Live from Grand Cayman Trip Report

Well Guys,

I am sitting in an internet cafe on Grand Cayman, killing time before I
go to the airport to head home. Made four boat dives the last two
days, no shore diving. Our dive shop group used Don Foster's Dive
Operation and they treated us well. We could not sure dive off the
back of their downtown Georgetown Shop as the water is too rough.
Matter of fact, they closed a section of downtown road where they water
was crashing over it.

In case you are wondering, we dove the south side of the island where
things are pretty much normal. Water temp was 82, I think the vis is
110, but some people say less. Made a couple of deep 100 foot dives,
but yesterday's last dive to 50 feet was the best. Saw the sea life
that I was expecting, a big puffer fish, and a school of silverfish or
tarpon. The weather is supposed to be clearing today, so if you are
heading here soon, conditions should be improving.

First computer dive for me. I can see the advantage as I got back to
the room to fill out my log and did the dive tables anyway, and wow,
you are way into deco time with the tables. For those of you like me
who have never used a computer before, the tables record everything at
deepest depth as bottom time, wherein actuallity, you may be changing
depths, which is adding more no deco time. Anyway, this is a rented
computer and my wife said she would buy me my own for our anniversary.

We stayed at the Cayman Comfort Suites, and I was here three years ago,
too. They are top notch for a family or group and I highly recommend
them. The breakfast buffet bar is outstanding and fills you up quite
nice for a physical day of diving.

This would not be a good trip for non-divers. It is windy and somewhat
chilly. The Cayman people have winter coats, hats, and gloves on,
though I am in shorts and Cabana shirt. Just another baumy day in
Ohio. However, you could not lay on the beach or by the pool and tan.

I used my new Equinox ProPak 6 Housing on all four dives and it worked
flawlessly. My old housing had a flat port and I finally got around to
using a wide angle lens, which made a big difference. The ProPak 6 has
a built on convex lens, so the video quality should be the best that I
have ever done. There should be some interesting video to look at upon
my return, but other than a vacation video, I don't have anything
profound to post to Google Video like some of my other wreck
documentaries. We'll see though.

My flight is at 3:00 today and touchdown at 9:00 at Akron/Canton. I
would rate this trip ***. Would have been **** if we could have got a
few shore dives in, but no complaints.

Signing off from Grand Cayman. Over and out.

Marshall Karp
Dover, OH