In January 2008 I again spent a week in Grand Cayman, as in 2005 staying at Compass Point in East End for an Alex Mustard Digital Photo Workshop hosted by Ocean Frontiers. Once more it proved to be a week jammed with specialised diving just for photographers, seminars and workshops focused on getting results including a practise session in the pool. Apart from Alex and I, our workshop group included four other members of BSoUP (British Society of Underwater Photographers) Jarret Brown, Andy Cooper, Neil Rosewarn and Pedro Vieyra.

In 2005 we had dived from Nauticat but this time, a couple of dives excepted, we dived from the impressive Eastern Skies as well as Ocean Hawk. After a couple of pre-workshop dives to try out my new Tokina 10-17mm lens, I joined the group for our first workshop dives at Babylon, my dives 1507 and 1508. When I had last dived in Grand Cayman I had started the trip wearing just a 3mm “shortie” without a hood and had felt quite cold. A series of recent long dives in cold UK waters had similarly left me feeling cold. So rather than risk feeling cold again I simply wore the same setup I had been using in the UK except that I dispensed with my 2.5mm gloves and wore one, not two, hoods. I was of course wearing ludicrously too much neoprene in water temperatures of typically 26 degrees Celsius but at least I did not feel at all cold! Neil and I buddied up, although we were only a buddy team in a photography sense. That is we would occasionally meet up to model for each other! With a strong swell, diving conditions for underwater photography were not ideal and unfortunately the sea was quite rough for much of our week.

The following day we dived Jack McKenneys Canyons, Little House on the Prairie, Iron Shore Gardens and Sunset Reef and the next day dived Iron Shore Gardens twice and once at Sunrise Reef. In the evening as Alex was presenting a lecture which I had seen before, I went for a night dive instead at Sunset Reef.

Our first dive the next day, my dive 1517, was at Snapper Hole which Skin Diver magazine considers the best shallow dive in the Caribbean. It has a labyrinth of tunnels and caverns and at a depth of around 20 metres, the anchor of the 1872 Spanish wreck, Methusalem. An early iron ship, the wreckage of the Methusalem is scattered over a wide area of this dive site.

After diving Babylon again we drove to the north of the island for an afternoon shallow dive at Stingray City, my dive 1519. Foregoing our flashguns, Magic Filters were ideal to photograph the numerous Stingrays as well as a free-swimming Green Moray Eel.

The next morning we snorkelled with Stingrays at the Sandbar near Stingray City and then in the afternoon dived Shark Alley, my dive 1520. Ocean Frontiers offers controlled Shark Awareness Projects at this site and it is exclusively used for the observation of and education about Caribbean Sharks although I had begun to wonder if we would actually see any sharks. Our agreed maximum dive time was as usual 60 minutes and after 58 minutes I was reluctantly ascending without having seen any sharks when one of our dive guides alerted us to an approaching Caribbean Reef Shark. Having been on a MV Shear Water “Tiger Shark and Oceanic Whitetips” trip seven months earlier in the Caribbean, I was rather blasé about seeing a Caribbean Reef Shark. But compared to all the sharks I had seen before, this large shark moved really quickly and appeared aggressive, announcing its arrival by giving Andy’s strobe a strong nudge with its mouth. It made three or four passes straight at me, veering off each time just as it reached me. Of course if it had wanted to attack us it would have so I did not feel at all threatened but I was certainly no longer blasé! An exciting and memorable dive. Afterwards Neil and I left our group for a night dive at Sunset Reef, my dive 1521, where I selfishly blitzed a poor lobster with my flashguns in my attempt to get a good photograph. (I hope no members of BSoUP read this!)

A heavy swell greeted us for our final day’s diving so we dived Anchor Point Drop-Off, a partially sheltered cove on the north coast of Grand Cayman and then Grouper Grotto where was saw numerousTarpon and Barracuda. In the afternoon Neil Andy and I drove to Kaibo Yacht Club near Rum Point and joined Nauticat for our final dive, a shallow dive at Stingray City where we once again had great fun photographing Stingrays.

As in 2005, I have added a few “guest photos” to my trip report to improve the overall quality (!) for which I thank Alex, Andy, Neil, Jack and Jill.