130. Pirate Attack II

Pirates, this time online ones, managed to empty my Cayman National Bank account, and steal my wages (three days after payday), apparently to play online poker. Cayman National Bank were very unsympathetic, quite defensive, but luckily because the transactions were in the US, and I caught them so quickly (before any had been settled), Visa have stepped in.

Mike (and me behind) coming in to land

129. Reef Divers

Cobalt Coast Reef Fish

Me and Daniel went diving on the Cobalt Coast – the north shore where Reef Divers are. Reef Divers are awesome, Julia and Will and Oli are lovely. We both had all our gear, so we just paid ten dollars each for two tanks. The dive centre is immaculate, and the dive was amazing (although I used up all my air, sorry Daniel). I went to their dive centres on Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, all are absolutely beautiful.

http://www.reefdiverscaymanbrac.com

We were going to go again the next day, but the waves had picked up so instead we went to Lighthouse Point and Dive Tech. The building still has parts of the old lighthouse architecture – thick antique wooden doors and canons. It’s very pirate, I loved it. Even the onsite café is vegetarian (except for the lionfish it serves).

http://www.divetech.com

The dive was incredible. My favorite dive so far. There’s a huge bronze statue ‘The Guardian of the Reef’, half Roman soldier, half seahorse. At about 80 feet we saw a massive turtle, the size of a VW. Also a huge moray eel, a huge grouper took us to a lion fish that was hiding under a rock, and I think was very disappointed we didn’t kill it, and another (regular size) turtle that swam right over my head.

The Guardian of the Reef (and me) at Lighthouse Point

128. Tropical Storm Earl

Tropical Storm Earl passed close by Grand Cayman; bad enough for Living the Dream to want their hurricane buoy back. So I tied up at the Yacht Club for a stormy night, next to my friends on Jolly Roger. Always good to see them.

I moved quite early, before things got too bad and then watched as boats started dragging and the dock filled up. I helped Leonardo, an Italian sailor, tie up his huge yacht after he abandoned his anchor. A real bare bones pirate I think, the boat’s name had worn off, so had all the paint. There was no glass in most of the port holes and holes in the dash where the instruments should be.

He came crashing into the dock, I heard something break off and fall into the water as I secured his lines. He didn’t have any fenders. After a couple of seconds in shock, I quickly went to get one of my fenders while Leonardo tried to hold off his probably ten ton boat from being smashed against the concrete dock by big waves and 30 knot winds.

I tied a fender to the dock, and watched the huge boat bounce off it instead of scraping and crunching concrete. But it was way too small for such a big yacht; every time the boat hit, it was squashed flat like a pancake. Leonardo went off to try and borrow some more.