Sunday, October 25, 2009

Kiwanis Bike A Thon

This morning we got up at 4:45 a.m. and after dropping off Scott's Dad at the airport (he was on Island for some college work), headed over to Smith's Cove. We were met there by a bus that drove us out to the Blow Hole in East End some 22 miles from where we parked our car. On Friday we had dropped off our bikes with the event organizers in a trailer which met us out in East End. We were participating in the Kiwanis Bike A Thon a 22 mile bike ride from the Blow Hole near the eastern coast of the island back to Smith's Cove on the western coast of Grand Cayman. At least 50 bikers participated in the event with many of them the "super bikers" we often see out doing the East End loop on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Most of the super bikers had actually biked out to the blow hole earlier in the morning and were now biking back.

At 7:00 a.m. the organizers started the rally and we all headed out. Very quickly we moved to the rear of the pack and set our own pace much slower than the peloton well ahead of us. Biking from East to West on Cayman means you have a tailwind and is much easier than heading in the other direction. We had brought our camel backs for water and some energy bars. We stopped a couple of times to top up on food and made it to Smith's Cove around 8:45 a.m. having averaged a good 12 miles an hour. We hadn't done a ride this long since January so we are both very sore and will have some recovery time the next couple of days. Never the less we were both very proud of ourselves for getting up that early and for finishing the rally.

We are not going to be able to do the Half Marathon this year as we will be attending the Jazz Festival that weekend. It is a three day festival though right now we just plan to go on Friday and Saturday. We will be seeing among others, Peboe Bryson (he of Beauty and the Beast song fame) and Alicia Keys. We haven't been able to go to the Jazz Festival in years past because it always fell on Graduation weekend. This year our graduation ceremony is in January so there is no conflict. The Horns continue to win meaning Scott is in a good mood most Sunday's. Next week is the big game in Stillwater so cheer for Texas next week.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Wet, Cold and Dreary

Feels like Texas in March this week in Cayman. Normally we get some cloudbursts that are very localized (as in its raining here but not one block over localized), but right now we are getting sustained rain that has created low water crossings and lakes throughout the island. The temperature has dropped to the low 70's, don't laugh that's downright cold here and the days are just overall dreary. This is late for rainy season but since hurricane season still has about 45 days in it and since we are now in the part of the season where the storms form to our South and give much less warning (like Paloma last year) we are keeping a close eye on the weather.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Submarine Tour

By Scott: When we first moved down here we saw advertisements for the Atlantis submarine and as you drive along the water front in George Town it passes right in front of the storefront for the submarine operation so it isnt something that you see and then forget because you never drive by it again. But in the 2 plus years we have been here we haven't done the tour at first not wanting to spend the money to do the tour and later figuring we would do it some day just not that day. Well, today I had a chance to take the tour for free along with eight of our tourism apprenticeship training students who are doing a day time program with the college in partnership with the Department of Tourism. They are training to work in the tourism industry and this tour was set up to show them what they can talk to their customers about if they are asked about things to do on the Island. Our tour was set for 10:30 a.m. and we arrived at the dock at about 10:00 a.m. We had a chance to talk with the manager who described the history of the company and the different tours that they do.

To get to the submarine we rode a tender south out of the harbor about a mile down by the oil terminal by Sunset House. The tender pulls up next to the submarine off shore and we boarded the submarine. The submarine is assisted by a surface ship that follows it as it goes and gives it directional bearings since it doesn't have a GPS system. We went down to a depth of almost 100 feet and went out to the Cayman wall which dips almost 1500 feet. It was a pretty amazing sight looking over the wall and into the depths. We saw a number of very large fish you don't typically see on shore snorkels including a huge female hawksbill turtle, some Queen Angelfish and Blue Angelfish as well as hundreds of large black durgons and groupers. The entire trip dock to dock was about an hour and a half with almost an hour spent under the water. We did a morning trip which was amazing but were told that the evening trips are even more spectacular. Although it is a pricey trip, it is something worth the money and I definitely plan to take Katie for a trip the next time we do one of our vacation in Cayman weekends. Fortunately locals get a special rate so we just need to find a day when there aren't a bunch of cruise ships in town.