Finally! Here's my Cayman trip report .. been a tad busy at work the last
week or so but better late than never. Perth is currently recovering from
fierce winds and a deluge of rain that caused over caused blackouts to over
35,000 homes in the last few days. Fortunately my power is back on so I can
warm up the flat as we have dropped to 5 degrees this morning. Brrrr,
feels like the Antarctic has moved up to Rottnest for a few days. Viv
***********
When our departure time from Miami suddenly changed what else could Mika
and I do but blow off some of that time at the bar. Eventually arriving in
the Caymans we were met by Kentucky Tom. He querys "do you really dislike
all these things?". I laugh realising he has a faxed copy of my waiver
form in hand and must have been reading it while cooling his heels waiting
for us. Need I ask, would you come all this way to dine on Tripe, Liver,
Brains (sweetbread) or Fish heads..yuk!
We arrive at the dock to find most of the NEDs busy setting up their dive
gear. I spy Crusty Russ' butt jutting out just asking for a little pat on
jumping aboard then I do the rounds hugging those I already know and
shaking hands with those I only knew of by name. It's great to finally be
here!
It does not take long to put everything away in the cabin. The winter gear
I will need to change in to before arriving back home in Perth is stowed
away in my main suitcase to be stored in the Aggressor office. I head
upstairs to the dining area to drop off my bag of goodies for the week -
lotsa packs of Tim Tams, boxes of macadaemia nuts, the vegemite, and last
but not least, chocolates from da Feeeesh. Moving on the next task is to
sort out my dive gear. As Strike could only join us in spirit the sea
dragon Mark B purchased as a present for Strike during our visit to the
Tennessee aquarium joined me on every dive hooked on to my BCD. I set up
my tank and turned it on. Oh dear, it’s empty. While I know Huw thinks I
can live on next to no air uw I know that is wishful thinking! A quick swap
of tanks and all I have to fuss over next is the photographic gear later.
When I did venture back out to the dive deck to set my gear up on the
camera table I find Huw had arrived, Mr Smiley himself. It was so hot and
sticky I was tempted to jump off the back for a quick swim to cool off but
I instead watch Huw go in for a quick dip. He said he was going in to
search for a can (of soup or tomatoes) that was accidentally dropped
overboard while our foodstocks were being loaded. He really was dying to
check out the tarpon but we will let him get away with that flimsy excuse
of sharpening up his rescue skills :-) A few folk took up the opportunity
to head in to town .. I just parked my lazy carcass up on the upper deck
and yacked to whoever was around that would listen to me ;-) John Nitrox
and Don Ward had schemed to put on a margarita party for the cocktail hour
on our last night onboard and appeared, on reboarding our vessel, to have
purchased every lemon and lime they could find :-)
Having risen so early in the morning to make the 3 plane changes from da
Feeeesh's place to get here my batteries were getting low by 9PM .. teach
me to stay up late the previous night playing on the net!! Off I went to
bed to ensure I would wake up refreshed and raring to go diving the next
day. Having the top bunk I was worried, having slept in a king sized bed
for many years, that I would accidentally roll over to far and fall out
breaking my neck on the way down .. so the spare pillows were strategically
tucked under one side of the mattress to keep me sleeping permanently on my
side. Woke up sometime in the night when I felt the boat moving but was
soon lulled back to sleep by the gentle rocking.
There's something about the sea air .. invigorates my appetite so much so I
end up pigging out at breakfast time. Normally I get by with just a wake-up
cup of tea at home. Waking up in the morning I heard John and Brooxie
heading upstairs for brekkie so do my best to exit the cabin without waking
Mika. Fortunately for him I worked out the best way to get down from the
upper bunk without accidentally standing on him was to use the vanity unit
for foot leverage. Checking out the menu on the blackboard I ask for 'the
works' - a bit of everything - I will just have to extend my dive time a
little longer than normal to work off those extra calories ;-) Leigh was
our cook for that week though while chatting to her I discovered normally
she's a DM. Such an enthusiastic lady who was always on the go doing her
best to ensure we were well catered for with nibblies between dives and our
main meals.
Having read, and re-read, the latest Paul Humann <sp?> fish reference books
from da Feeesh's library, plus previously seeing many of the same
Carribbean fishies during the CozNEDfest I was one-up on Huw with the
FLRF. As Kuty has already posted his two reports that have been backed up
nicely with Huw’s excellent dive trip report I will continue on about some
of the uw highlights for me followed by other NED stuff.
I have never seen so many garden eel communities and stingrays with
companion trevally in the sandflats.
Accustomed to always seeing anemonefish, shrimps or porcelain crabs on an
anemone in the Pacific spying the cute little Diamond Blenny in residence
was something new.
Had quite a bit of fun holding my hand still in the cleaning stations
waiting patiently for an arrow crab or some cleaner shrimps to climb
aboard. Another fun thing to do was slowly move in on the Yellowhead
Jawfish watching them rapidly reversing in and out of their burrows until
they began to relax a bit hovering out in the open before zipping up
vertically to feed on zooplankton. I think Alfred has a beaut pic of one
of these guys with a mouth full of eggs.
Lots of Queen triggerfish everywhere. There were quite a few dive spots
where these guys would actually cruise around within arms length seeming to
be as interested in you as you were in them. They are my favourites in the
triggerfish family.
A couple of fish I was quite taken with were the unusual Indigo Hamlet and
the Shy Hamlet. The later had quite a stunning electric blue blob on each
side of its face that stood out like a beacon due to the bulk of it being
yellow-brown in colour.
Lining up a shot of a large Grey Angelfish I paused hoping it would turn my
while after it had stopped to take a peck at a rock. Imagine the surprised
look on my face when the rock it was in the process of feasting on suddenly
MOVED. On closer inspection what I thought was a heavily algae covered
rock turned out to be a well camouflaged scorpionfish who had not taken too
kindly to being nipped at.
I lost count of how many turtles I saw, many chomping on sponges without a
care in the world.
Many of the Nassau groupers were so friendly, like puppy dogs, you felt
like you could tuck them under your arm and continue on with the dive
giving them a pat on the head now and again. Some NEDs thought I was
kidding that we spell the word Grouper without the 'U' in Western OZ.
In the marine parks the lobsters, huge mothers brazenly walking out in the
open knowing they were protected in that area, made my mouth water for
lobster mornay.
Very surprised how soft the southern stingrays were to the touch.
In between dives and in the evening there was plenty to do. Some wished for
more sun to toast both sides daily. Others snuck off for a bit of a snooze.
Many crashed inside to watch videos on the main tv or in their cabins.
During our lunch session the crew normally ran a video with highlights of
what we may see, if we had not already, on the next few dives. Some just
relaxed on the upper deck checking out the other dive boats in our
vicinity. One evening Kentucky Tom surprised us by tarting himself up for
dinner. Not having seen The Life of Brian for a while I was in the mood
for a good laugh when that video was selected one night. Though, the level
of laughter then paled in comparison to the hoots of laughter from many of
us in reaction to John Nitrox’s comments on the topless wimmin divers tape
da Feeeesh provided for some light entertainment. Some evenings it was
great just to laze about on the upper deck listening in on the chit-chat.
Many tested out the spa also .. a great way to wind down at the end of the
dive regime. A few night owls stayed up to the wee hours of the morn to get
their world cup football fix. Explains why some mornings it took a while
for Mika to wake up fully before falling in the water for the first dive of
the day :-)
Brooxie, such a good-spirited-patient-non-diving soul, made herself
comfortable with books, catnaps, watching videos, listening to music,
peering out to sea or the islands with her binoculars or checking on her
dearest in between meals. When the giant jig-saw puzzle came out things
started to get serious. Joining in on that about half way through I started
to see things after a while but it was quite entertaining to have someone
pull up a chair to help out and suddenly say "oh, I found one" when you had
been looking at those same damn pieces thinking 'its just got to fit in
that particular spot' for ages!! Bah! Humbug :-)
By the end of the fourth day of diving, not having my usual catnaps between
dives (too busy checking out everyones digi pics on the laptops most of the
time) I was starting to wear down. Don't you just *hate* those folk who
are so bloody cheerful in the morning, when you look and feel like
something the cat dragged out, smiling sweetly in your direction
chirping "Good morning" when you crawl out for breakfast!!! Grrrrrr ;-)
Just give me my wake-up cuppa tea pleeeeze.
By the time the liveaboard began the return journey to Grand Cayman I found
I did not feel like any dinner having only done three dives that day not
working up much of an appetite due to scoffing down too many nice between-
dive goodies … but nibble away I did. Did not take long for me to fall
asleep on the upper deck after being rocked to and fro. Waking a bit later
to chat with a few of the other NEDs soon folk started to disappear
downstairs to crash in their cabins leaving Brad, Mika, Brooxie and I to
monitor our progress towards the next days dive spot – Stingray City.
Well, its nearly home-time for the majority of us with only one more night
together for this NEDfest. Once we were tied up again on the main jetty
out came the lemons and limes to be squeezed. I overhead one of the other
Aggressor crew, who was not rostered on for duty that week, commenting that
they had nothing but rain all week on Grand Cayman so we managed to score
the better weather. Before you knew it the cocktail hour was upon us.
After a few drinkies, lots of nice nibblies and picture-taking time we were
ferried down to Deckers for our last dinner as a group. Excellent
entertainment there too.
John Nitrox, Mika and I continued on diving up to the 17th with Red Baron
after the official liveaboard NEDfest was over. I began to wonder what
some folk must have been tripping out on when selecting a name for their
dive sites. Unfortunately Cutie Kuty could only dive with us on the 15th
having an afternoon flight out back to Israel the next day. I learnt a new
trick from him involving a t-shirt - he looked quite suave in his t-shirt-
turban-styled-sun protector. Serious competition against Andy’s tropical
diving bonnet methinks ;-) *cough*, did I really say that ;-)
That evening we had organised to meet and dine out as a group once again –
Alfred, Don, Kuty, Dennis, Mika, John, Brooxie and I. Somehow we lost
contact with Brad but I think he may have still been out snorkelling
knowing how timely he was ;-)
On the 18th we wasted the day driving around the island having lunch at The
Lighthouse, stopping off for a drink at Rum Point, visiting Hell and
quickly checking out the Turtle Farms shop where John & Brooxie organised
to sponsor a turtle release in the name of their God-Daughter. Early the
next morning Mika headed off for the airport. Brooxie and I were looking
forward to our massages at the Hyatt which meant I headed off to the
airport at 3pm for my 28hr flight back home still mellow-as from that. In
fact I know I was so relaxed I found it hard to stay awake missing a couple
of meals in the process... not that I needed them just sitting there like a
stuffed mullet.
Viv
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