Eden Rocks Shore Dives in Grand Cayman
When we took a Western Caribbean cruise, it included Grand Cayman as a port. We were able to dive on one of the shore dives. There are actually two dives off the coast of downtown Georgetown that were recommended to us. For cruise passengers, it is fairly easy to locate. As soon as the tender boats arrive at the dock, we walk to the right and in less than 5 minutes we arrive at the Eden Rocks Diving Center. Don’t be fooled by a new competitor that you have just before. Eden Rocks Dive Center is closer to the dive sites than its newest competitor.
The Cayman Islands are relatively expensive to dive averaging US $ 85 for a two-tank boat dive trip. However, with limited time, as with cruise ship passengers, we were able to do a decent dive for much less. If you bring all of your equipment except the tanks and weights, you can rent them for about $ 10 US. Even renting complete equipment will cost much less than a boat trip. Eden Rocks has a patio with lockers in the back and a ladder area where the entrance to the water is. The two dive sites are called Eden Rocks and Devil’s Grotto. They are reached with a small bath towards some buoys that mark the sites.
We ended up doing Devil’s Grotto, which had some nice coral formations. The maximum depth was about 46 feet with a water temperature of about 80 degrees. Visibility was even better than what we experienced in Key Largo just a few days earlier. There was a very nice big swim through the tunnel and several smaller ones all over the site. Inside the large tunnel, we saw a large resident tarpon. Fish life, including parrotfish, groupers, and spikes, was healthy on this shore dive and it’s interesting to note that it even exists so close to cruise ships. Other divers said they also saw some turtles.
We would like to do the other shore dive site, Eden Rocks, which is to the right of Devil’s Grotto for the next time we are in Grand Cayman. These sites are ideal for beginner level divers. My partner was a newly certified diver and had no problems with this shore dive.