Text by Jeremy Cuff/www.ja-universe.com
Photography by Jeremy & Amanda Cuff/www.ja-universe.com
Diving trips, and especially liveaboards, are normally the preserve of the “grown ups” but in the Cayman Islands, we took our six year old son Zac on a unique family liveaboard week. Here’s how it went…
Anyone with a young child (or children) will know that if you want to maintain interests such as diving, it’s not easy. You’ve really got to want to do it, and find a way to incorporate it into an already busy and hectic life. As we’ve always wanted to keep doing it, our way has been to enlist the help of grandparents (usually Grandma) so that we can go away for a week or so, or get her to travel with us to longer haul destinations.
This has been great up to a point, but it hasn’t really allowed our son Zac into our “other life” of diving other than showing him images from our trips, looking at fish books and watching “Finding Nemo”. That is, until we discovered the family week liveaboards run by the Aggressor Fleet in the Caribbean. It seemed like the perfect idea for families like ours, so we checked the dates, found that the Cayman Aggressor worked best with the UK school summer holidays and after consulting Zac, we made the booking.
It was a long build up to this trip, as we booked it more than a year in advance. A year is long time for a child of 5 or 6 years old to wait and he probably wondered if it was ever going happen, but for us “grown ups”, the time came around quickly. Before long, it was the first day of Zac’s summer holidays and we were off to the Caymans.
We chose to arrive three days before the liveaboard departure, to give us a chance of getting onto “local time”. This proved to be a good idea, especially for Zac, who struggled to sleep at bedtime for the first couple of nights, and it certainly would have detracted from the trip if we’d gone straight from the airport to the boat.
All three of us were pumped up and excited about our impending adventure and were the first divers to arrive at the dock in Georgetown to board the boat. The friendly crew, resplendent in their formal uniform were there to greet us, load our gear, allocate our spots on the dive deck and get us settled into our cabin.
The liveaboard itself was a source great thrill for Zac, with the steep staircase leading downstairs to our cabin along the narrow corridor, the dive deck with his own space, and the hot tub on the sun deck. Within seconds he’d laid claim to the top bunk and began making it feel like home as various toys spilled out from his backpack. We could forget any ideas about privacy, but that’s alright, it would be great fun.
The family week itinerary is based on the normal “grown ups” trip, but with a few subtle tweaks to make it more “child friendly” both onboard and in the water. Basically, you spend the first night and following day off Grand Cayman before making the crossing to the best diving at Little Cayman, where you spend most of the time, plus a visit to Cayman Brac, before heading back to Grand Cayman.
After the safety briefing (especially important with children onboard), the first activity was a couple of try dives for the “grown ups” at a nice little wreck off Seven Mile Beach called the Doc Polson in lovely turquoise water. It set scene for what would be a great week of excellent diving in near perfect conditions.
Next, before heading off to Little Cayman was a stop off at the “world famous” Stingray City, a place that doesn’t require explanation. There are actually two places that are called Stingray City, and we visited the original site, away from the majority of the snorkelling day boats that form a permanent flotilla most days. It’s only in a few metres of water and gives everyone a chance to have a bit of fun with these tame rays, with the crew using some pieces of chopped up squid to keep them interested.
Once all of the divers were in the water, it was Zac’s turn to get in, as he snorkelled with one of the crew, legs kicking feverishly over to the melee of divers and rays. Then, Sam (one of the crew) cradled one of the rays and eased it to within reach of Zac. It was a great moment to watch from beneath, and a great photo opportunity. He thought it was fantastic.
By the time we had reached Little Cayman, my cool diving dad status (probably imaginary!) had been downgraded as Captain Henri became Zac’s new hero. He would sometimes say “the best captain in the world” of “the best boat in the world”. It’s certainly true that the crew were very friendly, encouraging and patient with Zac, and as a parent you felt completely relaxed about him being onboard and well looked after when you were diving.
Little Cayman offers the best diving in the Caymans and is a real treat to visit. Most sites are combinations of spectacular walls cut with swim throughs, fissures and overhangs that are festooned with colourful corals, sea fans and sponges. On the reef tops, such as Meadows (my personal favourite site), there’s a labyrinth of gulleys and ledges to explore, plus some interesting sandy expanses which are home to garden eels, stingrays grubbing for molluscs and jawfish.
In the open water, especially along the reef edges, you can spot eagle rays and the odd reef shark, and turtles can be found almost anywhere. Barracuda, tarpon and jacks can also be encountered with regularity, and let’s not forget the groupers, many of which seem “tame” or at least curious of divers. Fans of smaller things may also be rewarded with reef squid, octopus, seahorses, flamingo tongues, moray eels and cleaner shrimp, sometimes in the act of cleaning an eel or a grouper.
At Little Cayman, Zac would get his first opportunity to emulate a “real” diver. He would attend the dive briefing and be shown how to kit up, check air and so on. He would then enter the water with a crew member using a SASY (Supplied Air Snorkelling for Youth) setup which is a self contained regulator and tank, but for surface swimming only. With this equipment, a child can thus breathe through a regulator like a diver, check air and view the reefs from above, but without the snorkel filling with water. He enjoyed a superb encounter with a grouper and some yellow tailed snapper, helped by a liberal sprinkling of food by the crew.
It’s a great step towards becoming a diver. We watched Zac perfect his giant stride entry and laughed as he begged Captain Henri to “give me some weights”. On one of his SASY “dives”, he went with Sam on a “scooter” – a motorised torpedo like device that propels you through the water.
Between dives, parents and kids can do as little or as much as they like. Divers can use kayaks to go for a paddle, or go ashore. I took Zac over to land on Little Cayman for a spot of beach combing. Other times, he would hang out with Jonathan the chef, watch DVDs, or have a dip in the hot tub. The crew can also organise microscopes for studying water samples and teach sea life identification from guidebooks.
Next on the itinerary was Cayman Brac. We enjoyed a fine dive on the excellent “Keith Tibbetts” Russian Destroyer wreck that was purchased from Cuba (after lengthy negotiations which involved Aggressor Fleet President Wayne Hasson). It was deliberately sunk as an artificial reef and provides a boost to the local economy by creating a “diving landmark”. We had an option of a second dive on the wreck, but dragged ourselves away to do an island trip – visiting some caves known for its resident bat population (called the Bat Cave – yes, really), the island museum, and a stop off at the kids playground to feed the iguanas and see the “missing” part of the Keith Tibbetts wreck (the top of the tower) that would have been a hazard to boat traffic had it been left intact.
With Zac now fully signed up to the idea of dive liveaboards, we headed back to Little Cayman, to cover some different sites such as Great Wall, Nancy’s Cup of Tea and Randy’s Gazebo before making the crossing back to Grand Cayman.
As Little Cayman disappeared into the horizon, Amanda, Zac and myself all sat in the hot tub and toasted what an excellent week it had been. It’s always a “happy sad” emotion when finishing an enjoyable trip, and we certainly felt like we’d all had an unforgettable experience as a family.
Back at Grand Cayman, we had time for two more dives before heading into port to pack our gear, including the Cayman favourite Devils Grotto which is known for its resident group of tarpon and countless silversides in season. We then had an enjoyable farewell cocktail and nibbles party on board, and a chance to swap emails, take group photographs and generally wish everyone safe onward journeys.
After each trip, the crew post a trip report on the Aggressor website which Zac eagerly awaited, and to his delight they used an image of him at Stingray City to illustrate the week. The crew also film the activities of the week (underwater and above) and produce a trip DVD for anyone who’s interested. Our copy has been watched countless times by Zac since our return home and is a testimony to how much he learned and benefitted from the trip that was adventure, fun and education all rolled into one. He insists that any visitor to our house watches it!
At the outset, we were optimistic, yet slightly apprehensive about how this trip would go but if you want the answer to the question (Can you take kids on liveboards?), the answer is a resounding “yes”.
In fact, why can’t all liveaboards accept kids? We’d probably do it every time we went away.