Thursday, February 19, 2009

Our first morning on the island. Neither one of us slept that great last night, the bed must be hard or something. We were up at 6:30 to get our scuba stuff ready and out the door. We put all of our stuff into crates--they take it to the boat, set it up for us, switch it out for the 2nd tank dive and then rinse & store it for us for the day. Pretty nice...I am going to get spoiled!

We had our breakfast on the balcony and watched them get the boats ready for the day. They have all the boats on mooring balls right in front of the condos. It is amazing how hard they work to get the tanks to the docks, load the boats, etc. We were on the Nauti-Cat which is a catamaran sytle boat with 2 hulls so it makes the ride smoother.

We went out to the northern side because the weather was better than it had been. Well, we thought it was pretty choppy and actually were not feeling the best on our surface interval between dives. Our first dive was a drift dive along a wall...called something I don't remember...we stayed about 70 feet for about 45 minutes...will have to find the details. We were dealing with a pretty good current and just doing what we could to get use to be under water and not losing the group. We did drop down on top of the reef and spotted an eel slinking around on the reef. It was neat to see some sea life right away but that was about it for that dive but the reef was beautiful.

After our surface interval where we both felt queasy, we dove a site I believe was called Roger's Cove or something. There was a story behind it but I couldn't watch the guy and listen...I had to watch the horizon so not to get sick. We went on the second dive to about 50 feet for about 50 minutes. We saw bigger fish than we are use to...not huge but probably 15 inches long. We also saw a big stingray hanging out in the sand...didn't get to see him swim though. We did see a smaller turtle--probably about 2 feet long...he was having a hard time swimming against the current. We also saw a crab on this dive plus many fish. Will have to get the fish ID card out and name all of them...parrotfish, grouper, angelfish, snapper, trigger fish and trumpet fish.

We both thought the morning dives were cold. Jason decided to wear his 3ml shorty on the second dive and I am going to wear my beanie tomorrow to see. According to Meghan, the old CN boss lady...I will look stupid but be warm! I doubt I will be warm. We got back to the condo about 12:30...had some lunch..then an hour nap...then decided to go do some geocaches.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

We started bright and early from Phoenix--Jason picked me up from work at 5:30am (thanks Jim) and headed to the airport. Thanks to my hubby's flying so much last year, we got to go in the first class line for check in, breeze thru security and board early! Yeah!

We had no problems and I basically slept the whole airplane ride. The plane was completely full--I had a window seat and Jason had the aisle. We were seperated by a guy with a neck brace and crutches who was popping Percocet's the whole ride! We had a very brief layover in Houston where I set up a rafting trip for next April and Jason bought some Vodka for bloody mary's. The plane was mostly empty so we had an aisle to ourselves...nice to be able to stretch out. I tried to sleep a little more to catch up.

We landed in Georgetown, Grand Cayman and got thru immigration and customs fairly easily. They asked a ton of questions at customs to make sure you were bringing anything with you that you were going to be leaving...there is like 20% duty tax on anything you bring in that you are not going to be using or taking with you.

Now for the rental car...we knew we were getting a sub-compact car. I couldn't get the free credit report dot com commercial out of my head...F R E E that spells free, credit report dot com baby...

The car rental was included in our package...a Diahatsu Charade...now that is a luxury car. They drive on the opposite side of the road, the steering wheel is on the right side of the car and everything is reversed. Jason keeps turning the windshield wipers on when he wants to turn the blinker on. It is quite hilarious!

We did manage to get all of the luggage in...a tight fit but we were able to make room for a case of caybrew...gotta have our beer! We are accepting donations for the crackers we need to feed the squirrel that is under the hood!



We are staying in a condo on the east end of the island called Compass Point and diving with their dive operation that is on site. The condo is a one bedroom condo that has cable tv and wireless internet along with a 7/8th size kitchen! Tiny! But it works...and the balcony is huge! The bathroom is basically a hallway.





All right...signing off for today...tomorrow we go diving!! Here is a picture of the local beer...Caybrew...tastes good!

I am going to attempt to figure this out :)