A shallow north-coast reef on Cayman Brac, named among the island's sites that are well covered in corals and hold a wide diversity of marine life. The Department of Environment's public mooring here is pinned in 8 m inside a marine reserve, and the reef is worked as a snorkelling site as well as a dive, with a shore entry that divers and snorkellers share.
Where it is and how deep
19.7159° N, 79.8339° WPublished position for this site.
The dive
The stairs at the boat launch put you straight into the water, and the route is marked before you get wet: the telephone cables run west from the launch, and following them takes you out over the reef and back to the same exit. There are toilets at the entry point, and snorkellers use the same stairs, which tells you most of what you need to know about how shallow the ground is.
The reef itself sits high. The Cayman Islands Department of Environment records one public mooring on Radar Reef, a single pin in 8 m of water inside a marine reserve on the island's north coast, so a boat working the site is tied over roughly the same ground you swim out to from the launch. The reef is named with Cemetery Wall and Wilderness Wall among the island's dive sites that are well covered in corals and hold a wide diversity of marine life; nothing published describes this reef's own coral heads, cuts or residents, so they are left undescribed rather than borrowed from its neighbours.
Cayman Brac has eleven dive sites reachable from shore and this is one of them, with tanks and gear rented from the island's dive operation, which makes it a dive you can run on your own time rather than on a boat's schedule. It also appears on that operation's snorkelling list for the island, so expect to share the entry and the shallows.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime |
Season follows Cayman Brac: Seas are calmest Nov–May; Aug–Oct is hurricane season, when sites often move to whichever shore is in the lee.
Dive videos
Cayman Brac Radar Reef 1 · Steve Dobrowolski on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Radar Reef?+
Shallow. The Cayman Islands Department of Environment records a single public mooring on Radar Reef pinned in 8 m (25 ft) of water, on the island's north coast inside a marine reserve. No deeper figure for the site is published.
Can you dive Radar Reef from shore?+
Yes. Stairs at the boat launch give access for divers and snorkellers, and the reef is reached by following the telephone cables west from the launch. There are toilets at the entry point, and it is one of eleven Cayman Brac sites reachable from shore.
Sources
- Cayman Brac — Wikivoyage
- Cayman Brac — Wikipedia
- Public Mooring Coordinates (Cayman Brac 2023) — Cayman Islands Department of Environment
- Cayman Brac Dive Site Map — Cayman Brac Beach Resort
More dive sites in Cayman Brac
Reef
Two anchors grown into the reef at 24 and 27 m
Wall
Sand chutes to the wall, plus a small wreck on the sand
Reef
A large pillar coral standing over a 15 m reef floor
Reef
An inner reef cut by multiple swim-throughs
Reef
A sloping mini wall from 10 m down to sand at 16–20 m
A Soviet frigate broken in two on sand at 27 m
Reef
Coral fingers and sand channels, usually with some current
Reef
Hawksbill and green turtles along a mini wall from 9 m
Similar dives elsewhere
Reef, boulders, walls and pinnacles inside 12 m
Reef
Arnos Vale
Tobago · Trinidad and Tobago
An easy, shallow reef dive north of Plymouth with almost no current
Rows of beachrock slabs in 6 m, argued over since 1968
Reef
Blacks Point
Antigua · Antigua and Barbuda
A resident great barracuda patrolling coral-covered boulders