Cayman Islands — s/v Reach

One of the best ways to spend time in the Cayman Islands is underwater. This country is a dive mecca with barrier reefs surrounding the island and strewn throughout the main harbor, including right under our boat. All boats are assigned free moorings throughout the Cayman Islands to avoid anchoring on reefs.

We arrived in Cayman Brac after an overnight sail from Jamaica. We made it just in time, late in the day on a Friday, before things closed for the weekend.

Conveniently, we were able to check-in right at the docks. The officers were friendly with a laid back vibe that was fitting for the smaller of the Cayman Islands.

Being used to out-islands in the Bahamas, this 12x1 mile long island wasn’t much different. It was peaceful and community-driven population of a couple thousand.

On the day after our arrival, there was a funeral at the cemetery right in front of the mooring field. Kookaburra heard a call on the radio early that morning requesting a sail-by and naval horn call (Keith blew the conch horn) at the time of the burial. It was a meaningful gesture fitting for islanders who make their livings from the sea.

Moorings off of Scott’s Dock Cayman Brac

Later that day, we celebrated Jaime’s birthday at the local bar over a pizza!

There was not much in walking distance, so we decided to rent a car to tour the island.

Steep cliffs made of Caymanite mark the “brac” that gradually rises to ~150’ in the north. Brown booby and white-tailed tropic birds each nested in and around the cliffs.

There were an impressive amount of caves on the island, each of which were visited, as we took in familiar sights of limestone beaches and clear blue waters.

We were able to spend about four days in Brac before the weather chased us out and then again sailed overnight on to Grand Cayman.

Because we crossed international waters between the islands, we actually had to re-check into the country upon arrival to Grand Cayman. Port Authority and the Harbor Patrol instructed us and escorted us in, bringing Reach to the customs dock for check-in.

It’s all the better that they coordinate all traffic, as we soon found ourselves among the huge cruise ships that wet-dock here each day. There is a cruise ship schedule online that we had to consult each day to make plans around the influx of up to 5 cruise ships, transport boats, diving and water activities, and people.

View from the Dingy Dock (Kookaburra & Reach far right)

We got on our designated moorings in the harbor with easy access to the center of George Town.

There were some nice perks to being in a town again, including a wonderful grocery store (Kirk’s), bulk grocery (Cost U Less), Häagen Daz ice cream, lots of bars and restaurants, multiple large hardware stores (Kirk Home Center, True Value & ACE), full liquor stores, laundromat, and just about anything you can image within walking distance… and that doesn’t include the tourist places like Guy Harvey stores and Hard Rock Cafe.

I continued my quest for birds here in the Cayman Islands and booked a morning tour with Geddes from Silver Thatch birding. This is my preferred way to explore a new country, going to locations that show you a lot about the natural beauty of a place, where you might not otherwise visit.

And it’s not always remote locations. Sometimes urban and man-made settings hold interesting surprises; for example, a residence with an out-sized population of geese, peacocks and west-indian whistling ducks.

One of my target birds was the vitelline warbler. It resembles a rich yellow prairie warbler with paler markings and a sweet, buzzy song. Once you heard it, it was not too hard to locate.

There are also many recognized Cayman subspecies of several birds that we saw, including the rose-throated parrot, western spindalis, and Cuban bullfinch. Other regional endemics found were the Caribbean elanina, West Indian woodpecker, Yucatan vireo and Caribbean dove. All lifers ~ except for the rose-throated parrot first seen in Great Inagua.

Cousin Kelly came to visit us for a week on Reach ~ her 3rd visit, but it had been a while. Life on a boat is really the same wherever the anchor drops, but with a new backyard! We rented a car for a day here to tour the island, again not very large at ~22x8 miles. The traditional lunch of Cayman beef was not to be missed!

The Botanical garden was an oasis in the midst of the dry, limestone scrub of the rest of the island and a wonderful place to visit. Here we also encountered two endemic lizards, the Grand Cayman blue iguana the Grand Cayman blue anole, the former being locally bred to help with conservation.

In the evening, we thoroughly enjoyed a bioluminescence kayak tour in the north sound. We’ve seen our share of ocean bioluminescence, but this water in the canals was absolutely brilliant and unlike anything we’d seen.

Kelly loves the water too and we went snorkeling most days. She also tried her hand at paddle boarding, but the tradewinds were still pretty brisk. We had a nice walk on seven-mile beach where many of the hotels are located, some shopping and even a museum visit.

Grand Cayman is a great place to get some walking in any time you wanted. You take advantage of it while you can when living on a boat, since there are times when you can’t ~ but the best part is the plentiful reefs in the harbor and encircling most of the island.

The trade winds keep things cool for life on the moorings, yet not being able to tuck into the lee of the island and adding on all of the local boat traffic also keeps things bouncy. This another reason why it’s best to spend your time in Grand Cayman under water!

It was good to have some time to practice with my TG4 with wide angle wet lens as well as my macro lens with dual strobes tested here for the first time.

There was a reef just under our boat, another large reef in front of all of the cruise ships where passengers snorkel and where we’d wait for a non-ship day to visit.

A small wreck by the beach turned out to be my favorite place to visit and I went as much as possible before we left.

The wreck was a nursery and sanctuary for many cool fish. The rubbled surroundings turned out to be a perfect ecosystem for sailfin blennies, lots of roughhead blennies and some mottled jawfish mouth brooding.

Keith and I went scuba diving one day with Living the Dream Divers dive shop right next to the dinghy dock. Their almost perfect review rating is well deserved.

They have an impressive system of putting divers in the water and great people on and off of the boats. The first dive was down to 90’ through some beautiful canyons and the second at around 60’ on a transitional edge. It is great to be scuba diving again.

All in all, we enjoyed our Cayman Islands time. When we entered, we got a free 30 day cruising permit for the boat, but Immigration in Cayman Brac on only gave us 2 weeks on our Visa even though we requested a month. They said that 2 weeks is standard and it takes more paperwork to get more than that… I think our late Friday evening check-in at the truck had something to do with it.

To stay longer in Grand Cayman required us to request and get a Visa extension, including a $50 fee per person and a long wait in the local Immigration office reminiscent of a DMV experience.

On the other hand, the cruising permit for the boat is free for the first 30 days and renewable for another 30 days, with fees increasing each month. We didn’t stay long enough to test that extension, but know of a boat that did need to for emergency repairs. The costs eventually become prohibitive and reflect the nature of the ports focus on cruise ships and not cruising boats.

Not ranking as a highly desired destination as a cruising boat, we found the Cayman Islands a decent stop on our way to other destinations. Convenient for shopping and provisioning, with some nice diversions and underwater scenery and nominally free for a month.