Of the many dive sites that Grand Cayman Island has to offer, I think Black Rock Wall must be my favorite. If you ever get the chance to dive this amazing site, don’t hesitate. Looking back through my dive log, I find that, over the years, I have dived Black Rock four times: three night dives and one day dive. Those night dives were the most spectacular, but I’m quite a fan of night dives. I saw my first octopus during a night dive, and yes, it was a Black Rock dive. Got a couple of decent photos of two octopuses that night.

Black Rock is on the north side of Grand Cayman, halfway between the island’s center line and the eastern tip. The dive site starts at a depth of 25 feet, and then gradually drops to around 60 feet, where you dive to the top of the Cayman Islands wall. My one day dive at Black Rock was to 96 feet, over the edge of the wall. This dive started at 52 feet and we quickly descended over the cliff into the depths. My log entry doesn’t have much detail for this dive.

I usually take notes on my slate during each dive, trying to write down everything my different senses pick up on. I then transfer those notes to my logbook at the end of the dive, adding whatever little information my memory gives me. But I never find much to write about when I’m diving deeper than 80 feet. It seems to me that coral lives shallower than that. And the most exciting fish play in and around the coral. Granted, the big fish (like the larger species of sharks) apparently prefer the deeper regions, but I haven’t seen many of them. Maybe because I usually stay around 30 to 70 feet when diving. Deeper than that, the colors fade from me, and I don’t get too excited about softness.

The air in my tank doesn’t last as long either, and I have less time to take in the sights I’m underwater for in the first place. My maximum depth on night dives at Black Rock is 58 feet. All those cool critters that come out at night amaze me. Most of the time at night I feel like it’s just me and the marine life. Even though my dive buddy is only a few feet away, all that darkness outside my dive light beam isolates me from the rest of the world.

Some of the pictures I take on night dives are magnificent. The fish that walks away from you during a daytime dive lies asleep and motionless at night. It’s like they’re posing for your camera. On a normal dive I get maybe one or two decent fish shots. Most are blurred by motion as the subject flutters in the coral. On a night dive I am most successful and come out of the water with more than half of my shots in focus and successful additions to my personal photo album.

And those octopuses? I will always treasure my first experience with an octopus and the memory of it happening during a night dive at Black Rock.