Dive Review of Pirates Point Resort in
Cayman Islands/Little Cayman

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Pirates Point Resort: "Pirates Point Resort after passing of Gladys Howard", Nov, 2015, by Susan, CA, US ( 1 report). Report 8645.
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	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Impact of the passing of founder Gladys Howard A sad event, but not unexpected. Her daughter Susan Howard and grand-daughter Antonia now own the resort. Susan was there and told us that she intends to keep the resort and continue its traditions, only better. She is planning to spend a considerable amount of time there for the foreseeable future. Gay Morse, who has had day to day management responsibility for the resort for years, told us she was happy with the outcome. Facilities Well maintained. Not luxurious, but good quality. Ed Morse continues to keep everything working well at the resort. Any problems we saw were dealt with quickly. The Yellow Rose III dive boat, a Newton 42 that can carry up to 18 divers, was in good shape. Nitrox is available, but at a whopping $14 per tank. Staff Lean and hard working. The dive masters also do the dinner service and cover the desk, which is a longstanding practice at Pirates Point. Susan Howard and Gay Morse were away most of the week to attend DEMA in Orlando, but the place continued to function smoothly. Dive master Michele Davis looks to be next in the chain of command. She has applied for a permanent residence permit, but it was still being processed. Dive master Bob Morse and chef Anthony Pizzarello will be leaving in the first half of 2016 under the “rollover” rule that requires foreigners to leave for a year when they have been in the Caymans for 7 years. Newcomer dive master Seth Ridewin looks to be fitting in well. He exudes a real sense of joy in diving and gets on well with others. Diving Jackson Wall and Bloody Bay Wall are still world class dive sites with abundant coral, plant-life and fish. We typically did our deep dive on Jackson Wall and then moved to Bloody Bay Wall for the second dive. Most of our dives were an hour plus. On most days there were 5 – 6 other boats in the Marine Park, but this was never an issue in terms of going where we wanted to. Pirates Point still does only 2 dives in the morning. It was a slow week on our boat, with only 5 -10 divers. On days when we had 10 divers there were 2 dive masters for each dive, so the dive group numbers were kept small. You can wander off on your own, but most folks stuck with the dive master until we returned to the shallows at the end of the dive. The Wednesday evening cull performed by the islands’ dive masters has been very effective. I only saw a couple of lionfish over the course of the week and saw lots of juvenile fish. The dive masters did a good job of finding the little critters. We saw lots of pipefish, elysia and sailfin blennies (my favorite). On the large side, there were a good number of groupers to be seen thanks to the Little Cayman prohibition of fishing in waters less than 80 feet, but no sharks to speak of. Clientele Pirates Point has been famous for its rabid, repeat customer base ever since it was opened 30 years ago. So it is not surprising that it was an older crowd. I would guess that the youngest diver in our group was in his 50s and the oldest was in her mid 70s. The dive masters are very accommodating for the needs of older divers on the boat, so long as they do not pose a safety threat to themselves or those around them. But there are limits, we did have some guests who were not allowed to dive. The place gets pretty quiet after dinner, but there were a few of us who regularly lasted until last call at 10pm. Sadly, without Gladys there is no Mexican train dominoes tournament after dinner. We will miss her.
Websites	Pirates Point Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Throughout the Caribbean and Central America, Red Sea, Indonesia
Closest Airport	Little Cayman	Getting There	book early, the connection between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman is often difficult to book
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	84-°F / 29-°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	75-100 Ft/ 23-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No deco, first dive maximum 100 feet, second dive maximum 60 feet, no limit on duration
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Standard dedicated dip tank and table area on the dive boat

Subscriber's Comments

By Hugh Huntzinger in NJ, US at Nov 20, 2015 21:05 EST

Ah, playing Mexican Train. You know you've made it when you get invited to play at the "adults" table ... and then get to hear Gladys fluently curse at you if you make the mistake of beating her! Going to miss her.

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Dive Review of Pirates Point Resort in Cayman Islands/Little Cayman

Pirates Point Resort: "Pirates Point Resort after passing of Gladys Howard", Nov, 2015,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Pirates Point Resort in
Cayman Islands/Little Cayman