Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point in
Cayman Islands/East End, Grand Cayman

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Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point: "Great place to stay & dive on the East End", Dec, 2017, by Wayne Joseph, CA, US ( Contributor 13 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 10151 has 4 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	My wife & I visited Grand Cayman, East End in the first week of Dec. We both wanted to return to this area as it had been since around 2004 that we last visited and we were going to celebrate her birthday. I wanted to practice wide angle UW photography. Unfortunately, she contracted pneumonia in the beginning of Oct. and on the advice of the experts at DAN she didn’t dive. They recommended waiting 5-6 months before diving again to avoid any serious medical problems. So I dived with others on the boat. Previously, we dived with Ocean Frontiers and if anything, they are better today than last time we were with them. They have several boats, two of which were used mostly to transport divers to various locations & they were in the process of getting another newer boat ready to transport divers. The setup with the dive shop, equipment room, and dock is very convenient, especially if you are staying at Compass Point. You are scheduled to do 2 morning dives and can sign up for other dives that go in the afternoon or night. Their boats are fully equipped and they conducted the dives in a safe manner. It was our first time staying in these condos and ours was appointed well with much of what you would want for accommodations; kitchen, bath/shower, TV, wifi, washer & dryer, etc. Our unit was very clean; on the first floor with a balcony overlooking the beach. The package included breakfast at Eagle’s Nest, located on the premises. We ate most of our other meals at this restaurant. The breakfast menu is quite limited; eggs cooked to order, choice of ham, bacon, or sausage, potatoes, toast. There was also a limited number of cereal in small boxes available. We ate lunch & some dinners at Eagle’s nest that were quite good. We also ate some dinners at other restaurants that were delicious; Tukka, Bombay Chopsticks (across the street offering some pretty spicy food which is to our liking), and Italian Kitchen. The package also included a rental car that we used to tour a bit of the East & North side of the island. If you decided to dive the Kittiwake or Stingray City, you needed the car to get yourself to the location where you board another boat that takes you to the dive site. We have visited Grand Cayman at least 7-8 times in the past 30 yrs and have seen many changes. Thankfully, the East End isn’t built up like the George Town area. I was also interested to see the changes occurring on the reefs. The first few days the diving locations were limited due to high winds making it difficult to get to the North side. So most of the diving was done on the south. The reef; corals, sponges, etc. looked better than what we saw on the west end when we were there at the beginning of the year. But, it isn’t what I remember from previous trips; I really missed seeing the azure vase sponges that I saw & photographed previously and I’m still not used to seeing lionfish in the Caribbean. When we finally were able to get to the North side you could see much more growth on the reefs, esp. at Babylon. This is a great site for wide angle photography as it has a lot of growth and color. But at about 70 feet I noticed some large type of plate coral that was bleached. First time for me to see this in the Caribbean. (as I stated previously, it’s been quite a while since I dived the Caribbean). A dive guide told me that the ocean temp was 88 degrees last summer (2017) that caused the bleaching. The temp had returned to 82 degrees during our visit. Another thing I noticed at about 70-80ft was something covering part of the reef & sponges (almost completely covered one sponge) that I had never seen before. These were flat, dark grey with occasional white spots with a hole in them. I asked the dive guides and we looked through all the ID books in the shop & couldn’t find them. After I got home I contacted Anna DeLoach and sent her a photo. She was finally able to ID it as Didemnid ascidian, a type of tunicate. Don’t know if it will continue to multiply or die out. Overall, it was a great trip. The only thing is that I wish we could have done more diving on the North side, but that was up to Mother Nature.
Websites	Ocean Frontiers
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Caymans, Bonaire, San Salvador Island, Fiji, St. Thomas, California, Sardinia, Hawaii
Closest Airport	Owen Roberts Int'l Airport	Getting There	We flew AA from SFO to Miami, then to GC
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	82-°F / 28-°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	75-100 Ft/ 23-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Limited to 100ft depth. Come back with 500psi.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 4 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point in Cayman Islands/East End, Grand Cayman

Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point: "Great place to stay & dive on the East End", Dec, 2017,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Ocean Frontiers/Compass Point in
Cayman Islands/East End, Grand Cayman