GUEST BLOG: Neal Skrenes gives the Brac Report

This week's blog is brought to you by Neal Skrenes!

Neal Skrenes: Gentleman, Scholar, and Diver Extraordinaire! 

March 30th 2013 eleven of us began our journey from Kenosha at the ungodly hour of 2:30 a.m. with a limo ride to Chicago O’Hare airport. Check-in was at 4 a.m.; the usual lines, waiting, document- and baggage-checking that dive travelers have come to expect were all part of the morning. Our route was Chicago to Atlanta, where we met up with four more of our group, then on to Grand Cayman, where the final two members of Team Manta flew with us on a Twin engine DeHaviland DHC-6 "Otter" - our ride to Cayman Brac.

Cayman Brac is the smallest of the three islands that make up The Caymans; Grand Cayman & Little Cayman are the other two. It is about 12 miles long, with an average width of one mile.

Its terrain is the most prominent of the three Cayman Islands due to "The Bluff", a large central limestone outcrop rising steadily along the length of the island up to 140' above sea level at the eastern end. The island is named after this prominent feature; "brac" is a Gaelic name for a bluff.

From the new airport we were transferred to Cayman Brac Reef Resort - our home way from home for the next week - and checked in. The rooms were very modern, having been renovated in 2009 courtesy of Hurricane Paloma. The island was hard hit in November of '08 when 90% of homes lost their roofs, and the original Cayman Brac Resort was demolished. It was the last existing hotel on the island and as a result the island was closed to tourism for almost two years.

After dropping off dive bags and blue jeans in our rooms, we proceeded to the dive shop to show dive certification cards, fill out forms, put some Nitrox in tanks for Sunday's diving and learn more about the diving operation before dinner.

The resort is very well laid out for diving visitors. The rooms are of a shotgun design with a porch that faces the pool area; many also have a view of the Ocean. Next to the pool is the bar/game area. It's also where they host a weekly outdoor movie, crab races, a trivia contest and barbecue.
 

You can also tour a Bat Cave.  You know, you think that it would be better hidden....

Dinner was in a dining hall and very upscale compared to some all-inclusive resorts that are more like Dive Camp. In addition to a regular chef who organized a delicious breakfast buffet starting at 7 a.m., cold cereal, fruit, breads, meats, hot eggs on buffet for breakfast, or, if you had time you could have omelet to order. There was plenty of juice, coffee & tea and cold water on the tables. Lunch and Dinner worked the same way - a buffet that varied every day with a special choice of meat sliced to order. Mario, their excellent pastry chef, was busy so there were always three different choices for dessert. Mario was such a hit with Team Manta that we organized an impromptu serenade extolling his virtues the last night we were there. You can check it out here.

The dive shop personnel collected our gear from outside our rooms on Sunday morning and brought it to our assigned boat for the week, Big Sister, where BJ & Brett switched off as captain & dive master; these two young men were outstanding hard workers. They provided what they called valet diving: You put on your skins, mask and fins at the back of the boat, they brought your gear and placed it on your back, so all you had to do was fall into the water. I had knee surgery a few years ago and choppy seas are always my concern when getting back on a boat. Bret and BJ were happy to hoist my gear out of the water so all I had to do was climb up the ladder. The most strenuous thing those of us using Nitrox had to do all week was to ensure that each day we had three tanks for which we had checked and marked the mixes.

A well run and well organized Big Sister!

The dive briefings were comprehensive and BJ or Brett would also stop under water and point out small to macroscopic marine life (easy to miss if you're not trained or experienced in finding it). We did three dives a day, except Friday when we did not do an afternoon dive, two before lunch and one after for a total of 18 dives. The water averaged 80F, so 3mm or 5mm suits (for the more cold blooded) were adequate. One morning dive also was a preparation for a night dive on Tarpon Reef so that it would be familiar territory to explore in the dark. Thursday morning we dove the M/V Captain Keith Tibbetts, also known as the former Cuban Navy Koni II Class frigate designated 356. The video is here.

There were lots of land-based activities in the evenings. A ping-pong table was available. One night an excellent fish identification movie shot at the resort by the local videographer previewed underwater sights for which to look. On different days there was a land crab race, trivia contest, bingo. Internet and television were also available. I used the former to keep in touch with my wife, sending her daily trip reports and photographs for her web page. If you'd like to see some of the photos and critters I saw
visit the website.

On Friday some of the team traveled to Little Cayman and did two dives there Penguins Leap & Randy's Gazebo - I elected to skip that trip to stay back wash and dry my gear and relax a bit. After lunch some of us did an island tour visiting some of the historic and scenic parts of the island. We were
hoping to see some wild parrots, but they all must have been hiding that day. Our last night at the resort there was an outdoor barbecue (a weekly occurrence).

Saturday morning we had to rise quite early (4 a.m.) in order to get to the airport in time for the first leg of our trip back home. This was uneventful trip back to Chicago and then home.

It was another trip with a wonderful group of divers - proving yet again Manta Divers are "More fun than regular people". Cayman Brac is a destination to which I would return.