Living in Grand Cayman

Well … Hurricane season is certainly in full swing.  But the good news is that nothing has even come close to the Cayman Islands so far.

Currently there are 3 systems in the Caribbean and Atlantic.  I am sure there are more to come. Of the three below, none are planned to come near us.  In fact, of the three below, none are heading for landfall, which is even better.

For those “keeping score”, we have not had a close tropical storm/hurricane since 2008.  That is certainly a record of some sort?

Note the warm water colors above.  Red is obviously hot.  Today I went for a dive off Seven Mile Beach.  Water was 86 degrees (WOW!)  Needless to say not wet-suit needed.  However, warm water = bigger storms which is not good. The rest of the season, especially till the end of October we will have to stay on alert.

During our surface stop between the two dives, this large turtle swam around our boat for 10-12 minutes.  A lovely sight.

More posts soon 🙂

On my numerous travels, I recently had the opportunity to go back to a pretty cool place.  A place I have dubbed “Donkey Island”.  The real name of the place is Grand Turk, in the Turks and Caicos Islands. In fact, Grand Turk is the capital of Turks & Caicos even though it only has about 3,000 inhabitants and is only 18 sq.km (7 sq. miles) in size.  Some historians believe that Christopher Columbus’ first set foot on Grand Turk rather than one of the Bahama islands due to historical documents where he describes the island.

The reason I call it Donkey island is that there are many donkeys (and other livestock) that roam freely on the island. I have to say, its quite amusing.  🙂

So how does one get to Grand Turk?  Well, first you have to fly to the main tourist island (there is a Club Med, etc) of Providenciales.  From there, you take Air Turks & Caicos to Grand Turk.  On this flight I was “almost” the pilot.  The plane has no separation between passengers and the pilots.  Of course I chose to sit all the way in front, right behind the copilot.  As you can see in the picture, we are coming in for landing (note the runway just right of the center part of the windshield.  Neat flight experience.

Another cool historical fact about Grand Turk. John Glenn and the Mercury 7 spaceship landed in water just off Grand Turk in 1962.  Here is the road (which leads to the airport) bearing his name as well as a replica of the spaceship.

Now for the animals.  🙂  Most of the pictures were taken either on one of my morning jogs, outside my clients offices or at the airport.

This little guy was quite cute. Unfortunately, since they belong to no one, they are not socialized and will not let you get closer than 10-15ft.  I tried a few times with no luck. The donkeys, from my understanding, are here due to the former salt operations on the island.  There are many abandoned salt ponds on the island.  Until the early 60’s,  salt was a huge business here.  That fell a apart but the donkeys remained.  Today they are more of a tourist attraction that anything else.  I have to admit its like going back in time when I go to Grand Turk; it just makes me smile to see animals like that roaming around.  Quite charming actually!

I got the closest to this fellow.  He was very calm and almost trusting, but this is the closest I got.

Some horses.  Not as many as donkeys but quite a few nevertheless.

Cows! For some reason they seem to hang mostly in the area of the airport (white building in the background)

Two cows butting heads!

… and of course dogs.  At the hotel I stayed at there are 5-6 resident dogs who hang around and get petted by most of the guests. They seem to have a pretty good life.  Food, shelter, love from 100’s of people each year and living on the beach.  This is Savage. I go out of my way to see him each time I come to Grand Turk.  This is one of the most gentle dogs I have ever met.  I like to think he remembers me when i see him each year ; he does wag his tail.  Anyway, I remember him.

One of the abandoned salt ponds I saw on take off.

So there you have it : Grand Turk, aka Donkey Island.  I don’t know about you, but those donkeys sure are cute.  🙂 Unfortunately I did not have any time to go for a dive.  Apparently diving there is excellent.

This week there was a really interesting article in our local paper.  It turns out that during WWII there was some action in the Caribbean ; who knew!  As you saw from my post in France, the whole WWII thing is of great interest to me, mainly because of my family’s involvement in it (amongst other things my grandfather was a bomber pilot for the RAF)

So back to the local aspect.   It seems the the Germans sent Uboats (submarines) all the way to the Caribbean to patrol and sink merchant ships likely destined for the UK.  I honestly had no idea they came this far south.  So how is this relevant to Cayman?

Well just this week in downtown George Town, they installed a refurbished Uboat lookout post. You can see it here below.  When I went to check it out, there was a local TV crew making a report about it.  It is located at “Fort George”.  This hut, was perched up about that high and was manned with individuals on the looking for uboat periscopes off the coast.  My understanding is that none were ever seen directly off Grand Cayman.

Here is a bit more information.  Interesting stuff. I had no idea the US military ever had a presence in Cayman.

Here is the link to the article in the Caymanian Compass.

http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2013/07/24/Treetop-outpost-was-used-to-spy-U-boats/

I guess there is always new stuff to learn about, even in a place as small as the Cayman Islands 🙂

Note: I also made a post yesterday.  See below “Back to Spotts beach”.

Recently Julie & I  had the privilege of spending some time in France.  I had a business meeting so we decided to make a vacation of it. In fact, we got there a few days early and visited Paris.  After my business stuff, we then went for a road trip to the Atlantic coast. The main stops being near La Rochelle and then in Normandy.

Paris was fun, but for us not the best part. Of course we saw most of the “standard” tourist things in Paris and like millions before us had our picture taken in front of the Eiffel tower at the Trocadero.

After leaving Paris, we had a few things on the agenda.  Notably, visit some Chateau, visit some family and also see the D-day locations in Normandy.  Considering my family’s involvement and how they were impacted in WWII, it was very important for me to see the Normandy beaches.

First off, my odd ball stop of the trip.   A German Uboat pen in St-Nazaire.  This massive structure is 300 meters long by 130 wide.  The roof (which you can see on the below picture) is 30ft thick concrete to resist any bombs the allies to throw at it.   This thing is so big that apparently the city of St-Nazaire is just leaving it these since the cost of destroying it would be prohibitive. Anyone can just go in and walk around. Its a very austere and grim place, but fascinating nevertheless.

Another neat stop was the Mont St-Michel. After the visit of the island where the Monastery is located, I opted to go for a guided walk on the sands at low tide. Where I am standing in the picture, there would normally be +-3 meters (10ft) of water at high tide.   The tide is so fast, that you can see its progression with the naked eye, hence why you go for a guided tour and not on your own.  The Mont St-Michel has the highest tides in Europe.   (The highest in the world are at the Bay of Fundy in Canada – shame on me, I have never visited)

This is Juno beach, the beach where the brave Canadian troops landed in “Courseulles-sur-Mer” on that fateful day 69 years ago.   The Canadian visitor center is located just a few hundred feet away.  Julie & I really enjoyed the center. Once could easily spend a whole day ; there is so much to see.  The US visitor center at Omaha beach (+-30 minutes away) was also very nice.

Here is the USA cemetery.  Very serene and beautifully done.  The grass is perfect and not a long strand of grass to be see around the individual crosses ; our guess is that they are done by hand so to not damage them.

Here is John Steele!  He is the US paratrooper that landed (and got stuck) on top of the Church at Sainte-Mere-Eglise on D-day.  If you have see the movie “The longest day”, there is scene where they show how this happened.

Next, we went to see some really awesome Chateau in the Loire valley.  Here is Chateau Chenonceau, one of the most spectacular, considering its spans over a river.

Finally, here is the entire trip.  Starting in Paris, then down to the coast near La Rochelle.  Then up the coast all the way to Normandy.  After Normandy, back down to the “Vallée de la Loire” for some awesome Chateau and then back to Paris.  Total +-2,400km (+-1,500 miles).  Awesome trip 🙂

For the car guys who will likely ask if I don’t post a pic, here was the rental car.  Its a 2013 Peugeot 508.   It was a manual transmission (fun!) and for all the KM we did, cost under 200 euro (<260$) due to it being a diesel engine.  Brilliant.

Spotts beach is what I would call one of Grand Cayman’s hidden gems.  Its a rather small beach, but has some unique features to offer.  For those that are wondering, Spotts beach is on the southern coast of Grand Cayman, just before getting to Savannah.

Here is Spotts beach.  Of course, this amazing color is not the unique feature 🙂  But, I have to admit it makes for great pictures.   The dark patches are sea grass.

Today we had a strange long cloud formation over Cayman. This cloud spanned almost the entire island from what I could see from the beach.   No rain though and plenty hot!

Did I mention it was hot today?  It was really hot!  A trip to the beach for some snorkeling was a must.

Ok, so the unique feature at Spotts beach is unfortunately something I don’t have a picture of.  That sea grass I mention earlier : its a favorite of turtles!  90% of the time we snorkel here, we see at least one turtle eating away.  If we just float and watch they don’t seem to mind and will carry on with their lunch.  Its a lovely spectacle.   Also, its a great place for people who love to snorkel but who are not necessarily comfortable in the water or afraid of the deep (not our case though …).  The whole beach is protected by a reef +- 300 ft out.  Inside the reef water rarely is more than 8ft deep and many places you could stand up if needed.

To the east of the beach along the coast, some pretty big wave action can be seen.

On the other end of the beach, someone’s property and stairs go directly to the beach; how awesome is that?

Finally, we even had a plane come in fairly close for a look.  This United 737 was likely doing a “go around” after a missed landing or needed to go for a spin because of other traffic on our lone runway which is quite possible on a Saturday. Note how blue the sky was.

If you are in Cayman and have a car to go east, I definitely suggest a stop at Spotts beach.  If you want to see the turtles, swim out to the left of the pier (the pier is right at the middle of the beach) and go about 100ft past the pier.  Once there, swim around without making too much noise and odds are you will see at least one turtle. I once saw 8 in one outing.