THE FREEDOM DOES

GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND

22-30 MARCH, 2019

(click the thumbnails for a larger image)

On 22 March Ken and I arrived at Georgetown, Grand Cayman after an uneventful flight from San Diego via Dallas Forth Worth airport.  The other members of the yacht Freedom's crew were arriving the next day via an overnight flight from San Diego.  Skipper Ray, the Freedom's owner, had kindly organized this trip for all of us and even volunteered to prepare some of the meals during our stay.

 Below are maps of Grand Cayman Island and its location in the Caribbean Sea. There are actually three islands in the Caymans and they have been aligned with the United Kingdom since 1670.  Today Cayman has an independent government and is considered to be an "Overseas Territory" of the UK.  I don't know what that really implies but practically speaking it means that American tourists have to learn how to drive on the left side of the road. Yikes! Cayman is a prosperous "territory" with the main industries being tourism and a huge financial industry.

22 MARCH, 2019 FRIDAY

The Caymans (accent on the last syllable) are on Central Time for some reason and by 4PM local time the two of us had rented our car and were ready to depart the "west end" for our destination at the east end of the island.  We rented an American car with driver on the left side and were soon off to master the driving and, especially, the round-abouts.

The drive to our destination, the Morritts Tortuga Resort, at the more isolated east end took about one hour. We observed that Grand Cayman has an abundance of chickens and as expected for a tropical island all the guys were pleased to see lots of cute chicks. The resort also has a lot of cats who seem to maintain an OK coexistence with the chickens.

23 MARCH, 2019 SATURDAY

After breakfast Ken and I made the drive back to the west end to pick up Deb and then met the rest of our crew at Rackams Restaurant.

Finally, we made the long drive back to the east end and were soon settled into our two condos for the week.  After some grocery shopping  the day was complete.

24MARCH, 2019 SUNDAY

Today's activities included a drive with both cars back to the west end for some snorkeling, scuba at Eden Rock and lunch at the Coccolobo Bar at the fancy SeaFire resort.

25 MARCH, 2019 MONDAY

Today's adventures started with (you guessed it!) another drive to the west end for a visit to the Turtle Center, to Hell and then snorkeling at Cemetery and Spott's Beaches. Sea turtles are raised at the center for conservation purposes, tourism and meat. The meat part was not included in the visitor areas. However; turtle soup and other delicacies are popular on the island. There are places at the Center  to swim with turtles but we chose to do this on our own at the snorkeling places. Also, a crocodile named Smiley was on display but he was asleep during our visit.

We made a brief stop at a place called Hell to take photos, buy stuff and send postcards (from Hell) to folks back home. The name derives from the very nasty looking rock formations and we could imagine that the Hell awaiting us sinners could involve spending an eternity walking barefoot over such rocks!

We did swim with a turtle (well it sort of ignored us) at Spott's Beach and I have included a picture of the cemetery at Cemetery Beach.  We saw lots of these grave yards and they all were well maintained and had the "flowers" on graves.

26 MARCH, 2019 TUESDAY

Today was a special day for the Freedom's crew--SAILING!  Skipper Ray had booked a 4 hour sail on a 47 foot Beneteau via BlueSkySailingCayman.com.  But first, we had to get to the yacht club at the west end.  We discovered that traffic jams are not unique to large cities but can even occur routinely on this small island.  This time it took us 2 hours to make the drive but all was well and owner, Orneil Galbraith, was waiting and ready for us. Under mild winds we initially sailed/motored across the North Sound.  We then ventured into the open ocean passing through the reef and immediately into the two mile deep water.  There was a dramatic change in the color of the water from the pastel greenish of shallow water into delightful deep blue sea. After a fruit treat we headed back to the docks and concluded a delightful morning of sailing.

Orneil is apparently concerned about getting lost so, just in case,  he has tattooed the latitude and longitude of Grand Cayman on his forearm as shown below. He is a native Caymanian and is well informed regarding the local events and history.

 We wrapped up the day with a lunch at Morgan's restaurant (I had octopus salad-good!) and then some more snorkeling at the Coral Sands resort on Seven Mile Beach.

27 MARCH, 2019 WEDNESDAY

Today we stayed at the east end and drove to the nearby Rum Point for another boat adventure with Red Sails Sports.  The glass bottom boat took us to  a nearby spot called "Sting Ray Sand Bar" where about a thousand of us tourist stood in shallow water and played with the big rays. The rays do not object to being held and especially like to eat the squid parts we fed them.

We completed the day with a visit to Mimi's Bar and Grill at our resort and with entertainment from Coconut Cowboy. He is a one man show and has an amazing memory for, mostly, country songs.

28 MARCH, 2019 THURSDAY

For today's adventure we again remained at the east end and did a 2.5 mile hike down the Mastic Trail.  This was our chance to explore the interior of the island and to walk on some of those jagged rocks (but not as bad as those from Hell).  Today was also a national holiday because of the brief visit of Prince Charles who was doing his royal family ceremonial stuff in the "territory".  According to Orneil the prince was doing some grand openings at the airport, at a swimming pool and at the nearby Royal Botanic Gardens. None of these places are actually open yet but soon will be. During our hike we saw some helicopters and guessed they were delivering the prince and his party to the Royal Gardens.

We completed the day at an Italian restaurant located near our condos.

29 MARCH, 2019 FRIDAY

We enjoyed our sailing so much that we decided to do it again.  This time Orneil gave us the "local" rate ($650) for four hours and he agreed to motor across the North Sound and pick us up on the east end at Kaibo Yacht Club. The winds were much stronger on this day so the sailing was more exciting. We anchored  at another sting ray place for snorkeling.  However, Orneil noticed that this area was swarming with tiny jelly fish which he says can sting so instead we headed to another area which he calls "Orneil's Aquarium".   

We completed the day with another visit to Mimi's and entertainment from Coconut Cowboy with his trusty 12 string and selection of popular hits.

30 MARCH, 2019 SATURDAY

Yikes! Our vacation is almost over.  Only Ken and I were left at the Morrits Tortuga resort as the rest of the crew had morning flights back to San Diego.  Fortunately , Ken and I had a full day for sightseeing before our 5pm flight. After checking out we headed back towards west end with a first stop at the 10 Sails wreck site and then a short look at the East End Light House Park. 

Our next stop was the Queen Elizabeth Botanic Gardens and for a $12.50 admission we did the full self guided tour. We checked out the place where Prince Charles had done his ceremony on Thursday and a lady showed us her videos and photos of him taken with her smart phone. We also encountered several of the Blue Iguanas which are a unique and endangered species on the island. Earlier we had learned that Green Iguanas, an invasive species, were threatening the blue ones and also annoying the residents and tourist.  Hence, there is a bounty of $5 for green carcasses and, according to a newspaper article, about 500,000 have been destroyed so far. Anyway, we were happy to see the blue ones and apparently Prince Charles also found them charming.

Our final stop was at the Pedro St James Castle National Historical Site.  This was a very interesting spot and a good chance to learn some of the Cayman history and about some of early settlers.  An Englishman named William Eden (1737-1851) built a "great house" on the island at the site called Pedro St James and a reconstruction of the building was on display. The "castle" served as a residence, a jail, a courthouse, an animal pound and was the site of such historic moments as the 5 December, 1831 meeting to establish a democracy and an 1835 proclamation ending slavery in the British Empire.  Mr. Eden owned 23 slaves and after the proclamation he retired to reading on his verandah.

Ken and I had the pleasure of encountering the resident historian, Stacy, who was happy to tell us far more about the place than we felt that we needed to know. Indeed, he was a walking and, especially, talking history book and is related to most of the historic figures mentioned at the site.  It seems he was present for many of the events with his "yes, I remember it well" comments.

At the site we noticed a commemoration of the 2004 Hurricane Ivan which caused massive destruction on Grand Cayman Island.  Maybe this explains why so many buildings appear to be new?

Anyway, we had plenty of time to return our car and check into the airport for our long but uneventful flight back to San Diego.  This excellent adventure was over!

THE END