Kathleen is gone :(

Kathleen managed to get off the island today. Apparently her flight left about an hour late. But her connection in North Carolina was on time. So she should be landing in Buffalo right about now (9:45 pm). I will miss her presence like no one could understand, but we have set some goals and we both believe that we should meet those goals before I leave here.

I don't want to sit here and dwell on the fact that she is gone, but I wanted to post some pictures of her here.

Stingray City, and a Shark!

Today Kathleen and I went to Stingray City. Actually there really is no city. We were taken by a boat out to a sandbar where a large amount of stingrays frequent. Once in the water they feed the stingrays squid to attract them. It was quite interesting and Kathleen even ventured to pick one up.

After the stingrays they took us to a nearby reef for snorkeling. As soon as I was in the water I was face to face with a nurse shark! This guy came within 3 inches of me. We were quite close, but I guess it was not hungry.

All in all we had a pretty good day, and yes of course we finished it off with dinner out at one of the nicer restaurants on the seven mile beach strip.

I almost forgot to mention all of the iguanas that we saw driving to the dock. There must have been a hundred of them on both sides of this road. Check the video out!

Another update

Yesterday Kathleen and I ventured down to Rum Point. It was not quite as exciting as we had anticipated. It seems to me that it was more for the drinking crowd. And it was also more of a beach, and we wanted to go snorkeling around some reef. Aside from that the thunder and lightning along with the brief rainstorm put a bit of a damper on the experience.

Beyond that we just cruised around the the east end of the island, and took some pictures. I also must say that I have never eaten out so much in my life. I would be a little embarrassed to tell how much money I have spent on restaurants since Kathleen has been here. But I believe that Kathleen deserves to be treated out as this is her first real vacation since we had children.

Last night we had a great experience at a restaurant called Ristorante Pappagallo. I had an 18 oz. Rib eye steak that was absolutely fantastic. I would love to be able to bring family and friends here to experience some of the dining. It is a great place to eat out.

Dinner out

Well Kathleen and I have been eating out quite a bit. I guess this would be the obvious choice as we have no worries about the kids, thanks to our parents on both sides! Tonight we ate at a place called The Reef, on Seven Mile beach. This pictures is actually three pictures stitched together. I wanted everyone to see the sunset like we did. Evenings like this are absolutely spectacular, especially with Kathleen by my side. Sadly though it turns out that I do not like lobster. We both ordered the surf and turf tonight because we have never tried lobster. And fortunately for my wallet I do not really enjoy it.

Tourist

Today with my beautiful wife at my side I played tourist. We walked into Georgetown and bought some souvenirs. While we were there we took some pictures of the waves crashing up over the break walls, the most spectacular being at the Burger King drive-thru. We also had lunch at a great restaurant on the second floor. They had a balcony overlooking the street and the harbor.

After we got back from Georgetown we took a walk up Seven Mile beach and ended up at a bar on the beach called 'The Reef'. We stayed there and had a beer while we watched the sunset. Having Kathleen with me for all of this made it an absolute perfect day!

Back home

Kathleen and I came back home this afternoon because it appeared that all danger had passed. Everything seems to be somewhat back to normal. As we drove home I noticed that some of the local area businesses were opening back up. We went to the beach to see what it was like. The 16 foot waves had died down, but for a place that normally has no real waves to speak of it was pretty wild looking to me.

Almost gone

I suspect that I will be back home this evening. All of the projections and satellite imagery shows Dean well on his way. Best of luck to Mexico and Belize.

Still Alive!

Well hurricane Dean is blowing through and we are all still alive. I guess the fact that I am still typing away with electricity active and and internet connection must tell you how bad it is. The only service that we are currently missing is water. The water was shut off at 9 pm last night. It seems as though the Cayman Island Government is convinced that Dean has pretty much passed us by, they issued this press release this morning.

The five of us are just hanging around watching tv and making amateur predictions about the storm. Cell phone service is still up as well, so anyone can call us if they are uneasy.

We are all pretty comfortable here and have no real concerns about the storm, as it seems to have passed us by for the most part. They already have sunny skies in Jamaica and I expect the same here tomorrow.

Dean keeps moving south

The National Hurricane Center has released another update and Dean is creeping even farther south. It seems as though we may end up with it being pretty easy here after all.

Another Dean update

Apparently Dean keeps creeping more and more to the south. I am not sure that it will stay that way, but the way I see it is that the farther away it gets the better! You can see the difference from this picture to the last one that I posted.

Dean Update

I will try to make reasonably frequent updates on the storm and our well being. I am not sure when the electricity will go out, but when it does I will have to stop the updates.

All is well in Grand Cayman

Kathleen made it on Friday as scheduled. It was a little hairy getting into the airport as everyone is in a frenzy over Dean. Now it looks as though Dean will not be as powerful as thought and will stay a little farther from the islands as has been indicated the last couple of days. With any luck it will just be something to talk about. I am getting all my electronics packed up to take with me to higher ground just in case. So you may not hear from me for a day or two.

Other than dean everything is great. Hopefully Kathleen will still get a decent holiday out of all this mess and we will laugh about it in the future.

He's Back

Our Iguana really seems to like our jobsite. He was caught today by one of the rodmen from Honduras. This time I managed to get some close up shots. There is some debate as to the sex of this guy. There are two different men on site that both claim to be experts and they have differing opinions. So I have no idea if it is male or female. It is definitely any Iguana though.

Our crane if broken today so things are a little slow right now. I have a hard time standing around for a 10 hour shift, but it pays the bills. What is even more difficult if finding work for all the other guys. They all come to the Canadians looking for something to do and sometimes there is just nothing going on. I am sure that once they get the crane going that we will be busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest

Tropical Depression 4

Well there is a bit of a storm headed our way. It is now a tropical depression, and could reach tropical storm status by tomorrow. It is headed west towards the Caribbean and it is believed that it will reach hurricane status by Thursday. Some say that it will be a category 2 hurricane by Thursday, but that remains to be seen. Either way we were told to get some supplies together just in case it does actually make it here. I do not believe it will, because statistically The Caymans usually fair pretty well in hurricane season. And if it does, there will just be more work down here!

Not much happening

So there has not been to much exciting going on lately. The pace has picked up slightly at work so I am actually getting to put in a full days work! This is kind of nice, as I sleep better because I am actually tired. The picture above is a panorama that I stitched together with some software. It is looking out off of our jobsite over Seven mile beach out into the Caribbean. If you could see far enough I believe you would be looking at Mexico.

Once I get my tripod here for my camera I am going to climb to the top of the tower crane and make a panorama photo the should go completely around the island. Apparently you can see the water around the entire island from up there. Our crane is the highest point on the island at this time. This should make for an interesting one of a kind photo!

Kathleen will be here next Friday afternoon. This should make for an extremely long week for me, waiting for her. I really hope that she gets the relaxation that she deserves. Looking after all four of the kids alone is an immense task that I do not take lightly. She deserves alot more than a two week break, but we will do what we can. I am truly looking forward to her arrival.

Jobsite visitor

Today we had a visitor on our jobsite. The first time we saw this juvenile iguana, my co-worker Tyler caught it and we threw it in the office for a joke. After that we released her. Near the end of the day I was cleaning up and picked up a bucket that was upside down. She came running out from underneath. One of the Filipino's had stuck her under there and was going to take here home for dinner. I spoiled there plan and the iguana made a run for freedom!

The North Side

Today we ventured to the North Side of the island and worked our way around the East end and back. We found it to be quite a different environment on the other side. The water did not seem as clear and it was alot choppier.

Although the scenery was fantastic and we did get to see some wildlife. I managed to get some pictures of an Iguana, Crab and a Hermit Crab.

We are discovering that the maps available to us on the island are crap. Even the books with what would seem to have good descriptions of different dive locations are not all that good. Finding places can be a real pain. But it does force us to stop and look around more, so we find some of the hidden gems.

Boddentown

My friend Jim and I rented a car for the weekend. Yesterday we went for a drive to check out more of the island with intentions of stopping and having dinner somewhere. We ended up in a place called Boddentown. Restaurants were pretty scarce, so when we came across a place called the lighthouse I suggested we stop.

We had dinner there even though it was little pricey, and it seemed a little fancy. I thought that I should be 'popping the question' because it seemed like a place for a romantic dinner. Anyway it is definitely a place that I will be taking Kathleen and I will be making a reservation for the table in the picture.

Update

Yesterday was probably the hottest I have seen on the thermometer here yet. It got to 47 celcius. Today our apprentice was on top of the tower crane to make a couple of minor repairs. He took my camera up with him and took a few shots around the jobsite.

Things are still going pretty well. We have rented a car for the remainder of the weekend. So I will finally get out and see some of the other parts of the island. I need to check some things out so that I will know the better places to take my better half once she arrives.