Today was the busiest of days. Our big plans included a boat trip, but we started the morning with Phil taking us out to downtown Georgetown to walk around and see the various sights.
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| "Tradition" the Seaman's Memorial |
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| The steam-powered clock tower; statue dedicated to women's equal rights on the island in foreground |
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| Mural along the sidewalk- a depiction of Cayman's history in the form of a visual timeline |
One of Phil and Jacki's friends that we met on bowling night, Chris had offered to take us out on his boat to Stingray City. Actually he phrased it something like "I'll get my guy to take you out in my boat". Turns out his "guy" is a charter captain that regularly takes groups out. We launched from Chris's house right into North Sound and skipped across the water towards Stingray City.
I've seen rays in aquariums, I've given them a little poke in the touch tanks where they've had their barbs removed to avoid incident. Yeah, none of that can prepare you to be mobbed by them in the shallow water. Chris tossed out some chunks of squid to feed them (careful not to get any squid on you, they'll give you a hicky trying to suck it off) and soon enough we were surrounded.
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| Two rays and a conch on the left |
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| Me getting a little island love from a ray |
After playing in the rays and picking up a conch to check it out we climbed aboard the boat to head out- but then Captain Andy spotted something in the water next to one of the big tour boats. A dorsal fin breaking the surface of the water. It could be only one thing...
Stinky! The rogue dolphin that we had seen pictures of posted around Rum Point earlier in the week. Stinky found us particularly interesting and came along side the boat to get a closer look.
Esther felt it was like sitting at a restaurant and spotting a bad-boy rapper across the room. He was covered in scars and bite marks from either other dolphins or sharks and the occasional boat propeller. Stinky left us in his search for love and we left Stingray City in search of lunch.
After catching a bite to eat at Kaibo Beach Bar and Grill, Andy piloted the boat over to Starfish Point so we could see and touch the stars. There were about half a dozen out in the shallows of the beach. We didn't stay too long- see the little blob on the left side of the picture below? The water was filled with box jellyfish. Not wanting a repeat of the stings we got during the Bio Bay swim, we hopped back into the boat.
The other guys wanted to see if the fish were biting so we skirted along the edge of the sound and open water to put a few lines out. Andy and Phil taught me how to use a hand line and I actually caught a couple of grunts. Andy pulled in a parrot fish but before heading back to shore we let all the fish go.
All the other pictures from the day can be seen here.
Esther took a ton more pictures that I did not include in my collection and they can be found on her page here.
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