Living in Grand Cayman

Since I travel a lot, I have taken an interest in civil aviation.  It turns out that Grand Cayman (GCM is the airport code for airline buffs …) is a pretty good place to do some plane spotting.

The runway at our airport is very short by international standards ; its only 7000ft.  Normal runways are 10,000ft. If you have ever flown into Cayman, you will notice that the pilots “slam” on the brakes as soon as you touch down since at the end of the runway is the ocean! Its part of the Cayman experience when you visit our lovely island.

Also, the airport is right in town, so very convenient. If I fly out on the AA 1250 PM flight, I can have a decent morning of work at the office and leave at around 11:15 and be there at 11:20. Very practical.  I know some people that when they are expecting guests, they just check for the plane out of their office window approximately at the time it should arrive and once they see it on approach they hop in their car and go pick them up.

The runway is also very close to the road.  Here is a picture of an AA 737 aircraft leaving for Miami. This picture was taken along Crew road.

The rich guys also like our airport ; cant really blame them.  Here is a lovely Dassault Falcon 2000 that is registered to a Canadian petroleum firm.

This lovely Gulfstream-V is owned a by a corporation that is owned by Internet billionaire Mark Cuban. He apparently has a place in Grand Cayman. I like this guys style and choice of jet.

Now off to sunset house. An amazing place to go for a shore dive. The water is blue and inviting. But keeping with the theme of this post … see next picture.

Sunset is right on the approach to the airport. Great place to do some spotting while enjoying a fish & chips and a beer and why not a shore dive also 🙂

Last word .. that tropical system (see last post) just fizzed away and we had a  brilliant week-end.

Long time no post … sorry! 🙂

Last week I was in Las Vegas for a hacker conference.  Man-o-mas was it ever hot there.  The rental car I had recorded 102 degrees (39c) and that was late afternoon after the conference. During the day I was told it had hit 110 (43c) at one point.  Ouch … back in Cayman for cooler weather now.

One update: The Kittiwake boat from my previous post.  It has now been postponed till after hurricane season.  There was too much risk towing the boat which if a hurricane or tropical storm forms could send it adrift which is not great. So the sinking should now be sometime in the fall.  No official date yet.

and yes .. hurricane season is now in full swing! August and September usually are the busiest.  Three years ago we had Dean and two years ago we had Gustav in August. So far so good, but looks like a tropical depression will be passing close to us on Friday, dropping lots of rain.  Nothing to really be worried about at this point in time.

That is all for now.   Hopefully some diving this week and and more updates on those pesky storms.

Divers and snorkelers like myself are in for a treat! Those that will be traveling to the island at the end of July are in for an even bigger treat.

On July 27th, the USS Kittiwake will be sunk off Seven Mile Beach.  Here she is:

Ok, some explanations!

The USS Kittiwake is a retired 251ft long US navy ship (in service from 1964-1994) that was purchased by a Cayman Islands group.  This was over a year ago.  Since then, the boat has been cleaned, wiring removed, etc. It will be scuttled in about 60ft of water so to make an awesome scuba & snorkel site as well as being an artificial reef for all kinds of marine life.

If all goes to schedule, the boat will arrive in Cayman about 1-week before.  On the 26th there will even be a public viewing and visit at the dock. The 27th the boat will be sunk with some sort of explosives I would guess. Should be a good show for those on Seven Mile Beach.

Edit: Thanks to Lee, reader of my blog, “Sea water will be “piped” into the hull and it will eventually sink on its own” according to an article in the local paper that I obviously missed!  Thanks Lee. 🙂

Diving will start on the 29th! I will be off island so will miss all of this fun.  But, will dive this site for sure not too long after 🙂

More recent news … that potential storm I mentioned in my previous post … is just that, a potential storm.  Essentially lots of rain Thursday & Friday but most likely not much else.  Good news! It is however an early in the season to already be monitoring these things.

… and our first visitor of the year is : Invest 93!  Probably.   A tropical depression is a few hundred miles southeast of the Cayman Islands.  At a very minimum, heavy rains are expected on Thursday.  It may develop into a tropical storm.

The computer models of the different weather services are below. There is a consensus that it will pass in our neighborhood!

Its not really looking like a cyclone, so a hurricane is unlikely.

In case you are wondering why its called an “Invest” storm.  Here is the definition ; makes sense!

“An unnamed tropical weather pattern “to investigate” for development into a significant (named) system.”

On June 19th we had the 18th annual Flowers seas swim. Its a 1-mile swim along  7-mile beach. This event is rated amongst the best sea swims in the world and again this year there were a few Olympic gold medalists in attendance.

This year, the swim was from North to south. Last year we did the opposite. Organizers decide about 36h before in which direction we will swim according to currents/tide/etc.

The start was right in front of the former Coutyard Marriott and went all the way to the Ritz Carleton.

Being an “optimal” kind of guy, I do not swim near the beach since 70% of swimmers are within say 50ft of the shore. I am more along the lines of 200-300ft off shore.  By swimming so close to many other swimmers, a kick in the face is almost assured.  Also, notice the curve in the beach.  By starting a bit further out (and not following the beach), I swam in a straight line (as least I think I did …) to the Ritz.  🙂

Just before the start … just under 800 swimmers. I am somewhere at the far end.

And we are off!  The fastest did this mile swim in under 18 minutes! Amazing. I did it at a leisurely pace and finished 531st at 46 minutes.  I’m pleased I have completed it without incident once again.  1-Mile is a very long swim.

They had a camera crew in the helicopter. At one point, he was hovering only a few feet from the water.

I took  few shots of Seven Mile beach. Had actually not been here in a while. So pretty. Gotta come here more often.

Driving back home, the Royal Poinciana’s at the entrance to Savannah are in full bloom.  I love how these form an archway over the road.

Lastly, we may have a few storms in the next few days. There was a potential for a tropical depression, but it dispersed. However, lots of cloud and rain in the forecast.