Living in Grand Cayman

When flying back to Cayman a few days ago,  I experienced something new : an aborted landing.  What happened was that just a few hundred meters from the runway, a massive rain started and obviously hampered visibility.   I had a window seat and the rain was hitting the wings quite violently.  It is rainy season right now, so this is not totally unexpected.  However, what always amazes me is that these isolated showers are generally small clusters of a massive amount of rain.   10 minutes and its all done … and we are all wet. So the pilot hit the gas and we went up, out of the weather and cruised around for a little while.

Of course I got some pictures of this event!  My trusty compact Canon camera is never far away. Georgetown is essentially engulfed in that small storm cell.

Now west of Grand Cayman and looking east ; beyond the cruise ship is town …  the ship is a few seconds away from getting very wet.

Now in the middle of Cayman (over the North Sound) looking east … we flew around for 10 minutes or so and are now ready to land from the opposite end of the runway ; storm is now out to sea and over that cruise ship.

Just yesterday, I had the opportunity to go boating with some people from the office.  On the way out via the North Sound, we spotted the mosquito plane coming up behind us.  It was very neat to get such a close up view of this plane while it was in the air.   Sorry for the shaky video, in my defense, I was on a speeding boat when this was was taken.

Now for our office meeting. It was at Starfish point, not far from Rum Point.  You can get here by car.  Great place for an afternoon drink … note the coolers, no one got dehydrated 

… and BBQ.  Our office had arranged for a local cook to come out and BBQ some Jerk chicken and pork as well as rice & beans and salad.   We has also invited some clients to join us. Awesome Friday afternoon.

Well, Irene decided to take a northern turn upon entering the Caribbean.  Good for Cayman, very bad for my friends in the Turks & Caicos Islands and in the Bahamas. As of writing,  Irene is a Category-2 storm and is forecasted to grow to a 3 and maybe even a 4, effectively becoming what is know as a “Major Hurricane” (a hurricane Category 3 or above).

I have been exchanging BBM’s (Blackberry messages) with friends in Turks (on the Island of Providenciales) and although the storm is not yet upon them (will be sometime tonight) winds are already very strong and howling.   Not looking great.  The Bahamas are in preparation mode and expect to feel it sometime on Wednesday and Thursday as the storm works its way north towards the US coastline. Note the red zones below ; they are all under “hurricane warning”, which means that impact is almost certain.

We have what looks to be the first hurricane of 2011; currently named Tropical storm Irene.

The good news for us is that Irene will pass a few hundred miles north of the Cayman Islands and bring lots of rain to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic,  Haiti (they cant get a break …), Cuba, the Bahamas and possibly Florida.

That being said, the weather here right now is fabulous.   Blue skies, super warm and not too humid.  On my dive this morning, the water was 86 degrees ; no wet suit needed.

Invest 93 became Tropical Storm Harvey and is currently giving us a little bit of rain and giving Central America copious amounts of rain.  It passed a few hundred miles south of us.

Now invest 97 is taking aim at the Caribbean, but will likely turn north to my friends in Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas. However, it is still far out in the Atlantic and anything is possible.

There is a 3rd system, Invest 98 that just left the African coast.  That one will also need to be monitored, although initial computer models seem to all agree it will take a northern route.

After fizzing away in the Atlantic 2-days ago, this system has somehow reappeared out of oblivion!  Interesting.  The bad thing is that the course has not changed.

Seems like on a direct course for Jamaica & Cayman and most of the computer models seem to be in consensus.   It may not develop into a Hurricane, but at this stage its probably safe to say that we should expect lots of rain sometime in the next 3-days or so.

The US National Hurricane center gives it a 10% chance to develop into a tropical depression, but by looking at the satellite pictures below, my uneducated meteorological guess would put the odds higher than that.  What do you think?   The system is currently east of the lesser antillies, approaching St-Lucia and the likes.

Stay tuned!