Between June 1 and June 6, my father and I enjoyed Grand Cayman's charms. During our well-deserved vacation, Don Foster's dive operation took us out as we explored the reefs and the marine life off the western and northwestern edges of the island. Ultimately, we managed to squeeze in a dozen dives, all of which were at least "very good," and some of which were "spectacular." Topside, we did some exploring, too.

We'd both been to the Cayman Islands before, but considering the island is one of our favorite dive spots, we were happy to go again. Fortunately, the weather was good; we couldn't find a bad meal even if we'd looked; and the diving was excellent. The daytime air temperature averaged 86, while the water temperature averaged 83 (i.e., no wetsuits needed). Depending on the dive site, the viz ranged from 50 feet to just over 100. All in all, it was a great trip.

The Dive Shop

We decided to go with Don Foster's for our scuba diving, because...well...because we hadn't used them before. In the past, we'd gone diving with other operators -- including Sunset Divers and the Cayman Dive Lodge (out on the East End of the island) -- but we wanted to try someone new.

Generally-speaking, Don Foster's is a tightly-run organization. They have ample staff; the dive shop is tidy and well-equipped; and they have some nice boats that leave more or less on time. We only ever rode on two of the boats: the (very nice) Cayman Sky and the Cayman Wall.

On one day, the ratio of divers to staff was 22:5; this was a crowded day. Most of the time, however, the ratio was closer to 10:3.

Throughout our trip, we generally followed this schedule:

• Someone picked us up each morning at 8:30 -- in our minds, a very liesurely departure time -- from our hotel (we stayed on Seven Mile Beach at the Cayman Comfort), and drove us about 5 minutes to the main shop just north of Georgetown, the capital. We arrived at the shop, had plenty of time to get our gear together, and left the dock around 9.
• Each day, we made a two-tank morning dive and returned to the shop around 12:30. From there, we could easily walk 5 minutes into Georgetown, which -- both in spite of and because of the fact that it's a cruise ship whore -- has plenty of great, casual lunchtime restaurants available. We tried Hammerheads [Thanks, Mark!], Breezes, and Paradise grill.) We'd return to the dive shop around 1:30 and get ready for our afternoon dive.
• Around 2, we'd leave for the third dive of the day, and we'd return to the dock about 4. We'd rinse our gear, and leave it in the shop (if you're nice, they'll let you store your gear in the compressor room; otherwise, you've got to fork over $2/day for locker rental). Around 4:30, someone would drive us back to our hotel.
• We'd play Scrabble, have some drinks, eat dinner, maybe play some more Scrabble, and then hit the hay. After all, we had another full day of diving lined up the following day.

Overall, the dive staff was fun, polite, courteous, and knowledgeable. They were good about helping divers board the boats, and carried our tanks for us.

However, we were responsible for assembling our gear for the dives. Frankly, I have no problem with this, but if you want a full, FULL-service dive shop, then Don Foster's might not be for you. They provided better-than-average descriptions of the dive sites, but they were no substitute for dry-erase-board-visuals, which I think should be a mandatory component of every dive briefing. The other I-think-it-should-be-compulsory thing that Don Foster's overlooked was snacks. Although they provided an ice chest to keep drinks and snacks cool, they didn't add anything to the chest. (There was always cold water on board.) In my opinion, dive boats should just throw in some soft drinks and fruit/cookies; I'd happily pay extra for this "bonus." Otherwise, I have no complaints about the operation. Final grade: 9 out of 10. Highly recommended.

The Dives

As mentioned, we hit 12 dives during the week. Briefly, the are:

1.) Dolphin Drop-Off -- I hit a max depth of 95 feet, and the site boasted a viz of about 85 feet. The site is the classic Caymanian spur-and-groove formation: large (20-30 foot high) coral outcroppings separated by sandy chutes. Underwater, we saw plenty of coral and small marine life.

2.) The Wreck of the Balboa -- The only wreck we dove, the Balboa sunk in the 1920s in the spot where the cruise ships want to pass through. Consequently, the 120-foot-long wreck was later blown apart to make room for the huge vessels. Diving this wreck doesn't feel like a traditional wreck -- since it has collapsed -- but it's somewhat unusual, since you can't dive there when the cruise ships are in the area. I reached a max depth of 36 feet. The site boasts plenty of Christmas tree worms, big parrotfish, and yellowtails.

3.) Royal Palm Ledge --One of the best dives we made. I maxed out at 54 feet and enjoyed nearly 70-foot-viz as I dived around a coral outcropping shaped like a giant mushroom. We saw a huge crab, some lobster, lots of banded coral shrimp, some barracuda, 1 large (100+ lb.) grouper, a few small schools of yellowtail, some ultra-violet barrel sponges, and lots of coral.

4.) Blacky's Hole -- On the first dive of the second day, we bottomed out at 91 feet, as we dropped through a dark swim-through and found ourselves on a nice wall dive. In the mild current, we saw ample marine life, including one large lobster.

5.) Armchair Reef -- So named, because it's shaped like an armchair, I got down to 63 feet, saw plenty of banded coral shrimp, a large ray, a damsel fish, and some large grouper.

6.) Bonnie's Arch -- This is one of the most spectacular dives we made, since there is a huge coral arch right after you drop into the water. It's amazing. What's more amazing, though, is that the dive guide swam right past it, and there really wasn't even time for a photo. I pretty much stopped going on guided dives after this. Anyway, we made it to 63 feet, and then let a very mild current take us past the rest of the wall. The highlight was the turtles we saw. However, the ramora that tried to attach itself to our legs was pretty unusual, too. Naturally, I was out of frames.

7.) Big Dipper -- This sheer wall dive took us to 93 feet. There were lots of shrimp on the dive.

8.) Aquarium -- This shallow dive only took us to 46 feet, but there were plenty of great coral formations to see. We saw turtles, a nurse shark, lots of small fish, and horse-eyed jacks.

9.) Royal Palm Ledge -- Although it was the second dive to Royal Palm Ledge, it was still enjoyable. Swimming over the ledge, other divers' bubbles came up through the reef in a very cool way.

10) Sand Chute -- Our deepest dive at 102 feet, this was another spur-and-groove formation in which 40-foot-tall reefs were interspersed with wide, flat sand chutes. This is where they shot the "Ski Cayman" ads from years ago. Considering the depth of the site, it'd be easy to lose yourself and drop very deep. Amazingly, this site had the first anemone I spotted.

11) High Hammer -- We only got to 50 feet, but this was a very nice dive. There was lots of coral, a nurse shark, and several anemones.

12) Shore dive off Don Foster's -- There's a nice little shore dive right off Don Foster's. You have to go out a few hundred yards to get to the good stuff -- lots of narrow swim throughs and lots of fish. I wouldn't've guessed that a shore dive would've had this much to see.

As you can see, the diving was pretty good. We saw lots of fish life and big corals, but soft corals were hard to find, which I found disappointing. All in all, it was a great trip. If you're interested, you can see some more photos of Grand Cayman on Flickr.

The Food

In my opinion, no dive trip would be complete with gorging myself. We ate at a number of good places, including Stingers, Breezes, Hammerheads, Cafe Med, and The Wharf. Our favorite place, though, was probably The Reef Grill. Located right on the beach along Seven Mile Beach, we had a fantastic meal there. It was good food, served casually, and we watched the Cayman Aggressor motor out to see as the sun set.

It was very nice. I enjoyed a cold Stingray beer after a tough day of diving.

My dad got some enormous tiger shrimp...

...while I ate the best conch fritters I've ever had.

For dinner, I ate the fresh caught wahoo cooked Cayman-style (smothered in peppers and onions and a tomatoey-sauce).

I gobbled the flour-less chocolate cake before I remembered to take a photo, so...sorry.

As you can probably guess, I really enjoyed the trip, found it very relaxing, and would recommend a visit to anyone else. Have you ever been to Cayman? What did you think?