Living in Grand Cayman

So August is here and I am unfortunately not making a post about Ernest Hemingway or some trip to Cuba, but of a looming storm.   From my memory, the last storm that actually threatened (or hit) Cayman was Paloma in 2008.  Since then, its either just been “lots of rain” or the storms have turned north heading mainly towards Bermuda or out to the Atlantic.

So here is what I am talking about.  As you can see, the computer models put it the center of the system close to Cayman sometime Monday afternoon or late in the day.

As of right now, everything is calm. People at the grocery seemed to be buying a bit more, but no panic or anything like that.  The general feeling seems to be that we will get something, but probably just a lot of rain or at worst a Category 1 hurricane.  From my now 5-years of experience with this type of weather, Cat 1 is sort of OK (but still no fun …) and anything above Cat 3 all bets are off.  The US National Hurricane Center forecasts, as of right now, at most a Cat 1.  Not taking any chances ; supplies are purchased and may go to my office if needed. Anyway, the next 24-36h should give us a much better idea of what will happen.

Stay tuned for more updates this week-end.

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Just recently with my dad we saw lot of great things. (see previous post)  I kept this visit as a separate post since it is something I had personally not seen and it is definitely worth a bit more detail.

In 2010, a local individual, Andreas Ugland (who apparently is a really nice fellow) opened up the Cayman Motor Museum.

The museum is located in West Bay, just past the Turtle farm in a dedicated building.  Here is the spot.  Nicely done in my opinion.

To be honest, I had seen a few pictures of the place, but did not really know what to expect.   I was delightfully surprised! This is what you see when you first enter the “room” where the cars are located.   Needless to say, for a small island like Cayman, the collection (and what you see below is only +-1/2 of it) is quite impressive.   There are many Ferrari’s (essentially all the red ones on the left and 1/2 of those in the right)

Here is one of the Ferrari’s.   Each car has an explanation as well as some history about the specific unit when relevant.  The fact sheet also gives the original price tag for that model.  Makes for interesting reading.

For those more into “old school” cars, there is a whole section of Rolls Royce and the likes.   I’m more into the Ferrari type rides, but I still found it very interesting.

If you are in Cayman and like cars, this place is definitely worth a stop.  We read pretty much every car information sheet and spent +-90 minutes in there.

Here is a link to their website:

http://www.caymanmotormuseum.com 

This fathers day, I had the immense pleasure of having my dad in Grand Cayman ; how cool is that?

So, your 72 year old dad is in town for a few days ; what to do?  All the great tourist things of course!  Here are some of the things we did and places we saw.

Thursday night is Pasta Night at the Grand Old House.  For 10CI, a massive plate of pasta with all the veggies and toppings you wish, cooked right in front of you.  Lots of fun.   Don’t forget to keep a few pieces of pasta to toss to the hungry tarpon fish!

Stingray City … duh!  How could a trip to Grand Cayman not include a visit to this place?  For those who have guests who have never (or not in a long time …) snorkeled, I recommend a trial run in a pool or shallow spot before the real thing on the snorkel stops of the tour.  At 72, don’t you think my old man looks in pretty good shape?  Over the week-end we not only snorkeled on the Stingray City tour but also at Rum Point and Eden Rock.

On the boat to Stingray City, note the sophisticated “Cruise control” on the boat! 🙂

Drive around the east end.  I always enjoy going east.  So pretty and peaceful.   Here we made a quick stop at the blowholes before making our way to Tukka for an excellent Sunday brunch.

Of course, no east end run is complete without continuing on to Rum Point.   Remember to look out of the MASSIVE barracuda under the pier.   This fellow has been around for as long as I remember.  He hangs out under the pier, +-1/2 out.  He is very large and scary looking (I estimate this fish to be around 3 1/2 – 4ft long) but I have never heard of any incidents.  This week-end I saw one snorkeler get within 3ft of this beast.  I must be chicken since I stayed at least 10ft away.

We also hit up the Turtle farm where we were lucky to see a turtle in training with two instructors.

All-in-all … great stuff to do with ones dad on Fathers day (long) week-end in Grand Cayman.

On May 28th, the Turtle farm released a 60 year old Turtle.   I made a post about it on June 2nd (see below).

Well, I am pleased to say that Sir Thomas Turtleton is alive and well and … swimming like mad!  In fact, as of just over a week back in the wild, this large fellow has swam and impressive 372km (+-230 miles for the non-metrically inclined) and is now off the coast of Nicaragua.  That  distance sure puts my Flowers Sea Swim to great shame!   Anyway, not bad at all for a turtle who spent 1/2 his life in captivity.

The best is that you can follow him online, since if you remember from my original post, he has a GPS tracker attached to his back.   Click on the link below to see where he is now:

http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?tag_id=112229&full=1&lang

On a similar note, someone made a cute video of the release.  In fact they made a “movie trailer” of the event.  This video will definitely put a smile on your face.

On Saturday was the 20th annual Flowers Sea Swim.    This year, 831 swimmers (registration was closed since it was limited to +- that number) and an additional 100 or so “walkers” joined in the fun.   The day was perfect ; sunny and hot.

Here is the start area on Seven Mile beach, 1h before race time.  This is directly in front on the Ritz-Carlton hotel. (The end of the race was at the Royal Palm)

Before the start of the race, I made my way to … the bathroom at the Ritz-Carlton.  Ill spare you the details.   Right outside of the door to the (luxurious) restrooms, this fellow was just chilling in the shade.   Of course I could not resist and petted him/her for a little while.   Although I assume this is a stray, the kitty sure chose a nice spot to hang out.

So the race started.  It must have been at least 35 degrees outside. A touch of wind and some …. arrrgh … current.  That made the race that much more difficult.   The start looked like this…. i’m somewhere out far from the shore, and near the back, getting out of the way of the fast swimmers. I may be a fast runner, but fast swimmer I aint!

In any case, we are off to the races.   The scenario for me during this 1-mile race is always (this is my 3rd Flowers Sew Swim) something along these lines:

– 1/4 mile in : What on earth did I get myself into???

– 1/2  mile :  The finish line does not seem to be getting any closer!!!!!  What gives????

– 3/4 mile : Enough already!  Drinking this much sea water can’t possibly be good for me.

– Finish : YAY.  Now for copious amounts of pizza and I am already looking forward to start all over next year. 🙂  (for the record, I ate 6 slices of pizza at the food stand where all swimmers are fed post-race)

So, what are the results you ask.

The winner, a guy from Australia, swam the 1-mile in 18 minutes and 39 seconds.  Yours truly, did it on a slightly longer time 🙂  53 minutes and 43 seconds.

Also, there was one world record attempt and it was successful.   Some guy from Italy swam the entire mile with handcuffs on his ankles and wrists. (!?!?!?!)  He essentially swam like a dolphin the whole way.  Do I need to specify that he came in dead last?  Here he is, having his cuffs removed.

Being the geek that I am, I swam with my GPS watch so I could see my path.  As you can see, I started out a few hundred feet out (most swimmers stay close to the shore) and then slowly made my way to shore where the finish was.  I am quite glad to be able to see this, since I have to be honest, I was expecting to see much more zig-zag in my swim line.  I’m not fast, but swim straight!

Next race is June 15th, 2013!  If you can be in Cayman at that time, I highly recommend it.  The time limit for the swim is 75 minutes and almost everyone finishes it.   The Flowers Sea Swim is the “richest” one of its kind.  100,000$ of prizes (most of them being random prizes that are donated … I won a gift certificate to a local store) and the actual entry money all goes to local charities.