138. Japanese Gardens

Japanese Gardens

I went for a three-tank dive with DNS; Dusty the owner, Chase and Gareth took me and five other divers all around the island - North (Valley of the Dolls), East and South (Japanese Gardens). Chase lead the dives and was a real expert, they all were, I learnt a lot. The other divers were a fun group, very experienced, all had Atomic regulators. It was like diving with a group of friends.

http://dnsdiving.com

The dives were amazing, we saw turtles, sharks and lion fish, but also tiny crabs in miniature caves and sea worms hidden under rocks.

Elk horn coral

French Angelfish

137. Sharks

On my day off I went for a two-tank boat dive with Tortuga Divers. Tortuga have their center at Morritt’s Resort, on the east end of Grand Cayman, a beautiful forty-minute drive from George Town. James had very kindly invited me.

Thanks Nigel and Sarah and all Red Sail crew for an amazing day

http://www.tortugadivers.com

Our first dive was to High Rock, on the south coast. Spectacular. Then we dove Big House, which was incredible. Swimming through tunnels in the coral, like secret passageways. Unfortunately my camera broke down; it was the most colorful dive yet – lots of blue and purple sponges, some huge lobsters.

Nigel spotted and speared two lionfish, and not long after an 8ft nurse shark came to check it out. My calf was bleeding (looks like ink at 60 feet) from scraping some coral. One of the other divers was also cut. The shark was swimming amongst us until one diver tried to touch its tail; it swam off and the diver got told off. A few minutes later it came back, and a bigger reef shark also appeared.

136. Mathew II

Hurricane Mathew finally turned north and looks like I’ve escaped one of the biggest hurricanes ever in the Caribbean. Poor Haiti looks likely to suffer most damage, the eye of the storm has just passed over their west coast. Next looks to be the Bahamas, and east coast America.

I’ve been talking to other boat owners; we were all very nervous. People at Red Sail moved all their boats to their safe haven and were on stand-by to take down their sails and masts. I feel like I’ve pushed my luck staying two seasons in the hurricane zone; looking forward to being out of it.

135. Hurricane Mathew

There’s a very big hurricane coming this way.

There was a big disturbance brewing in the Atlantic last week, it passed St. Lucia and turned into tropical storm Mathew, which then very quickly became a category five (the maximum) hurricane and is still heading this way. The forecast is it will soon turn north to Jamaica and pass along the east coast. But even with that path Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are forecast to get waves 9 – 12 feet.

I think I will take down my sails and dodger, and tie another line to my buoy.