- The three Cayman Islands, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, are located in the western Caribbean about 150 miles south of Cuba.
- The islands are small and low lying. The total size of the three islands that comprise Grand Cayman is 100 square miles, which is about 1.5 times the size of Washington, D.C.
- The geography is mostly a rocky limestone base surrounded by coral reefs.
- This is a popular cruise ship port and the diving is world renowned.
- The Caymans are a British Overseas Territory and the official language is English, often with a Caymanian dialect. Jamaican patois is also spoken.
- The population is about 64,420 of which approximately 36,154 are Caymanian.
- The official currency is the Cayman Islands dollar KYD. For specifics see General Info.
- Time zone is (UTC-5). For specifics see General Info.
- The Islands have a wet season from May to October and a dry season that runs from November to April. See Weather below for more detail.
- Besides earthquakes, another major natural hazard is the tropical cyclones that form during the Atlantic hurricane season from July to November.
- The island uses the IALA-B (red right returning) buoyage system.
- Cars drive on the left side of the street, the same as in the United Kingdom.
- Marine supplies and provisions can be obtained here, at a price, and there is a boatyard suitable for yachts. See Yachting Essentials for more details.
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Re Civil Partnership law Cayman Islands, I have a copy of the relevant law, if you would like I can email as .pdf file.
Cayman Islands: Same Sex Civil Union is now approved in the Cayman Islands, I think the date was September 2020.
We recently sailed from Florida to Grand Cayman, where our boat stayed for the winter, while we flew back and forth for work. Recommend sailing east to west to catch prevailing currents and winds, (we had to do it the other way for family visit reasons and it was tough). We highly recommend Grand Cayman – especially Cayman Island Yacht Club for docking. It is about the safest place you can visit. You can anchor out however, I would agree it is weather dependent, and much of the water is environmentally protected. Best place to anchor is by Starfish Point. You can snorkel every day and see something new. I did write a blog with video – our Grand Cayman Cruising Guide. You can find it here. Hope it helps you. http://bluedotvoyages.com/cayman
Reported by Brian Simm, Sundeer 56 – 29 January, 2018
Grand Cayman Island is not a destination for sailors, unless you are a diver, but rather a stopping point on passage. We were en route from Cuba to Belize. The anchorages are very weather dependent. But once in, almost hurricane proof.
On arrival you should go to Georgetown on the west side. Port security, channels 16, 14, works efficiently 24 hours a day and will give you instructions. There are 5 free moorings 250m north of the port, large red buoys. If all are occupied then ask permission to anchor. Customs and immigration are at the main dock and will normally ask you to go alongside. In our case the port was busy and the harbour patrol boat collected us for check in without docking.
This anchorage is exposed to Northers and if blowing the only recourse is to go to South Sound where there is a landing dock used by cruise ships in poor weather.
The big attraction of Grand Cayman is the large but shallow North Sound entered through a poorly marked pass, position accurate on navionics. This pass is not usable in northers or in any weather above 20 knots or so. We came out in 22 easterly and had to punch through the swell, I would not enter in those conditions. We saw a minimum of 2.7 m in the pass on a 0.2m tide, dropping to 2.4 m close to the entrance to Governors creek.
Anchorages are free and in the sheltered mangrove creeks among the millionaires houses, mostly 2.5 to 3m. Governors creek is a large anchorage area near the Cayman island Yacht club, fuel etc. Further in it leads to Mitchell’s creek, also a large area of 3m or so. A more recent alternative is in the large commercial shopping village of Camana Bay, where new canals have been dug.
The pluses on Cayman are superb supermarkets: Duty free fuel, after checkout: and duty free booze from Tortuga in the customs building, delivered to you by the customs on leaving. Otherwise think of it as the most expensive island for living in the Caribbean.
We plan to visit the Islands on our small 30ft vessel where there is no holding tank installed and we simply do not have space to install one. I wrote emails to the port authority and the environmental department and both of the confirmed that their laws do NOT require every boat to have a holding tank, just that it is forbidden to discharge ANY waste water into the sea. So if you have no holding tank, but you are going to stay in a marina or always use the facilities ashore, you are good to go. You won’t be denied entry because you have no holding tank.
We are currently in Cayman, it’s a wonderful place to visit and a shame so few yachts stop here. I’d like to correct and update a few things we’ve learned here:
1. You can stay up to 6 months WITHOUT paying import duty on the yacht. You will initially get 30 days on clearing in, then you need to apply for an extension in writing to the main customs office by the airport. Email is acceptable but it would be best to phone the office via the number on the customs website and ask them who to email it to. When my extension hadn’t been issued by day 30 I went personally to the customs office. The correct office is the one upstairs with a separate entrance, not the main office downstairs. I explained that it was the last day and the staff were very helpful and I left with a letter granting the extension. The extension costs 100 cayman dollars per month.
2. Mitchells creek is a great, sheltered place to anchor in 2m, weed and mud but the anchor held well on second attempt. Anchor off the end of Lime Tree Bay road and there are some holes in the corner of the concrete wall there where you can lock your dinghy. Cost U Less big box supermarket is just over the road.
There are a line of free orange mooring buoys off georgetown, to the west of the main dock. If you ask “Port Security” on channel 16 they will usually permit you to stay on them as long as you like. Also free short term mooring buoys at all the dive sites.
The entrance to the stingray city sandbank is just East of Main Channel and marked by small white floats. Main channel itself is usually well buoyed but some buoys were missing at the start of our visit (now replaced).
Make sure to get the free PDF cruising guide from the freecruisingguides website and make use of the waypoints in it to navigate North Sound.
You can get parcels delivered duty free but its a hassle. After trying all the other customs officies I found that they need to be collected from the customs office in the port authority building, not the airport or the cruise terminal. A customs officer is supposed to accompany you and see the parcel going onto the boat but this requirement might be waived.
Cayman is a very friendly place to visit, probably the most developed and “first world” of the caribbean islands. It has a wide range of shops and well stocked supermarkets. AL Thompson is a huge superstore for DIY, hardware, paint etc. etc. and prices are pretty good compared to the chandleries.
Cayman does have good boatyards and chandleries but their prices are excessive and we chose not to use them.
My George Town Grand Cayman formalities experience: Directed by “George Town Port Security” to the free orange/blue stripe moorings for overnight, then to north ferry dock in hogsty bay for formalities. 30 day visit from Immigration. 3.5 hour Customs (drug) search. No health inspection. N.B. vessels staying longer than 30 days are subject to 12% import duty.
And a note for gun owners, they will inspect your boat with a drug and gun sniffing dog so you will have to declare your guns and they will take them and lock them up, even if you have safes on board. First time that has happened to me so far.
Caymans is not a duty free country. Of course, like many countries, you can get duty free parts for your boat but customs really doesn’t like to do that and they go out of their way to make it difficult for you, just like every other country.
Also, Harbour House Marina isn’t a marina, but a yard with tie ups alone a channel. The WIFI goes down every Saturday night and doesn’t come up until Monday morning. A good place to get repairs done though but if you use their shipping, the costs are very high and they use a 1.25 exchange rate if you use Visa to pay.
Check-in is easy but make sure you have some very good fenders as you will be asked to pull your boat up to a concrete dock where wakes are common.
Oh yeah, and everything closes down by 6pm and nothing is open on Sunday.
We approached Cayman Brac by night and tried to get in touch with the customs but we got no answer. Mr Raymond Scott that works as a Shipping Adviser did answer and helped us to do a safe approach. I wish all countries could have the same service! Makes life a lot easier and safer for us sailors! The Ship adviser also helped us out with contacting the customs and immigration so that we could clear in- Thank you for this service!
Daniel & Anna
Fuel. You can get discounted, tax free fuel after you get your departure papers. A substantial savings. However to get fuel at the Govt. dock is a disaster in the making. I would never do it again no matter what the savings.