An amazing two-tank boat dive with Indigo Divers today.
Indigo have their own dock, just off West Bay public beach.
It wasn’t a very long boat trip - our first dive was Big Tunnels, the second Turtle
Schooner Reef. I saw a big Nurse Shark, met lots of very friendly turtles, a
big porcupine fish... It was great to dive with Kate and Chris again; Indigo Divers
rock.
Nurse Shark resting on the seabed
Porcupine fish
Tropical Storm Otto has just formed north of Panama. One computer
model shows a path directly over Grand Cayman, but almost certainly it will
head west to Costa Rica. As we enter the end of hurricane season there’s the
chance of these tropical storms that develop suddenly, and locally rather than
being tracked all the way across the Atlantic.
Although I prefer the mangroves to being on a dock, as a possible
alternative hurricane hole, I looked at Crystal Harbour, a luxury development
just round the corner from me; all the houses have wooden docks at the end of
their gardens. I also looked at a dock in Mitchell’s Creek. I would be out of
any waves, facing east and very sheltered (by tall buildings) from the north
and west. I could center myself in the canal, run lines either side and set a
spider’s web.
Apart from the damaging winds, the major problem, if you’re
on a dock, is the sudden and massive rise in water level. The ropes will snap
when the boat goes up too far, or cleats will break. Pre Hurricane Ivan the
yacht club thought they’d solved this with posts and floating docks, so the
lines could move up with the water. However for Ivan the posts weren’t tall
enough so during the storm surge the boats were floating above the submerged
posts but still tied to them; the hulls bounced on the posts until they burst
through, eventually leaving some boats skewered on concrete posts. New posts now
rise twelve feet above the water.
