Grand Cayman 2023
Day 4: Under the sea, that's where we'll be...
Goooood morning Grand Cayman! I'm up at 6:30am and I missed the sunrise. Oopsy! Either I was completely worn out last night or I knew I needed my rest for today. I'll take either excuse.
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I headed out to the patio and the heat immediately hit me. There was no escaping the humidity at all this vacation...even this early in the morning. Sakari was up at 7:30am and ok...I need to know how you're getting up this early? This would never happen at home unless 1) you have school or 2) you have work...none of which are happening this week. She said she had been setting her alarm, which has never happened on any other vacation so I'm puzzled.
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It was time for some breakfast and I threw together some keto french toast for the fam and they gobbled them up like we were not going to be eating today. I promise, I feed my family ;)
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After breakfast we all went outside to the patio and it was raining. But, when in the Caribbean, everyone knows that it always rains for a short period of time and then clears up...well, that is unless there's a tropical storm or hurricane headed our way. Speaking of that, my husbands weather app decided to let us know that there was a hurricane on the way, but it would be the week after we returned home. Whew! I do remember the tropical storm we were in when we went to St Thomas a few vacations ago. That was interesting!
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I was right, the rain only last for about 15 minutes and as we were sitting on the patio Sakari heard a noise and looked over and say "WOW! Look at that crab!!!" It was HUGE! Like the King Crabs you get to eat at the restaurants but maybe even bigger. I ran and got my phone and snapped a picture of it sitting at the doorway beside our patio (as you can tell by the picture, we were behind the screen on the patio).
Of course the minute I opened the screen door to get a better picture, it ran off and I wasn't able to locate it after that.
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I decided to walk down to the beach and see if I could find any goodies washed up on the shore and managed to find another small sea urchin shell. Ok, I'm starting a collection this vacation. I've only found one in the past from our many vacations and it managed to get smashed in our luggage on the plane ride home. I'm going to take extra precautions this time around!
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On the way back to the condo, Steve was now out and heading to his sea shell by the pool. See, bright and sunny today.
Today there were no cruise ships in port so I decided we were going diving today!! I wanted to dive early in the week this time so that IF we enjoyed it, we could maybe squeeze in another dive later in the week. I contacted dive companies and picked one, which happened to be the cheapest for some reason. But the reason I picked them was because they offered something NEW! Something no other dive company has EVER offered. They had contraptions that TALK TO YOU UNDER WATER! How cool is that? They advertise by saying they are the only dive company to use these and they can tell you all the cool fish you will be seeing under water. Well, I know the names of most of them but still I thought this would be so neat and I knew I had to experience it!
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Our dive wasn't until 2pm and it was on the other side of the island, which meant around an hour drive. We were diving...get this, at Macabuca! You know, the place we paid $79 for 3 extremely small plates of ceviche? Yea, that place. Well, one things for sure, we won't be staying for lunch!
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The name of this reef was called "Turtle Reef". I wondered if we would see any turtles while diving.
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Since we had a lot of time on our hands, Sakari and I decided to break out the games I brought with us. You have to keep these teens busy all the time.
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We started out with a little Yahtzee. She had never played before even though it's been in our house since she was very little.
Then we moved on to "Pass the Pigs". Has anyone ever played this? It can be quite hilarious. My older kids love to play this game and actually Kendra and Kolin came over one night recently and played. It's been a few years since I had played it and Sakari was confused as you can see by the look on her face. I'm honestly not even sure if I remembered it correctly. Oh well, make the rules up as you go along when in doubt...
That didn't hold her interest for very long and I guess I'll have to save that game for my older kids instead from now on.
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Next up, I broke out the Carnival deck of cards. We were going to play go fish!! Now she was loving this! I think we must have played about 5 games of whoever gets to 1000 points first wins. This would become our new "go-to" game during this vacation.
Well, it was time to get our gear packed and get dressed for our adventure of the day then off we went.
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I only messed up once in the round-about and we managed to still end up where we should. I think I cleaned my windshield a few times...it can never be clean enough right?
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We arrived at Macabuca and our instructor was already there sitting at a table. He had us sign papers for the dive and another paper that let us know that he was renting our dive equipment from the dive shop there. He said anyone who comes here to dive must rent from them.
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The owner, that I had been talking to online, showed up and said he at least wanted to meet us but wouldn't be staying.
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In our paperwork was the Discover Scuba "test" they always have you do at the end of class. He did not do a class with us and was aware of just how many dives we've been on before. The hubby starts filling out his test and I told him "You were not supposed to do that because he said to wait for him to give a speech." Our instructor looked at us and said "If you know the answers, I guess go ahead and do the test...you guys have done this plenty of times before". Of course we all aced the test and was ready to get fitted with our equipment. I love it when they ask us how many weights we use for diving and both the hubby and I can proudly say "We have no idea because we have both lost a little over 50#". Whew, what a feeling!
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Before going in, he told us that we all had 3600 bar/psi to start with so "This was going to be a nice dive". I was really hoping that he would keep us out there a little longer than usual with this amount of air.
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Ok, it was time to go diving! I remembered the ladder to climb down to the water and wasn't sure if I would be able to do this. I ask if he could carry my tank and bcd down for me and he had no problem with it. I told him about my injury. No problem.
Down we went, did our skills and he motioned to us "Let's go!" Woo hoo...and we were off!
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Hubby got a new hair style...whaddaya think? I thought the mohawk days had passed a long time ago. Maybe it's coming back? He's such a trend setter.
I had the newest Olympus Tough camera, Sakari had the older Olympus Tough, and the hubby had the Gopro. I had made a decision before we started that I was just going to let him do all the filming this time around instead of switching back and forth. I was really nervous about this because I do know that he misses a lot of the things that I see...but it was going to happen...at least that's what I had thought in my mind. Deep breath Kim, deep breath. Have trust!
We immediately seen a whole school of tangs in front of us. We didn't even make it out of the cove area at that point. They were so pretty!
Immediately I'm flailing my arms around and jabbing my fingers in a direction toward him...he didn't see the Spotted Trunk Fish beside him and was missing it. I'm pretty sure I came up with my own dive hand signals this time around. There were actually two of them...he finally seen what I was pointing at and managed to get some video of them. Whew. Ok, he's understanding the frantic Kim hand signals. I gave him the "ok" signal after that to let him know I was fine after that little tantrum I had just thrown at him.
Banded Butterfly fish
Sakari was busy with her close up pictures as we headed out to deeper water. She loves her micro and macro photography.
Then we see our instructor over in the sandy area and pointing. We went over to explore. Whatever it was, it had to be little because from where I was at, I couldn't see anything but sand. Sakari was busy taking pictures of it so I was hoping once I got back home, I'd be able to see what it was. I'm looking very puzzled and he started "talking" with this equipment they had. I could only hear mumbling. I couldn't tell what he was saying. He tried adjusting my ear piece. Still nothing. I gave another confused look. He did say before we left, when he talked we'd have to "hold our breath" (one of the first no-no's in diving but it was the only way to hear). I still couldn't make out what it was and decided to move on.
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But...what it was (after getting home and looking at Sakari's pictures) was a beautiful nudibranch bluish lettuce sea slug!! I'm not sure I have ever seen one before (and I certainly didn't get to see this one either). It is so pretty!
Isn't it beautiful? I've always wanted to see one. Yep she was proud of that moment.
Then all of a sudden we approached a drop off. YIKES! Everyone knows those drop offs usually scare the bejeebers outta me. I don't know what it is about them. The big blue hole to nothing. I picture myself drifting over top of it and someone with a needle coming along and popping me like a balloon and I start zooming all over the place as I sink to the bottom of no return.
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I creep up to the edge and peek over.
Our instructor went over the edge like he was dropping from a boat into the water to dive. He just kind looked like he was falling into the big blue hole.
Ok, I can see a sandy bottom. I'm doing this! Over I went slowly as the hubby looked on. He knows my fear of walls but I have managed to do them plenty of times in the past. But, this one had a bottom and it didn't look so scary after all. Over I went and I made it to the bottom safely. There was no deflating this balloon! Not this time around.
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At his point the instructor was busy blowing ring bubbles.
Ok, time to explore the depths of the ocean...
Then I spotted a rather large Nassau Grouper. They tend to be around 1-2' with a max of 4' long. I always get super excited when I see groupers because we don't see very many and only see them when we are diving.
Sakari was busy exploring so she could pick out the best macro coral she could.
She also spotted a Nassau Grouper.
Ok, that was just a little side track and she went back to taking her amazing pictures.
I couldn't believe how pretty it was down there. Such brightly colored corals. I guess I didn't really expect it because of the sandy bottom. But the wall....oh em gee the wall! We went along the side of it and under it and there was nothing but coral everywhere in every color. It was gorgeous!
There was just so much to explore down there from the wall to under the wall and area's of coral in various places in the middle. It was so pretty and we were just all over the place.
I cannot even begin to describe how huge these tube sponges were. The just kept getting bigger and bigger!
Sakari was still off doing her thing...
She's always looking in every little crevice she can hoping to spot all the things that we don't see by being further away. She found a Squirrel Fish hiding out in a tube sponge.
Our instructor had a dive light and was busy looking in all the holes and came across a large Lobster and pointed it out to us. Not gonna lie, I was hungry all of a sudden.
These sponges really were HUGE! Like I can't even describe just how big they were. I wish pictures could capture the size. If we weren't so split up, we could have been beside it to show for reference.
We spotted a large Midnight Blue Parrot fish. These species of parrot fish are pretty large and can get up to around 3' long! This was a beauty, even though you couldn't tell the size compared to the wall it was under. Our instructor spotted him too and shined his light on him as he went by. He had a smaller one following him.
Squirrel Fish
It was so neat to see the coral and sponges hanging upside down under the wall. I would even see the fish swimming upside down. It was weird to see that. Even when I startled them, they would swim upside down into the holes and come back out the same way. Confused much?
We spotted another grouper and the instructor put his light on him as he went by.
We spotted yet another grouper. I think this may be a Black Spotted Grouper.
Schoolmaster Snapper
Another Spotted Grouper spotted by Sakari. They were just everywhere!!!
We were really down there. Our equipment kept giving us a notice that we were deep and it wasn't liking it. The screen turns a reddish color and warnings keep coming up. The Olympus Tough TG6 is rated to 50' if that tells you anything.
Stoplight Parrot Fish
Squirrel Fish
Then she waited patiently and it paid off. She had this little Goby peep its head out of the sponge.
Sakari found a Trumpet Fish. I don't even think I spotted that.
Yellowtail Damsel
Of course another one of my favorites...the Black Durgon Trigger
Bermuda Chubb
Blue Striped Grunt
These gigantic green sponges really fascinated me.
Would you just look at that face? This is a Reef Parrotfish and he was happy to see me so much that he smiled for the camera. Those teeth are perfect.
Swimming in an aquarium I tell ya...it was amazing.
Another Spotted Grouper
Another smiley face looking at me. These Parrotfish are so welcoming.... ;)
I don't even know what type of fish this is. Maybe part of the snapper family? I think maybe a Dog Snapper. We seen a group of these go by and they were all white.
It seemed like we were down there for a very long time. We were having a great time but we seen the instructor motion us to head back. We had circled around and on the way back it was somewhat sort of a drift dive.
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On the way back, we found a Flamingo Tongue Snail.
Of course Sakari would manage to get better pictures of it since she was up close and personal with it.
We kept going and I spotted a Stingray and his friend, a Bar Jack. I started giving my made up hand signals to the hubby and Sakari. The hubby took off after the stingray to get some video and then another one was spotted in the opposite direction and Sakari went after it for a few pictures.
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So why does this Bar Jack continuously follow the stingray? They are an opportunistic fish that will hover above the stingray, waiting on the stingray to stir up the sand with goodies in it, then it will scoop down and snatch the food.
I spotted my very first Christmas Tree Worm, even though it was not out all the way. Sakari said she had seen one too along the dive but I guess she didn't manage to get a picture because I never seen any that she took of one.
A pair of Spotfin Butterfly fish
Sakari spotted one too and got up closer than I could.
A Juvenile French Angelfish
Hiding under this coral was a Banded Butterfly Fish
And under this one would be another Squirrel Fish
Then the instructor started pointing at something small again. THIS time I was going to see what it was. THIS time I was actually able to see it and get pictures!! I was so excited.
Of course Sakari had to get another as well.
We came to the end and the hubby and I were trying to take a picture together. Our instructor seen this and motioned for me to give him the camera. I grabbed Sakari and we got a "Successful Dive" picture of us all.
We gave up our fish lungs and was back to breathing human air again. When it came time to go up the ladder someone else's voice came out of my mouth that said "I'm going to go up the ladder myself!" Wait what?!? On our last dive in April I had told myself that I wanted to try to carry the tank in and out of the water. However, it was just too soon for me after surgery and I didn't think my leg was strong enough yet. But it has been a goal of mine to be able to do this again. I really wanted to try it this time. The instructor ask if I was sure I wanted to do this and if for any reason I couldn't, we would take it off and he would do it. No....I'm doing this! I'm breaking a new recovery goal and it's going to be today! Then up I went. Very slow. But I still did it! Yippee!
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After the dive he mentioned those same words we hear every time... "You guys really should get certified." He said "You all dive like you are already certified and if I didn't know you weren't, I'd think we were just on a regular dive. I even seen you all checking your air frequently and I've never seen others do that unless they are actual certified divers." He praised us many times...probably more than any other instructor has. But hey, we are probably considered certified Discover Scuba Divers at this point right? I mean they should create a certification just for us. LOL We are probably the only people they have ran across that has done this many DSD's right? He ask us if we realized we were down there for (he said) 56 minutes and that's pretty long for a DSD. I told him we had went diving in Curacao and it was 1 hour and 20 minutes (actually 1 hour and 24 minutes, but who's counting...well, I did actually). He was shocked and said "That's amazing!" I guess I didn't realize, until I got back home and looked it up, that was actually only our second DSD that the hubby and I had ever done before when that long dive happened.
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I ask him how deep did we go, because I knew it was pretty deep from the way it looked and my camera's readings, and he said it was "55 feet". The hubby and I looked at each other and said to him "Only 55'? It definitely felt deeper than that." I was almost sure of it. I did ask him where the instrument cluster was that told us the depth. He said they didn't use them and they use their dive watches. I know I kept looking at mine because I always like to see how far down we are at any given time and while I'm checking my air. I thought it was weird they didn't have anything like that on there. The first time I've ever experienced that.
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I showed him Sakari's little PADI seal dive book and how we get every place we dive with to fill it out for our records and to keep track of every dive and then I ask him to fill it out. When he got to the depth part, he kind of stumbled to fill it out. I knew what he was thinking...it was a DSD and we are only allowed to go down 40', but went "55" feet. He did end up filling it out saying we went 55' in the end. However, the minute that I got back to our condo, I HAD to know the actual depth and looked it up on my camera and we went 70' down!! I knew it. Well, to be exact it was 69.55 feet. Just for reference, the temp outside today was 91° and the temp of the water was 87°. Yes, this water was WARM. We also had him write down our weight that was used so that we would be able to tell the instructor on any other dives we did the right amount.
Since we have to give a little love to the hubby for this dive (since he didn't get ahold of a camera), here's his video of about 1 hour of footage chopped down to around 7 1/2 minutes. Boy that was hard to do and pick out things to put in it. He kept the footage rolling most of the dive.
As you can tell, we didn't see any turtle's during this dive. I think they should rename it to "Grouper Reef" myself. Just saying...
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Our instructor did mention about me not being able to hear with the ear pieces and said "Sometimes they just don't work or get a signal well". It was kind of a disappointment, but I understood. Technology isn't always perfect.
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Before our dive, we did inquire about doing a second dive with this company and if it was at a discounted price. The owner had said yes that we could but never gave me a price. After our dive I had asked our instructor where would be another good place to do a second dive. He told me that he thought we would like diving at Sunset but unsure if they had anything open. I ask about how to book that and he said to contact the owner but our instructor would not be the one taking us because he doesn't dive there. I thought that was kinda weird but whatever. I walked away unsure about doing a second dive at that point.
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We were tired and hungry and we decided to head home or....find a place to eat. Of course, we were definitely not staying at Macabuca to be ripped off again. No way.
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As we were driving we found a Subway. Well, there's no way that they could charge what Macabuca charged for a meal so we decided to stop. Subway is Sakari's favorite place to eat and we love it too because we always get the protein bowl and it's keto friendly. I decided to "cheat" and get an actual sub...the bread is going to kill me, but I'm doing it anyhow.
Sakari and I got a 6" sub, the hubby a salad and Sakari wanted a cookie...plus drinks...and it came up to $34.69 US Now that's what I'm talking about! And our bellies were completely full. While we were there, I got to talk to my oldest son, Kenny, and got any updates from back home and then we were on our way back to our condo...with only 2 mistakes in driving coming home. Hey, I'll get the hang of this sooner or later I promise.
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Once home, we decided that we hadn't had enough of the beautiful sea and grabbed our snorkel things and headed for our dock. We were going back out to our own personal reef. Living the life I tell ya. Then off we went. The water was warm, as it had been since we arrived, like bath water!
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We headed out the same way we had went last time and the hubby followed us in the kayak again.
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Just a few of the many pictures I took while out there:
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Slippery Dick Wrasse and a whole lotta Damsels
Blue Striped Grunts
I just loved the purple coral that was out there.
There was some beautiful Elkhorn Coral out there.
Schoolmaster Snappers
Yes, there was plenty of Fire Coral down there so we had to watch out.
Spanish Hogfish They are so pretty.
Long Spined Sea Urchin
Banded Butterfly Fish and Tangs
A conch
It was a good snorkel session and we decided to head back and go to the pool to keep Steve company. We did also see a lobster under a rock out there. I wasn't able to get a picture, but Sakari did get it on video.
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Here's a short 2 1/2 minute video of our snorkeling today.
Time for a little pool fun before heading back up to the house for dinner.
Sakari and I headed for the shower while daddy made dinner: Italian Sausage we had froze and brought with us from home.
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It was time to retreat to our bedroom, watch some tv and have some ice cream. Only the ice cream we had just bought was now foamy and icky. I'm definitely calling them tomorrow. I know that there's something up with this fridge. I guess it was ok that I didn't get my ice cream tonight. My stomach was turning and of course the hubby reminded me about the Subway bread I had put into my body earlier in the day. So, now I was paying the price.
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Off to bed we went...tired from all the swimming today.
