. Oct/Nov 2020 .
Hi there,
Welcome to Oct/Nov 2020. Another mishmash of photos and things going on here over the last few months. Life in general is back to normal here, except there isn't any Tourists coming in, and if you want to leave, you need to quarantine for 14 days upon return.
So, it's still pretty quiet here but we get on and do what we can. Some of the Tourist businesses and restaurants are struggling right now, but hopefully we can see that start to pick up in the early half of 2021.
2020 has been the busiest year for a long time (if not ever) for Hurricane/Tropical storm activity. It got so busy that they ran out of names and had to start using the Greek alphabet! Thankfully we didn't get too much damage. Mostly heavy rains and some extra windy its here and there. Sadly, some of the other countries in the region didn't fare so well...
We've included a bunch of recent photos and some commentary below.
(Hover the mouse over the photos for explanation/comment.)
Jake and Michelle did the Fosters 800m Sea swim. They both came away with medals!
Dave did another one of the sea swims a few weeks later (Pirate's Week 1km), and came third! We don't have a pic because he never places in these events and had already left when they announced the place getters.
The Gaelic Season finally ended recently. Michelle's team did pretty well and ended up winning the final! Unfortunately Michelle wasn't playing in the final. She came a cropper in an earlier game and sprained her ankle. Not a happy camper! But she's slowly coming right and will up and about in no time.
Feeling a bit rough...
She still managed to support the team on Finals Day and then celebrate the win.
She was also able to attend the End of Season Dinner and celebrate in style.
We've had a few swim events on lately as well. Those that were postponed during lockdown have been crammed into the end of year schedule.
Jake says: "I let her beat me...."
Jake took part in the Annual Flowers Mile Sea swim as well. This event usually attracts over a thousand swimmers and we all usually do it, but due to the restrictions on gatherings, this years (delayed) event was limited to 200 swimmers.
Jake won this one quite convincingly. See the results below.
For some reason the official photos haven't come out so we don't actually have any of him!
This is Dave's Teams' entry into their work Halloween Cupcake competition. Dave's contribution was making the Spider plates and hanging the skeleton. They had a part-time events planner n the team who baked the Cupcakes and provided most of the props.
And... they won!
We also had Touch Finals Day on Halloween. Themed of course!
Jake played for his team and Dave's Team played as well. Both making their final, although Dave's team then gave the win to the Youth team that they just beat because they were more interested in the sponsor's product than sweating another 10 litres... and the kids were disappointed in losing to a bunch of old farts.
Dave's team (Heineken) costume was "The Trolls"
Cayman Rugby TV reported on the Touch Finals.
They are also back on the clock at the club now that Rugby is back up and running!
Michelle had a birthday a couple of weeks back. Jake and Dave cooked her breakfast, and we did a brunch the following day.
As we mentioned earlier, we've had a bit of weather this Hurricane season. Nothing too scary, just lots of storms. A couple dumped plenty of water on us, and being relatively flat island with not much higher than about 30 feet, it spread far and wide.
This is at our place about an hour after the rain and winds stopped.
This is during one of the storms. The photo really doesn't do it justice. But you can see the water level creeping up behind the cars, and this has fairly good drainage.
But the sun always comes back...
We spent a week out at East End as well. That's as close as we'll get to a holiday just now. It was nice (apart from another storm) but we managed to get a couple of dives in.
Mr. Crab isn't feeling sociable today.
This our East End view of the storm at as it brushed us.
The predicted path of this particular storm was supposed to do some damage here, but it veered away and was almost a non-event, but no-one is complaining!
It still got a bit windy and wet, but we had a Gym we could use, and power stayed on. The beers were cold. Still not complaining!
The sun did return, as predicted, and we got a little time by the pool.
Small crowd at the swim-up bar today! Just the regulars.
Michelle, Sam and Jake headed over to Cayman Brac for a swim meet. They have a new pool there (25m) and this would be the first meet they've held. Michelle was Meet Referee.
Sam did some decent swims. Her Ohio Team is back in the water now, and she's hoping to join them in January.
He put in some really good swims and in a lot of events as well. Nice job!
Michelle managed to find a bike and go for a spin in the Brac. This wasn't quite what she had in mind though...
And just when we thought Jake had had enough of the Brac, he's back there the following weekend for a School PE Class trip.
They went over to do some Rock Climbing and abseiling/Rappelling.
It sounds like they had a fun weekend!
Into the Cave we go!
OK, one last swim meet before the end of the year.
This was the Annual Coconut Cup. A three day Prelims and Finals meet.
Sam and Jake both did plenty of races and did pretty well.
Sam had to swim 'Unattached' because she is part of a College team in the US.
Someone is looking on to see how it's done!
Jake has a slightly more intense approach
A family brunch with the Birthday Girl
So, that's about it for now. The next one of these is likely to be a summary of Christmas and the New Year goings on.
On that note - we hope you have a wonderful Christmas, wherever you may be... and really hope that 2021 is a memorable one, for all the right reasons!
Take care and stay safe!
xxxx .
