Arrival in Grand Cayman
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Fri 8 Mar 2013 19:41
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In position 19:18.20N, 081:23.20W
'Go where the wind blows' they say, and the wind finally
blew us to Gran Cayman, a well known British protectorate in the middle of
the Caribbean famous for its offshore banking facilities as most people know.
There's so much wealth here along with posh English Caribbean accents that after
Cuba it's quite intimidating. Discarded $C notes just float past us in the water
but we really can't be bothered to fish them out and dry them off. (We
wish).
With the forecast for another cold front, but with less
strong northerly winds this time, we decided to head
southwards. We left Bahia de San Pedro at the south west corner of the Isla
de Juvantad, Cuba at midday last Wednesday having to battle a strong
northerly wind setting into the bay which bade well for our sail
southwards but was inconvenient for clearing the bay. Unfortunately once round
the corner the wind died completely and so our possible destination
changed to Cayo Largo 80 miles further east along the south coast of Cuba where
we may have been able to finally clear with the Cuba authorities (and ogle the
alleged nudists on the nearby beaches).
At around 0200 last Wednesday morning the northerly wind
with just a little east in it arrived with some 'gusto' ahead of the
front and off we sailed like an express train at up to 8 knots into quite
uncomfortable building seas - now heading towards Grand Cayman. Sense
prevailed at first light with 2 reefs quickly tucked into the main and
a reefed genoa we sailed at a speed so as to arrive in Georgetown early Friday
morning. With the wind as it now was this could be our only
destination.
So here we are moored in rolly West Bay with the yellow
clearance flag still fluttering at the cross trees. Looking forward to a walk as
we haven't been off the boat for 10 days!! Probably won't be eating out much
though as this is the most expensive place for miles around. And it certainly
has Cuba beat by a mile for it's electricity bill - in a moonless sky
we could clearly see the loom of Gran Cayman from over 50 miles away. So you
can't miss it despite being low lying and just 20 miles by 8 miles at the
extremes.
We are now in 'the queue' for clearance which could be a while
as both Carnival Glory (is that the recent pooey one by chance) and
Carnival Legend are moored right behind us. So it might be a while yet.
Meanwhile the 'Admiral' is watching a film about dolphins through the binoculars
which is being shown on the top deck of Carnival Glory presumably for
those tourists not wishing to pay $10 for a hamburger ashore - maybe
they'll turn up the sound if we ask them nicely.
Pics to follow when we have wifi, which amazingly we just
can't seem to access at the moment!
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