My apologies. Transmission was interrupted by the necessity for Christmas preparations. Apparently it is a Big Thing around here. Who knew?
Anyhoo, you'll notice that so far I have made no reference to stopping for lunch during our visit to Grand Cayman. Sharon offered to stop at the local supermarket so we could buy sandwiches to eat on the boat on our way to stingray city but we were all excited and not hungry yet. We figured we'd just have a late lunch back on the ship. In retrospect, probably not our best decision.
So anyway, we got to the marina just as a previous tour was getting off the boat and heading out so it was only a few minutes wait for us. And we were the only people boarding so we had the boat to ourselves. Well, ourselves and Captain Tom and Taron, his first mate (and his son, if I remember rightly)
It was a good size older boat, and I just realized that taking a picture of it might have been a good idea. Oh well, it was white. And a boat. DH separates boats into the 'can fish from it' and 'can't fish from it' categories. I think this one fell into the 'can fish from ' category.
It's about a 35 minute ride from the marina to Stingray City. For the first part, you cruise through the channel gazing enviously at the gorgeous homes on the water.
Really?
A swimming pool in your backyard.
Your backyard that's right next to the ocean.
Tough life!
This one appears to be under construction. Still time to pick out paint colours!
Once we got out of the channel and into open water, I went 'upstairs' to sit and enjoy the view. The kids alternated. K came up for a while, then went back down. V came up and enjoyed the sea air in her hair!
I remember at one point wondering what their backup plan would be if the engine gave out. Yeah, I always worry about things like that. In my head I was trying to figure out 'well, if it's a half-hour boat ride, and they have to send out another boat to pick us up....will we make it back to the Wonder on time?' Finally I resolved to worry about it only if it happened.
And let's face it, if you're going to get stranded, there's lots of worse places it could happen!
However, we did make it with no engine problems to report! There were only a couple boats already there although more would arrive while we were there.
I loved the jet skis. That would be cool to jet ski out to the sandbar!
As the Captain and his mate worked on getting the boat anchored we had fun watching the water and spotting the rays already swimming by to check out the new arrivals. Finally we were secured and time to get ready to jump in.
I had really, really wanted to buy a waterproof camera just for this excursion. But DH said 'no more cameras'. It's a running joke. Kind of like 'no more dogs'. I'm a good wife so I will listen and obey, until the time comes when I really, really want a new camera. Or another dog. But in this case, I just couldn't justify the cost of a new camera, in light of all the other financial obligations. Or a waterproof case, which apparently cost more than the camera itself! Ah, but the Internet is a wonderful thing and I found out about something called a dicaPac that run about $35 (on eBay). Okay, that I could swing and within a week or so I had my package, direct from S. Korea. Did I mention I love the Internet?
So anyway, the big moment came and I tucked our little Canon point & shoot into the dicaPac and sealed it like it said. I even took the precaution of making sure I put in a blank memory card, thinking that if the seal failed at least I wouldn't lose *all* the trip photos. Mama didn't raise no nimwit! No worries, the dicaPac worked great and for the price, I highly recommend it for those once in a blue moon uses like this. It wasn't perfect - there were some problems and limitations but if I had to be honest (and it's the Internet so I don't really
have to be) the problems and limitations were <ahem> mostly with the user and not the equipment
.
Now we had picked this excursion (over a snorkelling one) because the kids are not strong swimmers and I figured they'd be better off where they could stand, rather than trying to swim and snorkel and see. What we didn't figure on was the strong breakers rolling in that would push them (and us!) off their feet. The water was pretty much chest high for us, which meant K had to wear a life jacket and try to tread water and that one of us had to hold on to her to keep her from floating away. All of this while we had to try and stay on our feet too because we were getting pushed around. And let's face it, you just don't want to put your feet down without being sure there isn't a stingray underneath!
V made it into the water and although tall enough to stand, she was also having problems trying to maintain position. I think she also was getting a little freaked out by the dark shapes gliding by...and she was feeling the lack of food, which meant her tummy started to give her grief.
So we managed to snap this picture. Notice how the water is a nice level at this point - but you can see the wave that just passed by behind them!
After that, V hightailed it back to the boat to lie down. K managed a little longer but she was getting frustrated with the lifejacket riding up and choking her - or maybe it was mommy's tight hold on the handle of the jacket. If we were doing it again, I think I would invest in our own (more comfortable) lifejackets to take. Eventually she went back to the boat and sat at the back to watch us.
I was disappointed that they weren't going to enjoy the excursion as much as I'd hoped. But on the other hand, now DH and I didn't have to worry about them in the water, so we could at least enjoy ourselves.
Taron had already dived into the water and it was his mission to help us hold a stingray. He started off with this big guy:
But did you know they don't have any handles? And they're very slippery?
So he found us a smaller one. This one also was missing his stinger:
Oh yeah, back to the limitations of the underwater camera case. Well, apparently I forgot to take any photos underwater.
Okay, can't really blame that on the equipment. It's hard to remember everything when you're trying not to step on a stingray and/or drown. Now I did take some underwater video. Again, a limitation. With the bright sun and the reflection bouncing off the water into my eyes and having a case on the camera....all this combined to mean I couldn't actually see the LCD screen on my camera. Which apparently meant that when I thought I was 'recording' I was actually turning the video off...and vice versa.... So I ended up with several incredibly short video clips.
Um....Oops?
I made the best of it and put the clips together as artistically as I could:
Stingray City
And chalked it up as another 'learning opportunity'
When the Captain and Taron started bringing out the squid, it became a feeding frenzy around us. One stingray became very fond of DH. In an awkward 'dude, you just gave me a hickey' kind of way
We didn't get around to doing some of the 'must do' things...like the stingray back massage, or kissing a stingray...but we were happy enough. We'd been in the water about half an hour and were starting to feel guilty that the kids were missing out. We worked our way back to hang on to the back of the boat so K could at least get a closer look at the rays from her perch. By then I had swallowed enough of the Caribbean ocean so scrambled on board myself.
I asked the Captain if he'd ever been stung.
"Do you want me to answer truthfully?"
- Sure, I'm not in the water anymore...
So yes, he admitted he'd been stung once and that it hurt like hell for hours!
Good to know....good to know...
Taron found the little one again and brought him up to the boat for K to touch.
The Captain and Taron seemed determined we were going to get our money's worth and we finally had to say 'no, we need to go back now'...V really needed her feet on solid ground and some food in her stomach! So anchor's aweigh and steer the boat back to land!
As we cruised back through the marina, we pointed out a few boats that daddy might like for Father's Day:
This one came already equipped with pirate flag!
This one especially intrigued him:
Talisker is one of his favourite whiskies. We looked for a Macallan as well but no luck.
Back at the marina, by the time we had moored, we could see Sharon arriving with our transportation. V had slept most of the way back and now began to look a little less green around the gills. It was also close to 3pm and the last tender was 3:30 back to the ship. Fortunately on Grand Cayman, you're really not ever far away from anything. We asked Sharon if we could make a quick stop at a beach, so that the girls could get their bit of sand. She pulled over at what I believe was a section of 7 Mile Beach.
Either way, I want to go back, with time to spare for several cold, fruity drinks!
We made it back to port with time to spare (for shopping!) so it was farewell to Sharon and back through the gates.
Loving the TR about Falmouth, I don't think I've seen anything about it yet. 
). So, he says, if you see guys walking along the road carrying a machete, theyre just farmers heading up to harvest their crops.
.
. So I did what anyone would do in this situation. I bought cakes. Rum cakes. As DH said, there's nothing we can do from here. So, let them eat cake. DH and I complement each other so well. We don't panic together - when one panics, the other stays calm and talks me in off the ledge. So by the time we left the rum factory to head to Hell (appropriately enough) I was ready to put home problems out of my head and enjoy the day.
)
