Jobsite progress

As the pace of our job picks up it gets more and more difficult to update here, as there are other things that are more important such as eating showering and talking to family. Anyway the job is going really well. Yesterday we poured our first piece of the second floor which is a major milestone. The superintendant was very pleased with this so he let the crew knock off an hour early with pay and he bought 10 cases of beer. So we all hung out for and hour or so, until all the beer was gone. The picture shown is of the majority of our crew. You will notice it is quite a colourfull crew as we are working with people from Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Guyana, Cuba, The Phillipines, and of course Canada.

Return of the Iguana

I forgot to mention in my last post that our jobsite iguana has returned. He was caught on Friday close to the crane. He was quite tired out from being chased around, so he sat there for me to get some pictures.

Today we went snorkeling in Georgetown behind the Burger King. The reef here is named cheeseburger reef for obvious reasons. Anyway I didn't get any good underwater shots but I did get some looking from the water back into Georgetown. At this point we are probably about a third of a mile out to sea. It is amazing how far you can go without realizing it.

Update

We got our van back. It was found on the Monday in West Bay. The only things missing were the keys and my roomates sandals. The only damage was a small scrape on the passenger side. The landscape of our job has just changed dramatically. One of the guys is leaving and this leaves a pretty big hole in the chain of command. I cannot really go into detail on the internet, but it does at least temporarily leave us with the van fulltime.

Otherwise things are going pretty smooth. The building is changing at a very rapid pace. According to the locals we build faster than anyone else around. And on top of that they claim that our work is leaps and bounds above all the other contractors.

I also now have a contact that may get me some work in the Turks and Caicos islands. Not that I want to leave here, but if it was a better deal I just may. Of course right now it is quite a longshot, and likely not to happen, but there is a remote possibility. And the job I am on now was a remote possibility at one time. Again I cannot go into detail because it is still not even confirmed for my contact, but if it works out for him it puts me in the position to start feeling around.

Stolen Van

Somebody stole our company van out of our driveway last night. When my roommate Jim got up to go fishing this morning around 5:30 he discovered that the company's Hyundai H1 van was gone. Also he noticed his lunch bag outside dumped out. Upon further investigation I noticed my lunch bag missing. After the police arrived they checked around the house and found my lunch bag in the side yard. What is most disturbing about this is that someone was in the house while we were sleeping.

I go to bed fairly early and always check to see if the door is locked. We have Medeco locks on our doors and if someone actually tried to break in we would have heard them. So it is a bit of a mystery because the key for the van is gone off the table as well.

I am currently awaiting the arrival of the detectives to give a detailed statement and relevant details. I am sure that it would not take too long to find it as the island is very small and the people that would be out stealing vehicles don't have the accommodation's to hide one.

Not much to report

There does not seem to be much for me to report here right now. The job has picked up quite substantially so I am very tired in the evenings. I would like to get out one of these evenings and get some more pictures of what this place looks like in the evenings, but right now the humidity is high and my energy is low so it will not happen. I can say that after nine paycheques I have earned more money that I did all last year. If I can stick it out down here I should be able to resolve all my finances and come home to a nice tidy sum of cash.

Another great Grand Cayman Sunset

I got out today cruising around the island and snorkeling. We went down to South Sound and found the water a little too rough for swimming. But I did find a lot of conch shells for the kids while there. From there we went to a place called Smiths Cove. It is a popular swimming area, but I did not find the snorkeling all that great. From there I took Brian to the old standby, the wreck of the Gamma. There is also  nice reef nearby, so the snorkeling was much better there

After snorkeling and a nice nap, Jim and I went out for dinner. We went to a place called Rackham's in Georgetown. This is where I got the nice sunset shot. While there we were throwing french fries from our plate to the Tarpon in the water. Tarpon is a very large prehistoric looking fish. They get up to 8 feet in length and 200 pounds. They hang around the restaurants on the water because most of the places feed them as an attraction.

Adventure day

Today I have managed to get a company truck for the day. So I am going exploring around the island with Brian, one of the guys I work with. I have downloaded a program called google earth and when you zoom in on Grand Cayman it shows all kinds of diving and snorkeling points. So I am plugging the coordinates into my GPS and off I go. Hopefully I will come back with lots of great pictures again!

So much for Felix

Felix is gone. He didn't even take as big a bite out of us as Dean. Actually the only action I saw from Felix was some little 2-3 foot waves. So once again Grand Cayman escapes the wrath of the Hurricane.

Now that that is over with hopefully life can return to normal here. It will be nice to get back on track with making and saving some money. The job here seems to be going fairly well, and I should be getting ready to apply for my next work permit next month. Time is going by pretty quickly. The company that I am working for has managed to pick up some more work here and are pretty aggressive about getting more. This makes the work picture for me here on the island a pretty fair one. Again it kind of sucks being here without family. But when I get back we will have realized a bunch of goals that we have wanted to accomplish for some time. So we suck it up and carry on.

Turtle Island

Apparently the Cayman Islands used to be known as Turtle island because of the huge turtle population that they used to have. Now it seems to be a rarity to run into one of these majestic creatures. Fortunately for me I had my second encounter today with one. They seem to be as curious of us as we are of them. They tend to give you lots of time to get some shots of them. As long as you do not try to touch them or get too close they are very forgiving of your presence. Anyway I hope you all enjoy them through this video as I did taking it.

Felix running scared

OK, hurricane Felix seems to be moving quite a bit farther south according to the newest computer models. That is the good news. The bad news is that it will now be a category 4 hurricane when it is within the Grand Cayman striking distance. But once again, I have some great options for hurricane shelters. Any sort of harm is out of the question. It being a giant pain in my ass is of course fairly likely.

Here we go again

Apparently there is another weather system headed into our area. Right now it is Tropical Storm Felix. The current computer models show that it could be a category 3 hurricane by the time it reaches close enough to bother us. The predictions would be sometime on Tuesday. Of course anything could happen between now and then. And as Dean proved, the models are not always right. But I am sure that we will be taking the necessary precautions, and as with Dean, all will be well.