the other side of the road from the airport building. They shut down traffic when a plane lands by having a guy stand out in the road wearing an orange vest. It’s really only so tourists don’t ride a bicycle in front of a plane.
A de Havilland Canada DHC 6-300 Twin Otter coming in for a landing at the airfield. They used to land DC-3 planes here when they first opened the airport back in the 60s.
The plane unloading and loading before it heads off to its next stop.
There is no elaborate or fancy security here. You can ride your bicycle right up to the plane!
Caution! Iguanas on the road and the runway!
The plane getting ready to take off. Depending on the day and the time of year, between two and seven planes come to call at Little Cayman.
The plane goes to the crest of the hill before it starts its takeoff. Sometimes it goes down to the end of the runway and turns around to run in the other direction.
The power infrastructure on Little Cayman is surprisingly robust but the island still relies on either diesel or oil generators.
This nice Land Rover Defender was parked at the airport. There are a lot of interesting cars on the island.
A nest full of red footed booby chicks! It was right over top of the road.
Back at the Little Cayman Beach Resort and the Reef Divers Valet Diving center. It’s a pretty good place to spend a week or two.
Heather at the end of the dock looking at another wonderful tropical sunset.
Heather repping #DiveMola on our last night at Little Cayman.
Getting ready for our final day of diving at Little Cayman. The dive boats they use at the Little Cayman Beach Resort are really nice and basically brand new.
The Nassau Groupers are really starting to congregate in advance of their annual spawning event.
It felt like an absolute storm of fish.
Fish blizzard!
Swimming through a little canyon between big mountains of coral.
A couple Nassau Groupers came through the storm of fish, getting ready for the mating frenzy that’s on the way.
Heading along a sand channel toward the Big Wall for one last view of the abyss before we head home.
Heading out into the blue from the reef. The transition to the coral heads out to the deep blue of the open ocean is absolutely extraordinary.
Heather up on the top of the reef looking for one or two last tiny things to take a photo of before we have to go on our surface interval for our flights home.
A barracuda came over to to say hello to us before we got out of the water for the last time on this trip to Little Cayman.
Another great day of diving in the Cayman Islands awaits!
Diving around Little Cayman is just like being in an aquarium. The number of fish and all of the healthy coral make this a really special place.
A 5 or 6 foot long nurse shark was hanging out in the sand as we swam by to get to the Big Wall where the reef drops off into the depths.
Doing a swim-through up on the reef. There are a ton of great swim-throughs to explore on SCUBA around Little Cayman.
Doing a big swim-through on the way to the deep blue.
Popping out on the side of the Big Wall where the reef falls away for 3,000 feet before reaching the bottom.
Heading into another swim-through. I love exploring all of these little caves and channels between the reef.
Heading through another reef swim-through. When I popped out at the far side and just after I turned my camera off, Heather came up to me holding a small piece of plastic in her hand. She was trying to give it to me. I thought she had found some trash and wanted me to put it in my BC pocket to take to the surface. Upon closer inspection, it was a silicone ring. I figured it must have fallen off of another diver. She was insistent though on pushing it onto my ring finger. I thought she just wanted to make sure I didn’t lose it carrying it to the surface. Once I was up on the surface, she told me it was MY engagement ring! Heather had remembered a conversation we had on our third ever date about how it’s not fair that only women get engagement rings and that guys should get them, too. Well, here I am with an engagement ring now! 🙂
Divers from our boat on their safety stop before heading to the surface. Most of the dive sites around Little Cayman have shallow moorings where you can do your safety stop while checking out the reef. A few require you to hover at 15 feet partway between the bottom and the boat.
Heading down from the dive boat.
Swimming over the top of the reef to the Big Wall. It’s amazing how the reef just suddenly falls away and there is nothing but deep blue water in every direction.There is nothing but water below me for 3,000 feet.
It’s like a blue chromis fish super highway along the edge of the reef on the Big Wall. Thousands upon thousands of these little blue fish just keep on trucking by.
This Nassau Grouper likes chilling out over top of a big barrel sponge. It must be like a fish Jacuzzi.
Here’s a photo of our matching silicone engagement rings 🙂
I can’t get enough of all of the outstanding swim-throughs that Little Cayman offers!
You never know what you’ll find in the channels that cut through the reef.
