Living in Grand Cayman

I recently (finally …) had the opportunity to dive the USS Kittiwake.   The USS Kittiwake is a decommissioned US Naval ship that was sold to the Cayman Islands Government and sunk a few hundred feet off Seven Mile Beach to become an artificial reef and wreck dive.

The USS Kittiwake was commissioned in 1946 and decommissioned in 1994.  Although this ship was involved in all kinds of operations during its service, the most interesting fact about it for me is that it recovered the “black box”‘ of the Space Shuttle Challenger after the 1986 disaster.  Quite a historical boat we have here.  It’s also quite a big ship @ 251ft long.

Great day for a dive ; calm ocean

Here is the USS Kittiwake.  The first few pictures are from the surface while snorkeling around the boat.

The smoke stack ; remember this for later.

Wheel house

My favorite picture.  That is me swimming along side of the boat.  You can get a sense of how big it is.

The propeller & rudder.

At the wheel 🙂

From the inside of the smoke stack

I am not sure why it took so long for me to dive this site ; it was great! I loved the fact that you can go inside the ship and explore it.  There are many fish and all kinds of stuff to see. Just the history of this ship alone was enough to make me want to see it.  I would probably need another dive or so to be able to explore the whole thing. Highly recommended if you are diving in Cayman.

As we all know, governments around the world are looking for new revenue sources.  The Cayman government is no different.   So recently the Business Approval Directorate finalized plans to allow us to have a new business thus generating new revenues, attracting new tourists and especially creating new local jobs.

So what is it: an exotic dancer bar and restaurant.   This will definitely add to the local “spiciness” of our entertainment week-ends and signals a new direction this country is taking.  I kind of like where its going!  I say spiciness since the place will be called appropriately “The Spicy Turtle”.  Apparently some other names were denied.

The building was just completed. Below is its pre-opening look without the neon’s and searchlights.  It is just off Seven Mile beach and near the main “bypass highway” for easy access and of course quick getaways.  It was made as of a lovely pink/purple shade so that it attracts the eye entices people to come and check it out.

Anyway, so for locals and tourists alike, looking for some fun after the sun has gone down, Grand Cayman now has a new option.  The grand opening is this April Fools day.

Two week-ends ago I had the opportunity to run in the annual “Off the beaten track” run.

This is definitely an “odd ball” run.  It is a 50km (+31 miles) run. The race, as it is called, definitely goes off the beaten path and into parts unknown of Cayman.  The whole concept is based on a race in the Sahara (“Marathon des Sables”) which the organizers attempt to replicate with a local flavor.  Part of the race is ran on the beach I guess because of the link to the Sahara.

Ok, so the 50km race can be ran solo or in teams of 6.  I chose to run in a team ; 50km is way to much for me.  The race starts at 6am Sunday and I was lucky to get the 1st leg where the sun had not yet risen so its still not too hot.

Oh … I have not mentioned it yet.  Each leg (there are 6 @ +-8.3km per runner) is only somewhat marked and the runner needs to know where s/he is going.  It is quite easy to get lost. (I know of someone who ran a whole extra mile for nothing.  haha)  On my leg, there were 2 barbed wire fences to climb over, a field with cows (and cow pats …) as well as some muddy areas.  That being said, I went the day before and did my leg on a mountain bike so to be sure I was not one of those who would get lost.

Here are some pics I took the day before. As you will see, it is definitely not on a beaten path.

There was a small lake to go around at one point!

We then had to run +-1km along this fence.  There were numerous thorny bushes and cow pats which were almost strategically placed for the runners.

I saw this cute  fellow when I went to check out the path.  No sign of the cow at 6am though!

So here was my run on the GPS watch. It started at the bottom part near the ocean on Beach Bay Drive (that is close to Bodden Town)

Then it headed north and from where you see the “4” to just after the “6” that was all in the fields, dirt paths and barbed wire fences. Just after 8 is the hand-off to the next runner in my team.

After the race (the finish was at Tiki Beach on Seven Mile beach) we were all treated to a lovely breakfast for our efforts. Great place for a snack don’t you think?

Here is the medal we all got. Quite original ; kind of like a military dog tag.

And finally my team (one is missing in action)  Sorry Ruan!

How did we do? We came in a very respectable 21st out of 58 teams.  Good job team.

Definitely will do this race again next year.   Lots of fun.

I have often mentioned Spotts Beach in past posts.  So here it is again 🙂

This time however, I brought an underwater camera.  I am really glad I had it with me, since I was in for a treat ; one that I hope you will also enjoy with the pictures below.

So here is this awesome (hidden) gem of Grand Cayman ; Spotts Beach. Not as majestic as Seven Mile Beach, but quiet and full of marine life as you will see.

So in the water I went, armed with that underwater camera.

It was not long before I started to spot a bunch of turtles. On this day I saw 6 different ones during my +-45 minute snorkel.  Note that water is never much deeper than 10ft (and sometimes less than 5) in this reef protected bay.

Here is what I assume a cute couple.

I managed to get some close up shots with this fellow.  S/he was not at all concerned by my presence. Note that for both of these shots I had to swim to the bottom to get level since it was having a sea grass lunch at the bottom.

Going up to the surface for a breath of air.  Note this one has a cleaner fish following it. You can see the tail of the cleaner fish at the bottom sticking out.

I also took a video of this one ; here you can also see the cleaner fish very well.

Here I managed to do a bit of an “artsy” picture with both myself and the turtle in the picture.  Not bad 🙂

Here is a selfie!  Also came out well.  These underwater cameras sure are a lot of fun!

This large Barracuda showed up all of a sudden very close to me. The picture is misleading, but it must have been 2.5-3ft long.  They are very “stealth” and indeed are known for showing up all of a sudden and are also quite curious.

Since this was already an awesome dive on a fabulous Cayman day, a stingray swam by me.  Of course, this is not Stingray City, so no touching!

Some brain coral with a few yellow fish

A lovely view from underwater and the sea grass.   The sea grass is what attracts all the turtles to this area.

And finally a view of Spotts Beach from a few hundred feet out.

That’s it!  I hope you enjoyed these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Grand Cayman has a cold spell!!!  Well, not really.  The infamous “polar vortex” that had most of the US in a deep freeze 10 days or so ago did not make it all the way to our sunny islands.

That being said, the last few days have brought stormy weather and temperatures in the low 20’s.   Sweaters and long pants have been seen around town.  Not for this Canadian though; mid to low 20’s are a heat wave for us, right?  This weather system has also brought lots of waves to our shores; many dive operations had to cancel boat trips and also unfortunately some cruise ships had to skip Grand Cayman all together.  So no diving for me this week-end.  We did go to the brunch at Tukka in the East End though!

Anyway, my good friend Sean, who is an up and coming photographer (OK, it’s his hobby …) took a series of pictures of this stormy weather.  I must say they are really nice.  So here is a selection of them.

I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

This last one is from another collection ; note the sunny skies.

It looks a lot like someone with their fist in the air, as if they just scored the winning touchdown or goal.  Kind of like the picture of Rocky Balboa 🙂

By mid-week we should be back to the high 20’s and more “normal” Cayman weather. That being said, i’ll take low 20’s over a polar vortex and minus temperatures any day!