Cayman Aggressor IV May 23-30, 2009

Wow! What a great week of diving to remember with beautiful weather and some of the best diving the Caribbean has to offer. From Grand Cayman to Little Cayman all the way to the Russian destroyer #356 wreck dive on little Brac, each site served up a smorgasbord of marine life and colorful reefs everywhere you looked. Divers encountered lobsters, turtles, crabs, reef and nurse sharks, stings rays, lion fish, moray eels, the caves and swim thrus that make Devil’s Grotto famous and much more. But nothing makes it all come together like the pleasure of meeting and diving with such a great group of friends. Maria and I personally want to thank all of you for the opportunity of diving and sharing with you this great adventure. From the kitchen to the dive deck a big thank you goes out to the crew for an outstanding job!

View the captain's log below for more information on the trip and snapshots throughout this great week of diving the Grand Cayman's aboard the Aggressor IV. Feel free to share your dive and liveaboard experience in this blog and hope to see you again on our 2010 SDI Grand Cayman Aggressor trip.

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 AM
Entry By: Cayman Crew

Air Temperature 78-85 deg Water Temperature 80-81 deg F (28 Celsius) Visibility 75 to 100 ft. and more!
Wetsuits: 3 to 5 mil (if you get chilly easily) Crew this week: Capt. Jon, Instructors Kory, Emma & Lowel, Stewardess Muri and Chef Savio.

Joining us:
From Huntsville, AL (the Rocket City) and Southeastern Divers, Inc.: Wes & Maria, Jim & Gina, Wes & Angela. Also joining us this week: Richard & Cathy, Ed & Noah, Girard, Alex & Phil, Jeff, Eric and Ted.

Saturday, May 23, 2009 Calm
Welcome back to the Cayman Aggressor IV weekly dive log and trip report. This week we are looking forward to another awesome trip with great weather and great diving here in the Cayman Islands, located just south of Cuba. With everyone on the island by 2 pm, we readied the yacht for an early departure to Little Cayman. As we headed around the northwest point of Grand Cayman, Chef Savio prepared his famous barbeque dinner and we set a course for Bloody Bay!

Sunday, May 24, 2009 Calm
Check-out dive time this morning and what a better place to do that than one of Little Cayman’s signature dives, Randy’s Gazebo. The conditions were perfect today for exploring the reef from the deep wall all the way up into the shallows. We started the week off with a couple of nice hawksbill turtles, lots of lobster, an eagle ray and a sleeping nurse shark. After lunch we moved up into the Jackson’s Bight area for and afternoon and evening at the Meadows. The sand strip that separates the main reef wall from the shallower mini wall in Jackson’s Bight was alive today! Southern stingrays, turtles, schools of snapper and peacock flounder were all spotted along with a cruising reef shark. The night divers discovered a couple of nice octopus, lots and lots of lobster, channel clinging crabs, nudibranch, sleeping turtles and a nice feeding stingray.

Monday, May 25, 2009 Calm
We woke a little early this morning and headed east along the north shore of Little Cayman for the short crossing over to Cayman Brac and a look at the Russian Destroyer #356. This 330’ cold war era destroyer was purchased by the Cayman government 11 years ago from Cuba and laid to rest off the northwest coast of Cayman Brac as a recreational dive wreck. Now home to several different types of marine creatures and encrusted in coral and sea fans, this is one of the best wreck dives the Caribbean has to offer. We all had a good look around and explored some of the companionways and the big guns still in tact. After lunch we headed back to Little Cayman for an afternoon of diving at Sarah’s Set. Here we saw another eagle ray, southern stingrays, a few more turtles and a nice school of schoolmasters right under the boat. After dinner nearly everyone hopped in for a look around and came back with tales of dueling lobster, sleeping turtles, octopus, huge crabs and come colorful nudibranch, thus ending another awesome day of diving and adventure on the Cayman Aggressor IV!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 ESE 10-15
This morning we started our day out back up in the Bloody Bay area with a couple of dives at Lea Lea’s Lookout. This amazing stretch of wall has two big points of interest. First, right under the bow of the boat, there are two pinnacles attached to the reef wall that are loaded with snapper, barrel sponges, lobster and a great place to find turtles feeding. A short swim down the wall brings you to a huge crevice that runs into the reef and leads to the shallow plateau near the mooring line. This morning we saw more turtles than normal along with a green moray eel, reef squid and lettuce sea slugs. After lunch we moved up into Jackson’s Bight again for a dive at Bus Stop. This section of “shark alley” is usually a good place to spot a reef shark and we got one today. One dive there to get our shark fix and off we moved to Three Fathom Wall for the rest of the day. Before dinner we got some nice photo ops with a friendly turtle, spotted a juvenile spotted drum, saw some yellow-headed jaw fish and cruised the shallows checking out juvenile angelfish and nudibranch. After dinner the night divers hopped in for a great evening show including octopus, lobster, crabs and a sleeping turtle.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 ESE 10-15
We sounded the wake up call a little early this morning for a “pre-breakfast” dive at 3 Fathom Wall. What an awesome way to start the day, chasing around sharks, turtles, eagle rays and lobster! Next we moved up to Joy’s Joy for a look at this unique stretch of Bloody Bay. Here we saw a nice green sea turtle, checked out the series of swim thrus and explored the shallows by the mooring line finding a few flamingo tongues and lots of red lipped blennies. After lunch we moved back down Bloody Bay wall to the Great Wall for our last dive site of the day. We all hopped in and explored this amazing section of wall, starting at a flat plateau in 25’ dropping off with a shear wall going straight down to the abyss. On the plateau we found Freddy the Nassau grouper and his buddies waiting for a little attention along with a couple of nice brown spotted moray eels, bearded fire worms and lots of juveniles up in the shallows. With another great day of diving behind us it was time now to secure the Cayman Aggressor IV for the crossing back to Grand Cayman.

Thursday, May 28, 2009 ESE 10-15
We slipped inside the reef and into the North Sound on Grand Cayman’s north side early this morning for a visit to Stingray City. The stingrays were out in force today too! Everyone got a good look at these amazing creatures in their natural habitat. Next we moved back outside the reef for a dive on Grand Cayman’s north wall at Hammerhead Hill. No hammerheads that we saw today, but we did get a good look at a cruising eagle ray, lots of lobster and a huge school of Horse Eye Jacks. During lunch we cruised on around to the northwest point for a couple of dives at Bonnie’s Arch. With just enough current to bring out the big fish, we played around the huge arch cut into the reef and swam with a giant dog snapper, big jacks and explored the shallows finding trumpet fish and reef squid. After dinner we moved back up into West Bay for a night dive at the wreck of the Oro Verde. Huge sleeping parrotfish, octopus, slipper lobster, neck crabs, the resident green moray eel and a brown spotted eel were the highlights of the last night dive of the week.

Friday, May 29, 2009 ESE 10-15
For our last two dives of the week we had a request for tarpon so off to Devil’s Grotto we flew. Luckily the tarpon were out along with silversides, anemones, a nice nurse shark, lobster, turtles, reef squid and a cruising stingray! What a great way to end yet another week of diving and adventure on the Cayman Aggressor IV!!

Congratulations this week to Noah and Gina on their first ever night dives!! Cathy also did her 100th dive this week!

Capt. Jon Kreider
Cayman Aggressor IV

Jim and Gina just before boarding the Cayman Aggressor IV.

No trip is complete without a trip to Margaritaville.

The crew and captain briefing.

Gear set up on the dive deck.

Drawing up the dive site.

Dive briefing.

Freddy the Nassau grouper

Wreck of the 330’ cold war era Russian destroyer #356.

One of many cleaning stations

Maria's new friend from Sting Ray City.

Maria, Angela and Wes prepare for the night dive.

The caves and swim thrus at Devils Grotto with schools of large Tarpon

Something a little sweet to remember...