cayman islands

in Diving, Review, Travel Posted by SaltyDogs

SeaLife Micro 2.0 Review – Leaky Housing & Malfunction

Underwater cameras provide an amazing service. They take pictures UNDER THE WATER! Underwater cameras that keep-on taking pictures under water provide an even MORE AMAZING service in my book. I wish that I could say that the SeaLife Micro 2.0 64GB camera is “MORE AMAZING” than other underwater cameras, but I can’t; can’t do that because the SeaLife camera broke and malfunctioned on us while scuba diving in the Cayman Islands. The real kick in the nuts here is that the SeaLife Micro 2.0 64GB underwater camera along with a SeaDragon 2500 light system, were Christmas presents for my son. Made me feel bad to have gifted such a POS camera to my kid. Maybe I should have spent more on his gift to get an underwater camera that actually works for more than about one hundred photos? -Yes, I should have done more research before spending around $1,000 USD on the camera and light combo.

Thank goodness we had our trusted GoPro cameras with us at the time or else, we would have been S.O.L. when it came to getting some cool underwater shots on the many scuba dives during our dive trip, like on the Kittiwake wreck for example. Stingray City for another example. Dive sites that are very special and cost a load of cash to get to when you consider the aggregate vacation price.

Check out these pictures of the leaky housing that caused the diving death of our SeaLife Micro 2.0 64GB underwater camera:

NOTE: The deepest depth the camera went to on our trip until its death the second day into our dive trip was about sixty five feet. -Not very deep!

Be VERY CAREFUL when it comes to buying underwater and dive cameras! I will be staying away from SeaLife cameras from now on or until I’m comfortable that they’re making a better product. SeaLife Micro 2.0 64GB FAIL.

saltydog@sd

Here’s how much the SeaLife Micro 2.0 64GB costs.

Condensation kills!

Are those water droplets INSIDE the camera housing?! YES, those are water droplets INSIDE the camera housing! Dammit!!!

in Diving, Travel Posted by SaltyDogs

Green Moray Eel signs modeling contract off Grand Cayman

When on a dive vacation, one needs to dive! In my family’s case, we need to dive A LOT! Both of my kids along with my lovely wife and myself enjoy the hell out of the whole dive experience. It’s a ton of fun to actually go diving but, it’s also exciting to think about and prepare for the next day’s/week’s/vacation’s dive. Kind of like SCUBA Christmas Eve, the night before every dive. I just love it and it makes me smile wide when my dive crew gets excited about the upcoming awesomeness as well. If you don’t yet dive or haven’t yet finished up your Open Water Certification, BY ALL MEANS, get your rump down to your local dive shop and sign up for or finish your dive classes. Or you can do like my family did, (except for my wife, she’s been Advanced Open Water certified for many years, even since before she met me – one of the reasons I married her, how cool to meet a chick that’s already dive certified right?!) get your Open Water dive certification in a warm water location! We did ours in Belize which took about three days total with book work, watching PADI learning videos and practical dive training. I’m not much of a cold weather guy, let alone a cold water guy so, the Belize option was absolutely perfect in so many ways for my sensitivities and needs! If you’ve ever wished you could just jump in the aquarium and swim around with all your new cool colorful fish friends, Scuba diving might just be your ticket to adventure.

The following pics were shot with a SeaLife Micro 2.0 camera and SeaDragon 2500 Light.

We went diving with Marie and Menno from DiveTech. -Great dive operator and people!

-saltydog@sd

Another great dive off the west coast of Grand Cayman! This green moray eel was modeling for our camera…

We took the pics but not the following video, great catch on the video guys! Check out what a Moray can do, he sets his chopsticks down and then goes to work…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqwD7D50YIM

in Diving, Travel Posted by SaltyDogs

Stingray City on Grand Cayman

Stingray City is a place in the sea where the stingrays gather to greet you… for lunch! No, you’re not the one that’s on the menu, these Southern Stingrays aren’t all Hannibal Lecter like that! Unlike the Tampa Bay Rays, these rays are mostly harmless; however, they do still have a barb on their tail that one needs to be cognizant of when handling these seemingly docile creatures. Where is this Stingray City where you can swim with and handle so many Southern Stingrays? -In the North Sound of Grand Cayman island of course. Everybody and their brother that’s ever been to the Cayman Islands or on any cruise to Grand Cayman, knows about this fun excursion to pet the rays, now you do too…

Next time you see the port of Georgetown, Grand Cayman on your cruise itinerary or you’re on the island for any other reason and want to get up and close with some puppy like sea life, ask a dive operator to take you over to Stingray City and enjoy! The rays are cute, kind of, at least the front part of them is, not the sharp barb thingy at the base of their tail though. I’ve heard some stories from Jamaican fishermen that have been stung in the foot by a ray and it’s supposedly no joke! Lots of pain and irritation involved. Make sure to do that ‘Stingray Shuffle‘ whenever you’re walking on the bottom of the sea and make sure to check out some of the following videos that were shot with a very inexpensive GoPro that I ordered on Black Friday on Amazon for $89 USD. ScubaDo’s brand new SeaLife Micro 2.0 that he got for Christmas, puked out on a dive just prior to this one. -More on that POS later.

The dive operator that we chose to take us on this fantastic one tank dive was DiveTech. They are our current favorite dive operator on the island. DiveTech offers all Scubapro rental gear and the staff are all friendly consummate professionals. An extra big thanks to Marie, Menno, Steve T., Tony, Drew, Glen and Jo!

-saltydog@sd

in Diving, Travel Posted by SaltyDogs

Living The Dream Divers on Grand Cayman

Do you have a dream to one day drop everything you’re doing at your real-life day job and move to some place tropical? How will you make money in paradise? How will you live??? Well, here’s a couple that’s figured out how to do just that. Gary and Liz Frost, are the owners of Living The Dream Divers. They moved away to the tropical delight of an island, Grand Cayman and setup a dive company! It seems like they’re Living The Dream to me!

Some members of our small Salty Dogs team decided to check out Grand Cayman over the holidays and while there, we hooked up with Living The Dream Divers on the west coast of Grand Cayman. There the water is mostly calm and clear and extremely enticing to any traveler from the cold climates that’s aching to jump in and go diving! The dives were a lot of fun and we would like to send out a thank you for all the memories, to our friends, Gary, Liz and especially to Scott Hartwell our dive guide, who is an outstanding human being and representative for Living The Dream Divers! Happy New Year, friends!

Look them up!

Living The Dream Divers, GRAND CAYMAN

[email protected]

Call us +1-345-526-3483

-saltydog

in Diving, Travel Posted by SaltyDogs

Guardian Of The Reef on Grand Cayman

Guardian Of The Reef is a bronze statue that was sunk in about 65 feet of water just off the coast and is easily accessible as a shore dive from Divetech’s front yard on Grand Cayman. In order to access the dive site from the shore, you have to start out in a man made ocean pool and then traverse a cut through the sea rocks out to the Caribbean Sea. It’s a lot of fun to do and my family and I can’t wait to do it again! Very very cool!

I’m in a hurry getting ready for a dive coming up in a couple of hours so, I’m being lazy and not including pics of the pool and cut that we used to enter the ocean on this shore dive. Will include that later for sure. Also, you’ll have to turn your head sideways in order to truly appreciate some of these pics. Sorry for the picture formatting laziness/lack of time. 😉

Viz wasn’t that great on this dive as the ocean was a bit choppy but, how fun! Check out the artist that made this statue, The Guardian of the Reef. More later!

-saltydog

in Diving, Travel Posted by SaltyDogs

Cayman Islands are calling to us! What do they have to say for themselves???

Do you like the feel when in the Cayman Islands? I do. I also like the jerk chicken and the super clear warm water and soft sand the islands there have to offer. Maybe I’ll gather up my lovely family and head south to the beautiful Caymans soon and escape the shitty Michigan cold? Yes, I think I will do that. Close your eyes and day dream with me a bit… can you smell the salty Caribbean Sea air as we sit at Calico Jack’s and order up half of the menu? I’m having the jerk chicken, fries, EXTRA EXTRA sauce pretty please. If the napkins taste as good as the fries and chicken there, I’ll also use those dry white starchy paper wafers as vehicles for that badass Jamaican jerk sauce goodness! If the meal doesn’t arrive quickly, I may just try out that napkin flavor fer certain. But, from thorough training and experience, I’ve learned to not rush things when in the Caribbean or while on vacation for that matter. It’s just not right to be in a hurry while on holiday and we should all remember that it’s not polite to be pushy either. Sometimes I forgot that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar and I can get a little in a tizzy when it comes to wanting to get food in front of me fast. So, therefore one can deduce, that it’s good training for me to go on vacation frequently in order to keep my manners tuned up and to remind myself that patience is indeed a virtue and to not be a rush-round asshole. So, I will wait quietly for my jerk chicken, fries and EXTRA EXTRA sauce to arrive at the table in front of me. Though if there isn’t any Caybrew beer there to help me in this training endeavor, all bets are off the table! C’mon Cayman Islands! Can’t wait to get back to ya again.

Scientific Weather Reading:

Current weather in Michigan is… Shitty cold and snow on the ground with a good chance of the same tomorrow.

Current weather in Georgetown, Grand Cayman is… Let’s find out and let’s do some scuba diving with the family while we’re at it!

I’ll be sure to report back.

-saltydog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cJODNxx9Ww

SeaLife Micro 2.0 Review – Leaky Housing & Malfunction

Green Moray Eel signs modeling contract off Grand Cayman

Stingray City on Grand Cayman

Living The Dream Divers on Grand Cayman

Guardian Of The Reef on Grand Cayman

Cayman Islands are calling to us! What do they have to say for themselves???

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