Living in Grand Cayman

One place I really like in Grand Cayman is the east end.  Its a huge change of pace from the hustle and bustle of George Town ; its almost like being on a different island altogether! I personally enjoy driving the “east end loop” which consists of driving past the east end village, then towards Morritts, then to the Queens Highway and then back across the island via Frank Sound road. For those visiting Grand Cayman, its a lovely drive with some nice beaches and lots of photo opportunities.

This place really captures the essence of the  east end village.  As far as I now, its one of the only stores (except for the gas station) in the area.

The residents of the village got hit hard in Ivan in 2005. In 2009, they completed a sea wall to protect the road and homes that are close to the coast.  Now they have a 12ft (my estimate) wall that protects them from the surge.

When driving by, keep an eye out for the local Loch Ness monster. I honestly have no idea what this it, but sure looks like some sort of beast popping out of the water. My best guess is an old ship anchor. Anyone reading this blog know??

Just before getting to the village, there is a reminder of Ivan. This derelict house has (obviously …) never been  repaired since the hurricane.  This is the font of the house and the ocean is at the back.  Notice how the roof was “flipped” over.

At the back of the house, you can see that even the concrete slab was busted up by the force of the storm. Whats especially impressive is that we are probably 15-20ft above sea level here.

That being said, they are unfortunately forecasting a very active hurricane season. However, last year they had also predicted that and we had nothing.  So lets hope they are wrong once again.

… well, not really!

Water temperature last summer in the ocean was +-87 degrees. Very warm.   Now, in the middle of the winter, its +-80 degrees.  Most people who will read this blog post will scoff at what I just wrote. Well, I can tell its colder by how my fellow divers are adapting. Last week-end, I was the only diver on the boat without a wetsuit. When someone asked me how come I was not wearing one, I instantly answered “I’m a Canadian”. The person (who was an American) seemed satisfied with my answer. 🙂

On one of my recent dives, I dove with very experienced diver (and a great chap) called Kelly!  Of course he had a camera and took the following pictures. (Thanks)

Here is a large Moray eel we saw in a crevasse.   It was probably 4-5ft long. It was about only 12-18 inches away when he took this picture. I wisely stayed back a bit further.

This cute guy, also a Moray eel, but spotted this time, was about the size of a hot dog sausage.

During our dive, a school of Horseye Jacks swam above of for a long time. It was a very graceful show.  These fish are actually quite large, probably 16 inches long or so.

Near the end of our dive, we saw this: A lionfish.  Beautiful!  However, as I have discussed a few posts back, are an invasive species.  This is only the second one I have seen.  It was a large adult specimen.

No wetsuit!

Each time a hurricane, or even a tropical storm/depression comes close to Grand Cayman, all the residents prepare and brace for the worst.   However, those who live in South Sound near the water probably worry a bit more.  You see, the street is no more (my estimation) than 4ft above sea level, so any surge will spill sea water into homes and onto the street. For every storm we have seen since getting here, some homes were damaged and had water come in.

Now, this guy has it all figured out:

This house that is near completion is build about (again my estimate) about 10ft off the ground on concrete stilts. So barring some catastrophic storm,  this house should do just fine.

Another resident on South Church street who figured this out is the owner of the biggest house on Grand Cayman.  Notice the slope on the driveway. This house is perched up quite high compared to street level.

If you want to see some jaw dropping pictures inside and outside of this mansion, take a look here.  The owner, from what I have been told is a 30-something financier. I have also been told that he is a super nice guy and if you met him you would never know that he is uber-wealthy. Before you ask, the number 30M$ was once mentioned to me, but I have no way of knowing if this is true or now.  In any case, who cares, its a amazing house!

See the pictures here:

http://homesoftherich.net/2009/05/cayman-islands-mega-mansion.html

Couple of other random things …

I got this view of a cruise ship while on a dive boat.  Quite an impressive sight up close.

Plus, there were localized rain showers this week and today (of course, also one right after I washed my truck)

Here we see a very heavy rainfall over the ocean after passing George Town and South Sound. For some reason I am always fascinated how it can be raining in one area and bone dry somewhere else. These clouds seem to pass by only a small area and drop their loads.

Alright … i’m tired and going to take a nap like this guy on this sunny saturday afternoon 🙂

(I know long time no post. I travel a lot more now, so I will be posting somewhat less often …)

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Grand Cayman this morning. I only flew in this PM, so did not experience it.   However, people seems to have been quite shaken up.   With the terrible events in Haiti just recently, its not surprising.

From what I have been told and read, this in the only significant damage. Its a 20ft sinkhole n South Sound.

Looks bad, but damage could have been worse.

A few facts …

The Cayman trench is the second deepest place on earth, second to Challenge deep which is somewhere off Thailand.  There is a major fault line that run south of the island.  So its not really surprising that we are seeing seismic activity here. Lets just hope that that was the end of it for a while.  Also, I know that there is a very strict building code here. When you build a house or commercial building, there are inspectors during the whole process and the place needs to be good for hurricanes & quakes. I am sure that was a factor today and why there was not more damage.

Anyway, all is normal!  Diving this week-end 🙂

In the last week or so, there has been lots of wave action. On the open ocean, its called “oceanic swells”, those large waves that make boats bobble all over the place.

Today, I went diving on the east end with some friends of mine. Let me tell you that there were plenty of swells!

To get to our dive site, the boat cruises for about 20 minutes or so inside the reef protected area. At one point, near Morritts (for those of you that know the area), we exit the reef and into the open ocean!  Man-o-man, we encountered some pretty big waves. Here is a video of exiting the reef

Once our dives completed, we headed back to base.  We were in for a treat. I posted a while ago some pictures of guys kite surfing.  Those pictures were very small and you could only see the guys hundreds of feet away. Well, one guy who is obviously quite skilled in this actity gave us a free show.

Here is a picture of him!  See the video below … quite spectacular.

The video. Amazing! 🙂

Finally, back to base.   I took a picture of a pelican resting.  Why take a picture of this common maritime bird?  Well, I cant recall having ever seen one in Cayman before.  There are plenty in Florida and other Caribbean islands, but not in Cayman. I have no idea why. If I were to venture a guess, it would be something to do with the hurricanes we have had in the past 5 years.