Living in Grand Cayman

I recently went for a dive to see a new neat underwater attraction … no, not the Kittiwake again!

I went with two of my regular dive buddies who had also not been to see this new thing.  The new “thing” is the Guardian of the Reef ; a statue which is in about 60ft of water a few hundred feet from shore in West Bay. This new statue is not unlike the mermaid at Sunset House in George Town that I discussed a few years ago.

Here is the plaque at the base of the statue which provides some details.

Ok, so here we are!  I love this picture.  I’m on the right.   The water color is great and it gives you an idea how big this fellow is. He is 13ft tall (17ft with the base) be exact and is made of bronze.

A cool black & white shot!  My friend has one of those “GoPro” cameras and it seems to do a great job.

Along the dive we saw this large lobster.  FYI, taking lobster while diving is illegal.  Hence, those of this species that live in >25ft of water are likely to live a long time and get very large.  Also note that contrary to lobster seen in stores in North America (which usually comes from Atlantic Canada or the Maine in the USA), these guys do not have the dangerous claws.

Finally, a green sea turtle stayed with us for a few minutes.

This was definitely a lovely dive!   Since it was a “shore dive” (aka no boat needed) where you normally only do one dive, it is not very time consuming and for someone who owns his own gear, the cost is quite low : +-8-10$ to rent the tank for air and that is it.

Here is an article in the local paper about this new diving attraction

http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2014/03/26/Dive-operator-prepares-to-sink-reef-statue/

I recently (finally …) had the opportunity to dive the USS Kittiwake.   The USS Kittiwake is a decommissioned US Naval ship that was sold to the Cayman Islands Government and sunk a few hundred feet off Seven Mile Beach to become an artificial reef and wreck dive.

The USS Kittiwake was commissioned in 1946 and decommissioned in 1994.  Although this ship was involved in all kinds of operations during its service, the most interesting fact about it for me is that it recovered the “black box”‘ of the Space Shuttle Challenger after the 1986 disaster.  Quite a historical boat we have here.  It’s also quite a big ship @ 251ft long.

Great day for a dive ; calm ocean

Here is the USS Kittiwake.  The first few pictures are from the surface while snorkeling around the boat.

The smoke stack ; remember this for later.

Wheel house

My favorite picture.  That is me swimming along side of the boat.  You can get a sense of how big it is.

The propeller & rudder.

At the wheel 🙂

From the inside of the smoke stack

I am not sure why it took so long for me to dive this site ; it was great! I loved the fact that you can go inside the ship and explore it.  There are many fish and all kinds of stuff to see. Just the history of this ship alone was enough to make me want to see it.  I would probably need another dive or so to be able to explore the whole thing. Highly recommended if you are diving in Cayman.

As I have often done in the past, I had to go to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands for a few days.  This time I stayed an extra day and went sailing with some friends.  What a great day it was.   The itinerary was to head out towards another of the BVI’s ; Jost Van Dyke.

Here is our Catamaran for the day ; the view is while I was snorkeling in the clear waters off Jost Van Dyke.

Awesome waters colors, just like in Cayman

This is where we did the snorkeling.  Nice & calm spot.

Next we made our way to “Sandy Pit” which for me was the highlight of the whole day.  Sandy pit is a tiny deserted island a few hundred yards off Jost Van Dyke.  As you will see it is absolutely picture perfect.

Here is is from the boat; quite a popular place as you can see.  What you see in the picture below is essentially 90% of the island ; the picture cuts off a small part on the right.

On the island … WOW!

So that was my sailing day in the BVI.  The other really neat thing about my trip was the flight to/from San Juan. Since American Airlines stopped service to many of the small islands from San Juan, I took a flight on “Cape Air”.

Cape Air provides air service to Tortola via San Juan on 10-seater Cessna’s.  A friend of mine had told me about a particularity of this air service and I made sure to use that information for my benefit : There is only one pilot, so if you ask and are quick enough, you can sit in front with the pilot, in the co-pilot seat 🙂

Here I am in the co-pilot seat just before takeoff.

Enjoying the view from the front seat

Sitting right next to the most important man on the plane … if anything happens to him, I have to fly.  Probably not a good idea!

Finally, here is a short video of takeoff from San Juan. Its such a different view from what i am used to sitting in a “normal” plane looking out the side and often over a wing.

As we all know, governments around the world are looking for new revenue sources.  The Cayman government is no different.   So recently the Business Approval Directorate finalized plans to allow us to have a new business thus generating new revenues, attracting new tourists and especially creating new local jobs.

So what is it: an exotic dancer bar and restaurant.   This will definitely add to the local “spiciness” of our entertainment week-ends and signals a new direction this country is taking.  I kind of like where its going!  I say spiciness since the place will be called appropriately “The Spicy Turtle”.  Apparently some other names were denied.

The building was just completed. Below is its pre-opening look without the neon’s and searchlights.  It is just off Seven Mile beach and near the main “bypass highway” for easy access and of course quick getaways.  It was made as of a lovely pink/purple shade so that it attracts the eye entices people to come and check it out.

Anyway, so for locals and tourists alike, looking for some fun after the sun has gone down, Grand Cayman now has a new option.  The grand opening is this April Fools day.

Two week-ends ago I had the opportunity to run in the annual “Off the beaten track” run.

This is definitely an “odd ball” run.  It is a 50km (+31 miles) run. The race, as it is called, definitely goes off the beaten path and into parts unknown of Cayman.  The whole concept is based on a race in the Sahara (“Marathon des Sables”) which the organizers attempt to replicate with a local flavor.  Part of the race is ran on the beach I guess because of the link to the Sahara.

Ok, so the 50km race can be ran solo or in teams of 6.  I chose to run in a team ; 50km is way to much for me.  The race starts at 6am Sunday and I was lucky to get the 1st leg where the sun had not yet risen so its still not too hot.

Oh … I have not mentioned it yet.  Each leg (there are 6 @ +-8.3km per runner) is only somewhat marked and the runner needs to know where s/he is going.  It is quite easy to get lost. (I know of someone who ran a whole extra mile for nothing.  haha)  On my leg, there were 2 barbed wire fences to climb over, a field with cows (and cow pats …) as well as some muddy areas.  That being said, I went the day before and did my leg on a mountain bike so to be sure I was not one of those who would get lost.

Here are some pics I took the day before. As you will see, it is definitely not on a beaten path.

There was a small lake to go around at one point!

We then had to run +-1km along this fence.  There were numerous thorny bushes and cow pats which were almost strategically placed for the runners.

I saw this cute  fellow when I went to check out the path.  No sign of the cow at 6am though!

So here was my run on the GPS watch. It started at the bottom part near the ocean on Beach Bay Drive (that is close to Bodden Town)

Then it headed north and from where you see the “4” to just after the “6” that was all in the fields, dirt paths and barbed wire fences. Just after 8 is the hand-off to the next runner in my team.

After the race (the finish was at Tiki Beach on Seven Mile beach) we were all treated to a lovely breakfast for our efforts. Great place for a snack don’t you think?

Here is the medal we all got. Quite original ; kind of like a military dog tag.

And finally my team (one is missing in action)  Sorry Ruan!

How did we do? We came in a very respectable 21st out of 58 teams.  Good job team.

Definitely will do this race again next year.   Lots of fun.