Wow! So much has happened

Wow!!! So much has happened so quickly it's hard to keep up that I'm already behind.

Little Cayman Beach Resort.

We were enjoying Cayman Brac. We rented a car and drove around the island looking for things we wanted to explore more although the day was broken up by lunch with friends from Port Antonio who had just arrived and Linda wanting to watch her son Seth receive an MS from Utica College in New York. We also went on an expedition trying to find some fresh produce since we couldn’t bring anything in when we cleared Cayman Customs. Ironically, they never checked. So here we were again looking for food and the barge just arrived.

Amekaya from the dinghy dock and jetty,

Saturday two other couples that we knew from Port Antonio made it here and that night we all met at Barracudas for happy hour and their famous wood oven pizza but the real story starts after that. Larry and Debby Gaddy on Tropical Blend and Scott and Noi Neuman on Symbiosis made it here from Montego Bay and we hung together before moving on to Grand Cayman.

Looking east off Cayman Brac toward Jamaica.

The East End Light on top of Cayman Brac.

Saturday night the wind dropped and the normally benign swell became relentless. The island of Cayman Brac runs northeast to southwest so the prevailing easterly swell is deflected and mooring on the north side of the island is safe. But, with the wind down the swell built from the northeast and built and built. We couldn’t sleep at all that night because the current kept the boat sideways to the swell and with the boat rolling things that never even happen on a passage happened. We had to secure everything as if we were sailing and stuff in our lockers still rolled and slammed about as the sudden jerking about relentlessly grew.

The "Skull Tunnel." Cayman Brac had lots of tunnels including several used for hurricane shelters.

Sunday morning, we were scheduled to go diving and we managed to get into the dinghy and went to the jetty. But the swells were crashing over the rock jetty that serves as a dinghy dock and there was no safe place to land or leave the dinghy. If we would have gone into the beach we would have never gotten off. It would have been like Tom Hanks and Wilson trying to get beyond the reef. Everyone was in the same situation. None of the others had slept either. There didn’t seem to be many options but there was one. The South Sound on Little Cayman. The only issue was we knew little or nothing about it but we had a contact.

South or Owen Island Sound a welcome relief after the night from hell.

I had been given the name and phone number by our friend Marc Pothier of a sailor who used to live on Little Cayman. So even though it was early on a Sunday morning I called him. He was very happy to talk to me. He offered us his mooring in South Sound and gave us total local knowledge about the channel and the Sound. So I called Symbiosis and Tropical Blend on the VHF and offered that we would go over and take the mooring and check depths around the sound. Then call them and help them get in. We did that and by 1400 everyone was situated; us on a mooring and the others on anchor in the relative calm with protection behind the reef. For our time in Little Cayman we slept well making up for the one rough night.

All came to celebrate relief. Larry and Debbie Gaddy from Tropical Blend; Scott and Noi Neuman from Symbiosis; along with Linda and the photographer (me) enjoying respite.

Little Cayman turned out to be a boater’s dream. In the Sound we had protection from the surge and largely wind shelter from every way but south. A large dive resort was situated on the beach close to where we were. Little Cayman Beach Resort had a nice beach bar, we could get their wifi with our booster, we were able to drop off trash, no issues with landing our dinghies there and a great dive operation. All was good.

Heading out on a dive the next morning. If I can figure out how to edit the dive videos I will post the incredible footage,

I couldn’t wait to dive the Little Caymans. For years, I’ve read how great the diving is and Monday morning I went out to find out. It had just finished raining as I left the boat and went into the dock. The rain returned and it poured right up until it was time to leave. The boat went around the island to the Bloody Bay Park reported as one of the best dive sites in the world. Did 2 dives there with spectacular scenery. We did several swim throughs that came out onto the wall, swam along the wall and swam in shallower coral gardens full of reef fish, rays, turtles and several friendly groupers.  The walls in the Caymans are truly awesome. They start in as little as 30-40 ft and drop straight down thousands of feet. It is magical to float along these mountainous cliffs of coral suspended weightless 100 ft below the surface but thousands of feet above the bottom. Everything sparkles in the sun lit clear water but as darkness robs the light looking down there is only blue.

Iguanas have the right of way on Little Cayman.

The dives did not disappoint. I only wish I had more time to dive. We had originally planned a week on each island but with the changes to our plans and the weather it looked like about a week and a half was all we would get on the Little Caymans. I did do another dive which was equally spectacular and every chance we got we snorkeled. Just off the boat where we were moored on the Brac and by Little Cayman there was great snorkeling. Occasionally a ray or barracuda would swim by and you could see them from the boat or watch them through a snorkel mask.

In our crash gear with great scenery.

Out and about on our scooters. Is this a travel brochure pic or not?

Few boaters ever come here and the reason tourists travel here is for the diving although on the Brac there is wall climbing, hiking, caving and birding. Just too much to go into with all that.

We, along with our friends rented scooters one afternoon and toured Little Cayman. What a beautiful island with iconic scenes everywhere.

Another stop on our scooter trip at Southern Cross Resort.

During the week the weather gradually improved and we did more things around the boat and on the island. I managed to spend the time and clean off the bottom of the boat. From time to time I had managed to get parts of it clean but this was the first time since we launched last June that I was able to completely scrub the bottom clean. Hopefully that will help with speed and fuel economy going to Guatemala.

Just another gratuitous beach scene at Southern Cross Resort.

As always our week flew by and we needed to return to the Brac to check out of Cayman Customs before continuing on to Grand Cayman. There was still surge in the anchorage but it was nothing like the last night here. Saturday morning, I did 2 more dives and Linda snorkeled before leaving getting to see just a little more of the famous Little Caymans.

The "No Trespassing" sign on Owen Island.

I went back into our blog to a post I did about 2 years ago and the blog posts are getting longer and more involved because there is so much more to talk about. Cruising the east coast, working on the boat and even the Bahamas pale compared to the interesting things we’ve been able to do since we left George Town, Bahamas. The Acklins, Great Inagua, Jamaica and now the Caymans offer so much more adventure and very few boats come this way. Most places in the Bahamas or the BVI’s there are hundreds of boats on any given day. Here, we rarely see another boat. When we moored in Little Cayman and went ashore everyone had seen or heard about the boats out in the Sound because it is a novelty. People on the dive boats talked about the boats anchored there.

Full moon over the Little Cayman Baptist Church.

Now we get ready to make our way to Grand Cayman. It is a big city without the charms of these little islands. We can shop and provision for our trip up the Rio Dulce. Find time for some more diving and eat in fancy restaurants. But most importantly get the boat ready for our next passage and the longest of this trip and possibly to date. It will be about 460nm and take us about 70-75 hours.