. November 2017 .
 |
Seven Mile Beach
(Panorama - it is actually a straight-ish beach)
|
Hi there,
Welcome to November 2017. Christmas is almost upon us!
Lots of swimming this month. A tiny bit of traveling, and a few land-based activities thrown in for some variety.
5k Pirates Week Sea Swim
 |
| Not too many others about at Stupid-oclock on a saturday! |
Sam and Jake were down to do the 5k Sea Swim as part of the Pirates Week activities.
Sam withdrew just prior to the raise with some back issues (all good now!) but Jake took part and did pretty well
 |
| Thinking about a warm up... |
 |
| Pre-race briefing |
 |
| Lining up for the hooter |
 |
| And they're off! |
The course was Four laps (Clockwise) around a 1.25 km circuit.
There was an Olympic long distance swimmer from Canada down, and she took control fairly early on.
 |
| Jake completes another lap |
 |
| One more to go |
Two of the girls from Jake's swim team decided to latch onto his wake and draft off him for a couple of laps.
 |
Sam was given a few sprint sets to do while the race was going.
Looks like she's working real hard...
|
 |
| A couple of the locals came out to watch the race. |
 |
| Checking out the footprints |
 |
| Meanwhile Jake and his two buddies are setting themselves up for a sprint finish. After 5 k, that will take some effort! |
 |
| Jake holds them off...by about half an arm's length. |
 |
| Done.... feed me! |
 |
| 8th overall and first in his age group |
Dive Time!
We managed to drag our friend Liz out for a couple of dives.
 |
| Liz telling Sam that there will be absolutely no messing about during this Eden Rock dive... |
 |
| Checking out the Tarpon |
 |
| Mr. Crab makes a rare daytime appearance |
 |
| Even a Shark popped out to say a quick hello |
 |
| Liz meets the Mermaid at Sunset House |
 |
| Barry... |
 |
| The wreck that we momentarily misplaced... |
 |
| Not quite Lobster season! |
Continuing the theme of Pirates Week. The fireworks is always popular.
We popped down to Liz's place, just in time to catch the display from there.
There was also a swim meet at the end of Pirates Week as well. This one was over four days (Thurs & Fri night sessions, then Sat & Sun am sessions).
 |
| Sam in one of the freestyle events |
 |
| Been a while since she had a backstroke event |
 |
| Jake is doing well with his Fly |
 |
| "Go Stingray!" |
 |
| The kids also had a fundraising Swimathon at their pool. |
The idea was to swim as many lengths as possible in two hours. In a 25m pool, that's quite a few!
Sam swam 318 lengths (7,950m) and Jake clocked in 340 lengths (8,500m)! Pretty big effort!
And just when you thought you'd seen enough swimming, the kids also took part in the CUC 800m Sea Swim. This event had been postponed a few times because of weather and rough seas. But they finally got it done with both Jake and Sam with podium finishes. Rumour has it that there were only two in Jake's age group, because he came second and was a looooong way behind the kid who came first (pretty sure he swam most of it backwards).
 |
| Sam actually put a little effort into this one to secure her first placing. |
Randoms
A few other happenings.....
Michelle had been traveling for work, but was back for about a day and a half and managed to complete the Sprint Tri-athlon on the Sunday morning before flying out to New York! As she normally does the Olympic distance everyone around her was asking why she wasn't doing the Olympic distance and she wasn't sure how she'd do - she thinks she only has one pace but it was fast enough to keep her lead after the swim. She did a decent time of 1 hour 19 mins wiht the second woman 3 minutes behind her. She felt a little guilty not doing the full distance, especially as she watched some of her usual competitors running in the hotter part of the day, but the sprint wasn't an easy race and she was pretty happy with the win.
She then took off to New York for a week for work and a little shopping and even managed to go and see a hockey game - New York Rangers vs Boston Bruins - it was very exciting to watch and luckily the home team won!
 |
| Taking in a Hockey game in New York |
 |
| Meanwhile, Kat, Liz & Dave enjoy a beer at Pirates week! |
 |
| One of the bands on Friday night on the waterfront |
 |
| Michelle makes it back in time for her birthday...and the cake that Sam and Dave spent hours preparing (and had to run out to get after dinner when it was realised that there was no cake...). |
And as is customary around this time of year, Dave took part in the Movember festivities.
 |
| Final Movember Party with Charlie Chaplin and (Swim) Coach Dave. |
 |
| The girls had been out having fun too - at the spa for some bubbles and nibbles while having pedicures, then out on the town, checking out the interesting mo's and costumes. Sadly, this was also one of the last nights that their friend Sharlee (who Michelle is hugging tightly) will be on island after many, many years - they have decided to head back to the UK with their two young boys for a couple of years ad see how that goes. Very sad to be seeing them go! |
 |
Always nice to get a pic with your groupies.
After this party, Dave and Michelle went on to yet another farewell party - another kiwi mate (Wiki) and her family are heading back to Christchurch and put on a party with several live bands, which was a lot of fun. The only downer on this evening was that when going out to the car to head home, they discovered that it had been broken into - the windonw had been smashed with a brick, and Michelle's handbag and everything in it had been stolen. Two days later they went and looked aroudn teh area to see if anything had been ditched and incredibly, they found just about everything, thrown haphazardly in the back yard of someone's house - it seems that they were only after cash and then ditched the rest.Very annoying but luckily it wasn't worse!!
|
Click here for more Movember pics
Sam and Dave came home the other day to find two white rabbits sitting in front of the front step to the house. They weren't fat enough for a decent meal, but Sam throught they were pretty cute.
They had actually escaped from the neighbor's so we helped round them up and got them back in their cage relatively unscathed.
One of our Kiwi Mates (Vikki) is heading back to NZ soon. A surprise Touch afternoon was organised for her (huge Touch player and has done a lot for Cayman Touch).
Michelle and Dave went along and played a few games, and enjoyed a beer or too with the crew!
 |
| Not sure why Michelle is in the front and centre, but that's Vikki directly above her. |
 |
| Boys looking a bit tired after their game |
Michelle and the usual crew took part in the Cayman marathon again this year. They usually do the Team Relay which is four legs of roughly 10k each, give or take a little to make up the full marathon distance. They did pretty well, coming 4th women's team behind 3 teams of fast teenagers!
 |
| Fourth Womens Team |
 |
| Enjoying some post-event rehydrating fizzy water |
That's about it for November.
The Coconut Cup Swim meet is coming up in December.
Sam also jets off for a 'Yards Meet' in Florida.
Christmas is next! We'll have a special pest staying with us for a little while.
We aren't going away so will be enjoying another Cayman Christmas with a few friends no doubt.
