Living in Grand Cayman

Once again, end of October means Halloween and of  course the 10-10-10 relay race in the east end. What started as a very small race six years ago, is not a very popular event. Its the last “real” race before the marathon in early December, so it attracts a number of very strong runners.

It was a lovely Sunday morning to run ; as always, very few cars and quite sunny.

Here I am around East End village (the last leg) chugging along.

At the finish line with my teammates. Craig, left is from South Africa and Dan in the middle from Windsor, Canada.

We did quite well – finishing first in the corporate teams category!  yay 🙂

On my way back from the East End, I stopped at the East End lighthouse – had seen the sign a million times, but never stopped.

There are a number of informational plaques explaining the history of the lighthouse.  Today there is just an automated navigational light.  Anyway, an interesting historical (and short) stop if you are driving around the area.

Finally, in my 10-10-10 race report for 2015, I posted a picture of a big house being built in Bodden Town.  Its so big, that although the project is quite advanced, its still not complete. What a house it is! Its starting to look really nice.

The weather in Cayman is quite amazing right now – not too hot, fabulous evenings. Hope this stays the case for the weekend of the marathon. Hurricane season is almost over – another year with nothing.  Great! 🙂

PS: I recently changed Web hosting company. Please let me know if something is not working or if you notice something weird with this blog.  You can leave a comment or click on “email me” top right.

I got invited by a friend for a day out on a boat.  The ocean was calm and very few clouds, so all was in place for a fabulous day out in the North Sound.  The North Sound being the big “U” shaped bay that “eats” up 1/3 of  Grand Cayman.

Off we go! You may have guessed, my friend is from the USA!

First stop: Stingray City.  Here I got as chance to play with my new GoPro underwater camera.  I should have got one of these a long time ago ; they take amazing underwater pictures and videos. 

Lots of stingrays around.  We were lucky; there was only one other boat where we were there. 

Next stop, Starfish point to see the starfish.  There were so many of them; we must have see 100 of them.  Nice to see that the population is doing well, even though many tourists come to see them. 

One of the final stops was the barrier reef – as always, plenty of fish and colors.  Always spectacular. 

When coming back to the boat decided to do an “artsy” picture of the boat propeller! 🙂 

About 5h on the boat and having fun!  Good thing I brought a full bottle of sunscreen lotion ; I really needed it. 

The ocean was so calm, that I was told it is only like that 2-3x per year. I guess we got lucky. What an awesome day it was.

So, I get a “social budget” for my team each year to go do something fun.  Great idea, excellent for team bonding.  Two years ago, I checked with my guys and they wanted to go deep-sea fishing. Last year, I was told that we had to go deep-sea fishing again.  This year – guess what?  Fishing it was a 3rd time.  I see a pattern here! 🙂

Ok so here is our ride for the day!  We took a whole day expedition, starting at 7:30am and back around 3:30pm.

It was not too long before the fish started to bite!  Here is Marlon who looks like he is fighting a 2000lbs whale – at the end of it all it was a small Barracuda.  We got a good laugh out of it 🙂

Petri happy like a kid with candy after reeling in his first catch – a nice tuna!

Paul, our resident joker with two tuna’s! As you can see, we have a great time.   Amazingly, not a drop of alcohol was consumed on the boat.

Probably the biggest fish of the day – unfortunately a Barracuda. These just get tossed back as most people do not eat them.  It is possible to get VERY sick eating barracuda.   Apparently, if you give a piece of the Barracuda to ants and they eat it, you are good to go.  If not, no-g0.  Personally, I am not going to risk my health on the opinion of some ants!

Group shot – Marlon had to bolt to pick up his boy as soon as the boat got back.  Oh well!

… and the haul! A bunch of tuna’s and a “strawberry grouper”.  All very tasty.  I had some tuna sashimi that very night and the grouper the next day.

d

This was pretty much our path on this day – out from the North Sound, then West to 12-Mile Banks where we spent most of the day.  Then back towards Grand Cayman, but to outside of Seven-Mile Beach (maybe 1-mile offshore) and the back to base.

As for charter company, this year we went with Cayman Offshore Adventures.  Same captain as last year who now has his own company/boat. Great guy and lots of fun. Also highly recommended.

His website is:

http://www.caymanfishingcharters.com/

Over the years, I have seen the Atlantis Submarines numerous times in the George Town harbor.  But I had never been on one – until now! After many years in Cayman, I am running out of new activities, so was quite pleased to have this to try out.  As you will see below, I had a very nice time.

On this lovely Saturday, we had perfectly calm ocean and also no cruise ships in town – so its was mighty peaceful in George Town.

Before getting on the sub, which was “parked” off a few hundred feet off the shore near Sunset House, we had to take a +-10 minute boat ride to get here.  Here we can see the sub.  Its can seat 60 people and costs, as we were told 3.5M$US.  On this day we were only about 20 ; its still low tourist season in the Caribbean and as mentioned, no cruise ships in town.

Here we are inside.  It was surprisingly roomy and light inside.  Unless a person has severe claustrophobia, I don’t see it being a problem for most people.  There are many windows (sort of like an airplane but bigger) and it is air conditioned so nice and cool inside.  Since the sub was less than 1/2 full, we each had 2 seats.   So if there was something to see on the other side, we can “jump” over and take a look.

The view we had from the sub.  Of course, colors are distorted at depth, plus the pictures do not do justice ; it looks kind of dull on these pictures, but trust me it was not 🙂

Of course plenty of fish to see.  We got to see numerous reefs like this one, one turtle and a number of stingrays.

This is the maximum depth I saw.  We were told the sub can go much deeper, but for these tours they stick to +-100ft which is pretty much recreational scuba diving depths I am used to.  Also, the “wall” where there is a drop-off is at around 100ft which is where there is the most to see.

The bubbles when we were surfacing.  It took maybe 30 seconds to go from around 100ft to 0 – quite impressive.

At the end of the trip and on the way back to thee dock on a regular boat, we all got a dive certificate 🙂

So there you have it, a new local activity off the list for me. Since I am a diver, I was not really sure what to expect since I get to see the reefs like that from “outside” the confines of the sub.  That being said, it was a great way to see the underwater world ; in style, comfort and all while staying completely dry.

One of everyone’s favorite shore dive sites on Grand Cayman is Macabuca.  When I say shore dive, it means where you can simply jump in the water and start diving – no boat required.  Macabuca is a dive operation and restaurant in West Bay, close to the Turtle Farm.

Not long after getting into the water and once we were 60-70ft down, I was able to get this cool shot of a boat overhead.  It always amazes me how sound travels in water – it is loud and clear.  But its also very difficult, compared to outside of water, to locate where the sound comes from.

The highlight of the dive was no doubt the friendly turtle we encountered.  The lovely turtle swam slowly and gracefully with us for a few minutes.  Was not afraid of us at all.

Here you can see how close to us it was – great experience.  Such a lovely animal.

Some nice looking coral and formations.  The pictures do not do justice – they are much more colorful, less “green” than they look here.

Of course – a diving selfie is required!  This picture attests to the clarity of the water. I am +-70ft down here and you can see the surface, the sun, etc.  Of course this being Cayman, it was nice and sunny out.

So there you have it – great diving as usual in Grand Cayman.  There were lots of people out diving yesterday and lots of tourists and locals alike having lunch/drinks at the outdoor restaurant.  A great place for sure. 🙂