Gratuity for boat captain/guide
 

My first trip to Grand Cayman will include some boat scuba diving, but I'm not familiar with tipping practices there. What is an appropriate tip for the boat captain and guide? Thanks in advance!

Tony:<BR><BR>Tipping is always appreciated there. A friend and I went on a 1/2 day scuba trip with 2 guides and tipped them each 20% of what the trip cost. So it was about $6 cayman for each of us. Nothing to crazy but surprisingly we where the only ones who tipped. And we where with a boat full of Americans from the east coast. I was shocked. <BR>We had alot of attention on the trip and one of the guides even spit in my mask for me to stop it from fogging up. If that doesnt call for a tip, I am not sure what does.

Seems to me that if he spit in your mask and then you wore it, it might have been better if he tipped you! No way! You are kidding, right?

I always give the boat captain $20 and ask him/her to split it among the crew. <BR><BR>

Mr. T<BR><BR>Apparently you have never been snorkeling before. In order for it not to fog up you must spit in your mask and wash it out. For some reason the spit keeps it from fogging up. Being the lady that I am I have never been able to get up a good wad of spit and the guy spit in my mask and washed it out for me. <BR>So I still think that was great customer service and well worth the money. <BR>Just wanted to clear that up for you

Even so, it's very unsanitary. What if the guy is sick with a cold, or worse yet, hepatitis.

I usually spit in my own mask, but it's true, it does keep it from fogging up. I doubt you'd catch anything unless you lick it :)<BR><BR>Liz

Anon: <BR>Its not like he had a glob of spit running down the mask into my nose (sorry that was gross). He spit in and dunked it in the water to rinse it out.He looked like a very clean Canadian to me. And I am alive to this day. <BR>My advice to you, if you are that afraid of catching something....DONT LET ANYONE SPIT IN YOUR MASK.

Thanks for the notes on tipping! By the way, I only spit in my own mask. Works great if you don't have defog handy.

I certainly do snorkle and dive but I also know that the eyes can be a site for easy infection and communicable diseases can be and are spread in saliva. I hope one does not count on the sea water to disinfect anything! In fact you shouldn't even count on the masks or snorkles being clean since maybe some operators do dip them in clorox bath maybe! Others are very careful of their equipment. There are many products, defoggers, availalbe for masks. But then, I ask my guests to only tip those who work on the boat. It is not necessary to tip the captain if he is the owner and his mate is his wife or partner who shares in the profits.

I find it hard to believe that Juli couldn't work up enough spit to just wet her mask. I would never ask a stranger to spit in my mask. Gross! There are plenty of defogs out there that work great. (sorry this doesn't have anything to do with the posted message.) We usually tip depending on the service - some boats are great in that they set up your gear for you and supply free drinks.

when we go snorkeling, we take along a tube of toothpaste and put just a little on the inside of the mask and then we rinse it out. That way we never have to worry about being out of "spit." Also, the mask now has a nice, fresh smell.

Tooth paste works great. I hear it is the abrasive effect of the paste that really cleans the mask and the cleaner the lens the less likely it is to fog. Every day before heading out I clean the glass of our masks inside and out with toothpaste. Once you've been in the water for a while your body temp drops so fogging is not a problem as long as mask is clean.