Cayman Brac

The Brac is a small island with only a handful of dive boats on it, and that shapes the diving. Operators work a two-tank morning and a single afternoon dive from the cluster of resorts at the west end, tie to the permanent moorings rather than anchoring, since anchoring on coral is not allowed in Cayman waters, and pick the day's coast by wind direction. Shore diving is part of the routine here rather than a novelty: kit up at the roadside, walk in and swim out over the shallows, which makes unguided afternoon and night dives easy to arrange.

Every site sits on the same shelf of limestone. The shallow terrace is a broken landscape of coral ridges, sand cuts and short overhangs, and it ends at a lip where the face falls away into blue. Because the drop begins shallow on the north side, wall dives start almost straight off the mooring and run deep-first: a short pass along the face, then the rest of the dive back up on the terrace, which is also where nearly all the night diving happens. The frigate sits apart from that, out on sand rather than on the reef.

Successive hurricanes have worked the wreck over since it went down, and the hull has deteriorated enough that swim-throughs carry real caveats; plenty of dives simply circle the outside and finish shallow. The island suits divers who want quiet water and can make their own entertainment between dives, with empty moorings, unhurried surface intervals and a bluff full of caves, hiking trails and parrots to fill the gaps. When the channel is settled, some operators run the short crossing to Little Cayman for a day on Bloody Bay Wall.