The still waters are a robin's egg blue. A waiting scuba boat is pulled up on the soft ivory sand beach. Two children, tired from a morning of snorkeling, lazily build an apartment-sized sand castle. The ultimate family vacation. The perfect place to bury The Mouse.

Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are three little slips of desert land, set in the warm Caribbean Sea. Just 150 miles south of Cuba and 180 northwest of Jamaica, this British colony is a tranquility base for parents who want to include their children in their scuba dreams.

Grand Cayman is the centre of it all, the island is recognized as both a leading international financial centre and the world's most popular scuba destination. Although once considered the antithesis of "child friendly", this island of 25,000, is remaking itself and is now welcoming family travelers looking for a vacation alternative to Planet Hollywood, Universal Studios and Mickey Mouse.

I have been traveling to the Cayman Islands for two decades.  The pinnacle of Caribbean diving, for me down time is measured as that space between trips to the capital, Georgetown. Sometimes I venture out on my own, on other occasions, my wife, also a diver, has come with me. Up until this summer our 9 and 11 year old sons have stayed at home upset that we wouldn't just give up on scuba, open up our wallets and head out to Disneyland, Disney World or, heaven forbid, EuroDisney.

In the early days, the state of being laid back was defined by the Cayman Isle you were visiting. Grand Cayman was sleepy, Cayman Brac a snore. And Little Cayman? One had to constantly check for vital signs.

That was then. Now? The island has changed. Today the 5.6 mile long, Seven Mile Beach now rivals Florida's South Beach and France's Riviera as a magnet for the rich and the famous; you know the sun-seeking beautiful people. Diving still rules - there are more than 40 dive and water sports operations and a hyperbaric chamber-but some palm groves have been flattened to make room for 5-star hotels, movie theaters, mini-golf courses, fast food outlets and supermarkets.  

Old timers mourn the passing of Cayman of yesteryear, but for divers with kids, the islands now suddenly have appeal. Face it, for families, vacations aren't simple, or cheap. Safety. Child care. Affordable food. Acceptable lodgings. Children friendly attractions. North American style emergency health care. Education and Eco-tourism. These are just a few of the things to consider before the dive brochures are unfolded.

With no crime, begging or unemployment the Cayman Islands is a perfect destination for concerned parents. Believe it or not, compared to a family holiday at a theme park, the Cayman Islands turns out to be competitively priced.

So how does it work? How can children have a good time while the parents get to experience some of the best diving in the hemisphere? It wasn't all that difficult. We didn't stay in a fancy hotel with an active child care programme. Instead, to cut costs and to keep us together, we stayed in a two bedroom Seven Mile Beach condo. At the Christopher Columbus we were able to cook many of our meals, spread our junk all over the place and map out a campaign that would give our two sons a sound introduction to the Sea. Oh, and we did get our dives in! What follows is three ways that we, as a family, handled diving in the Cayman Islands.

#1 - Step Into The Deep - It Is A Gas

Nancy Romanica is a Saskatchewan Chinook that is blowing hot over the world's number one dive destination! For the past year and half the 45 year old has been operating an amazing Grand Cayman facility that caters to the next wave of divers-nitrox, mixed gases, rebreathers, scooters-most without the use of a boat. Her shop, Turtle Reef Divers is located northwest of Seven Mile Beach right beside the island's Turtle Farm.

Nancy Romanica has been a Cayman dive instructor for 10 years. She has established the shop and Dive Tech, an advanced dive training school, on a stretch of real estate that is one of the last frontiers of diving on Grand Cayman's famed North Shore. The reef starts just yards from the front of the Turtle Farm and her shop. Boats aren't needed because it is a short swim to the first wall and quick scooter ride to the big drop. Bored with underwater cliffs? There is also a network of caves and grottoes to explore and healthy coral beds that have escaped the ravages of man.

"We are well off the Seven Mile Beach, so we tend to appeal to the more mature and advanced diver," explained Nancy Romanica. "Want to dive to 300 feet and experience the abyss? If you have tri-mix certification, we can show you the most amazing deep water sponges you'll see anywhere in the world! We were the first to offer Nitrox and we have just introduced rebreathers to the island. Of course, we offer full training, be it scuba, nitrox, rebreathers and beyond."

There is a large gazebo at the water's edge and it was here that my children set up camp with a pile of books, games and goodies and watched as we climbed down into the water and began our dive. If they had wanted, they could have taken a tour of the nearby commercial turtle farm, or had lunch in the tasty Caribbean restaurant located on the second floor over the shop.

When you are diving with children in tow, shore diving does have its advantages. At Turtle Reef, there are no deadline worries, dive time is when you get there. If it has been a little while since you were last in the water, a quickie plunge right out front gives you the opportunity to leisurely get your gear in order without losing a dive. Stripped of all the delays that are inherent with boats, our first Nitrox shore dive kept us away from our children for only an hour. We started and ended our dive under their watchful eyes.

All they could see was our bubbles as we headed down a 60 foot mini-wall. Too bad they couldn't have followed us along the bottom, as it was they missed the big show. Hovering above a rolling bottom we explored a reef that was exploding with life. Schools of fish, large and small, streamed along the wall and in and out of a network of caverns and sand chute canyons. Our first penetration into the open maw of a cave ran us into a group of skittish tarpon. Glistening in the beam of our light the half dozen fishall of them close to our sizemanage to swim sideways, in formation, between us and the cave and out into sunlit reef flats.

Back on land we dropped our gear in the dunk tanks and then went upstairs to eat at the Cracked Conch by the Sea - a long standing Cayman restaurant that just recently moved from Georgetown to the second floor of the Dive Shop. Sitting on the balcony, dining on turtle steak and conch chowder we had a commanding view of the North Shore. In the distance we could see another cruise ship steaming into port.

My wife sat out the next two dives and went snorkeling in a protected cut with the children. I took an underwater scooter trip along the wall with Nancy Romanica. At dusk we made a third and last shore dive. It was a night of surprises, returning to the tarpon cave, we found it had a new tenant ... a sleek reef shark patrolled the perimeters of its enclosure!

There are enough shore dives around Turtle Reef to keep a diver busy for a week. However, limiting oneself to just the North Wall, doesn't do Grand Cayman justice. Boat diving is the only way to see the best sites off of the Seven Mile Beach.

#2 Flat Top Fun

First class scuba? That is when the dive boat comes right to you even when you are lounging on the beach watching your children digging for pirate's gold. Operators on the calm, protected Seven Mile Beach favour a Platform Boat to deliver comfortable no-stress diving. Shaped like a Navy flat bottom landing craft, the Cayman designed boat not only delivers a sturdy ride but can actually run itself up onto land to pick up and drop off passengers right from their hotel beach.

Red sails in the sunset, but, on Cayman Red Sail Sports heads out at dawn too. This international dive operation - they have divisions in Hawaii, Aruba, The Bahamas and Curaco - has made a name for itself by catering to a diver's every need.

The company has boats berthed at several docks around the island, limiting the number of dives lost to bad weather. Their wide, stable platform boats operate along Seven Mile Beach with scheduled pick-ups at the ultra posh Hyatt and Westin Casuarina Resorts.

Both hotels have impressive on-site children's programs. The Westin has a big airy tent pitched on the beach with an army of college aged American and British counselors who tirelessly chase after their happy charges. Always popular, often filled, the children's programs attract diving families like sand to sun block.

Looking around the Red Sail Sports platform boat I realized that almost everyone was our age.  Where my wife and I differed from the dozen other people was that we had brought our children on board with us rather than parking them at the kid's village.

The well maintained dive boat is a winner. There are tables set aside for camera gear, there are also rinse tanks, warm showers and a head.

We dove off Cemetery Reef, a spot where we had spent a day snorkeling with the children. We were at the deep end of the reef and on our escorted dive we puttered around at a depth of a 100 feet. It was tables only dive (computers not used) so we had but a scant 20 minutes to look around underwater. With 100 foot visibility, 82° temperatures and no current, the conditions were ideal for diving.

Our two boys stayed on the boat while we were underwater. The Australian captain told them his life story - since we were only gone for half an hour he had to give them an abridged version!

After the crew passed along a fruit tray and a round of drinks (chilled water), we set off for the next dive of the morning, Anchor Reef. This is where a 19th century anchor has fused itself into the living tongue and groove reef.

Our boys could have snorkeled at the shallow second dive site, but opted to stay dry. During the quick run back to the hotel they asked that we find some way of letting them get wet. We made arrangements for the four of us to visit Sting Ray City.

#3 Putting the Sting into a Kiss

The four man-sized stingrays swooped above the white sand bottom in tight formation, traveling at a leisurely pace. The rays spotted our two boys treading water in the warm sea and suddenly the fish found a purpose in life. The squadron switched into high gear, set their guidance systems on lick and targeted in on the unsuspecting snorkelers.

Underwater, holding my breath and attempting to photograph a moray eel that was grumpily hiding in a hole, I was not immediately targeted by the incoming creatures. Looking up I watched as each of my children in turn was enveloped by beings that were substantially bigger than they.

How would my offspring react to suddenly wearing a living stingray coat-would they scream and walk on water, or would they enjoy this rare encounter with the wild? Squeamish would best describe that first meeting. But, within seconds each child sensed that there was no danger and snapped out of that initial bout of rigor mortis! Who would think that stingrays are 'kinda' cuddly, radically 'cool' and definitely not a threat (although one lad did complain of a big "hickey" on his thigh, thanks to the stingray's incredible sucking power).

The boys patted the rays' soft white underbellies, looked them in their friendly eyes and waved at them as they moved on, looking for chopped squid, and other fishy handouts.

Welcome to Grand Cayman Island's North Sound Stingray City. This is a shallow stretch of the Caribbean Sea where tourism and nature meet face to face, and it happens on a clockwork daily basis.

For the past 50 years Cayman fishermen returning from the open seas have stopped their boats just inside the North Sound passage and cleaned their catches. Dasyatis americana-the southern stingray-has a pea sized brain, but, it didn't take them long to figure out that the noise of an approaching boat motor meant an incoming rain of fish heads, tails and everything icky in between. Stingrays, usually the shy sisters on the ocean floor, started visiting the cleaning station on a regular basis, and the Caribbean's last free lunch was born.

Flash forward to the 80's. Dive shops with boats moored in the North Sound, began stopping at Stingray City on their way out to visit the stunning North Wall. At first only the brave entered the water (Dasyatis americana comes equipped with two venomous stingers at the base of its tail), but, once the word got out that the rays didn't object to being fed, photographed and hand petted a new dive site was developed.  Since the water at Stingray City is, at most, 10 feet deep, snorkel boats began visiting the site too. Captains realized that by bringing along buckets of chopped squid and fish chunks they could guarantee their passengers a close encounter of the gentle giant kind.

There are now literally hundreds of stingrays (one foot to seven feet in length) that make a point of dining daily at Stingray City. Ever-hungry nurse sharks, moray eels and schools of famished yellow snappers now come to the table too. And, for every stingray waiting to be fed there is a snorkeler and diver in the water waiting to oblige.

We snorkeled with Captain Marvin's Watersports, Cayman's oldest native operated charter boat outfit. The company has a fleet of large fishing and diving boats. Our boat was a 53 foot deep sea cruiser and was equipped with a full head, an enclosed cabin and best of all for the kids, a user friendly dive platform. In addition to Stingray City we also made two other snorkel stops at patch reefs within the North Sound.

"More. More." That was the refrain we heard back on shore.  Grand Cayman lived up to the children's challenge.

Parents wishing to immerse their children, (pun intended) in the sea have an amazing number of other opportunities to do just that on Grand Cayman Island. At the Calico Jacks gift shop and bar along the famous Seven Mile beach there is a 50 year old shipwreck (the Callie) and a small coral reef that children can actually walk/dive on using SNUBA (a surface supplied air system).  Operating almost on an hourly basis during the day, the Canadian built Atlantis Submarine takes 48 passengers and three crew members down to depths of 100 feet. On board you can check out a shipwreck, look for passing sharks and study the top of the dramatic Cayman Wall. For people with deep pockets there is Deep Sub, a two passenger submarine which, for about CD $400 each, will take you down to a depth of 1,000 feet into the Cayman Trench.

Concerned about sending your children down to the bottom? The Seaworld Explorer is a submarine for people who don't like to be submerged. No, this is not an amusement park ride with cement fish and Hollywood lights. The Explorer is a semi-submarine-it is a boat that travels on the surface but has an air conditioned observatory five feet underwater that gives everyone a good view of reefs, scuba divers and shipwrecks.

Grand Cayman not only entertains, it also fosters in children a love and respect for life under the sea. But what about Cayman Brac, the larger of the two Sister Islands? Watch for Part 2 when DIVER Magazine looks at more Family Diving in the Cayman Islands.