95. Flying Low

I left Grand Cayman on an early morning flight to Jamaica. Flight time was just over 45 minutes, which beats a three-day sail by just less than three days.

Leaving Grand Cayman

I arrived in Kingston at 8am. I was hoping to meet someone going to Negril, but no such luck. I got a bus from the airport to downtown Kingston, then another to New Kingston. There I had to wait five hours for the bus to Negril. After all the scare stories Kingston didn’t seemed so bad. I was expecting total chaos and some danger, but I managed everything fairly smoothly and didn’t get shot.

Kingston Airport

The Knutsford Express took five hours to get to Negril. I checked into Traveller’s Beach Resort for my first night, which I’d booked on Expedia for forty bucks. Tomorrow I will look for something cheaper, maybe under a tree on the beach. All I can do now is wait until I hear my permit is ready. I’m praying it doesn’t take too long and I don’t run out of money before I get back to Grand Cayman.

The bus to Negril stopped in Manchester

94. Godzilla

After Joaquin, Sonic Boom is still tied up on the dock at the Yacht Club/Morgan’s. And I’ve had a steady stream of visitors; I made friends with the Honduran fishermen on M/V Pescadora, some locals on a party catamaran and Rodriguez – the Indian security guard (from Goa). I also made friends, kind of, with an iguana, who sneaked on board. He can stay if he catches mosquitos…

My work permit application will be submitted tomorrow; I need to get off the island, so I will fly to Jamaica tomorrow morning. I could only get a flight to Kingston; from there I will head to Negril and cheap hotels. I’m not sure how long it will take for the permit or how I’m going to pay for everything. It’s taking way longer and costing way more than I’d expected. Hopefully I’ll make it back to Grand Cayman, start work and get my first paycheck soon.

93. Joaquin

George Town Rum Shop

I kept tracking my post online, and saw this message from Parcel Force: my police form couldn’t be delivered (to Diver’s Supply, because the envelope was too big to fit in their post box), so it would be returned to the UK. I quickly went to George Town post office, who sent me to Seven Mile post office. It turns out Seven Mile post office was in West Shore Plaza – the same as Diver’s Supply. Actually they shared the same building – the post office was literally two doors down.

After checking and double checking, I will definitely have to leave the island for a few days while the permit is processed – probably sometime next week. I think I will go to Jamaica – fly to Montego Bay and stay in a cheap guesthouse in Negril for a couple of nights. I went to a café with Wi-Fi (and a plug socket) and checked flights and hotels. I also checked the weather and quickly decided to go back to the boat – and was just in the nick of time.

Seemingly out of nowhere hurricane Joaquin pops up. When I checked passage weather there was a huge red blob just on the other side of Cuba, over the Bahamas. This afternoon it brought fairly strong winds, but coming from the West – the opposite of the usual trade winds. My anchor chain flipped round 180 degrees, not good. Sure enough I slowly started to drag. This time I was drifting towards rocks, and an expensive motor yacht. And this time my engine wasn’t working.

I quickly got my spare anchor and jumped in the dinghy. I dropped it about 50 feet away, led the rode back to Sonic Boom, jumped aboard and pulled it tight. Luckily it held really well and I sat in the middle of the channel to the marina in everybody’s way. I managed to get a tow to the dock and tied up, minutes before the winds kicked up to 20 knots, with very heavy rain and lots of lightening. Another very lucky escape.