. April 2019 .
Hellooooo!
Welcome to our very busy account of April 2019. Sorry we are a bit late. Too many pics to sort through!
Crazy busy month.
Mostly travel and swimming, with a few other things thrown in as well.
Lots of pics!
Read on!
Not sure that the name is correct
We didn't come up with the name...
But we came up with the goods! This was a fun 800m Swim/2 Mile Run. You could do it individually or as a Team. Jake and Dave Teamed up, and Michelle Teamed up with one of the Swim girls. Sam wasn't available. |
| Jake is first out of the water. |
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This means that Dave is at the front of the pack for the run...
No Pressure!
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| Michelle crosses the finish line for a win in the Girls over 15 Team event. |
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| Dave hangs on to come in in first place for the Men's over 15s. |
It was a hot afternoon!
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| Team Bailey |
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| Team Stingray Girls |
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| 1st Place Girls Team |
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| First Place Men's over 15 Team |
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| Having a good time! |
And we even caught up with our kiwi mate, Vikki, who was back in Cayman visiting - so good to see her!
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| The man of the moment |
The Freddie Mercury Vid (<--click there)
A few days later, Michelle and Sam set off on a trip to NZ primarily for a swim meet, with the added bonus of visiting family.
Meanwhile, Dave represents the family (Jake has to stay home to rest for his upcoming swim meet...and study!) and heads out on a Sunday boat day for a couple of quiets with about 40 18 year olds...
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| Censorship reasons prevent any close up photos being published. |
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| Another Cayman Sunset |
NZ Trip
While Dave had to put up with the sand and sun, Sam and Michelle made their way across the world on their way to Wellington where Sam would compete in the NZ National Age Group Champs in Wellington. Because she is now 18, Sam was no longer eligible to go to CARIFTA which is only for 11-17 year olds (you may recall her ending her CARIFTA career on a high in Jamaica last year with a nice bundle of medals). But she was still eligible for NZ Age groups which goes up to age 18 and was keen on the opportunity to check out the NZ swim scene. The meet was prelims and finals for each event over 5 days (the longest Sam had previously done was 4) and included 736 swimmers! The pool at warm-up times was madness and with spectators, the indoor facility was at its maximum of up to 1200 at times. It was difficult to get spectator tickets (they sold out in 35 minutes!) but they were luckily able to secure a few so that Michelle's Mum and Dad, Jan and Gordon, could come and watch. Incredibly, the meet ran like clockwork, with all events being run on time throughout the entire meet. It was quite an eye opener, with a number of extremely fast swimmers, but Sam did really well and put in some good swims, managing to make the final of the 200m Backstroke (top 10) which was fantastic!
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| TV Shot |
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| Plenty of food options in Wellington! |
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| Couldn't wait! |
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| Warm ups look busy! |
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| Lining up! |
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| World's smallest Ice Bath! |
Between sessions, Michelle and her work crew (Jan and Gordon!) headed out to Porirua to check out our storage unit. In 2007 we'd packed our house into this place, intending to return about two years later..... OK, so about 12 years later, we finally get the opportunity to check it out. It was scary! At the first visit, they opened the door (which in itself was a mission given the key was nowhere to be found and Michelle couldn't recall where exactly the unit was or the number!), assessed just how much stuff was there, decided it was all too much and promptly shut the door again! Upon reflection, the next day they decided to have another look and see if they could find a few things and maybe start to go through some of it. It was a mammoth effort and eventually, over 4 part-days they made some headway. They managed to get the Salvation Army to bring a truck and take away whatever they wanted - 3 truck loads later 90% of the stuff was gone and they were very happy - hopefully it would be of some use to someone. Gordon, Jan, Sam and Michelle worked hard to empty the unit - they did manage to salvage a few things which they ended up putting into a smaller unit - hopefully we won't come back in another 12 years and throw the rest out!!
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| Some pretty old stuff in there! |
They rented a nice Airbnb in Island Bay which was a 10 min drive to the pool each day and was very scenic - very nice area, although a bit windy at times. Michelle even went for a couple of enjoyable runs along the water's edge (complete with full length leggings, long sleeves, hat and gloves!!). She went for a run around Oriental Parade on another day and noticed some crazy people swimming in the sea - she couldn't believe it - in April - nutters!!
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| Tourist... |
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| She's off!! |
Then it was on to Christchurch for a brief catch up with some family and friends.
Great catchup with Michelle's friend Kim - lots of reminiscing!
A fun and breezy ride up to the top of Cashmere hills in a chair lift - amazing views but a bit chilly!
Adrenaline forest adventure park, Spencer Park - rope climbing, ziplines and high wires - not for the feint hearted (hence just the big kids taking part!!). Cousins Mahalia and Josh (and their significant others) had a bunch of fun and took to the sky.
Grandad Gordon and his favourite daughters!
Sonya, Gordon, Gerard and Sam - a great time catching up
A bit chilly up that high but awesome views!
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| Cuzzies. Sam had such an amazing time with her cuzzies - so good to see Mahalia & Josh! |
CARIFTA 2019 - Barbados
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| Team Cayman |
Just before Easter, Jake headed south to Barbados for the CARIFTA Swim Champs. Dave followed the next day with a few of the support crew. Jake made it through unscathed but Dave's flight was delayed (twice) and they ended up sitting on a plane for about 6 hours in Miami and not going anywhere. They finally made it at around 4 in the morning. The swim meet started at 8:30am...
A long day ahead!
A long day ahead!
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| Dave's hotel view for the week in Bridgetown Barbados |
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| Jake keeps a low profile prior to his first race, the 1500 Free |
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| View from the stands. Swimmers on the far side. Supporters in the stands. |
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| Still chilling... |
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| Oistins Easter Market |
Between the morning and evening sessions, Dave and his roomy for the week (Jacko) did a bit of touring about. First stop was Oistins where they have a big food market as well as a big Easter Market. It's a popular spot for the locals for food. We actually dined here a couple of times on our last visit a few years back.
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| Oistins also has a boat yard. Not particularly organised but certainly interesting. |
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| Some sold more than just food... Some interesting concoctions come out of here. |
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| The Bay near 'The Gap' which is just along the street from their hotel |
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| Early evening session about to start as the sun sets at the pool. |
Jake does his 1500 in the evening as a final. He leads for the entire race and is looking pretty strong. With about 3 or 4 laps to go, he starts to feel the pinch. The second placed swimmer works hard to catch him up and then it is stroke for stroke over the last two lengths. Jake works really hard but touches in second, by about a finger, for the Silver, . He was a bit disappointed, but needn't be as he'd aged up this year and at 16 was swimming against the bigger17 year olds. Great race!
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| A bit tired... |
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Later that night, the 15 - 17 Boys win the Silver in the 4 x 200 Free Relay.
2 Medals for Jake on the first day. Nice!
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Over the next few days and nights, Jake went on to win a few more medals in the pool as well. The long hours training are paying off.
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| Silver in the 200 Fly |
Jake became a crowd favourite with his distinctive pre-race routine. Check out the vid below. Towards the end of the meet, the crowd cheered when he did his 'roar'.
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| His opponent in the next lane doesn't look impressed |
The Jake pre-race vid (<==Click there)
on the same video is below. (Turn the volume up).
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| And he's off! |
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| Working hard in the backstroke leg of the IM |
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| He did alright in the Breast as well |
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| The Fly and the Free are his stronger strokes |
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| Post-race debrief with the Coach. Sheepish? |
Another between-session supporters Easter lunch. The Chilli-margarita had a real bite!
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| Dave and Jacko check out Kensington Oval |
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| This is a view from one of the higher parts of the island on one of our afternoon jaunts. |
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We'd been told this place was great to visit - as it's a Rum distillery.
Unfortunately this part wasn't the Rum distillery, but it wasn't far away!
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| Not sure of the significance of this. Maybe its a pet horse from days gone by. |
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Found it!
This is where the rum comes from
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| Dave makes himself at home |
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Checking out the Venerable...
Apparently an original 'Thomas Crapper' toilet!
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| 200(+) year-old Sandbox tree in the yard. Some say 400 years old... |
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| Original distillery buildings. They still make the rum there. |
Back on the road and just following our nose really!
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| The views at the Flower Caves |
On our travels one afternoon we found ourselves at the end of the island and saw a place that overlooked the sea so we thought we'd stop for a beer. The owner just happened to be an Olympic Swimmer who swam for Barbados and was good friends with a couple of well-known Cayman swimmers of the same era, so that was pretty cool.
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| Jacko with Terrence Haynes |
He still gets involved in swimming and even built a small training pool to encourage the local kids in the area to swim. Great view from the pool as well!
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| Popular stuff! |
Just around the corner is another place with great views.
Back to the swimming for another night of action in the pool.
Bronze in the 400 IM!
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| The small but vocal group of Cayman Supporters |
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| The relay team did well! |
Dave and Jacko managed to do the Mount Gay Rum Distillery tour one afternoon. Dave had done it last time he was here but felt it was worth another visit!
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| What to buy? |
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| The 'not-for-sale' regatta hats |
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| A few tastings... |
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Small world!
Bumped into one of the Freeport (Bahamas) Rugby guys in the bar at Mt Gay....
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Silver in the 4x100 Free relay
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| A break between events |
Monkeys are wild on Barbados. We didn't see a lot of them on our travels, but Dave spotted this guy early one morning along their street.
After the pool sessions the majority of the Cayman pool swimmers flew back to Cayman. The small team of Open Water Swimmers stayed on for the extra day to compete in the 5k race.
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| Pre-race prep at the Boatyard Bar... |
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| Dave gets a bit 'arty' |
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| Queueing up to be counted into the water |
The 5k race was 4 laps of the course. The sea looked relatively flat, but there was a little bit of a swell on the outside leg of the course.
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| Jake swam a smart race and spent most of it drafting off the Martinique guy, until he headed off in an odd direction (with the pack following him) and Jake decided to take a more direct route and go it alone. He stayed in the lead for the rest of the race. |
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He wins!
By a decent margin as well. Well done!
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| Another 5 medals added by this lot (including 2 Golds). Nice! |
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Jake collects his Gold medal.
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| Happy! |
After the race, Dave headed north to get back to Cayman. The swimmers would come home the next day. The rest of the day, the team got to do a little bit of touring about which included a visit to a Monkey Sanctuary. Jake being Jake, didn't take any pics of that though... We stole these ones.
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Back in Cayman - although a couple of the team missed the flight because of immigration delays in Miami.
They made the flight later that night.
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| A decent haul! |
Phew!
Done.
See you next month!
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