Cayman Brac
                      Brac Reef Resort
                      July 20-27 1996
                   by Carl L. Wilson, II
                clwilson@access.mountain.net
                          Part One
The Traveling Mountaineers chose Brac Reef Resort on the
island of Cayman Brac as the location of their annual trip.
Cayman Brac is named for the Brac (Scottish for cliff)
located on the end of the island.
                         The Resort
The Brac Reef Resort has just recently been remodeled and I
can attest to the quality and freshness of the rooms and the
resort in general.  The grounds and beaches were swept and
raked daily.
All the rooms but two have a balcony or porch if you are on
ground floor.  You guessed it!  I got a second floor room
with neither a balcony or porch!  The rooms have two double
beds, an air-conditioning/heating unit typical of most
motels, a nice large bath with a tub, color TV, and a clock
radio.  The rooms do not have a phone, which to me is a
PLUS.
Meals are taken in a dining room large enough to seat all
the guests of the resort.  All meals are served buffet style
meaning there is no waiting for the food.  Food quality in
general was good to excellent with only one major problem.
The cook/chef has a real fondness for vast quantities of
Garlic.
Breakfast included eggs, sausage, bacon, cereal, fruit and
other items.  Lunch was served on the patio and it was often
grilled hamburgers, fish or meat.  Supper was taken inside
and once again you had the choice of two or three meats and
plenty of vegetables.
All the meals offered salads or fruits and breads. Breakfast
was 7:30 -8:30 AM, lunch 12:30-1:30 PM, supper was served
6:30-7:30 PM.
                     The Dive Operation
The resort was previously associated with Brac Aquatic,
however last year the resort formed their own operation
called Reef Divers.  The Dive Operation is headed by Alan
(ZAM) Zamarok who previously set up the dive operation at
Riding Rock Inn on the Island of San Salavdor.
After checking in your room a visit the dive shop is in
order where a gear bag and weight belt are issued.  The dive
personnel then arrange for your gear to be on the boat you
are diving.
 At the end of the day you re-bag your gear and it is rinsed
and stored until the next diving day, the weight belts are
left on the boats.  The operation also has a drying room to
hang your diveskins or other wet things.
One thing about the gear bags did bother me a great deal.
You are asked not to put computers, masks, or anything that
can be broken in the bags.  The dive operation throws and
tosses the bags around and do not take responsibility for
anything.  Having a air-integrated computer and a
prescription lens mask, this necessitated me carrying my
regs, computer, & mask back and forth everyday. In other
words, the gear bag system was of no value to me.
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   SLMR 2.1a   Clay, WV---First National Opossum Refuge
                        Cayman Brac
                      Brac Reef Resort
                      July 20-27 1996
                   by Carl L. Wilson, II
                clwilson@access.mountain.net
                          Part Two
                           Diving
The week I was at Cayman Brac the visibility was 50-75 feet.
We dived a lot of nice reefs and saw a lot of small marine
life.  I did see one nurse shark about 3 meters long, a few
groupers in the 50-75 cm range, and a couple of Barracudas
over 1 meter.
We made a trip to Bloody Bay wall on little Cayman Island
about 10 miles away.  After the dives we had lunch at the
resort on Little Cayman which is a sister resort to Brac
Reef Resort.
After lunch the boat that brought us over left to assist one
of the other dive boats which suffered a mechanical failure.
We were not advised of this until later and thus could not
get our money, suntan lotions, or any other personal gear
from the boat we arrived on.
While on Little Cayman island we were not allowed to charge
anything, such as a drink at the bar, back to our room at
Brac Reef as we had been told we could.  Needless to say
this was a long, boring afternoon, which got longer.  About
one and a half hours after we were schedule to leave, we
finally left Little Cayman for Cayman Brac, in a small open
boat with no water or refreshments. The trip back to Cayman
Brac was a tiring and hot 75 minutes of bouncing over rough
water in the sun with nothing to drink or do except hunt for
non-existent shade.
The Brac Reef Divers like all other operations in the
Cayman Island group belong to the Cayman Watersport
Operators Association (CWOS) which sets the limits for
diving in the Cayman Islands.
               Diving limits are as follows:
1st dive 110 ft/50 min (computer)  100ft/50 min (tables)
2nd dive 60ft/50 min (computer) 50 ft/50 min (tables)
3rd dive 50ft/40 min )computer 40 ft/40 min (tables)
As one can imagine, the best you can do is one wall dive a
day.  If the wall starts deep at 70-80 feet, you can drop
over the edge, but that is it.
We did a lot of shallow diving and the dive guides
(particularly Zam) were very good at pointing out the
marine life.
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   SLMR 2.1a   Clay, WV----National Opossum Refuge
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