ANOTHER CAYMAN TECH REPORT: So while I was on Grand Cayman, we rented these underwater scooters from the folks at DiveTech. I last did an electric-scooter dive in 2003, and the technology has come quite a ways. The newer ones are more reliable, have controllable speed (instead of relying on you pulsing them on-off) and — most importantly — can be ridden in a human-torpedo fashion rather than held onto by both hands; there’s a saddle on the front, and you straddle the scooter instead of having it drag you along. The human-torpedo approach is a lot better. You just steer by leaning your body where you want to go, and the electric-motor noise (a major issue last time I did this) is much reduced by virtue of much greater distance between the motor and your ears. The rental was a bit steep ($40/hour) but the scooter lets you go places that are kind of far to swim. I don’t think I’d buy one, but they’ve got their virtues, and the technology has improved a lot in just a few years.

Downside: When you go fast, the drag on the regulator in your mouth becomes noticeable. Also, while you can cover a lot of undersea ground while riding these, you don’t see nearly as much of any particular patch. Still, they’re nice, particularly at the Cobalt Coast area, where the Cayman Wall is a pretty long surface-swim from the dock.