Tuesday, 3 March 2020

Issue # 149 - The February Leap

. February 2020 .

 Hello!
February was pretty much Swim meet time for both Sam and Jake.  Not a great deal of other things going on for us just now! A run in the sticks, and a bit of beach time about covers it!
While Sam is up in Ohio loving the snow and sub-zero temperatures, we are enjoying the cooler weather that the Caribbean Winter has on offer.  There is a cooling breeze around this time of year which makes it very bearable out.  Believe it or not, some people don Jackets and Sweatshirts (sweaters) at this time of year to help them cope.
We can actually go to the beach and not spend the whole time sweating! 
Some folk also say that the sea is cold....
Looks hot, but is actually pretty nice.  
This was on Ash Wednesday, which is a Public Holiday here.
We aren't sure what these two are up to.


Breaking News!
Did we tell you we had an earthquake in late January?
No significant damage, but the island had a pretty decent shake up and was a reasonably long shake.  Earthquakes aren't common around here so there was an elevated level of excitement for a while, and not all in a good way.  This place is usually geared up for Hurricanes, where you get sufficient warning.  The Earthquake provides no warning and there was an element of panic in the streets after this one.

The Cayman Rugby TV crew have been back in action, streaming the games live at the Club on a few Saturday afternoons of late.
To view some of their latest work, follow this link and select one of the videos.
Flying Visit
Michelle and Jake popped up to Ohio couple of weeks back to visit Sam for "Siblings' Weekend".
They didn't have a lot of luck with flights, and had some delays which meant they didn't get in until late on Friday night. At one point they had to change airports! Luckily the other airport was just a quick Cab ride in New York. They had planned to go to a Comedy show in Athens (Ohio), but since they wouldn't get there in time, Sam ended up taking some friends instead.  Michelle and Jake arrived a bit later on. They had a quick catch up before heading to bed!  Both Sam and Jake would have swim training the next day.
The snow was a bit of a shock to the two softies from Cayman
Real snow!
We had to purchase some winter clothes for Jake!
They had planned to go zip-lining on the Saturday, but it was closed because of the snow.  
They took in a Bobcats Basketball game instead.  Much warmer!

Jake managed to get a couple of training sessions in at the pool as well.  It was one of the conditions of going.  He needed to keep the training going with a swim meet coming up.

Enjoying a little vino during a delay at one of the airports in New York
 MAC Attack
Sam and the other Bobcat swimmers have been hard out training and preparing for the Mid America Central swim meet which was held last week in Buffalo, NY. They've been training and racing since January 2!  This is their big meet for the year against 7 other Div 1 Universities in the Mid-central US.
They traveled up from Athens to Buffalo in the team bus - an 8 hour trip!
It was a three day meet and Sam had one event each day.
She was entered in the 500 Yards, 200 Yards and 100 Yards Free, and also did the 100 Yards Breast as an added extra at the end of the meet. They do a lot of Yards races in the US. Sam has done mostly metres races until she started at Ohio last August.
When they weren't swimming, they were cheering their mates on.

Ready to race in her first MAC Meet
 The temperature in Buffalo was a bit cool.  -10 one day!  Thankfully they didn't spend too much time outdoors!  Although their bus broke down one morning en-route to the pool.
Action shot.  Note the Ohio Green finger nails.


Every time they made a PB, they got to tear up their note cards for that event.
Sam got to do that three times during the meet!  She swam some pretty good races and we were able to watch live which was pretty cool. PB's in every event. A great effort!
Even the 100 Breast was a PB, but maybe it didn't count, because this would be her first 100 Breast in a yards event.

Hangin' out
Bobcat Buddies!
Another race coming up!
Waiting for the next race
"Go! Go! Go!"
Got to have a team pool shot
 Now they are back in Sunny Athens until next weekend when they get a break for a week.  We are looking forward to having Sam home - via a quick weekend in Vancouver for the Sevens.


 Meanwhile, back in the freezing Caribbean winter, Jake was competing in the Cayman Islands Nationals at Camana Bay.
First up was the 1500m Free which Jake won comfortably... he was the only one in his age group! He did have other swimmers in the race. They were just in different age groups.

Had to leap out of the warm down in the pool for the medal presentation. 
No time for shorts!
Jake is the in Lane 2

Jake enjoys the 200 Fly

Santa!
Jake does the 200 Breast - 'cos the Coach wanted him to do a few extra events this meet.
Nice shirt. Still no pants.
Pants!
 He won or at least medalled in all of his events.  
Next stop, Barbados at Easter!
Meanwhile Jacky and Michelle were working the event as Meet Referee & Starter.  
They put some long hours in!
Jake makes the News
The 5k Open Water was held a few weeks back. Jake had a good swim and took 1st Place overall and in doing that, secured his entry in the 5k at Carifta this year (Barbados).  Click the link to see the news article in the local paper:



Michelle and some mates did the 'Off the Beaten Track' relay last week.  It consists of six legs of about 8 - 10 km each. Some on the road. Some on the beach. Some through the scrub.  A different course every year, and you only get the route a couple of days before the race, so there's usually a few that get lost at some point along the way!
Michelle's team didn't though, and came in 2nd Womens Team.  Nice!

The new(ish) brewery on island.  Part owned by one of our mates. 
Some decent beers too!

March Preview
Michelle and Dave (and Sam) take in the Vancouver Sevens this weekend.
Sam comes back to spend some time in the Sun
Jake looks to get his driver's licence (!!!)
See you then!
.
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