This week we have tried to introduce Russ and Gail to as many of the snorkel sites here on Cayman as we can. We have hit the usual ones like Eden Rock, Smith's Cove, Cemetary Reef and Devil's Grotto along with the wreck sites for the Gamma and the Callie and the sites that are part of the Sting Ray Sandbar trip including the Sandbar, the Coral Gardens and the Trench. We also drove up to the top of West Bay and snorkeled the Turtle Farm Reef where there is a mini wall. This weekend we plan to go up to the northside of the Island and snorkel Cayman Kai and Rum Point. Gail's turtle whisperer powers continue to attract the green turtles as we saw another turtle up close at Smith's Cove (picture to left) and a turtle deep in the water at the Turtle Farm Reef. Our underwater case is working great and we are getting some great shots of unusual fish. We saw a spotted porcupine fish with its spiny needles extended, a Honeycomb cowfish, some smooth and spotted trunkfish and a couple of angelfish. With the higher resolution camera we are better able to determine the fish later with our Reef Fish book or as Katie calls it our "fishy book". We are now tracking the different species we see with date and location. Russ wants us to start a computer database with fish species, location and date seen and photograph. Most mornings this week we have gotten up and gone out snorkeling before Katie and I have to go in to work. Russ has come in a couple of times to do some computer work for the college (and thus get to write of his trip) and Gail has worked on her on line courseOn Thursday we bought some fresh fish downtown in the harbor and Gail made a traditional Indonesian meal of Ikan and Colo (which is a fish based meal). We have also made our hurricane ribs and taken them to some of the local restaurants. Tomorrow we plan to go to Grand Old House and sit out on the deck at sunset. Russ and Gail leave on Monday to go home. Katie is still waiting to hear from The University of Denver on her admission to their Masters program this Fall starting in September. We have three weeks left until the end of the Summer Quarter so things are really picking up at the college. Our President Dr. Elsa Cummings announced her retirement yesterday so there will be a transition from her that will take up a lot of our time. We will have an interim President (Scott's father John) while the board looks for a permanent replacement. It shouldnt affect us much and will mean visits from John about every 6-8 weeks. Selfishly that is great for us because it means we dont have to fly up to Miami every two months or so to buy stuff and deposit money. At some point we will get Island fever and have to go but it wont have to be a packed weekend of shopping and errands instead we can relax.
