The Turtle Whisperer

This morning we headed up to West Bay to take Russ and Gail snorkeling at Cemetery Beach. The water close to shore was very murky but after we got about 50 yards out it really cleared up. As we headed out to the reef another green turtle swam under and around us the third we have seen in two days. Gail told us that they hear her calling them and want to come see her to say hello. Gail is popular with turtles since she raises their cousins back in Texas with her classes. From now on we are calling her the turtle whisperer. We found a new part of the reef out from cemetery beach that we hadn't seen with Stephanie and an area with literally hundreds of fish congregating around including a smooth trunk fish, a juvenile French Angel fish and what had to be 20 or 30 species with huge schools of their young. After an hour or so in the water we headed up to Hell so Russ and Gail could see the tourist trap. Tomorrow morning they are doing the sand bar trip to see the sting rays while we are at work and then tomorrow night we are doing Yoshi's sushi. Saturday is the Cayman movie experience with the old theatre and the Dark Knight.

Surprise Visitors

Yesterday evening Katie's parents Russ and Gail arrived for a two week vacation. Katie had no idea they were coming and even when we went out to the airport thought we were going to pick up someone coming down to the college. She found out as they were about to exit the plane and was very happy to have them down. We have snorkel trips planned all over the Island and with two weeks to do things want to hit all the highlights of Grand Cayman. This morning we got up early and went to Smith's Cove. The water was very choppy and murky so we only spent a few minutes before deciding to head over to Eden Rock where hopefully the visibility would be better. When we got in at Eden Rock the visibility was much better and we got a fantastic surprise, two young Green Turtles were hanging out near the entry point and we got to swim with them for a while. This was the first time since we have been down here that we saw green turtles in the wild while snorkeling and it was a great way to start Russ and Gail's first real snorkel of their vacation. We stayed out for about 45 minutes and the fish cooperated by swimming up to us and truly making it seem like we were swimming in a huge aquarium. We are working in the afternoons and evenings so they will be getting to rest during that time or we will drop them off at different places to explore on thier own. Should have a lot of updates with the fun things we get to do with them over the next two weeks.

Snorkeling the Wreck of the Gamma

Sunday afternoon we headed over to the far southern end of Seven Mile beach just above George Town harbor and snorkeled out to the Wreck of the Gamma. Unlike the Callie that we snorkeled with Stephanie and that is in the harbor about 20 feet below the surface, this wreck is right near the shore and is visible from the beach. It is perhaps 50 yards out from the beach and the top structure of the sunken freighter is visible above the water. This wreck can actually be snorkeled into as the top of the ship has been torn off so you swim over the side and into the ship then through it and out the other end. We should be getting our digital camera case later this week and will definitely head back and get some photos to post. We cant wait to get our underwater case and start to do the digital photos.

Invasion of the Crabs

The flooding over the past weekend has driven the crabs out of their holes and into yards, roadways and parking lots. Everywhere you look now you see the creatures scurrying about. No doubt they are waiting for all the water to absorb or evaporate so they can re dig their holes. For now you have to really watch where you walk and where you drive so as to not run them over. We have two different crabs hanging out in front of our house and just fascinating Ginger and Gypsy. We also have three feral cats hanging out under the car across the way that Dave and Kathleen our neighbors feed and those cats have been chasing the crabs all around the parking lot.

Island of a thousand lakes

The storm yesterday has moved on and now looks like it will hit south Texas Wednesday as a hurricane. It left Cayman with a lot of flooding and lakes in everyone's yards, streets and parking lots. Because most of the Island is at or just above sea level, there isn't much room for runoff and the rain tends to build up. The field across from ICCI is once again Lake ICCI and will probably take several weeks to dissipate. Driving to work today our small car had to navigate a completely washed over road to get out of our complex with water that was a good 3-4 inches deep. We need several days of no rain to let the accumulation soak into the ground or evaporate. With the height of rainy season still to come in August this was an early indicator of things to come.

Stormy Sunday

UPDATE AT 12:25 P.M.: The storm has now formed into Tropical Storm Dolly. It has moved to the west/southwest of Grand Cayman but we are still getting its remnants.

The Cayman Islands are getting hit this morning with the strongest storm since Hurricane Dean last August. As I look out our front window there are sheets of rain coming down sideways in our parking lot and just lashing the heck out of the cars. The tree's and bushes sway strongly every few moments as gusts of wind blow between the two buildings. The weather service says that the system hasn't formed into a tropical storm but that it is producing tropical storm force winds. It isn't quite like the sound of airplanes taking off that we experienced last year but it is still pretty spectacular watching what mother nature can do. We didn't put up our hurricane shutters so the cats have been sitting on the couch by the window and watching the storm. It should blow over by late today or early tomorrow and hopefully wont bring too much flooding to the low lying parts of Grand Cayman. As a precaution yesterday we bought the rest of our supplies for the Hurricane Kit and filled up one of our five gallon water containers with filtered drinkable water. If there is a surge they cut of the water for a while so we laid in a days supply of drinking water just in case. We do still need to get some containers for potable water and will probably do that this week. Everyone has been talking about how early the season started this year. Bertha which fortunately moved north and never entered the Caribbean is the earliest Cape Verde storm in 22 years and the longest lived July storm ever recorded. It looks like Bertha will make it all the way to Iceland and into the Arctic Ocean which is amazing when you consider it formed off the coast of Africa and crossed the Atlantic. It will literally affect weather systems in four continents (Africa, N. and S. America, Europe) and possibly five (Asia over the Arctic circle).

Some interesting fish we have seen

Here are a couple of photos from last week. If you click on them they can be viewed in full screen. On the left is a school of squid we found near Eden Rock. They had come in to eat and were being followed by several sergeant major fish. On the right is a spotted trunkfish we found out at Cemetery reef.

Storms and Flat Tires

As the week draws to a close and all of our guests have left the Island we got treated last night to a tremendous thunder and lightning storm. There are two different weather systems in the Caribbean that we are watching for any cyclone development and while they haven't formed any depressions as of yet they are lashing us with a lot of rain. This morning we also awoke to a flat tire. We have a had a slow leak for a while and on Wednesday had pumped up the tire again hoping it would last until next Monday when we planned to go over to a tire store. As usual the best laid plans always have something go wrong and this morning the tire went from a slow leak to a quick one. We pulled out the spare and discovered that the tire jack we have was completely rusted. Fortunately, one of our neighbors was pulling out at the same time and loaned us his jack. Our car is so small though that the jack wouldn't fit under the car so Scott had to lift up the car so our neighbor could put it underneath. Not sure if that speaks to Scott's strength or how small our car really is. With the spare on we went to work and then over lunch went and got our original tire fixed. We should be getting a lot more rain this weekend and are watching the National Hurricane website closely something we will have to do for the next two and a half months.

Stephanie headed home

Yesterday was Stephanie's last full day in the Island. We slept in a little to digest the great meal we had the night before at Grand Old House. The picture to the left is the three of us on the deck. This morning we took Stephanie back up to West Bay to snorkel at a new site we had never been to called lighthouse point. We were hoping to see some green turtles as the site was just down the road from the Turtle Farm and the place where they release turtles into the wild. However, there were none to be seen. We snorkeled out a hundred yards or so and came to a mini wall where there was a drop off of about 45 feet. We got to see jellyfish (Scott got stung) some new parrotfish and the wall was really fascinating. There was another drop off to three thousand feet further out but we weren't sure how much farther and didn't want to snorkel that far out without a flag. The afternoon was spent making banana bread and snicker doodles and basically resting. This morning Stephanie had a 7:40 a.m. flight and is now on her way back to the States. It has been a great 10 days and as much fun for us as we hope it was for her.

Snorkeling the Wreck of the Callie

This afternoon we snorkeled out to the Wreck of the Callie in George Town Harbor. The ship sank in 1944 and was later blown up by the British Army because it was a hazard to navigation.

It is about 100 yards off the shore just north of the harbor. We got some great photos and saw some new fish. Wreck snorkeling is a new experience for us and definitely something we want to do again. There are several wrecks around Grand Cayman and many of them can be snorkeled as well as dived. Tonight is our dinner out at Grand Old House. Scott's father is on Island to do some work at the college so both guest rooms are now in use at our house.

Para sailing on Seven Mile Beach

Yesterday Katie and Stephanie went para sailing on Seven Mile Beach. They caught a tender at West Bay public beach out to the boat. Once on the boat, they got hooked up to a harness and life vest and then sat down on the back deck of the boat. They were attached into the bar that hangs from the para sail and waited for the rope to be released. Stephanie had her camera attached to her wrist tightly to take pictures. As the rope was released they slid off the back of the boat and into the air. They got up a good 200 feet and were up for about 10 minutes. Stephanie took a bunch of pictures from the sky and both said they could see across the island to the north sound. Near the end Stephanie discovered why it isn't a good idea to eat Chinese takeout before going para sailing. The two deposits into the water meant that the ceremonial dip into the water at the end of the journey were to clean as well as celebrate the completion of the flight. Both thoroughly enjoyed the flight, none the less next time we will just have to plan better with lunch and some nausea medicine. This weekend is Stephanie's last on the island and we plan to snorkel a couple of the wreck sites and also the Northern tip of West Bay where there are some turtles.

Playing Tourist

We continue to get to play tourist this week showing Stephanie around the Island. Since we work nights the mornings are completely free to do things and we have been active the past two days. Yesterday we went back to Eden Rock for some more snorkeling. In the afternoon we worked while Stephanie stayed home and rested (we think we may be wearing her out). In the evening she came with us to the college and attended Katie's class. This morning Scott had a TV appearance on the Daybreak show at 7:00 a.m. in town and from there we headed up to Cemetery Beach at the northern end of Seven Mile Beach for some snorkeling. The fish there must be used to snorkelers feeding them because they swarmed us as we got to the rocks about 200 yards from shore and seemed almost angry when we didn't have food. We laughed saying that the fish were telling us "attention human servants we are ready to be fed". After an hour of snorkeling we headed further into West Bay and over to Hell. Stephanie got a bunch of post cards to send out from the Hell post office and we got those into the mail. We then headed back home stopping to pick up a DVD of our stingray city trip and also a book on fish so we can identify all the species we have seen. This afternoon we are taking Stephanie shopping in George Town during our dinner break to pic up t-shirts and other touristy stuff and to see all the neat shops in George Town that the cruise ship traffic frequents. We both realized that we have done more snorkeling in the five days she has been here then the rest of the year combined and its been a really great way for both of us to feel more connected to the Island and remind us what a beautiful place we live in. It is so true how much you miss when you are just working every day and not getting out to see everything. On Friday, Katie and Stephanie are going to try para-sailing so we should have some interesting things to tell this weekend.

Boatswain's and Sting Ray Sand Bar

One of the reasons we love to get guests is that we get to do all the things with them that make Cayman an incredible vacation spot. When you are working all week its hard to get out and do the vacation things but with Stephanie in town we are trying to hit them all. Last night we drove out to East End and stopped at the newly reopened Blow Hole site to watch the water come spurting up. We walked out to the Wreck of the Ten Sail monument and then had dinner at Portofino which overlooks the water and the wreck out on the reef. We ended the evening at the reef resort having Cayman coladas out on the beach.

This morning we got up early and headed up to West Bay. Boatswain's Beach which houses the Turtle Farm was having a free day in celebration of Constitution Day, normally it is 75 dollars for tourists to go in (only 10 dollars for us locals). Even with the locals discount we had never made it up there so today was a great day for our first visit. The turtle farm produces all of the giant green turtle meat used in the restaurants on Cayman. The giant green turtles are an endangered species so the farm produces most of the turtles for release into the wild and actually puts out more turtles than would otherwise survive. We saw the breeding pools for the turtles as well as the pools for each of the age groups. We got to pick up turtles and also swim with them later in the lagoon. There was also a pool with waterfalls and we walked the nature walk. Around 11:30 we had to leave for lunch and our sting ray snorkel tour.

We had lunch at Eats cafe which is a U.S. style diner with pictures of Marilyn Monroe on the wall and on the menus. After lunch we headed out on Captain Marvin's tour of the sandbar and snorkeling sites. The weather early in the day had been threatening but by the time our boat headed out the dark skies had moved away and the sun was even peeking out. We hit the sandbar first and got to feed the sting rays. They are so used to humans that they rub up against you and are very insistent on being fed the squid. Everyone got to kiss a stingray (which brings seven years good luck) and we got some great pictures. From there it was over to the Barrier Reef and then the Coral Gardens for snorkeling. We all had a great time and are exhausted. Stephanie has her digital camera and has already taken well over 1000 pictures in just three days.

We still have trips back to West Bay to visit Hell as well as lots of snorkeling tours planned for the rest of the week. Tonight is a dinner at the house and some DVD movies to rest up after a very active weekend.

Stephanie visiting

Katie's sister Stephanie is visiting this week for her graduation from high school present from us. She arrived on Friday and the last two days have seen us hit four different snorkeling sites, two movies (Wanted and Hancock), sushi, A la kabob and tonight a visit out to East End and the Portofino wreckview restaurant. We had planned to hit the sandbar today but overcast skies and rain caused us to reschedule for tomorrow. Also on the agenda for tomorrow is a visit out to Boatswain's Beach which includes the turtle farm and other attractions. Its free tomorrow since it is Constitution Day on the Island and they are doing a lot of Cayman heritage events. We will go to Boatswain's in the morning, the snorkel tour to the sandbar and the stingrays tomorrow afternoon then perhaps back to Boatswain's in the evening for the fireworks. We have things planned for every day this week while we are at work so that she gets the full Cayman experience before leaving next Monday.

Katie has been doing much better since her surgery though she has only been back to work for two days. Next week she will be back full time and we will see how she does. We are into storm season and have been tracking the storm that is crossing the Atlantic though it looks like it will be heading towards the east coast of the U.S. and well north of us. That will be a normal occurrence for us the next three months through the rest of the summer until the end of October. We are both teaching this quarter and with the biggest summer class in several years we are staying busy.