Happy New Year

2009 should bring some big changes to our lives. We wish all our family and friends a Happy New Year.

Not a Merry Christmas for Everyone

Merry Christmas

Thanks to everyone who sent us cards, gifts and Christmas greetings. It is strange having a Christmas day where the low temperature will be the mid 70's. We are going for a Christmas bike ride and snorkel to continue the tradition started last year. Love to everyone, may you all have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Biking the Blue Mountains

One of the longest day trips we took in Jamaica was a tour out to the Blue Mountains in Eastern Jamaica. We caught a tour bus early in the morning and took the two hour bus ride east across the island. The bus ride was great all on its own to see Jamaica. We drove through several towns, saw the James Bond beach where the famous scene in Dr. No with Ursula Andress was shot and got to get a real sense of the Island. We then drove up a one lane road 3000 feet up (that was scarier than any roller coaster you could ever be on) to a cabin high in the mountains. At the cabin we had brunch and then later lunch. We drank some Blue Mountain coffee which is very rich and strong. We then drove another 1000 feet up into the mountains where we got on bikes and rode down the mountain through several coffee plantations that are on the mountain sides. The winding roads that overlooked valleys, rivers and mountainsides with incredible views made for a very interesting ride. We stopped back at the cabin for lunch then continued down the mountain to a water fall called the fountain of youth. The three hour bike ride was spectacular and we absolutely fell in love with the mountains. Although the tour took an entire day and we were exhausted by the time we got back to the resort it was well worth the time and effort.

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone.

Dunn's River Falls

Our first day trip in Jamaica was by far the most memorable. We took a catamaran over to the Dunn's River Falls and literally climbed up the falls. Its the kind of dangerous attraction that would never work in the US where the first time someone fell and broke something they would sue. Here are some photos of our climb. We sent out our Christmas stuff late to everyone so watch your mail the first week of January for our Christmas greetings.

St. Ann Mountain Canopy Tour

Here are some photos from our canopy zip lining up in the St. Ann mountains of Jamaica. At times we were several hundred feet off the ground traversing over nine gorges high up in the tree tops. The longest traverse was 660 feet the shortest was only about thirty feet but was almost straight down from one tree to another further down the gorge. It was a spectacular adventure and really got our adrenaline flowing.

Horseback Riding in Jamaica

Here are a few shots of us riding horses at the Chukka cove in Ocho Rios from earlier this week.

Jamaica Vacation

We are back on Grand Cayman after seven days in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We stayed at the Sandals Dunn's River Resort with gorgeous views of the Caribbean on one side and the St. Ann Mountains on the other. Our room was on the fifth floor and overlooked the main pool with the sea behind it. We did four different day trips, one to climb the Dunn's River Falls, two up into the mountains (one in the St Ann mountains near the resort and the other to the Blue Mountains on the Eastern end of the Island) and a day trip over to a Polo ground where we went horseback riding overland and in a cove. The food was incredible and we had a fantastic time. We will post pictures and give info on the trip and all the activities later.

While we were gone we did get some sad news. Scott's half-Uncle Ian Cummings who lived here on Grand Cayman was killed in a boating accident last week while fishing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time, may he rest in peace.

Jamaica bound

With graduation behind us we are headed to the north coast of Jamaica for a well deserved week long vacation. We are staying at the Sandals resort in Ocho Rios called Dunn's River. We have some day trips planned but mostly are looking forward to just relaxing after a long year. The graduation ceremony went very well. The Leader of Government Business (the Cayman version of Prime Minister) gave the address. Also present was the Minister of Education and the Minister of Health along with three members of the legislative assembly. Its an election year next spring so they all wanted face time. The ceremony lasted about an hour and a half and the church where it was held was filled to overflowing. With 53 graduates it was a very large class. We were both a little stiff from the half marathon earlier in the day but the adrenaline was flowing through the ceremony and that kept us going. Afterward we went to a restaurant on Seven Mile Beach called Luca and had a great dinner overlooking the beach and under the stars.

Half Marathon

In the early morning darkness we lined up on South Church street in downtown George Town for the 5:00 a.m. start to the Cayman Islands Marathon/Half Marathon. In spite of not doing nearly the preparation we should have in terms of training we decided to give it a go. The 13.1 mile route was a loop that the marathon runners do twice. At five sharp the race started and we quickly brought up the back of the pack. Walking at an early pace of seventeen minute miles we got to watch the sun come up over South Sound as we headed east along the road out to Savannah. Around 6:45 we passed through Red Bay and almost right at the two hour mark rounded the half way point and headed back west. Shortly after we rounded the half way point the lead marathon runner lapped us. Meaning we had done 7 miles and he had done 20. We kept a good 17 minute a mile pace until mile 10 where we hit the wall and suddenly the seventeen minute miles became 18, then 19 and by the end 24 minute miles. We crossed the line in 4 hours 5 minutes and 57 seconds beating our goal of 4 and a half hours by a good 24 minutes. We have graduation at 3:00 this afternoon so it will be a very long day. We are exhausted and sore but very proud that we finished. Will upload pictures soon.

When there just isnt time to update the blog

The last month since we got back from Miami has been crazy and the blog has been pretty far down the list of things that needed to get done. We have discovered to our happiness and dismay that Ginger doesnt have anything wrong with her but a bad attitude and so we will need to work on de-conditioning her from peeing on our couch. Graduation is this Sunday and that has meant a month of insanity trying to get everything ready. The rehearsal was last Sunday and the banquet is tomorrow.

We are less than a week from leaving for Jamaica for seven days and a vacation at an all inclusive resort so we are counting down the days. All the roundabouts on the Island now have Christmas lights up and Katie has decorated the stairs with tinsel garland and hung lights on our front window. We also have a small christmas tree up that the cats have not yet decided to knock over but we are waiting for that to happen. The storm did no lasting damage to this Island other than messing up our feeder road and requiring extensive repairs that are still on going. The rainy season still is lingering and has more than overstayed its welcome. Hurricane season officially ended Sunday so we will start taking down all the shutters at the college this next week. We took down the home shutters about two weekends ago.

We are not commenting on the travesty that is the Big XII and the utterly incomprehensible decision to let the land thieves take the place of our beloved Longhorns in the championship game. If there is any justice in the world Oklahoma will lose this weekend and the right team will get to play for the National Championship.

Home in Cayman

We flew back last night and anxiously drove home to find out how our kitties and our house did in the storm. We were very pleased to find the cats doing great and our house had no flooding. There does appear to be some water damage to our kitchen ceiling that we will need to run down and make sure it is from the storm and not a leaking pipe. There was flooding on other parts of the Island, in particular in lower valley and Bodden town. The college cleaning lady got 4 feet of water in her house. The college also sustained water damage and this morning we are going over to assess and help with clean up. The Sister Islands are in really bad shape and everyone should keep the Brackers and residents of Little Cayman in their thoughts and prayers. We had a great time with Kevin, Kristy, Kelsey and Little Scott at Universal Studios and want to thank them for such a fun weekend.

Orlando

We are in Orlando today spending time with Scott's brother Kevin, his wife Kristy and their kids, Scott and Kelsey. We drove up this morning from Miami. We have been able to find out some news from home and it sounds like Grand Cayman didn't get hit as bad as the two sister Islands. We don't have any firm news on our house and cats but the posts about Grand Harbor neighborhood seem to indicate that the flooding was limited and hopefully that means our house was spared. The big issue now for us will we get home Monday. The planes should start flying tomorrow and assuming that we don't get bumped down lists hopefully we get home Monday night. The government lets Caymanians and status holders in first followed by residents on work permit. There wasn't much time for people to evacuate so there shouldn't be a big group trying to get back. Tomorrow will be Universal Studios day so that should help us take our minds off the storm and home. Monday early we will drive back to Miami to finish up the seminar and then hopefully get our flight out.

Stuck in Florida

We arrived in Miami yesterday morning and by late afternoon discovered that Hurricane Paloma would be coming to Grand Cayman and that there was no way we can get back before the storm. We are dealing with a group of 20 very worried students but there is nothing any of us can do. This late season storm gave very little warning of rapid intensification and no warning of its path. On Tuesday it looked like it would go over Central America and even Wednesday had multiple tracks. We are just happy we put all the shutters back up just in case and unplugged all the electronics and moved the computer upstairs. Since there is nothing we can do we will head up to Orlando tomorrow to see Scott's brother and his wife and our neice and nephew. We know now the feeling of helplessness that comes with not being able to do anything about our house, our car (which is sitting at the airport long term parking lot) and most importantly our cats.

Late Season Storm

It looks like the Cayman Islands will get an unwanted visitor this weekend. The big issue is whether it will be a depression, a tropical storm or worst case a hurricane. The storm is about 227 miles south of here and is expected to move north tomorrow. We leave for Miami early tomorrow so to be safe we have put back up our hurricane shutters on the front window. If a hurricane comes it will be Saturday while we are off Island. We have someone checking on the cats to feed them over the weekend but it looks like they will have to ride this storm out on their own. There was a late season storm last year but it went well east of the Island, this ones track is not as favorable. Lets all hope it is just a depression and leaves us only rain from its visit.

Training for the Half Marathon

On December 7 (the same day as our graduation ceremony) we are running the Cayman Islands Half Marathon. Actually, walk/jogging is a more appropriate description. In preparation, we are walking most mornings and slowly building up to the 13 plus mile distance we will have to traverse. Its also not just about finishing but finishing with enough left in our tanks to go do the graduation ceremony later that day. The marathon starts at 6:00 a.m. and we are hoping to get to a pace of 16 minute miles meaning we would finish in the neighborhood of three and a half to four hours. That would give us some three hours before we had to go to graduation and five hours before the ceremony would begin. Today we did a short 4.2 km walk just as a warm up for the week. We will continue to increase our distance over the next four weeks up to about ten miles one week before the marathon then some 5k walks during the week and the full 13.1 miles on the Seventh.

We haven't gotten the tests back on Ginger so we are still waiting to hear if she will need thyroid surgery. We have moved her kitty litter onto the couch and she seems to be going in the litter so we aren't sure what to think.

This Thursday we are headed to Miami for two days of work on the seminar, then a drive up to Orlando to spend a couple of days with Scott's brother Kevin and his family. We return to the Island on Monday which is a national holiday here in the Cayman Islands for Remembrance Day. The Longhorns finally lost a game on Saturday, a gut wrenching defeat with literally one second to go in the game. They are still 8-1 and on Saturday we will have to find a sports bar in Central Florida to watch them play Baylor.

We are now back on eastern time with the end of daylight savings so even though nothing changed here, our tv shows on the weekend are now an hour later.

Cold Caribbean

The temperature has dipped into the low 70's here and the winds have picked up. Today it has not been at all unusual to see people wearing sweaters. Our blood must not have quite thinned enough because we are really enjoying it. They call them the Christmas winds and they apparently are coming early this year.

Ginger under the weather

For the past few weeks Ginger has been peeing on our couch and while we thought for a while it was behavioral, it became clear last Tuesday, when she pee'd on Katie and didnt seem to know what she was doing, that it wasnt. We took her to the Vet yesterday who initially thought it was a urinary tract infection. Last night we started Ginger on medication but a long night of throwing up later it was clear the medication was not working. This morning we took her back to the vet and a urine test showed elevated glucose leading the vet to think diabetes. They kept her for observation and blood tests. This afternoon when we went back for her we discovered that the glucose was normal in her blood but she has low phosphates which looks like thyroid problems and may mean surgery. We brought her home and have to keep a close eye on her through Monday. Her tail is very grey which is apparently a sign of the imbalance. We will be taking her back Monday for more tests and a determination of whether we need to get her thyroid surgery.

You would be correct in thinking that none of this is cheap. Just to send the bloodwork to the U.S. for further tests includes a $65 Biological shipping fee. That is before you pay the lab fee's etc. We have to get another urine sample tomorrow and poor Ginger has been looking at us with big sad eyes all day after several hours of being poked and prodded by the vet. Keep a good thought for Ginger, she is a cat but in the ten months since we got her she has become part of the family and someone we care a lot about.

We did have some time to watch the Horns and the 28-24 win over the sixth ranked Okie State Cowboys. Texas continues to make Scott's Saturday's fun and he looks forward to the weekly call to Gary to talk about the game and the Horns. It is still raining every day down here and our roads have huge sinkhole size potholes that are as big as our little car and make driving down Selkirk an adventure especially at night and in the dark. The flooded road also means you cant see the pothole because the whole street is under water. They cant fix the road until the rain stops and the water recedes. We are definitely ready for the end of rainy season.

Rainy October

Hurricane season still has six weeks left in it but things are relatively quiet. Omar was well to the East of us and most of the areas of interest haven't had tracks into the western Caribbean. While the hurricanes are giving us a wide berth that hasn't meant a slow down in rain and for the last month we have gotten more than our fill of rainy season. Selkirk drive which leads from the main road to our street is flooded and we have to drive in the middle of the road because the road is angled to have the water move left and right and our little car would flood if we stayed to the left. Yesterday we did a 7 plus k walk in the morning for our graduation banquet benefit and we both paid the price in the afternoon. Walks like that start at 6:30 a.m. because of the heat so that meant a 5:15 wake up call. Katie worked on her pottery in the afternoon while I went to a sports bar and watched college football.

Of course last night was spent watching the number one ranked Horns dominate Mizzou and move to 7-0. Texas is putting together a nice little run of wins and they are definitely making for some fun Saturdays. Since the game was the ABC national telecast I got to watch the game from home and freak out Ginger and Gypsy who had never watched football with me before. The pacing, the stressing out at every play, the inability to sit down, they got the full treatment. The other good news is that with each Texas win the season tickets I have with Gary and Ken back in Texas to the games are easier to sell and for more money. We sold Mizzou at a profit and had already broken even on the first three Texas home games. At this point it looks like we will be able to sell our remaining tickets for an overall profit and have a profit for the year even with attending the Arkansas game. So Texas' success is a financial boon as well as my personal enjoyment at watching them win.

Happy Birthday Katie

We celebrated Sunday night with dinner at Guy Harvey's Island Grill overlooking George Town Harbor. Today we have a lot of rain so we are having a restful morning reading and having waffles for breakfast (made by Scott supervised by the birthday girl). We have changed our work hours so we now work from 2:30 in the afternoon to 10:05 which means more time earlier in the day to do things like snorkel or go for bike rides and not have to rush home to get ready to go to work. Right now the rainy season is hitting us pretty heavily most days but once November rolls around it will mean the ability to do more before we have to get ready to go to work.

Katie in Dallas to work on her Masters

Katie is back in the metroplex this weekend to do a literature review for her Masters class. The libraries here on island are not sufficient to get her the material she needs so we turned in our airline miles and she has been home since Thursday. She has been staying with her sister Mel and using the library at UT Dallas. Tonight she is staying with her Mom and Stephanie and she flies back tomorrow morning early. There has been a lot of rain on Grand Cayman the last two weeks but no major storms (knock on wood). The fall quarter continues rolling along and we are now looking forward to a trip to Miami in November for the seminar and then a visit with Kevin, Kristy and the kids in Orlando.

Scott in Texas for game

I am writing this entry from Killeen, Texas where Gary and I are staying at his siter Sandy's house. We went to the Texas-Arkansas football game in Austin yesterday and while the game was great it was hot and draining being out in that weather. Later today its back to Houston and a flight home tomorrow. Next week Katie is heading home for five days. She is working on her Masters and needs to do a literature review. The libraries on the Island just arent good enough to cover what she needs so she will be going to DFW for three days of research and take the chance to catch up with family as well.

Prayers for our friends in Houston

Ike is the bad dream that wont go away, and now it is growing in size and making a dead beat for Houston. Our thoughts and prayers are with all our friends living in the potentially affected areas, be safe we are praying for you and keeping a good thought in our minds for you. Meanwhile, we encourage anyone who can to donate to the Haitian relief, over 400 people have been killed in that country in the last month by Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike. Though Cayman has been very lucky our neighbors to the north have really taken a pounding and need all the help we can give.

Ike causes Scott's trip to be cancelled

The path of Ike takes it into Texas early Saturday through Austin and perhaps even as far north as DFW as a tropical storm. This has led to the postponement of the Texas-Arkansas football game and consequent postponement of Scott's trip back to Texas to see the game. His birthday present will now have to wait until the 27th when the game is scheduled to be played. Fortunately American Airlines did not charge us a change fee because of the weather so we have moved the reservation and hope nothing messes with that weekend. Hard to believe we dodged three storms down here in a week and a half and then one of them comes back to bite us in the rear.

Ike's glancing effect

Hurricane Ike is passing Grand Cayman about 160 miles to the north and this evening we are getting some high winds and rain but nothing like what could have happened if it had moved further south. The sister islands Cayman Brac and Little Cayman have been battered all day today with tropical storm force winds as they are only about 90 miles from Cuba. Our biggest worry about Ike is that it will mess up the flight plans for this weekend as I head back to Texas to see the Texas-Arkansas football game. The storm could make landfall anywhere from south Texas to Alabama on Saturday and with Houston in the center and where my flight is headed to that could cause some problems.

Today was the first day of the Fall quarter and with over 170 students attending ICCI this fall things were a little crazy. Its amazing to think that when we came here last summer the school had 89 students and now we are pushing close to our 2009 year end goal of 200 students. We should hit that goal early next year and be pushing on from there by year end 09.

Katie is fast and furious into her Masters work for Denver University. Her first on line course is a writing class and her textbooks arrived last Friday, which was good since her first assignment was due today. Over the weekend I got to watch the Texas football game on the internet as both my undergraduate colleges Texas and UTEP played. We had paid extra to get ESPN2 for the express purpose of getting to see that game and then the Caribbean feed didnt have the game. I was not happy to have to watch the game on a tiny computer screen with a very poor quality picture. I was pleased to see Texas win and UTEP put up a good fight so that both schools come out in good shape.

We dont like Ike

As we watch Hurricane Ike work across the Atlantic I came across a great article on storms that I wanted to post a link to for people to read.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080904/us_time/whydisastersaregettingworse;_ylt=AtelBRlbtfS8GgTQ0oJZjSxH2ocA

The fall quarter starts next week and next Friday I head back to Texas to catch my first Longhorn football game in person in two years. Katie has started her Masters work on line through the University of Denver and is already working on her first assignment due on the first day of class next Monday the 8th.

First Day of Football Season

With the storm moving off and with the afternoon rains letting up, last night was free to head over to the sports bar by Hurleys and watch the Texas season opener. For a few minutes it looked like they might not be getting the game since it was on a pay per view channel but at 6:00 p.m. the signal started arriving and the game came on. The 52-10 Texas win was fun to watch though the defense gave us some big plays through the air and will have to do a lot of maturing before the Oklahoma and Missouri games for Texas to have a chance. Katie came for dinner then left a few minutes into the game to "scrapbook". When I got home I found that Katie hadn't scrapbooked at all but instead had made me a first day of football present. She hung our Texas Longhorns flag in the living room and made a coconut football cake that is pictured to the left. The game was a great way to unwind after four days of intensity surrounding the hurricane.

The mood in the sports bar was very much one of feeling lucky we could be out doing what we were doing. I spoke with a couple of other football fans and we all talked about feeling fortunate we were watching a football game and that we weren't having to deal with days of no power, water or having to spend days cleaning up. The sister islands took a real beating. Little Cayman still doesn't have power or water and the Brac has substantial damage with parts of that Island still not having power. Two Royal Navy ships have arrived to help with clean up and the government is flying crews the 88 miles over to both Islands. Our prayers are going out to everyone on Little Cayman and the Brac that things get back to normal as fast as possible. We are also praying for everyone in western Cuba that they came through last night safely and to the gulf coast residents that Gustav will weaken and hit as unpopulated an area as possible.

Rainy Saturday

We are getting a lot of rain this afternoon from the back bands of Gustav. The wind is now going from south to north the reverse of yesterday. We went shopping this afternoon and there was a tremendous sense that Grand Cayman really dodged a bullet yesterday. Gustav is now a category four having gone from tropical storm to cat 4 in less than 24 hours. I will be going to sports bar tonight to watch the Texas football game assuming it isn't so rainy that the satellite feed is interfered with. On the left is a picture of Ginger watching the storm this afternoon after we opened up the permanent shutters we have on our upstairs bedroom window. While Gypsy has been fascinated by Louie following him all over the house, Ginger has been disgusted and will not give him the time of day. We are getting more rain here on the back end of the storm then we did yesterday during the highest wind activity.

Andreas Returns

We walked over to the Kings Center roundabout at 11 and were very happy to find that the cars behind us had opened an easy to get to path down the hill and off the roundabout (picture below). We plugged the battery back in and Andreas started on the first turn of the key. While walking to the car we saw a tree cut in half in the Hurleys parking lot (see picture left). We drove around and along south sound to check out the damage. We saw one downed power line and a lot of downed limbs but very little surge damage. It is still a little breezy but no rain.

Mid-Morning update

After waking up around 4:30 and then getting back to sleep around 5:15 we slept in until 8:45. A quick look outside reveals a mostly overcast morning with gusts still occurring with decreasing frequency. We should keep having those gusts until around one in the afternoon. Gustav has apparently grown to a category three this morning as it moves over the warm waters west of us. We are very fortunate he waited to grow until after passing through our Islands. We have the mountains of Jamaica and the fact that he stayed a tropical storm while passing over that Island to thank for that. In looking at our parking lot we got a surprisingly small amount of rain and didn't see any tree's or limbs down. Even the small tree next to where we park which we both thought wouldn't make it through the night is still standing. The spot where we park wasn't flooded at all and the two areas that water always accumulates even from a normal rain had pools but not huge ones. The all clear has not yet been given as of 8:00 a.m. so we wont go get our car until this afternoon at the earliest. There is apparently heavy wave action and will be for the next 24 hours with heights pushing 14-16 feet.

The Net News has the following damage reports for the three Islands:

Little Cayman A number of light poles are down. Some are described as “cracked in half.” Trees were also toppled by the hurricane. Several docks are reported destroyed. Several boats have been washed ashore. Debris clutters the roads making them difficult to pass. As the storm was approaching, a couple was treated by the nurse after being washed into the sea. They had been on a dock taking photographs. Other than these two, there are no reported injuries at this time. Damage to the Southern Cross Club has been reported.

Cayman Brac A number of light poles are reported down.

Grand Cayman During the night, an East End shelter lost generator power. A great deal of debris was washed ashore near The Edge in North Side. There are many reports coming into the NEOC of downed trees, including one that fell on a shelter warden’s car. Fallen trees blocking main roads will have priority for cleanup

Unlike Jamaica and Haiti where there are reports of deaths it appears we have escaped with just some damage to property and a few injuries. So long as Andreas made it we will have weathered this storm none the worse for wear.

Gustav moving off

I awoke this morning about 4:20 a.m. from a particularly loud gust rattling the upstairs shutters and was very pleased to find that we did not lose power or water as the storm passed. Gustav is now about 60 miles to the west northwest of us and moving away at a 12 mph clip. We continue to get tropical storm force winds and probably will for a couple of more hours. The news reports say the sister islands got winds between 80 and 100 miles an hour. It appears our winds maxed out at 55 mph and right now they are gusting in the 30-40 mph level, just a gentle Caribbean breeze right. Though it is raining now, we have actually gotten very little rainfall and it bears repeating that we were south of the storm and not in that upper right quadrant where most of the intensity would be. There has been some flooding of low lying areas including parts of Cayman Kai and North Sound Estates which is right across from the college. We also hear that the gully which runs from the southern coast up through Newlands has flooded some houses though that happens anytime there is any kind of a storm. Will find out later today if the college had any flooding and how the roof there did. Our place has had no issues at all.

The difference in sounds between our downstairs and upstairs is dramatic and has probably affected how we felt in terms of nerves and how we reacted to this storm in comparison to Dean last year. Last year we rode out the storm upstairs with no TV and no television background noise, hearing nothing except the winds gusting outside the plywood. This year we were downstairs for the most part and had the TV on pretty constantly. When we went to bed at 11 you could really hear the gusts upstairs which was in stark contrast to what we had just experienced downstairs where they were muted and drowned out by the TV.

The AP report from George Town says a curfew was never imposed and one of the local papers, the Cayman Net News, says on their web site that as of 9 p.m. last night no curfew but police were encouraging people to stay in their homes. Not that we have any intention of going outside anyway. Grand Cayman was definitely spared all but a very glancing blow and for that we are very grateful. Will know more in a couple of hours when we can go outside and walk around. There was a surge so the beaches will be full of rocks and who knows how south sound was affected as it is particularly vulnerable to surge flooding and damage. Our biggest concern now will be getting the car back and hoping that he hasn't been blocked in by other vehicles parking under us on the roundabout. That is the one bad thing about the roundabout solution to the car, you are stuck there until all the people who come after you and block you in come to get their cars. Fortunately we parked there yesterday after most of the people who would have left the Island were already gone so we should not be stuck there long. Last year after Dean cars were still on the tops of the roundabouts 4 and 5 days after the storm as people tried to get back on Island that had been evacuated.

As the storm is moving away it is gaining strength and we should all keep the people of the Isle of Pines and western Cuba in our prayers. Finally, lets also hope that the storm does not make landfall in a very populated area of the gulf coast as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico toward Louisiana and Texas. We will be thinking good thoughts and saying prayers for the parents and family of Brent the husband of Scott's sister Johanna who live in Slidell, Louisiana which is outside New Orleans.

Heading back to sleep for a while, will update later and take some pictures of the Island to let you see the aftermath.

Closest point of approach

Here is the link to stormcarib.com's closest point of approach feature for Grand Cayman. Looks like around 2 a.m. and just over 50 miles. Just click on Cayman Islands Grand Cayman in the drop down menu and then click show me how close it can get.

http://www.stormcarib.com/closest2.htm

Eye moves closer to Grand Cayman

The track has moved a little closer to Grand Cayman and the eye is now about 55 miles to the east-northeast of us. We are experiencing tropical storm gusts and the upstairs shutters are shaking every once in a while. A few of the gusts have been pretty loud but nothing like the Dean noise last year. As the eye gets closer it will get louder but so far its just an annoyance. If last year is any indicator, Katie will sleep through it while I get up every hour on the hour. Our lights have flickered a few times but power has been constant. We see on the net that they have lost power up on the north side of the island but here in Red Bay the lights are still on. Both Katie and I are able to use the laptops as the Internet service still has five bars. CUC, Westel and the Water Authority here are just doing phenomenal jobs of keeping everything working through this storm. They really learned their lessons from Ivan four years ago and have put those lessons into practice. This would be a very different experience if we were in a dark house with no air conditioning and no water. We were ready for such a situation but its very nice to not have to face it at least so far. Looks like the 13 gallons we pumped today of potable water into our garbage can will now be used to flush toilets for the next couple of days.

7:00 track continues to be good

The latest track is out and the storm is definitely not going to hit us with hurricane force winds. It is now some 90 miles east of us and heading north-northwest at 11 miles an hour. It is hitting the sister islands with hurricane winds up to 80 miles an hour but here on Grand Cayman so far our gusts are just 30-40 mph. The closest point of approach on its current path and speed will be 61.2 miles away and that will happen around 1:30 a.m. our time. Every so often we hear a gust but nothing like what we heard last year with Dean and what we expect to hear later as the storm gets closer. Louie got bored and so we let him out to explore. Gypsy is fascinated by him but Ginger is keeping her distance and hissing whenever he comes close. he is back in his room right now crying through the door. He is on a special diet and so we cant let him get to the girls food and we don't want him using their kitty litter. As we approach 8 p.m. here on the Island there is rain and wind outside but full power and water to our neighborhood. we had a great dinner of beef and broccoli with pasta and are watching Stephanie's DVD's of season nine of Friends. Will try and post late tonight as the storm increases to give everyone a feel for what is going on.

Good news from Water Authority (and now CUC)

Update: We have a curfew now in effect and it will remain in force until the all clear sometime tomorrow morning. I am monitoring the storm carib site and someone just posted that the CUC (Caribbean Utilities Company) management has advised the local authorities that they would monitor line conditions and only shutdown areas that indicated a problem. They will continue to provide power and no specific shutdown has been scheduled.

Original Post: The water authority just issued a notice that they will not be cutting service tonight. Because we are south of the storm and the hurricane winds are to the north we wont get hit with more than tropical storm force and they don't expect a surge that will affect the water supply. CUC hasn't yet issued a notice and we hope that means they don't intend to cut electric service. Water is affected more than electric by the storms so that is a great sign. Its amazing the difference between a category 5 to the south like Dean 100 plus miles away and a category one 60 miles to the north. The Brac and Little Cayman are getting hit pretty hard and have already lost power intermittently.

We are getting drizzly rain and the wind has picked up. It will get stronger as the hurricane approaches and based on the last track its closest point of approach will cross right at 60 miles north of us. The local stations have gone to 24x7 coverage of the storm, one by just playing the Weather Channel and the other by simulcasting Radio Cayman. We have the Weather Channel on and they are doing a lot of Cayman coverage so for continuous updates check out that cable channel. The speed is up to 12 mph so its effects will not be as long as if it had stayed at less than 10 mph. Waiting on the 7 p.m. track which should tell us how the rest of the night will be.

Luigi and other photos

Here is Luigi our refugee visitor for a couple of days and a couple of shots outside of our shuttered up front and the trees in the wind.

Rotation really happening now

We are definitely feeling the outer band effects of the storm. We both stepped outside a few minutes ago to take stock and the clouds are moving in a counter clockwise rotation from the north to the south as they head east. The trees are swaying strongly with the gusts of wind and you can feel it against your face as you step outside. Its completely overcast and there was a little rain a while ago but right now no rain is falling. They are projecting 6 inches over night so our parking lot and access street will be lakes. The activity outside has ground to a halt and everyone is just hunkered down now. Gustav is moving at 12 miles an hour and is still 100 miles away so we will be feeling this for the next 18-20 hours. The track continues to be north and the most recent update has Grand Cayman outside the cone for the eye. With all the rain expected everyone has moved their vehicles and our parking lot is empty but for one vehicle that is dead and another big truck that is well off the ground. All the windows are boarded or shuttered closed and it has the feel of a fortress. We are cooking dinner early just in case and will update every so often as long as we have power.

Hurricane Again

The local media just flashed an update that Gustav is again a hurricane. The tracks continue to be good for us as it is veering north. It will pass between the three Cayman Islands and on its present track will be 60-70 miles out. The two sister Islands will get hit by category one force winds while we should top out with tropical force and occasional hurricane force gusts. The shutters have a nice plastic center so we can watch the approaching storm. It is different from having plywood where you really don't know what is going on. The Brac which is the northernmost of the three Islands has a huge bluff and most of the residents are taking shelter up on the bluff. Little Cayman which will be the closest hasn't been evacuated but there are only 100-200 residents and they did fly off most of the tourists on Tuesday when the original track for Gustav had it passing north of the sister islands.

The winds have started picking up here but there hasn't been any rain and there is still activity outside our house. The government hasn't yet issued a time for when the water or electricity will be cut. The airport did close at noon but there wasn't the sound of planes constantly taking off this morning like there was just before Dean last year. We also haven't yet been given a curfew time though all the advisories ask that no one be out tonight. We ran the dishwasher and are finishing all our laundry in case we lose water and to be safe have filled up our trash can with potable water and now are just basically sitting around waiting for it.

As I finish this entry I can just hear the rain starting outside. The very far outer bands of our uninvited guest. If he stays on his current path it will be a lot of sound but not much fury.

10:20 Update

The 11 EST track just came out and brought more good news. The storm is drifting further north and now will pass closer to the sister islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. It is very possible now that we wont get hurricane force winds here on Grand Cayman just Tropical storm force. The 2 and 5 p.m. EST tracks will give us the final verdict as we start to feel the winds early this evening.

The hardest part about these storms is the waiting time. We took our car to the King Sport Center roundabout at 6:30 this morning and found a good spot slightly up the hill. The roundabout was almost full so we went at the right time. We unplugged the battery and put it in the back. Katie reminded Andreas that he got his name last year by surviving Dean so he needed to be a trooper again and not let himself get flooded. The walk back to our house was a little over a mile so not a bad early morning walk. As we walked back the familiar sound from last year of drills was very evident. Many people had gotten up early to board up their houses before it gets too hot or the rains come.

With everything closed and everyone just basically waiting this is truly the calm before the storm. I am still not sure which I prefer the sudden warning of tornado's with them passing quickly or the longer warning of hurricanes where you have plenty of time to prepare but then have to sit around a long time waiting for them. Thanks to everyone who has sent us email encouragements. We are becomming veterans at this storm thingy and with the line up of storms that are apparently going to give us an active September that is a good thing.

Friday Morning Status

This mornings early track brings a mixed bag. The good news is that the track is still north of us, though just barely, and Gustav is still a tropical storm. But it has moved closer to Grand Cayman and it will strengthen as it hits open water. That is Grand Cayman outlined in red just under the Saturday at 2:00 a.m. mark. The storm is only moving 8 miles an hour and unless it picks up speed we are in for 24 plus hours of getting smacked around starting later today. At 5:00 a.m. here on the Island it is calm outside. We got a heavy rain late last night around 10:30 for about 30 minutes but otherwise a calm night. We are filling our trash can with potable water and moving the car in a little while. The planes are still flying and will until early afternoon. There hasn't been nearly the panic as there was with Dean last August to get off the Island. The attitude of many is that this is just a Category 1 (or maybe 2) and that so long as you take precautions you should be fine. Most of the companies on Island that charter evacuation flights only do so if it is a category three or higher. Will post here throughout the day until the government cuts the power and water as the storm approaches. For Dean we only lost power for three hours, don't think we will be as lucky this time. Poor Luigi is a big baby and is crying in the back guest room. We cant let him out because he and Gypsy really got into it last night. If things get hairy later we will have to bring him upstairs and put him in our bathroom. This storm does mean that the first day of college football season, a holiday in this household, will not be celebrated as we had hoped, sitting in a sports bar watching all the games including the Texas Longhorns season opener.

Thursday evening update

8:45 update: The Cayman Islands have officially been put on Hurricane warning this evening meaning that hurricane conditions are expected within 24-36 hours.

Original Post

Today has been an extremely long day and it isn't even dark yet. In the hot sun I got to spend all afternoon and early evening, over 5 hours boarding up the college with two other men. One was Eric, April's husband and the other a worker for Dorothy Scott, an ICCI grad who owns a construction firm. Between the three of us we got all the boards up over the windows and the doors and the college is now secure. I am sunburned and in pain, this is definitely not the normal job description for an academic administrator. While I was getting to experience a construction job, Katie was busy getting the interior of the college ready, getting all the files into plastic bins, covering all the computers and basically getting this place ready in case the roof leaks. We are still at the college tonight because one of the classes wanted to finish their exam.

(By Katie) The animal folks know our names and once again we have volunteered to be a refuge for a cat. His name is Louie though the lady at the vets office where I got him called him Luigi. I ran over this afternoon while Scott was working on the college and picked him up. He is a very vocal cat who cried just like a baby the entire car ride home. When we got to the house, Ginger was somewhat interested but then was more concerned that this thing was coming to replace her. Gypsy on the other hand was not happy and, after a short bout of just sniffing him through the carrier walls, fluffed up and hissed terribly at him. He had been quiet up until that point but decided to let the girls hear his voice. That definitely freaked out Gypsy who went on a rampage. They got very upset when I carried him into one of their forbidden rooms (the downstairs guest room). It was like they were saying "HEY! You bring some stranger into the house and HE gets to stay in the forbidden room!" When I came back out, Gypsy was still all fluffed up but Ginger was very, very lovable. I think that she was worried we were going to get rid of her. Unlike Gypsy who was just upset at this new boy, Ginger was thinking of the possible long term consequences of this boy coming to stay with us. I left Louis in the guest room exploring, Gypsy with her nose to the crack under the door, and Ginger sitting in the middle of the floor looking very worried. We will post pictures later and update you on how the girls are taking to him.

The storm track keeps changing every few hours. For most of the day it was headed right for us. Now it is tracking north of us and will pass between the three Cayman Islands. By tomorrow morning it will no doubt have moved again. Once we finish up here tonight all we have left to do is get the car tomorrow morning to high ground and then sit through it. They will cut the power as the storm approaches and the water so our updates tomorrow will be sporadic.

Boarding Up

Home for a quick lunch break. This morning we put up the shutters at the house and are now in process of boarding up the college. It looks like a category one or two hurricane and right now the track is right over us. Its hot and humid here today which is making for tough work outside. Will update tonight when we have time. The whole attitude of the Island has changed overnight and today the gas stations have long lines and the supermarkets are packed. The sound of drills is now being heard pretty regularly. Fortunately our house was almost ready yesterday and we also pre-prepared the college windows and plywood so we just have to put the wood up and attach it. If that sounds like an easy job, it isn't. The wood is heavy and takes two people to carry and lift then try to line up the holes that are often over our heads. It is a heck of a work out. Will know more later tonight about the track to us. Keep an eye on the sites listed in our blog to see how things are setting up.

Thursday Morning bad news

After a full day of good tracks, the last one Wednesday before we went to bed had Gustav turning south. As we wake up this morning it has moved dramatically south and now we are in the bullseye with the storm soon to again be a hurricane expected to go just south of Grand Cayman and pass only 9 miles off our southern coast. This is the worst possible news. We will update today as we can but will be spending the day getting everything ready at the college. Our home is ready except for the shutters which we will put up this morning after my TV interview at 7:00 a.m. Keep an eye on the track and you can use the feature in the entry below from stormcarib to see how close it will come to Grand Cayman. We should start seeing the effects later tonight and will have to move our car since a southern storm means a surge that can reach our place.

Afternoon Track

The late morning and early afternoon tracks of Gustav continue to bring good news. It remains downgraded to a Tropical Storm and is drifting slightly north. It should now pass some 92 miles to the north of us Friday late afternoon as a category one hurricane. We decided not to put up the shutters today at both the house and the college and will decide tomorrow morning based on the overnight tracks whether they will go up at all. If the hurricane will pass within 100 miles we will put up the shutters just to be in the safe side. The news is not good for the two other Islands that make up this country as both will have a close encounter Friday morning and afternoon with Gustav. Many of our students have family on the Brac which is the northernmost Island in the Caymans and they are keeping close tabs on the storm. With finals going on this week this has been an unneeded and unwanted distraction.

Wednesday Morning Gustav Update

The news this morning is good. Gustav stalled out over Haiti (good for us bad for the Haitians) and the interaction with land lessened the winds to tropical storm force. The NHC and several of the other tracking sites say that it will probably stay a tropical storm through today and regain hurricane strength early tomorrow. That means it wont be as strong as it passes north of us and hopefully wont have the time to grow too much either. The better news is that the track has stayed north and right now the closest point to Grand Cayman is projected to be 82.1 miles on Friday around 5:30 in the evening. Yesterday we filled up our second 5 gallon water container with filtered drinking water so we have 10 gallons of drinking water. We haven't had to do any shopping because we filled up our kit with food back in July. Once again its more about just waiting than anything else. Ironically, Scott has a TV appearance tomorrow morning similar to last year when his appearance right before Hurricane Dean got postponed. The TV appearance hasn't been cancelled yet so that's a good sign that the TV station's weatherman hasn't pushed them to 24x7 coverage as they do if a major weather event is going to happen.

Tracking Gustav

This evening the Cayman Islands are officially on a Hurricane Watch. the radio has hourly updates and we are all checking the various websites with increasing frequency. The current projected path of the hurricane takes it above Jamaica and south of Cuba. The sister islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are just below the path and as you can see on the track to the left, Grand Cayman (the largest of the three small islands west of Jamaica and furthest south of the three) is further south of the storms projected path. The best place to be is south of the storm and right now it is a small storm only about 30 miles in diameter. Its closest point on Friday is projected at about 72 miles so if it doesn't grow too much when it hits open water we shouldn't get hit too bad. The problem is it will grow when it hits open water and is projected to be a Cat 3 hurricane by Friday. At 70 miles we will get a lot of wind and rain but if it stays north and over 70 miles away hopefully not much if any flooding. We have our hurricane kit completely stocked and tomorrow morning we will put up the shutters. We learned our lesson last year with overreacting in terms of our furniture and personal items and will be more judicious this year with what we move upstairs. The college will be open tomorrow so we will still be working and we expect to have a long day getting the college ready for the storm. We will be updating the blog as events warrant to let everyone know what is going on. Keep a good thought that the storm stays north and doesn't grow. After Dean last year it isn't as scary getting ready this time but still it isn't much fun either, the price of living in the Caribbean in August and September.

Hurricane Watch

Looks like we will be getting an uninvited visitor later this week. Gustav is tracking into our neck of the woods and we are starting preparations. Today we will be inventorying our hurricane kit and buying any items, food etc needed to make sure it is complete. We are also moving all of the loose materials in our yard inside and making sure that we dont leave any potential missiles outside. This afternoon wll be spent organizing the college. Tomorrow if the track continues we will put up all the storm shutters and start moving things upstairs. By Thursday we will have to move the car. Right now the track has it coming as close as 94.7 miles north of Grand Cayman Friday around 5:30 p.m. our time. Will keep you all updated as we learn things.

To follow the official tracks go to the National Hurricane Site http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

You can also track how close it will come to Cayman by going to http://www.stormcarib.com/

Under Monday August 25 update click on the closest point of approach and then click on Cayman in the drop down menu.

Another good time to keep a good thought for us and a prayer or two.

The difference for Pina Colada's

Since we got our blender, we have struggled to find a way to make good Pina Coladas. We have discovered the secret..... good rum. In the past we have used Caymanian coconut rum. This past weekend we tried using Appleton Estates Rum from Jamaica and it made all the difference in the world. We just need to find some cherry liquor and we can do our own Cayman Coladas.

Why its good to be south of a storm

Last month as Dolly formed to the south of Cayman we got treated to a long Sunday of a lot of rain. Cayman was to the north of the storm and that upper right quadrant of storms here in the tropics usually gets the brunt of any storm. We were lucky that with Dolly we got hit before it even really formed a tropical storm so all we got was a whole lot of rain. Today we got to experience what its like being south of a storm......not a thing. We got a few passing showers that were likely not even caused by Fay but mostly sunny and calm. Now it helps that the storm is a good 150 miles north of us but usually even if a storm is two or three hundred miles south we get a lot of rain. Today you wouldn't even have known we were officially on a Tropical Storm Watch status.

There is a party going on today for the Jamaicans on the Island. The Jamaicans make up 20% of the population on the Island (and when you include those with Jamaican heritage but Cayman status there are even more than native Caymanians) and the party started yesterday when a Jamaican won the Olympic Men's 100 Meter dash and continued today as the Jamaicans swept the Women's 100 Meters. It got mentioned at the wedding reception yesterday and the Jamaican flag was in evidence this morning when we went to church and it got a mention in the sermon. We are getting Caribbean coverage of the Olympics so any Caribbean medal is getting a lot of play but these have set off huge celebrations amongst the Jamaican community here on the Island. Swimming is also huge here so the whole Michale Phelps thing is getting a lot of play. It is neat getting the coverage from the CMC network as we get coverage of a lot of sports that are big here but don't get much coverage if any in the States, like sailing in particular.

Weddings and storms

This morning we drove all the way to the northern tip of West Bay to attend the wedding of one of our instructors at the Villas Pappagallos Restaurant. The wedding was beautiful on the water (Pappagallos is not on the coast but on a canal just down from the coast) and it was really a picturesque occasion. The big talk during the reception was on Tropical Storm Fay and whether she will impact the Cayman Islands. Right now the two sister Islands are in her cone with Grand Cayman south of the cone. All three Islands are officially on a Tropical Storm Watch and we keeping a watchful eye on the storm to be prepared if it takes a turn south. This weekend is a clean up weekend as we get the house cleaned up after a month and half almost solid of guests.

Russ and Gail headed home

Today was Russ and Gail's last day on the Island and after a morning snorkel at Eden Rock and Devil's Grotto we put them on their flight back to Houston this afternoon. Yesterday we went snorkeling at Cheeseburger reef, a reef that is about 150 yards out from a Burger King that sits right on the water just north of the George Town harbor. Then we headed back to the north side of the Island to try Queen's Monument again from a different entry point. In total this past week and a half we hit 11 different snorkel sites around Cayman with them and they hit three more on their sandbar trip to see the stingrays. As a result, we really feel like we now have a handle on the best places to go to see the different varieties of fish, reef creatures and coral. We had a great time with them and really enjoyed their visit.

East End and Northside

We woke up early this morning and headed over to the Market at the Grounds at the Agricultural grounds in Savannah. We bought some june plumbs, guava and other fruit and after walking around for a while headed east to see the sights and do some snorkeling. We stopped at the Blow Hole in East End and got some photographs. We also stopped at the Lighthouse Park and at the Wreck of the Ten Sail Monument thus hitting three of the big East End sights. We then headed around the Island in a big semi circle ending at Rum Point on the north eastern point of the North Sound. After getting in some swimming at Rum Point we headed over to the Cayman Kai public beach and swam out to the reef for some fantastic snorkeling. We saw a Caribbean Lobster, another spotted porcupine fish, a great barracuda and even a ray that swam past us.

After running over to Rum Point for some drinks to rehydrate, we headed to the Over the Edge cafe in Northside for lunch which was a new place we hadnt been to before. Finally we drove over to the Queen Elizabeth II monument just east of Old Man Bay to snorkel the reef there. We had never done that location before and were amazed at the extraordinary corals. We saw another turtle, and many familiar species of fish but the phenomenal corals were the big hit. This evening we went to the Grand Old House for a great dinner out on the deck getting to see the sunset and have dinner with the waves crashing against the shore below us.

Olympic Opening Ceremony

One of the nice things about television here in Cayman is we get both the American networks and the local networks. For the Olympics that is going to mean almost 24 hour a day coverage as the local channels pick up the Caribbean feed and then NBC gives us the American feed which is delayed until prime time in the evening. The Caribbean feed is live which meant that we got to watch the opening ceremony this morning before heading in to work. Since we work nights, the morning live feed coverage means we will get to see most of the Olympics and not miss out.

Snorkeling Cayman

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 course

On 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.

Dark Knight and Wreck Snorkeling

Friday, Russ and Gail got the ultimate Cayman experience with a trip out to the sand bar to meet the stingrays. They had a blast but both got sunburned. Saturday needed to be a little slower pace so we went to the Marquee theatre and saw the Dark Knight during a matinee showing. The old style Cayman theatre is probably not going to be around much longer. The Hollywood theatre showings of the Dark Knight were all sold out while we were in an almost empty theatre. The movie was really good and we finished the day making tacos back at the house for dinner. Today we went to both the Wreck of the Gamma and the Wreck of the Callie to snorkel. While snorkeling, we saw a new species of squid and some unusual porcupine fish hiding under both wrecks. We got to try out our new underwater case for the digital camera and it worked great. We finished the day with dinner at The Lobster Pot which overlooks the north end of the George Town harbor. We sat next to the window and got a tremendous view of the water, the harbor and the school of tarpon hanging out below the deck just under the restaurant. Scott's father John is on Island teaching his class again this weekend so we have a full house.

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.