Living in Grand Cayman

December is here and what does that mean?  First, a very quiet hurricane season is over which is great news. Second, its time for the Cayman Islands Marathon which is always the first Sunday of December.  Its been quite rainy recently so fingers were crossed that we not have any rain on the race day.  Thankfully we did not 🙂

At the race packet pickup on Saturday, the day before the race.  The whole process was done with military efficiency.  I was in & out in under 3-minutes.  The organizers have got this drill figured out.  So many volunteers also.

The countdown clock was prominently placed showing us how much time we had before the start of the race the next morning. Not much time left to get ready.

This is where we will all be at 5am the next morning for the start of the race.  The race organizers do the setup in the middle of the night which is quite impressive.  Pasta dinner (see next picture) was on the balcony at Breezes – where the “Pizza” sign is.

Of course the obligatory pasta loading meal the evening before. Had two of these 🙂

Here is the path we ran, a full 21.1km (over 13 miles).  On the way back, the massive humidity hit all of the runners.  For December, the very high humidity as we have in summer, is somewhat surprising.  There were unfortunately a lot of runners that dropped out and a few who were treated for dehydration.  It was definitely a tough race for everyone!  At the bottom of the picture is my pace as recorded by my GPS running watch.  Fairly constant and as expected slowly … getting slower as the race progressed.

So what happened?  I finished in a slightly slower time than last year for the Half-Marathon in 1h42 minutes. That placed me 28th overall for over 820 runners.  Considering the tough conditions i’m happy 🙂

On another note, the Christmas lights are out and plentiful.  This large property in South Sound has decorated all of the palm trees.  Makes for a lovely sight.

This other house is an absolute delight.  So many lights and things to see.  this one is defintely my favorite.  Anyone looking for this place, its along South Church St in South Sound – near Sunset House. If you are in the right place, “you can’t miss it” 🙂

So another half-marathon done.  A part from some more rain today, December weather is here (23 degrees this AM) which is nice. The need for aircon is not as high. I have even driven with windows open recently ; so nice.

Wow .. already in November and almost December.  For long time readers of this blog, that usually means a flurry of running posts.  This year is no different 🙂

The 10-10-10 race, which is a 10km x 3 runners relay is, as always, in the East End of Grand Cayman on the last week-end of October.  It’s also dubbed the “Halloween race”.  I have to admit I really like going to the East End.  In my opinion its often forgotten by tourists and locals alike.  So quiet and peaceful – lots of neat things to discover.  The race is in its 5th year and I am pleased to say that I have participated every year so far.  From a very small race, it has grown nicely and this it had record participation.  Bravo to the organizers.

So I got the last leg – which is also the hottest since the race starts at 6am and the last runner, depending on how fast his teammates are, starts to run only around 7:30-8am.

So here I am, running along the road with my “construction cone orange” shirt.  Good to be seen by motorists.  Gotta love running early in the morning, very few cars (even though there are two in the picture …) and seeing the ocean at the same time.

Here I am with my teammates after the run.  Once again with two other Canadians, Jesse and Dan who are both work colleagues.  The best thing about this race, after the fact that we finished 2nd Corporate team (out of 5) is that I beat both my teammates.  You see, yours truly had the hottest leg and is the oldest of the team – those guys are still in their 20’s and yours truly is above 40 now, so quite pleased 🙂

On my way back towards town I noticed this construction site at Bodden Town.  For those who know the area, it is not far from the Police Station.  Someone is building what looks to be a massive house.  Even though the trees hide part of it, note how wide it goes.  Ill make sure to post more pics of what may be an epic property in the next months.

Cayman Islands Marathon coming up soon ; really looking forward to it.  The temperatures in the morning have been dropping so should make for a great event once again.

About a year ago, I went fishing with guys in my team from the office.  This year, for our group activity, we decided to … go fishing again! YAY.  Last year we had a whale of a time (pun intended) so we decided we had to go again.

Brilliant day to be on the ocean.  Fairly calm and of course nice and sunny.

Here is what was used to catch the fish.  A large hook, some “decoration” and a sort of fish used at bait.  There are about 5 lines out in the water behind the moving boat.  Most are following behind I estimate at 400-500ft back ; so not too close to the boat.

We actually snagged a Marlin at one point … it jumped twice but got unhooked.  The Captain estimated that it was +-150lbs in size.  Would have been great to see it up close. Oh well, that’s fishing.

At one point we came upon a floating piece of foam with some netting.  Turns out it was the “home” of many, many fish.  There were numerous fish swimming around it.  It was its own ecosystem.  Quite amazing actually.  Anyway, with small fish come larger fish.  There were a whole bunch of “Triple Tails” hanging around.  We managed to get 3 of them.  They look like (see pictures below – the brownish colored fish) a cross between a Bass and a Crappie if you ask me.  Taste delicious!

Here i am reeling in one of the Triple Tails.

The catch so far.  A mix of Tuna, Triple Tail and Mahi Mahi.  Cool picture taken by the captain from the up top wheel house.

The total catch of the day.  Fairly successful I must say.

Last team picture after a full day (7am to just after 3pm) at sea.  Lots of fun. Once again we went with Slackem Charters (www.slackem.com).  A great bunch; we had lots of fun.  I highly recommend them for Deep sea fishing.

Last year our captain took us out of the North Sound and along the North Side and beyond East End (up and right)  This year we went West, all the way out to “12 Mile Banks”.  So 12-miles out, almost straight out from Seven Mile beach there is a another Cayman Island.  In fact another Cayman Island that did not make it to the surface millions of years ago when the islands were formed.  The ocean goes from 3000-6000 ft deep to just over 100ft deep. That place is now called 12-Mile banks and is a fishing favorite.  Not many boats around and plenty of fish.

Another successful day on the ocean.  Cant wait to go again, maybe next year 🙂

If you are in Cayman and want to do something really fun, cant go wrong with this type of activity.  You can also book 1/2 days.

I recently discovered a new and awesome snorkel site.  Its right in George Town and to boot is accessible from a great place to have a meal and/or drink on a hot day.

The snorkel spot is the “Wreck of the Cali”.  The story of this wreck is that the boat was not designed for the large diesel engine.  With the vibration, it sprang a leak and the water got to the 30,000 bags of rice, which “bloated” and essentially sank the boat in the 1940’s.   It now lays about 300ft from shore in very calm water which is +-30 feet deep.  Although there is generally little current and its an easy swim, i’d recommend that you don’t go there alone.  Its just a bit too far out if you get into any kind of trouble.   From Rackhams restaurant is probably the best place to go see it.  After a nice cold Caybrew, you swim out and can get to the wreck within 5-7 minutes of swimming.  There is a marker (a white buoy) so its quite easy to find.

The great thing about this snorkel is right close to the restaurant, there is tons to see if you dont feel like doing the short swim to the wreck.

Plenty of small colorful fish.

Here is a school of Blue Tangs – there must of been 100 or so of them.  Always one of my favorite sights.

Two colorful Angels. Also love to see these

A stingray passing by.  No touching though … this is not Stingray City.

And of course the Tarpons.  All around George Town harbor, there are many of these harmless, yet quite large fish.  Some of them easily 4ft long.  But they are harmless to humans and never get too close.

Ok now for the wreck.   I was initially expecting something rather small.  WRONG.  This was a very large ship as you shall see.  There is an enormous amount of wreckage to see; one could easily spend 15-20 minutes looking at the wreck and possibly not see all of it.  Its a bit scattered around, likely due to the hurricanes since the time of sinking. Of course plenty of fish swimming around to see also. I can imagine lots of divers would also enjoy this site to get a closer look.

I think this is the engine. Its difficult to get a sense of the size, but the length was probably 7-8 ft long – so not a small diesel engine.

Some other large engine part.

Here is a link detailing this wreck and the location (Note: the Google Maps location in that link shows the wreck closer to shore than it really is.) I recommend you ask at Rackhams restaurant for them to point out the location to you if you are not sure.  If you are looking for a different type of snorkel (aka not coral) and have some time one afternoon in George Town, this should be on your to-do list in Cayman.

http://www.dive365cayman.com/wreck-of-the-cali

Recently I had some friends on island ; they are former neighbors from Canada who I have stayed in touch with and read this blog! 🙂

They are staying in the East End, so I suggested that we spend a day together and go to Stingray City.

Before going to Stingray City, what kind of “Tour Guide” would I be if I did not show them Seven Mile Beach!  Here is Orline and his daughter Marina enjoying Cayman’s warm and crazy clear waters.

On our way out to Stingray City, I noted this house I had not seen before. I like it. Looks like it was built in the last 2 years or so which is pretty much the time since I last went to Stingray City.

Getting closer. Rum Point in the distance.

Almost there.  The colors today are out of this world.

And here come the stingrays. They are attracted by the noise of the engines.  That is there queue ; they know “new” people have arrived and that free food will soon be given out.

It was great to see my former neighbors.  I like to think that them reading my blog over the last years had something to do with them visiting.  Going to Stingray City was a bonus! Considering the rain we had recently (see last post) we were quite lucky.

I reckon its my +-10th visit and its always as much fun. Hope to see you again sometime Jana, Marina & Orline.  I hope you got to see/do all that you had planned for in Grand Cayman.  🙂