Most people think that there is only one Stingray City, the place where you can see and touch stingrays in about 3ft of water in the North Sound.  Well, you would be wrong! There are in fact two Stingray City’s.

The second one is also in the North Sound, maybe 1km (my estimate) from the one most people know and and many have visited. This second one is in 12ft of water, so is a dive and it is known as the “best 12ft dive in the world”!

The theme and story is the same ; many years ago, fishermen would clean their fish and stingrays congregated for a free meal. This one is in a bit deeper water just behind the reef.

So here we are – just one other boat which left not long after we arrived.  On our boat we were only 6 divers, so had the place literally all to ourselves.

Lets start off with an underwater selfie! 🙂 The water temperature was a “nice” 80 degrees. Some folks wore wetsuits, but this Canadian just went with bathing suit and t-shirt!

So here we are with the Stingrays.  Just like at the other Stingray City; all very mild and willing to be touched. Here is one coming to check me out. And of course is rewarded with some petting ; i’ll assume she liked it
I know this one is a female since the males are small (size of a small 10-12 inch pizza) – only the females grow to be large. 

 

Here my work colleague Alvin is spending some time with a lovely specimen and just like me filming and taking pictures.

Quite a few other fish are around for the fun.  The Dive Master is the only one allowed to feed them. They are not allowed to give them too much food – makes sense I guess.

There is not a whole lot to see around this sandy patch, but there were a few lovely coral heads to see.

Near the end of the dive I spotted this rather large lobster.  No lobster catching allowed while diving.

With my awesome underwater camera (a GoPro) I also shot a few nice video’s.  If you feel like seeing more of this experience, I have posted a few below. The first two are the experience with the Stingrays.

This one is an encounter with a rather large Moray eel!  Not super friendly, but always impressive to see.

This one is also the Moray eel – it did not like one of the other divers and went after him.  Thankfully it retreated before getting to him.  I sure got spooked as you will see.  After the incident you can hear me laughing underwater 🙂

And finally some of the surrounding scenery and the reef formations. Very pretty, colorful and full of fish.

I hope you enjoyed this post about diving in Cayman.  The experience was quite awesome and in very shallow water, so is accessible to even the most novice divers.