Every size. Every colour. Everyone. When there is a full moon shimmering high above the Caribbean Sea, Cayman Brac is suddenly the place to be ... if you are a fish, or an adventurous night diver.

It is a coming out party. After sunset the nudibranchs slide out from the cracks in the reef. Cave dwelling octopi slither out into the night traffic to search for the first meal of the evening. The shy green moray eel that by day only exposes his head from the reef, oozes his slimy body out of his hole and in turn begins his search for dinner (which could easily be an octopus or two).

Everything and everyone is on the prowl. The hard coral is in full bloom. Shrimp with glowing red eyes swim slowly above the patch reef. Splashes are heard at the surface as a small reef shark moves among a school of bait fish.

For scuba divers looking to mingle with abundant sea life, night time is the right time to get wet. And the waters off the shores of Cayman Brac and Little Caymans have the right conditions and dive operations to make this the premier place in the Caribbean for dusk to dawn diving.

"Night diving isn't for everyone, but here on the Brac it is very popular," says Canadian divemaster Christine Roenspiess. "It is because of the great variety of night sites available. Wall, reef or wreck. It can be eerie, what with the flashing strobes, the lights from the boat and the empty ocean. You really don't know what you will run into!"

Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are known as the sister islands of Grand Cayman. The Brac is 90 miles from Grand Cayman and within sight of Little Cayman. With just 1,500 people living on this 12 mile long island, it is easy to understand why the tourist types promote the natural beauty and tranquillity of the place rather than the above-water entertainment.

Brac is such a small island and there isn't a whole hell of a lot to do­unless you like to dive, dive, dive! The Brac is blessed with unspoiled reefs teeming with underwater life just minutes from its two major hotels. Because there are no rivers flowing into the sea, water visibility is often 150+ feet and there are little or no currents at most diving sites.

Since the hotels are close to the western tip of the Brac, the boats have two coastlines­the North and the South­to seek out flat water conditions. The water temperature is very warm in the summer and mid 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter.

The Brac was an uninhabited island when it was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1503. Five hundred years later, it has hardly changed. The Brac Reef Beach Resort with its 40 rooms and the nearby 71 room Tiara Beach Resort are the principal hotels on the island. Both hotels have full service dive shops on the premises and Brac Aquatics services the rest of the island. Even if every dive tank is rented on the island there is never competition at the more than 30 buoyed dive sites.

The Brac is not that easy a place to get to, it requires a transfer in Grand Cayman with only a limited number of flights back and forth each day. As a result it is the dive-hard divers, the clubbers, the families and the self-sufficient tourists who hold the Brac and Little Cayman dear to their hearts.

Summer is the busiest time of year on the Brac. When Diver Magazine was staying at the Brac Reef Beach Resort there was a group of dive shop owners and instructors from New Jersey who almost completely booked the hotel. So well prepared was this group, they brought their own band along to provide after night dive entertainment!

We see some of North America's best divers, and we try to live up to their expectations," said Reef Divers store manager Liesel Van Der Touw, she and her husband Martin have been looking after the dive operation for the past two years. Prior to their arrival on the Brac the South African couple managed the Reef Divers Little Cayman dive business.

"We have two regularly scheduled night dives each week and they are extremely popular. We can outfit divers to make their own night dives from shore," continued Mrs. Van Der Touw. "We can also accommodate­with some advance warning­special night dive requests for groups and clubs."

Because of the relative isolation of the Brac, the dive shops are fully self sufficient. They pump Nitrox, they have full service photo services including overnight processing, full gear rentals and just recently rebreathers.

"We have four boats and everything that a diver needs. You really just have to remember your bathing suit," says Martin Van Der Touw. "However, batteries are always a problem, we have them on the Brac but they are expensive and hard to dispose of. We suggest that divers bring their own, rechargeable are the best. We also recommend divers bring hoods, to wear on night dives, it is good protection against any sea wasps that might be attracted to your lights!"

When it comes to night dives, Reef Divers tries to take their guests to sites that have been visited in the daylight so that they are familiar with the underwater topography. The sites are usually nearby.

A Typical Brac Night Dive

Suiting up on the wide stern deck of the 41 ft dive boat, we watch as the crew prepares the site. We are over top of the wreck of a recently sunk tug, close to Cayman Brac's north shore. A tank and regulator are dropped from the boat, set to hang at 15 feet. To make sure that divers can locate the rig underwater, three glowing cyalume sticks are dangled alongside. As the night divers receive a briefing from the captain, a powerful strobe light is attached to the anchor line and lowered into the water.

Although everyone on board had been at the site earlier in the day, the dive crew gives a quick talk on the site, using flashlights to illuminate the chalk board. Since there is both a reef and a wreck to explore, the dive teams can expect an uncrowded sea. The wreck lies in 50 ft of water and the reef slopes down gradually to about 90 feet. Everyone has computers and is expected to monitor their depth and time underwater.

Settling ever so gently on the bottom, photographer Jim Kozmik prepares to work. The conditions are ideal. There is no current and the visibility so clear that the stars and the moon back-light our underwater photography studio.

Since Diver Magazine hunts only with cameras, the three large lobsters that we find strutting in the sand under the iron deckwork survive to see another day. Feisty and only mildly concerned, the crustaceans back into the dark recesses of the man-made cavern. Photographer Kozmik doesn't have long to wait for his next model, a huge puffer fish with bovine eyes, stayed long enough to have its image captured on film.

As the other divers came down onto the sand flats attracted by the constant flash of Kozmik's strobe, the visibility begins to get muddy. Leaving the new arrivals we set out for a series of patch reef which separate the shipwreck from the wall.

Drifting over to a 20 ft tall coral head, it becomes self evident why night diving is for photographers. The night brings out plants and fishes you don't see during the day. And, since most night creatures as a rule are momentarily stunned and held transfixed by a strong light, getting them to stick around for a photograph is not that daunting a task.

The feeding polyps on the hard coral come out at night, making it appear that the hill is covered in a layer of grass. In among the corals, the shiny eyes of squirrel fish reflect back our light. The black urchin are out in full force, their spines bristling in the light of our flashlights.

The camera strobe startles a fist sized octopus out hunting for crabs along the base of the patch reef. Dropping down to his level, we watch as the colour of skin changes from gray to a rainbow blue. The octopus leads us out onto the flats and allows us to take a few more pictures before dropping into a hole in the sea floor.

Our Nitrox tanks run low so we head back towards the flashing strobe light and the boat. Near the anchor line, as we prepare to end the dive, we see an apparently rare sight­an orange ball anemone. This anemone with its long flowing orange coloured tentacles has some interesting movement and is best seen at night! Between Reef Divers and Dive Tiara it is possible to dive almost every night of the week. For divers who want to experience spectacular night diving off Little Cayman, there are numbers of outfits that regularly go out including Reef Divers Little Cayman operation. There are several flights daily between Brac and Little Cayman and since the Twin Otter never climbs above 500 feet during the five minute hop, diving off both islands in one day is do-able!