GRAND CAYMAN

Descending into the waters off Grand Cayman Island....              

Grand Cayman is located in the heart of the Caribbean Sea. The climate is pleasantly constant with an average year round temperatures for the region are 78°F-88°F.
Island life focuses on the sea. 
Scuba divers and snorkelers describe Cayman as paradise and beach lovers will marvel at the powdery sands of Seven Mile Beach. 
Visitors travel to Grand Cayman to slow down and relax in a setting of comfort and beauty. The best strategy seems to be to stay near the beaches most of the day, where water and trade winds provide just the right temperature for enjoyment. 
Grand Cayman boasts 365 different dive sites that will allow you to immerse yourself in the natural beauty and aquatic life that fill the Caribbean oceans and you can dive one dive a day and not repeat the same dive for one year.  Whether you are wanting to view some of the most amazing and beautiful marine life, or explore a ship wreckage at the bottom of the sea, there are plenty of options to choose from for your next dive in the Cayman's!

Diving with Sunset House (July 2014)
Welcomed with open arms, you will find the Sunset House staff very friendly and helpful.
Once checked into your clean comfortable room, you are directed to visit the dive shop where you will be assigned a dive locker, provided a tank and weights for a check-out dive on their famous house reef.  Wow, what a great way to start a vacation.
The Sunset house has a restaurant called Sea Harvest, next to their pool which was primarily used for breakfast, and My Bar which doubles as an eatery, lounge and Bar. The pool is kept at a comfortable temperature and always clean.

The Sunset House - Grounds & House Reef

They have a gift/Camera shop just off the main lobby which also offers an underwater photography course.
Sunset has a nice fleet of dive boats, with experienced Captain's and crew. They are entertaining top-side, and professional dive guides beneath the surface.
Their dive briefings were through and creative. Capt. Lee would grab one to two towels and landscape the boat deck into a 3D map of the reef.
His briefings were always entertaining and informative.

click for video

Sent off, well informed with competent divemaster's each and every dive was an adventure filled with the excitement of deep dramatic walls adorned with sponges, corals and fans, shallow reefs of fish and small invertebrates, and an assortment of famous wrecks, all in perfect 80 degree water... 
Each day we would see minivans bring in diver after diver to dive the reef off Sunset house. This is where you'll find the "Mermaid" statue and a line of divers waiting patiently for their turn at a photo opt with the "Famous Mermaid".
Not far away from her towards the deep, is a small barge covered with life, friendly angels and white sands dotted with mini eco reef systems filled with life, and just beyond the barge is a beautiful wall filled with hard and soft corals. The wall is best dove first by a long surface swim to conserve air approx. 100 yards where you can descend to the wall, and return back by the barge and mermaid as you make your way over the shallow reef and back into the arms of Sunset House.

Diving with Sunset House comes at a price. All boat dives are limited to a fifty minute bottom time, YES 50 minutes, regardless of your qualifications, experience, and/or computers readings. 
Understandably, we want to be kept safe, especially in waters we are unfamiliar with, but isnt this why we hire divemasters to guide our dives? It is their job to make sure the waters are safe from as many hazards visable from the surface prior to allowing us to enter the water, and keeping us safe while being guided through their same waters. Every diver is trained and certified to follow the profile of their dive computers, and as long as they dive within this profile, they will remain free of any concerns of decompression illness. Divers are trained to do deeper dives first, diving to the deepest part of their dive in the beginning, and progressively moving to shallow waters as their dive computer and air consumption guide their dive. We know to complete a 3 minute safety stops prior to exiting the water after each dive, and by following these rules each and every dive, we are allowed to continue to dive on vacations year after year. These are the only rule's we expect to be governed by while on a dive vacation to a tropical location. 

Sunset House is a great choice to stay and dive. They offer fine cuisine, have a great house reef, and friendly staff and management. Their divemasters are knowledgeable, entertaining and just a lot of fun.
Their grounds, rooms and boats are well kept and clean, and their pool with water fall is inviting after a day of diving. 
They also, offer day trips to Sting Ray City, and guided boat dives to the newest ship wreck the Kittiwake.

Scuttled according to plan on January 5th 2011. The Kittiwake has become a dynamic environment for marine life. While visitors are not allowed to take anything, its a massive ship to explore. Each of the 5 decks of the ship offers squirrelfish, rare sponges, Goliath groupers, urchins, and more. Experienced divers are allowed to explore the interior while beginner divers are invited to swim around the Kittiwake.

Stingray City is also a top attraction in Grand Cayman, originally started in the 1980s, when divers started feeding squid to stingrays. The stingrays started to associate the sound of the boat motors with food, and thus visit this area year round.

At just a short walk from Sunset you will find gingerbread-style buildings lining George Town's harbor front, a prime examples of traditional island architecture. George Town has a number of nightclubs, which feature local entertainment, and succulent seafood specialties are always a favorite.
Make sure to visit the banyan tree at the far end of town, it is an amazing site to behold.

Grand Cayman is only 22 miles long and 8 miles across at its widest point.

Grand Cayman Island: 5 stars    --  The Sunset House: 3 1/2 stars