Living in Grand Cayman

A Tropical depression formed almost by magic just above Cayman yesterday evening and today dumped copious amounts of rain on the Islands.  There were areas of the island that were impracticable due to deep rain.

I am actually off island right now and in the (almost) direct path of where this system is now going : The Bahamas. I  am now expecting to see lots of rain sometime Wednesday and/or Thursday.

Pictures of the Bahamas coming soon!  Nice place.

Well, what to discuss in this post?  Oh, its been raining in Grand Cayman! 🙂

Seriously, its the end of summer and the peak of hurricane season, so I guess it’s expected.  The swimming pools are overflowing, cisterns are busting at the seams and people are sitting stuck in their cars.  Sometime it will rain so hard (imagine those scenes from Forrest Gump) that you are basically stuck in your car for 5-10 minutes.   Even with an umbrella its useless unless you want to be soaked.  Form me with leather shoes and a dress shirt that’s not an option so I sit tight and stay in the car.  But when its raining like that, you have to run the car A/C so not to suffocate.  Oops … my A/C is now shot and needs to be repaired.  Doh! Donations accepted.  Ah, the joys of life in the Caribbean.

Here is the week-end’s forcast ; TS Mathew is south of us and should bring us lots of rain.

Did you know that lobsters can grow back any limbs they lose?  I did not know.  There is a scientist here in Cayman, visiting from the USA and who plans to pull off the legs of 200 lobsters in the ocean to see if local species are infected with some bug.

Here is the story in the local paper.  Kinda freaky!

http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2010/09/23/Scientist-search-for-spiny-lobster-killer

I have received quite a few messages about that place with the underwater vents.  (see a few posts back)  The easiest way to find it is to cross the island at Frank Sound Rd then right when you get to the other side.  Then drive for a while and you will get to a very large house on the right (you will know it when you see it)  Then its about 1 mile after ; its the next entrance. Dont drive too fast you could miss it.

One last thing for visitors to our islands.  I recently updated the maps on a Garmin GPS and noted the with the North America maps, the Cayman Islands are now included ; Points of interest, road names and all.  I am sure that can be useful for first time visitors.

The Atlantic hurricane season peaks on Sept 10-11 ; its essentially 1/2 over, but it also means that now is the busiest time of the whole season

This graph says pretty much everything!

That’s the theory, but what about in practice?  Well, there are 3 active systems right now and one is heading right for Cayman.  The good news is that it looks like it will “only” be a tropical storm or something like that.  The forecast as it stands right now is for 4-8 inches of rain on Monday/Tuesday on both Cayman and Jamaica.

Here is what the system looks like right now.  Quick big!

That is all for now!  Stay tuned.  Looks big though. As you can see above, it stretches from Puerto Rico all the way to Aruba/Bonaire.  I think its a safe bet that we will get quite a downpour.