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Monthly Archives: February 2017

Grand Cayman

27 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by Cindy in Uncategorized

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Barcadere Marina, Grand Cayman, Rum Point Grand Cayman, Seven Mile Beach

Beautiful water, restaurants, bars, and a jaw dropping grocery store sums up the British territory of Grand Cayman.  Most people would associate jaw dropping with the beautiful water but after grocery shopping in Central America for the last few years, the store here was something to get excited about.  Gary and I ran around like two kids in a candy shop.  People must have thought we were nuts at our excitement at finding fresh berries, greens, cheese, basically all the things we have been craving but could not get in Central America.

We rented a car for four days because there isn’t much in the way of mass transportation here.  Definitely a tourist destination with the four or five cruise ships that arrive daily, but friendly people and English speaking.  Driving on the left is always a challenge and for the first time we had the steering wheel on the right side with many roundabouts to maneuver through.  By the third day I was no longer turning on the windshield wipers instead of the blinker but I still hated the roundabouts.  Give me traffic lights and stop signs any day!

The beach at Rum Point on the north side of Grand Cayman

The beach at Rum Point on the north side of Grand Cayman

Seven Mile Beach Grand Cayman.  The surf was up the day we visited.

Seven Mile Beach Grand Cayman. The surf was up the day we visited.

The town of Hell on Grand Cayman

The town of Hell on Grand Cayman

Hell's post office

Hell’s post office

The US dollar is weak against the Cayman dollar so it is a bit pricey here, however, that has not stopped us from enjoying the many bars and restaurants.  So many choices but I think we are choosing well as all our meals have been great.  Our friend Ace from Red Frog has been here a few weeks and along with his crew Ryan and Eric they’ve given us some good suggestions.

We are currently waiting for a weather window for our four day passage to Key West.  Unfortunately Mother Nature is not yet cooperating.  We may have to take a detour two days away to Isla Mujeres, Mexico so we can keep moving north and find cheaper digs.  There are no protected anchorages here and while the marina is nice it is a bit pricey.

The view off our stern at Barcadere Marina

The view off our stern at Barcadere Marina

The waters off of George Town.  No color was adjusted.

The waters off of George Town. No color was adjusted.

Fair winds,

Cindy

 

San Andrés and Our Passage to Grand Cayman

20 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by Cindy in Uncategorized

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Grand Cayman, San Andres

We spent a little over three weeks at anchor in San Andrés waiting for calm seas before moving further north to the Caymans.  We enjoyed the town after being in remote Dead oops Red Frog marina for seven months.  This was definitely a vacation destination for mainland Colombia as gringos made up about one percent of the population but we enjoyed it.

sanandres4sm

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Taxi drivers playing dominoes while waiting for their next fare.

Taxi drivers playing dominoes while waiting for their next fare.

Our first pizza in months!

Our first pizza in months!

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San Andrés is about 120 miles offshore and the winds certainly kick up here.  We were anchored off three wrecks, which made for some stressful times when the wind was up.

We were anchored next to these wrecks

We were anchored next to these wrecks

We had a squall with 40 knot winds come through at night and we dragged our anchor.   With the engine running we held her steady until the squall passed.  We raised the anchor and at the time Gary noticed a bit of steel hanging from it.  He didn’t think it was any big deal so we lowered and reset the anchor and went back to bed.  The next morning we discovered we were too close to some mooring balls so we had to move.  We raised the anchor and Gary discovered we had a hunk of channel steel the length of the boat hooked to our anchor.  How the windlass pulled it up we have no idea.  Using the boat hook, Gary was able to get the steel off the anchor but now it was stuck to the boat hook.  Not able to pull it up any higher and with no way to get the boat hook off, Gary let go.  A few minutes later, the boat hook popped up to the surface but after several attempts we were not able to retrieve it.

Most boats just travel through San Andrés but we met Bill and Mary from Napa who have their 100 year old 51 foot steel hull sailboat at Nene’s marina.  Bills attraction to San Andrés is he considers this the best place for kite surfing.  Well we can’t agree more after experiencing the winds in this area for weeks!

A great weather window opened up for us to sail directly to the Caymans without needing to stop in Providencia.  We had several concerns with this passage.  The most important was incidences of piracy against sailboats along the Nicaragua coast and our second concern was the shallow banks.  With some advice from weather guru Chris Parker, we planned our route to stay 120 nm off Nicaragua and I’m happy to say all went well.  While we would have preferred a little more wind for sailing, with the exception of the first day the seas were calm and we were able to enjoy a cockpit shower somewhere in the middle of the central caribbean.

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For us the clearance into the Caymans was a breeze.  We didn’t fit the profile for a search of the boat.  After clearing in we headed around the west coast of Grand Cayman and entered the shallow North Sound to Barcadere Marina.  Even following their waypoints it took us forever to get there because we went at a snails pace to make sure we would not ground out.  I’m so glad I remembered to record our track so we can take the exact same course out of here going faster.

Sunrise on our way to Grand Cayman.

Sunrise on our way to Grand Cayman.

Enjoying a nice Italian dinner

Enjoying a nice Italian dinner

I did learn one thing on this passage.  If I spend three weeks in a windy and sometimes rolly anchorage right before departing, I will not get sea sick!

Fair winds,

Cindy

 

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