Our Caribbean Adventure - continued: Issue # 114

. February 2017 .

Hello!

February has been a month of activity. A bit of swimming and also some running about the island.

The kids had the National Swim Champs and there was also the Cross Island Relay and the "Off the Beaten Track" event. Apart from that, things have been relatively quiet.

Tourist Pics

We went for a drive around the East end of the island one Sunday afternoon. Its not somewhere we frequent that often, usually because we don't have the time, but it was nice just to cruise about and check out a few spots we hadn't seen in a while.

Bodden Town boat ramp

Over on the North Side, there is a guy who makes sculptures of Cayman creatures out of cement.

This one may not be a Cayman creature, although there is such a thing as the 'Cayman Crocodile'.!

At Starfish Point

We ended up at Starfish point later in the afternoon. It's a good spot to watch the sunset, and also see the Starfish that tend to loiter in that area.

The sun sets over George Town

The Jandal tree

(Locally called the shoe tree)

Swim Nationals

The swim nationals were held at Camana Bay in February. Both kids were down to compete in a bunch of events. This event would be the swimmers' last chance to get qualifying times for the National Team to compete in Nassau, Bahamas for CARIFTA (Caribbean Champs) at Easter. Jake had a qualifying time from the 5km sea swim before Christmas, and one pool time. He wanted at least one more pool time to make the team. Sam already had her times from the Coconut cup before Christmas so there wasn't the same pressure on her.

There were heats in the mornings with finals at night from Thursday through to Sunday night.

They both spent some time on the medals dais each with a few firsts, seconds and thirds.

Check out some fast swiming... click here to view

Jake wasn't allowed to wear his Highlanders hat on the dais.

Jake ended up getting another two qualifying times which would put him in contention for the Team. In the end they both made the team so are now back into training with a focus on Easter. Another 'Swim Holiday' to look forward to!

Some pics from the Nationals - click here

Waitangi Day

A few of the Kiwis got together on the 5th (Sunday) for a couple of quiets and a get together at Public Beach. It was a pretty relaxed and laid-back affair. We met a few other Kiwis on the island that we didnt know, so that was cool.

Cross-Island Relay

Both Michelle and Dave did the Cross-island relay this year. Michelle with her all-woman team that seems to enter in everything, and Dave got a call up for a scratch team of first-timers who just wanted to take part.

The relay has six legs of about 4 miles (6km) each starting from East End and ending at Smith's Cove near town. Michelle did the 4th leg for her team and Dave the 5th leg for his.

Michelle's team came 4th women's team which was about the same as previous years - the girls all ran really well and had thought they'd come third so were a bit disappointed, until the bubbles came out!

Team "Are we there yet?" placed about midway in the field, which was pretty good result really.

Post-race celebrations... Bubbles of course!

And then last weekend was the Off The Beaten Track race, which, as the name suggests, is a race that covers some ground (5-6 miles) that you wouldn't normally run across, including bush, farm land, Cows, Dogs, Iron-shore and sand.

Michelle's team was back at it again. Michelle had the third leg which involved some bush tracks, cows and an awkward stretch along some rough iron-shore. The iron shore was really tough - it was impossible to actually run - it was more of a walk/skip/jump and seemed to be never ending! The good thing was that once that part was finished the end was just around the corner.