Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands, sitting in the NW Caribbean between Jamaica (280 km to the SE) and Cuba (260 km to the N). The island rises from the Cayman Trench — the deepest water in the Caribbean at 7,686 m — on a submerged limestone plateau, which means the shelf drops off steeply on all sides within a short distance from shore. On the west side, the reef shelf is wide enough to support North Sound, a large sheltered lagoon 25 km² in area, bounded on the seaward side by a barrier reef. Tidal range at Grand Cayman is 0.3–0.4 m mixed semidiurnal — firmly microtidal. The calm, glassy character of the west coast comes from the island's orientation: the NE trades push swell against the east and north coasts, leaving the west coast in the lee. George Town on the west coast is the capital and the tender landing for cruise ships; the barrier reef lying a few hundred metres offshore provides dive sites rated among the best in the Caribbean, including Stingray City in North Sound — a shallow sandbar where Atlantic southern stingrays (Hypanus americanus) have aggregated around the local fishing practice of cleaning catch at that spot for decades. Seven Mile Beach running north of George Town on the west coast is one of the Caribbean's best-known resort strips: protected, flat calm most of the year, white sand over a sandy bottom. Rum Point on the north side of North Sound offers mangrove-backed calm water and a completely different atmosphere from the west coast resort strip.