Taia (English): Cayman Islands

After spending 6 weeks between Haiti and Cuba, getting to the Cayman islands was a bit of a shock. They couldn't be any more different! Grand Cayman is very clean, full of tourists and cruise ships (at least 2 of them on weekdays), full of duty free shops and, of course, good grocery stores that have nothing to envy to the Canadian and US stores.

The sail from Cuba to Grand Cayman was a challenging one. It started out ok, with the seas a bit confused but steady wind of 15 knots. At about 2 am the following morning, we got caught in the middle of a thunderstorm that lasted for about 4 hours. The storm didn't bring a lot of wind but there was lightning all around us. Not a great sight when you are in a sailing vessel. Fortunately, nothing bad happened and we made it to Grand Cayman at about 9:50 am.

Anchoring is not allowed in George Town so we grabbed one of the free mooring balls. And then waited patiently until Port Authority instructed us to take Taia to the dock to check in. The dock is a concrete one, rather small and in not great shape and with big rusty bollards instead of cleats, making the docking maneuver a bit challenging with waves pushing you against the dock. After Taia was safely tied up, Ernesto met the Port Authority people and finished the check in process in less than 5 minutes. Spear fishing is not legal here so they confiscated our hawaiian sling and pole spear and we'll get them back at check out. Port Authority never inspected our boat so I'm not sure what the whole point in having boats dock there is. Why not allow people to take their dinghies to check in as everywhere else?

We were greatly surprised at the quality of the water and coral reefs in George Town harbour. The water is crystal clear and there's beautiful and healthy reefs all over. There are a lot of shipwrecks along the coast too, making this a perfect spot for snorkelling and diving.

7 Miles Beach

Snorkelling the Kittiwake. Beautiful spot!

Stingray city, on a weekday, full of tourists! Fishermen used to clean the fish there so stingrays got used to the easy food. Now you can go and swim with them.

Lovely creatures.

The plan was to be here for a few days and then go to either Belize or Honduras. As always, mother nature had other plans for us and the weather turned bad, with lots of wind and thunderstorms. After experiencing one long thunderstorm on our way here, we weren't looking for a repeat. So we tucked Taia safely inside Governors Creek and let the bad weather go. While we waited we had a great time with our friends from Sheraphim and L'eau dace. Camila and Matias didn't have any other kids to play with but were spoiled plenty by the adults.