Stingray City – Grand Cayman

Today was so much fun! We went on a dinghy ride around Grand Cayman’s North Sound to visit Stingray City and Starfish Point.

First up was Stingray City. We had been looking forward to this ever since we anchored in Governor’s Creek. Up until now, it had been too windy for us to make this trip. It requires a dinghy ride of a couple of miles across the exposed part of a very large bay. But today there was no wind so time to go!

Stingray City is a sandbar behind a couple of reefs. It’s shallow enough to stand up in, so great for going by dinghy, not with Spacegrazer. People come here to swim with, you’ve guessed it, stingrays!

A Fishy Tradition

Swimming with stingrays here has apparently been going on for some generations. Fishermen first hung out above this sandbar in their boats and cleaned their freshly caught fish before going back to land. They threw the fish scraps overboard and this attracted stingrays that came to feed.

Now this place is hardly a well kept secret. Boat loads of tourists come and go to have a moment with these impressive animals. So when we rocked up, we were not the only ones!

We were all a bit hesitant to jump out of the dinghy because as soon as we dropped our little anchor, stingrays circled the dinghy! They are big, sort of dark and mysterious-looking. And off course their sting can really make a person ill, and even be lethal (remember annoying Aussie Steve Irwin?).

When we finally plucked up the courage to go in, we were awestruck. The stingrays calmly swam to us and around us, circling our legs and gently gliding by. We giggled, stood frozen, swam, freaked out now and again, and generally had an amazing time!

Some of the tour guides did crazy things, like lifting the biggest ones out of the water for a stroke and a hug. One even licked the poisonous barb on the tail (and rinsed his mouth immediately).

Pass the Starfish, Please

Next up was Starfish Point. The sun was already low so we only had time for a quick visit. It was, well, underwhelming… We initially couldn’t find the starfish that this bay is famous for. They are supposed to be bright-coloured, red, and numerous. There were a couple of other boats already, so we headed over to see what other people were up to.

It turned out that there were three star fish present. They were being passed around between the various groups so we could all have a quick look. Careful to not lift them out of the water – this kills them -, we had a look and then clambered into the dinghy.

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