Grand
Cayman
Saturday
18 May – Saturday 1 June
We
arrived under cloudy skies at what we thought was 11:30 (actual
10:30) and called into George Town port security to announce our
arrival. On Saturday OT charges can be applied after noon so we were
hoping to avoid those. Port authority told us since it was a
holiday, Discovery Day, we could just take one of the free moorings
and wait until Monday to clear in, sounded good to us. We picked up
one of the orange moorings with Ultra coming in right behind
us getting the next one. After a long crossing we were glad for the
time to rest and get caught up on internet and the water is so
BEAUTIFUL with the moorings right on reefs we could just swim &
snorkel right off the boats. Later in the day port security called
us on the VHF radios and said they did want us to come
in to clear in as they were taking Monday off for the holiday also,
and told us there would be NO overtime fees. We had to take the big
boats a short distance and tie up to the concrete commercial dock to
go to customs. The guide book mentions a $30 mosquito spraying fee
to clear in but no one came to spray our boats and it was FREE to
clear in. Just wanted to know if we had any guns on board & if
so would need to turn them in during our stay. Filled out some easy
paperwork and we were done ! Back to the moorings we just left still
under cloudy skies, letting another boat know they too needed to
clear in. Now we were able to go ashore whenever we wanted.
Sunday was a bright sunny day and we snorkeled around the boats, still resting and getting caught up on emails.
Monday
we rented tanks and took the dinghies north along 7 mile beach to a
dive mooring and snorkeled one wreck and dove another. I was able to
get 2 tanks, but they would not rent Steve a tank as his dive card
only shows him to be a basic diver. He has been diving since 1977
and is a much better diver then me BUT his card does not allow him to
rent tanks. The rental company would be liable, if he dove with a
company and a dive master they would not be concerned but they would
not rent tanks to him to dive on his own. So they let me rent 2
tanks and we just did one dive each. The dive was of the USS
Kittiwake, an ex US Navy submarine rescue ship that was purposefully
sunk in 2011 to form an artificial shipwreck reef. It was really
cool as you could swim in and out of the different sections of the
ship. Steve had a little air left so cleaned the prop when we got
back to the boats.
Tuesday
I rented 2 more tanks, they gave Steve a quote on an upgrade for his
PADI card but at $250 he thought it was too high. We dove another
smaller wreck then went off to see some of the coral reefs near by.
When we came up we were a little further from the dinghies then
expected. We were with Bill & JoAnne from Ultra, who
saw us so Bill brought our dinghy over to us so we did not have to
swim so far. We had talked a few times with the other boat that
checked in right after us, Ismael & Olga from Barcelona Spain on
the catamaran Cuatro Patas.
They were going to join us for drinks on Ultra that
night and we were all going to go for a bike ride the following day.
So after returning our tanks Steve & I walked down to the bike
rental place to rent bikes. We find out Wednesday is another
Holiday, election day, so many businesses close, and NO alcohol is
allowed to be sold until 7 PM. The bike rental place was going to be
closed so they wanted to charge me for 2 days rental. Did not seem
fair to us since we just wanted them for the one day. Got the owner
over and we worked it out to just charge us for 1 day for one of the
bikes & the 2 for the other. We went over to Ultra
that night at 7 as planned for drinks, but Olga & Ismael did not
get there for another hour, we thought maybe it was a Spanish thing
to be late. We had a nice visit and planed to meet at the dinghy
docks with our bikes at 9 Wednesday morning.
Wednesday
Ultra & us are by
the dock waiting and JoAnne & Bill thought they saw Olga &
Ismael getting ready but still not there. Ismael comes in to have
someone look at a problem with his bike and then goes back to get
Olga & her bike. Again we are thinking it's a Spanish thing to
be late. It is a perfect day for a bike ride with the holiday very
little traffic on the roads. So we head to town and ride around the
closed shops then a little further out to the southeast. Back
towards town on another road and we stop at Margaritaville, the one
here has a pool so we thought we would cool off and since it was now
almost noon maybe get an early lunch. Well the guard says they open
at noon BUT that is still over an hour a way. This is when we learn
that WE have been an hour off since we arrived 3 days earlier !!
Back
on our bikes and head out west toward 7 mile beach. Stop at Treasure
Island hotel and they let us swim in their pool to cool off. We talk
with Olga & Ismael about the time difference and explain that we
just thought they were an hour late all the time. We really had a
good laugh over this !! Dried off and back on the bikes heading NW.
Found a place for lunch then a few more stops along the way to Hell.
Hell is an actual name of a town here and it has this little field
of iron rock that they call hell. It was closed and is just a
tourist TRAP, but for us a place to ride to so we could say we rode
to Hell & back. As a bonus we passed a place called Timbuktu on
the way back. On the way back Ismael, Olga & Steve thought they
were in a race to see who could get back first while Bill, JoAnne &
I were happy taking our time seeing the sights along the way. I made
a wrong turn and found the Cost U Less so we were thrilled to learn
where that was. Stopping in in Camana Bay, to go up the 75 ft
observation tower with a 360 view of the island, but it was closed
for refurbishment. Back towards the dinghy dock where Steve was
waiting for an hour to re-join us to go back to town to
Margaritaville. They have a water slide in their pool that JoAnne
wanted to try. Place was just about empty with the holiday &
still NO alcohol allowed to be served, but we had brought a bottle of
rum, so a few cokes were ordered and we made our own drinks to end
the day in the pool before heading back to the boats.
Thursday
we go to Cost U Less to go crazy, been a while since we had been in a
big store. Between Bill & JoAnne & our purchases we almost
filled up the delivery van. JoAnne & I sat up front with the
driver and Bill & Steve in the back with the boxes for the ride
back to the dinghies. Dinghies LOADED up and back to the boats to
unload and find room to put things away. As I was doing that Steve
went back in to dump the boxes we had to pack things in and went
across the street to the wonderful grocery story called Kirks.
Picked up a few items that we either could not find OR did not want 2
huge bottles of something we just need 1 regular size bottle of.
Shopping is an all day event !!
Friday
we move the big boats up the bay a little to the middle of 7 mile
beach. They have a Jet Pack you can fly and JoAnne & Bill were
going to do it. They had made a noon appointment, so we took the
dinghy to shore to sign the waivers, even Steve & I had to sign a
wavier to be on the mother ship. We took the dinghy out to the
pontoon boat for JoAnne to get her instructions and to go first in
the jet-pack. The instructions & gearing up took longer than
her 10 minutes of flight time, but she had a blast. Next up Bill and
he too had a blast even while doing an unintended flip into the
water. Back to the boats and over to North Sound. Entrance to the
sound is through the reef that borders the north side. It is about 5
miles wide & long and very shallow. First stop is over to
stingray city, a sandbar that we inched up to and anchored then took
the dinghies over to feed & pet the stingrays. The rays know
everyone comes to feed them so they come to greet you and once you
are in the water are all over you looking for food. Their skin feels
like velvet, and as they eat from your hand it feels really strange,
doesn't really hurt if they manage to get your finger but still a
weird sensation. Back to the boats, Ultra stayed there overnight we
moved across the bay to be closer to the marina & chandlery the
following morning.
Saturday
the chandlery is next to Harbor House “Marina”, more of a boat
yard with a fuel dock and a boat launch ramp. We were 99.9 % sure we
could not bring the big boat in but we got the depth finder out and
went in by dinghy to see. We were right no way was Ocean
Star going to get fuel there.
But we filled up the gas tanks for the dinghy and went shopping at
the chandlery. Two of our lines are staring to show some wear so we
wanted to be sure to have spares for when they need to be changed
out. Not having seen a boat supply store for a while Steve had quite
a list of things he needed. Ultra
had gone to another marina for fuel and were now coming over to go to
the chandlery as we went to the other fuel dock. They are NOT used
to a lot of transient boats here in Cayman and the channel markers
are not very good so moving around this big shallow bay was a
challenge for our 6'3” draft. This is a new and very nice marina
but not made for big sail boats either. We get to the fuel dock with
the winds blowing us onto the dock, making it hard to move forward,
get 45 gallons of Diesel then walk the boat back down the dock out of
the way while we get some lunch at the lovely George Town Yacht Club
before going to the hardware store. Back to the boat and even more
trouble getting off the dock with the winds blowing us on. With more
help from the great staff at Barcadera Marina we get away by 3, slow
go across the sound and out the reef into deep water where we have a
lovely sail back around to George Town. Pick up our same mooring
and get cleaned up for a night out. We had planned to go to the
Wharf restaurant & bar to see the Barefoot man show with Bill &
JoAnne & Ismael & Olga. BUT even though the sign says every
Saturday night this night was not included, no music at all. So we
walked to town seeing if anything was going on there, nope! This is
a cruise ship town and the 4 ships we have seen since we arrived have
all left way before sunset so “downtown” closes up at night. We
find a place on the water playing some music but they are closing at
10 but let us stay to closer to 11 when we leave and go back to
Cuatro Patas for a
night cap and talk some more to 1 AM.
Sunday
we sleep late, cloudy day, good day for a few boat chores and get our
dive gear put away.
Monday
I found a place for a massage while Steve went to clear us out (free)
then to a few more hardware stores. Bill & JoAnne had a broken
head that had to get fixed so they spent the day running around
trying to find parts. Steve & I met back up for one more stop at
the grocery store, and a late lunch. We were going to have another
get together on Ultra before
we left BUT they had been too busy so we said we would just have
drinks on our boat. On the way back we see friends Roger & Sasha
on Ednbal (green tree frog) had
arrived so we invited them over for HH at 7 also. Stopped by Cuatro
Patas and after explaining to
him what happy hour is, he said he is always happy not just for an
hour, and confirming that we both showed it was 3:30, went back to
the boat to put things away and clean up. At a little after 6 Roger
& Sasha show up and Steve & I just laugh as they are an hour
off just like we were, at least they find out on their 1st
day as we explain our 3 day mix up on time. We have a fun night on
which we thought was our last in Cayman as we were set to leave
Tuesday morning to head for the Bay Islands of Honduras.
Tuesday
after early morning rains, we are up getting ready to leave.
Listening to Chris Parker's latest weather report & predictions.
Does not look good, very light winds as we leave and as we arrive at
islands surrounded by reefs, squally conditions with big waves. We
have a long way to go so need wind but don't want to arrive in
unknown waters under adverse conditions. We had a bad connection as
we were listening to the weather report so missed part of what was
said. We left the mooring but shortly out to sea decide to turn
around and go back to wait for a better weather window. We still
have a few days to make it to Roatan by June 5th
for my brothers visit. More rain after we got back and cloudy most
of the day. All geared up and ready to go then not going kind of put
us out of sorts so just a lazy day.
Wednesday listened
and talked with Chris Parker about the weather and our passage. It
was a good thing we turned around yesterday, the weather on our
passage would have been awful with large clusters of very violent
thunderstorms and lightning. Looks like we'll be waiting it out in
the Caymans for a while. Managed to get off the boat and using our
cart brought our laundry to a coin operated laundromat (very nice &
clean) where I did 4 loads of laundry. Planned ahead and brought
extra garbage bags to double bag all the nice clean & dry clothes
for the 10 minute walk back to the dinghy dock in the rain. I am
sure people driving by thought I was crazy. Called Steve on the VHF
to come pick me up, back on the boat and into dry clothes for lunch.
Rained the rest of the day.
Thursday
& Friday still more rain !!!! Can't remember having this many
days of continuous rain. Friday Steve runs back into customs to
clear out again, since we never cleared back in they had him do that
first then gave us new departure papers, still ALL FREE. One more
stop at a few stores then back to the boat to get ready for Saturdays
departure.
Hope to add some DIVE pictures & a few more when I get copies from JoAnne
