Dive Review of Reef Divers/Cobalt Coast in
Cayman Islands/Grand Cayman

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Reef Divers/Cobalt Coast: "Reef Divers Valet Service not for Everyone", Aug, 2017, by David Bader, NC, US ( Sr. Contributor 21 reports with 6 Helpful votes). Report 9696 has 1 Helpful vote.
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
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was our third time to Cobalt Coast but the first time since Reef Divers took over the dive operation. The new hotel owners are doing a number of necessary renovations and improvements to the hotel grounds. Food was buffet style for breakfast and dinner and ala carte for lunch. Food was always very good with various choices of meats and fish. Staff was very friendly and accommodating. Rooms were clean with plenty of space to spread out. Newly renovated rooms have small refrigerators, coffee makers, and central A/C that cannot be adjusted other than hi/low and off. Reef Divers offers "valet service" which wasn't to my liking. Upon arriving, you're given a bag identifying which of the two boats you've been assigned. In that bag you place your BCD and regs for the crew to take to the boat and set up for you. They change them to new tanks during the surface interval. After diving is done, they take the gear onshore and hose it off with fresh water. the gear is left on the driveway to dry until you pick it up and store it in your assigned locker. While on the boat, you sit on the dive deck and the crew brings your tank to you. You are not allowed to gear up at your seat and walk to the back which slowed entry for the guided dives. This may be a benefit to newer divers but I care more about my gear and prefer to control it myself. Some of my issues: 1) My BCD's lower tank band was too low for the tank holders so they didn't push it down all the way. If I didn't catch it before entering the water, I had to remove my gear and reset it in the water. 2) I was generally the first in the water and would wait almost ten minutes before the guide finally entered to begin the dive. Given that tanks were only filled to 2800 PSI, that takes a big bite out of your dive time. 3) Gear was bagged after the second dive before I had the chance to remove my air integrated computer from the reg set. That risks a serious break issue if someone's bag is thrown on top of the screen. 4) After washing, the gear is left out in the open for anyone to walk up and take it. I prefer taking care of my own gear. Boats had a hose but no mask bucket or camera bucket and usually had 16 to 20 divers on any day. August is not the best time as far as weather goes. Wind and rough seas closed shore diving on several days. We were still able to do some dives on the North Wall but didn't see any sharks. I did my first dive on the USS Kittiwake but Reef Divers restricts penetration to the top three levels. This covers most of the wreck but the engines (while visable) are on the fourth level of the wreck. Surprisingly, we saw only a handful of turtles. I wonder if the Turtle Farm has become more commercial than a conservatory organization. I was glad to see few lionfish during our dives. They seem to be doing a good job of keeping the lionfish population in check. Congrats on that! Grand Cayman is always an enjoyable time and I'm sure I'll be back in the near future.
Websites	Reef Divers Cobalt Coast
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Various sites in the Caribbean Islands, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans
Closest Airport	GCM	Getting There	Direct flights available.
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	choppy, surge
Water Temp	84-85°F / 29-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	60-120 Ft/ 18-37 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	First dive 100 ft for 50 minutes or 500 PSI Second dive 60 ft for 60 minutes or 500 PSI
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Boat had one small table to accommodate 20 diver's cameras. No camera bucket on the boat and only a small blue bucket on shore.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Reef Divers/Cobalt Coast in Cayman Islands/Grand Cayman

Reef Divers/Cobalt Coast: "Reef Divers Valet Service not for Everyone", Aug, 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 Reef Divers/Cobalt Coast in
Cayman Islands/Grand Cayman