Living in Grand Cayman

We have what looks to be the first hurricane of 2011; currently named Tropical storm Irene.

The good news for us is that Irene will pass a few hundred miles north of the Cayman Islands and bring lots of rain to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic,  Haiti (they cant get a break …), Cuba, the Bahamas and possibly Florida.

That being said, the weather here right now is fabulous.   Blue skies, super warm and not too humid.  On my dive this morning, the water was 86 degrees ; no wet suit needed.

Invest 93 became Tropical Storm Harvey and is currently giving us a little bit of rain and giving Central America copious amounts of rain.  It passed a few hundred miles south of us.

Now invest 97 is taking aim at the Caribbean, but will likely turn north to my friends in Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas. However, it is still far out in the Atlantic and anything is possible.

There is a 3rd system, Invest 98 that just left the African coast.  That one will also need to be monitored, although initial computer models seem to all agree it will take a northern route.

After fizzing away in the Atlantic 2-days ago, this system has somehow reappeared out of oblivion!  Interesting.  The bad thing is that the course has not changed. 🙁

Seems like on a direct course for Jamaica & Cayman and most of the computer models seem to be in consensus.   It may not develop into a Hurricane, but at this stage its probably safe to say that we should expect lots of rain sometime in the next 3-days or so.

The US National Hurricane center gives it a 10% chance to develop into a tropical depression, but by looking at the satellite pictures below, my uneducated meteorological guess would put the odds higher than that.  What do you think?   The system is currently east of the lesser antillies, approaching St-Lucia and the likes.

Stay tuned!

Imagine the scene ; you are on Seven Mile beach, you have a tropical drink next to you, there is a slight breeze, the sky is perfectly blue and you have a great book to read!  NICE!

Well, I can make it even better!  Imagine if that book you are reading had helped a great cause. Wouldn’t that be great?

Here is a gem we have in Grand Cayman.  I have picked up many, many books in the last few years.  Its the Cayman Islands Humane Society (our local equivalent of the SPCA that takes care of and finds homes for stray dogs/cats)

They have a “book loft” on the second floor above where the animals are.  The place is packed with books and many of them are very recent.  I have picked up lots of business books as well as novels for the missus!  The collection of donated books (mostly locals who drop off books when they are done with them)  is impressive and chances are you will find some books from your favorite author.   The best thing however  is the cost.  Most book are 2, 3 or 4$ each.   So next time you vacation in Grand Cayman, don’t bring your books and pick some up for this worthy (and very close to my heart) cause.  You may even be able to save on baggage fees on the way here without any books in your luggage! 🙂

Below is what I picked up for 10$.  Impressive don’t you think?

This is the place you need to look for.  Somewhat tough to miss due to its blue color.

Here are some shots of inside.  This is just a fraction of what they have.  You could easily spend an hour (or even more) here looking at books.  Books are sorted by category and then by author for novels, so finding stuff you are interested in is quite easy.

Here is the spot on North Sound Road.  Its right next to A.L Thompson’s (our local Home Depot) and just south of the main roundabout in George Town and facing the Audi/VW dealer.  If you have even been to the East end from Seven Mile beach, there is a good chance you passed right in front of it.

Here is the link to their website with operating hours and other information.   They are open Tuesday-Friday 11-2 and Saturday 9-3.

http://www.caymanhumanesociety.com/donate_thrift.php

(Note: I made two other recent posts below)

Back to our regular scheduled Cayman hurricane news that so many of you crave! 🙂

The temperatures in Cayman have been super warm. On my last dive, I recorded water temperature of 84, which is desirable in a swimming pool, not the ocean.  The hotter the ocean, the more powerful storms we get.

Out in the Atlantic action is gearing up.  Here is today’s map from the NHC in Miami.  The two systems of note have just left Africa and are making their way west towards the Caribbean and USA.   Still a bit far for a clear forecast.

The one farthest to the right is the most “interesting” for us in Cayman.  The reason : its lower.  Typically, what I have seen in the time have been here is that if it starts out higher (like No. 1 just above it, closer to the Cap Verde Islands – the small dots off the African coast), they tend to curve north to the Bahamas, Bermuda or the US coast.

When they start off lower, then they have a better chance of entering the Caribbean basin and thats no good.  However, as you can see below, its still very far off and the computer models are nowhere near a consensus to its long term tracking.

For those of you who want some more technical information about these systems, Jeff Masters of Wunderground (where I took the above picture) has a great weather blog (he is a meteorologist …) It can be found here.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

Should be interesting in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.