Cayman Girls '08 Trip Report

"Aye, Ladies!"

Reefs and rum cakes, pirates and parrots welcomed the women of Underwater Phantaseas South May 14-18, 2008 on Grand Cayman. The spring adventure was the third annual all-girl dive trip. Many of the women had joined one of the two previous trips (both to Cozumel), so camaraderie ran high.

Sunset House, just south of Georgetown, Grand Cayman, hosted the group. The resort specifically caters to divers with lockers, a concrete dock and ladders perfect for shore dives, a pool overlooking the Caribbean, and wonderfully helpful dive professionals. The grounds were covered with beautiful flowering trees and shrubs, and home to curly tailed lizards and crowing roosters (yes, we know it's time to get up and dive). Given that Cayman is part of the British West Indies, we were surrounded by British (love those accents), Caymanian, and Jamaican staff.

Dive guides Rob and Pete showed us the highlights of Cayman's pristine diving. Fourteen divers, one from New York, one from Utah, and the rest from Colorado, filled the Sea Ray dive boat. From Eden Rock to Armchair Reef, the group enjoyed ideal dive conditions including 80 to 100-foot visibility, schools of fish, and an occasional turtle. Many of the area restaurants feed scraps to the tarpon in the evenings, so during the day we could easily see schools of the hefty silver fish under overhangs. A couple of them were so large they had remoras on them!

	One of the most distinctive dive visuals from Cayman is the underwater statue of the mermaid Amphitrite. She lives just off the shore at about 50 feet at Sunset Reef. A couple of afternoons we hopped in to pose with the bronze beauty. Friday afternoon we trekked out to Stingray City in the North Sound, by bus and boat, and spent 40 minutes making stingrays "dance" with tidbits of octopus bait.
Ah, but everyone has to have a surface interval at some point. The island's shops and beach bars (well-stocked with mudslides!) beckoned as well as the powdery white sands of Cayman's incredible Seven Mile Beach. Some rented cars and braved the British style of left-lane driving. The island's newly renovated turtle farm proved popular, too.

No offense guys, but all-girl trips really are different. You guys don't talk about OPI nail polish colors and the hazards of bikini tops. Name me another group that has gummy fish, yogurt bars, oranges, Jolly Ranchers, and homemade cookies for surface interval snacks. With a three-decade span of ages and experience, the dive sisters were keen to debate the answers to life's most challenging (and entertaining) questions. One newcomer to the sorority commented, "I have 13 new girlfriends now!"

Of course with aunties, moms, and grand moms shopping is a must. Crafts from Pure Art were coveted as well as fun little t-shirts, jewelry, and plush sea creatures. Probably the most prized souvenir was Sally's large piece of artistic beach debris (think tree limb) she somehow managed to get back to the United States. And, of course, many a bottle of rum and loaf of rum cake made their way to the mountains.

It was difficult to leave the stunning blue hues of the Cayman Caribbean, but look on the bright side: It's only a year until the next girls' trip. Where will it be? Turks and Caicos? Bahamas? Roatan? Little Cayman? Stay tuned!

written by Leslie Young Giase.

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