Access to many of the popular shore dives on Grand Cayman Island is controlled by various dive business. This is nice and convenient for most people since you can rent dive equipment on site, hire guides, etc. Unfortunately (like most places in the tropics that cater to vacation divers), they enforce diving with a buddy. To avoid being chased off their property with a broom, I looked for shore dives with public access. Dart Family Park fits that criteria, and the marine chart shows that the famous bottomless wall around the Cayman Islands might be reachable from shore here. I've never heard of anyone diving from shore here so I didn't know what to expect.
The shoreline was razor-sharp, jagged coral rock. You need boots and a wetsuit to get in the water here without cutting yourself up. I snorkeled out over the gently-sloping, flat-rock bottom towards the deeper area.
I eventually saw a steeper sloping reef covered with coral and sponges below me about 50' deep. I descended here. This area went down to flat sand about 70' deep. This was my favorite dive that I did on the island. The abundance and variety of the corals and sponges was impressive. This was the only dive where I saw a shark (a nurse shark off in the distance).
