Three Snorkel Sites, North Side of Grand Cayman

First thing you do when you reach Cayman…get groceries if it’s Saturday because the grocery store is closed on Sunday. After that, go to the dive shop and purchase one of their fold out, water resistant island dive/snorkel maps. On the map are little snorkel symbols at spots that are good for snorkeling. With a rental car, you can drive around and explore these. Many are not well marked but you can figure it out or ask around.

Here are a few reports from places we snorkeled in August 2008:

Cracked Conch

Walk through outdoor bar and climb down the dock. Folks are friendly and you can eat there afterwards, even in wet suit with snorkel mask marks on your face. This site is in front of the Cracked Conch restaurant, not far from the turtle farm. There is a full dive shop here and divers leave from this shore site as well.

It is surprisingly simple to get into the water on this rocky shoreline. It was fairly calm the day we were there so we did not feel like the waves would crash us into the dark coral walls. But it is good to put on your booties/fins or just float when you get in, in case you meet slippery rock. (Watch out for sea urchins. But be sure to checkout the pinkish, trilobite-like creatures called ornate chitons.)

Our highlights: 11 Caribbean Reef Squid met us right in that little cove. We watched them change colors to pale and speckled, like the sandy floor. They turned brown and gold speckled to float around. Later, we watched them telegraph meaning with blue and pink sparkles. At one point, 9 of the squid floated, pale pink, together. This was when we saw them later. Two of the smaller squid had gotten separated from the school and were still in the cove. But 9 were out in the water.

Strangely, there were definitely two “lead” squid…nine of the squid were the same size…smaller. Then there was a much larger squid, and a second moderate size one that hung together with the big one, slightly apart from the rest of the school.

We watched them for about 20 minutes, as long as we wanted. Seven staggered themselves in a line, around the contour of a coral outcrop, and with dark bodies matching it.  Meanwhile two others hovered over the seafloor below us…with a color to match. Then they joined all together in a lavendar hue.

Another highlight: saw lots of cleaning behavior.  And…we saw a barracuda lunge in and grab a large chub right in front of us…maybe 12 feet away, at eye level. We had a clear view.

Wonderful scrawled filefish, just off the dock.

Large schools of parrotfish. Also saw a houndfish, and beautiful angefish.

Saw Goatfish digging in soft sand with barbels. It put its whole face into the sand! This was in the inlet right in front of the Cracked Conch.

Overall, a really fun snorkel. The waves can be choppy up here in the north but you don’t need to go far from the cove to see a large number of species. Always worth a dip.

Lighthouse Point? Not sure the name, but this is the Divetech Shorediving area on the way to the turtle farm. Water extremely clear. Not as many fish near shore as at the Cracked Conch. But schools of parrotfish. Some parrotfish being cleaned by gobies.

One big barracuda. A huge porcupinefish under a ledge, slightly inflated and seemingly much browner than usual. A Smooth Trunkfish. We see these a lot in these degraded close to shore habitats. Swam out to the “mini-wall” at the red buoys set by Divetech. Snorkeled a couple hundred yards to reach it. At that point, the ocean floor is about at 40 feet deep, and then drops to 60 feet deep.

Visibility, of course, is decreased. But even from above you can see large schools of parrotfish, jacks, and some barrel sponges.  There we swam above divers and saw one taking photos of a sea turtle. It was an adult green turtle. Wow! We watched it fly underwater below us, at depths of about 50 feet.

Off Boggy Sands Turned near Esso. Parked at Heritage Square…relatively large lot. Then walked to where houses begin, down to shore, and back along wall to swim out through yucky water…algae and some garbage to get out to crumbled reef.

Playing moon jelly pinball.  We were the balls…bouncing around, trying to avoid moon jellies. We swam several hundred yards offshore…really farther than most would. There were a few nice coral heads…a living elkhorn coral or so. Fish diversity was fairly good. The highlight was Ocean Triggerfish. They are pale blue, 1.5 feet or so, and so placid, so gentle in their swim, flapping fins side to side like some kind of mola mola.

Also saw a humongous Queen Triggerfish…almost as big as the Ocean Triggerfish. Saw a lot of Slippery Dicks. Very colorful kind of fish, in case you are wondering. Look it up in a fish book, and probably not in Google!

Others in our group swam out farther directly in line with the first red tiled roof house on Boggy Sand. They said they found incredible coral heads, quite far out. Some of the best snorkeling they’d seen on Cayman.

We drifted toward 6 or so jellyfish-ish creatures made of strands. At that point, we got the heck out of dodge. Perhaps the recent articles about sea wasps stings (very rare) had “fired” our imagination. Moon jellies..fine. But miscellaneous, unidentified tentacles? Uh, no.

We climbed out and returned to Boggy Sands Road by what seemed to be a public access route, or at least a chain link passageway between a few houses near the seawall.