Living in Grand Cayman

Late this afternoon we were treated to a great light show … lightning that is.   WOW.   Very loud and very bright.  More than any other place I have ever been, I find the storm systems we have in Cayman to be extremely powerful.  They pack a serious punch of “BOOM”.  If its close enough, its enough to scare lots of people.  Dogs also do not appreciate these.  I for one really enjoy this natural spectacle.  Do you?

This afternoons storm was particularly intense and I managed to get some pictures.

Here is one good zap!

The aftermath … an intense white flash that lit everything up.

and another zap.

The whole thing lasted about one hour and surprisingly very little rain.  The darkest parts of this system were south of us, so over the ocean.

Amazingly, this pics was taken just a hours before.  Nice and sunny!  Clear skies and calm sea.  I went diving this morning with two friends of mine near the Turtle farm; a place called by locals as “Macabuca” .   We even saw four turtles swimming around.  The water is still a very comfortable 85 degrees ; note no one is wearing a wet suit.

I think we can put today in the “awesome day” category. 🙂

One again this year, I ran the Halloween 10-10-10 relay race.  There is something about running in the East End, a place close to my heart that really pleases me.   Maybe its the great scenery, maybe the lack of cars on the road on a Sunday morning, it could the camaraderie of doing a relay race or maybe its simply that the runners that make it out east, at the crack of dawn on Sunday are all running enthusiasts who love the sport.   Whatever it is, this race is one I will definitely run every year!

In the first two years of this run, I did legs 2 and then 1.  This year I did the 3rd and what I think is the toughest leg.  The reason its the toughest is that the sun is up and you are running face to it and the wind usually is also in your face.  We had both of those this morning! 🙂  The good part about the 3rd leg is that its the last one and you do not have to wait around for your teammates to finish the race.  One interesting thing I noted is that there are a few slopes/hills in the road around the eastern part of the island .. who knew!  I thought it was perfectly flat.

Alright … here I am in action!  Thumbs up, so all is going well.  Probably 1/2 done here.  Legs seem kind of white, I need to get outside more.

After the finish with my teammates Gautam & Dan … two other Canadians.  Its no wonder why we called our team the “KPMG Canucks”. Great race guys … it was a pleasure to have you as teammates. Dan (guy on the right) ran the full Chicago Marathon just 2-weeks ago, so I am quite impressed that he is already back running races so soon after running 42km.

Thumbs up … we did not win any prizes but our team did very well in the overall standings.

So here is the path I ran. Starting at the bottom part and essentially running the entire eastern point of the island.  My two buddies ran the other part of the loop which started at the red marker and went towards the left, down the road the crosses the island and back along the coast towards the start/finish line.

Oh, although we did not win any competitive prizes, I did win one of the random prizes … 2-nights at The Reef Resort, which sponsors the race and where the start/finish line is.   Sweet!  A week-end with Julie sometime in the East End. 🙂

Here is the spot!

http://www.thereef.com/en/index.html

Well … Hurricane season is certainly in full swing.  But the good news is that nothing has even come close to the Cayman Islands so far.

Currently there are 3 systems in the Caribbean and Atlantic.  I am sure there are more to come. Of the three below, none are planned to come near us.  In fact, of the three below, none are heading for landfall, which is even better.

For those “keeping score”, we have not had a close tropical storm/hurricane since 2008.  That is certainly a record of some sort?

Note the warm water colors above.  Red is obviously hot.  Today I went for a dive off Seven Mile Beach.  Water was 86 degrees (WOW!)  Needless to say not wet-suit needed.  However, warm water = bigger storms which is not good. The rest of the season, especially till the end of October we will have to stay on alert.

During our surface stop between the two dives, this large turtle swam around our boat for 10-12 minutes.  A lovely sight.

More posts soon 🙂

This week there was a really interesting article in our local paper.  It turns out that during WWII there was some action in the Caribbean ; who knew!  As you saw from my post in France, the whole WWII thing is of great interest to me, mainly because of my family’s involvement in it (amongst other things my grandfather was a bomber pilot for the RAF)

So back to the local aspect.   It seems the the Germans sent Uboats (submarines) all the way to the Caribbean to patrol and sink merchant ships likely destined for the UK.  I honestly had no idea they came this far south.  So how is this relevant to Cayman?

Well just this week in downtown George Town, they installed a refurbished Uboat lookout post. You can see it here below.  When I went to check it out, there was a local TV crew making a report about it.  It is located at “Fort George”.  This hut, was perched up about that high and was manned with individuals on the looking for uboat periscopes off the coast.  My understanding is that none were ever seen directly off Grand Cayman.

Here is a bit more information.  Interesting stuff. I had no idea the US military ever had a presence in Cayman.

Here is the link to the article in the Caymanian Compass.

http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2013/07/24/Treetop-outpost-was-used-to-spy-U-boats/

I guess there is always new stuff to learn about, even in a place as small as the Cayman Islands 🙂

Spotts beach is what I would call one of Grand Cayman’s hidden gems.  Its a rather small beach, but has some unique features to offer.  For those that are wondering, Spotts beach is on the southern coast of Grand Cayman, just before getting to Savannah.

Here is Spotts beach.  Of course, this amazing color is not the unique feature 🙂  But, I have to admit it makes for great pictures.   The dark patches are sea grass.

Today we had a strange long cloud formation over Cayman. This cloud spanned almost the entire island from what I could see from the beach.   No rain though and plenty hot!

Did I mention it was hot today?  It was really hot!  A trip to the beach for some snorkeling was a must.

Ok, so the unique feature at Spotts beach is unfortunately something I don’t have a picture of.  That sea grass I mention earlier : its a favorite of turtles!  90% of the time we snorkel here, we see at least one turtle eating away.  If we just float and watch they don’t seem to mind and will carry on with their lunch.  Its a lovely spectacle.   Also, its a great place for people who love to snorkel but who are not necessarily comfortable in the water or afraid of the deep (not our case though …).  The whole beach is protected by a reef +- 300 ft out.  Inside the reef water rarely is more than 8ft deep and many places you could stand up if needed.

To the east of the beach along the coast, some pretty big wave action can be seen.

On the other end of the beach, someone’s property and stairs go directly to the beach; how awesome is that?

Finally, we even had a plane come in fairly close for a look.  This United 737 was likely doing a “go around” after a missed landing or needed to go for a spin because of other traffic on our lone runway which is quite possible on a Saturday. Note how blue the sky was.

If you are in Cayman and have a car to go east, I definitely suggest a stop at Spotts beach.  If you want to see the turtles, swim out to the left of the pier (the pier is right at the middle of the beach) and go about 100ft past the pier.  Once there, swim around without making too much noise and odds are you will see at least one turtle. I once saw 8 in one outing.