Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Yesterday was a busy day cutting trees again and hauling them away.  We worked hard but it is looking good.  These island sea grape trees just got too close to the house.  They grow so fast. You can't turn your back on them for a minute!

Friends had us over for dinner last night and we had a super yummy meal.  We even had sweet corn! It was a very fun time.

Today Robin, a very good contractor on the island, stopped by our house.  He is working up a quote to remodel our kitchen.  I like the kitchen as it is but it is time to replace the cabinets, counters and sink.  Very exciting!

Bruce stopped by with some sympathy fish from Brian.  The boat is still out of commission and we never hear a word from the repair technician.  We may have to cough up the big bucks and buy a new motor!  You can be sure it won't be a Yamaha!!

Late this afternoon our beautiful blue, cloudless sky suddenly got very dark to the southwest.  The wind was super strong and it poured rain.  This was sure welcome as it has been super dry here.  Boy did it blow!!  I am absolutely positive, I would never want to be here in a hurricane!

Needless to say, I have been spending my fair share of time laying on the beach and in hammocks.  My book reading continues.  

Monday, February 20, 2017

I'm still in Paradise!  I slept a little last night.  My one million bug bites are actually caused by Sea Lice!  How gross is that!!  After researching this and talking to others on island, I now know way more about these lice and hope I never encounter them again!  I guess they got inside my rash guard and got trapped.  The water we were in was too warm and shallow with grasses in it.  Never will I go there again!   I am so uncomfortable!

The boat saga continues.  We are having a technician fly here to work on it and he was supposed to call today.  We never heard a word.  That's island time for you!  Whoa, guys they want to go fishing, whoa guys they just want to fish!  That was to the music of Girls They Want to have Fun.....

Today we cut down trees along the side of the house.  They are Sea Grape Trees.  Very hard to cut and a tremendous amount of work.  It'll be so great when they are gone though.  Richard likes these trees a lot and I hate them.  So we are trying to compromise.  If you give these trees an inch, they take a couple miles!  One has to be aggressive with them.

We have two iguanas that have joined us here.  They hang out here all the time and stay close to watch us work.  We have to step over them a lot as they like to be in the thick of things.  The silly things seem to like it if we talk to them!  What fun!  Today I had my green floaty laying on the porch.  Rocky climbed up all the steps to get up to check out my floaty.  We named them Rocky and Balboa!
They were just tiny when we bought the place.  Now they are all grown up!

Another beautiful sunset tonight.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

It has been hot here in paradise!  The wind is not blowing so even in the shade it is hot.  This is great water weather.  Yesterday we went with friends to Owen Island in the kayaks.  We took the back way around and then parked our boats on the beach and went snorkeling.  We saw a lionfish!!  Richard put a bunch of rocks at the opening of its cubby hole so he at least couldn't escape.  When it was time to head back home, out of nowhere, the wind picked up! Of course it was the wrong direction!  It was super hard to paddle home.  I was exhausted!  Once back at the house, we all snacked and had rum punches and recovered.

Today the water has been like glass all day!  We should have made our trip to Owen today!  But I can't see the future!!

My continuing saga of bug bites progresses onward!  This morning I awoke with what looked like about 20 mosquito bites on my left shoulder.  As the hours pass I get more and more!  What a mess! Boy do I itch!  I had my rash guard on while snorkeling and that is where all the bites are.  My right arm is OK except for two  on that shoulder now appearing.  Help!!

This afternoon the water was flat as glass and warm.  I went out for a swim and it gave me some relief from my itching.  I had at least four turtles join me.  They wanted to see who the weird lady was with all the bites on her body.  They kept their heads out of the water for long periods and were probably talking to me.  I speak English not Turtleish though!

Fun day on Owen Island

Friday, February 17, 2017

Today in paradise we awoke to absolutely no wind!  Everything was so still and quiet.  The water was completely smooth.  Talk about pretty!  I worked on the beach early before the sun was beating on me.  We had an early lunch and had a rendezvous with friends snorkeling on the north side.  Conditions were ideal.    We had so much fun.  I am calling it the "day of the ray"!  We saw a couple of lovely Eagle Rays and several stingrays.  There were a couple turtles, tons of fish and two "love bird" groupers there for our viewing pleasure.

This day we were joined by several other snorkelers.  This has not happened for years.  Usually we are totally alone over on the north side, wondering if we are alone in the world!

We are still bug free here and loving it.  The house is all open and we ate dinner on the porch.  Our lemon shark entertained us while we ate tonight.  He seems to be liking our locale of late.  There must be some small rays he is after.  We also had a turtle stop by tonight.  We don't get this view in Iowa!

Last evening we went to a program on the Grouper Aggregation presented by REEF Divers.  It was so interesting.  The scientist presenting this did such a great job communicating to all in attendance.  The Nassau Grouper is protected here.  It is the largest aggregation left in the Carribbean.

One of the beautiful Eagle Rays we saw today.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

It has been a busy, fun two days here on Little Cayman.  We have been enjoying the hot, sunny days and beautiful evenings that have been bug free.  This season we do not have bugs.  It even seems weird not to have them.  We sit out on the beach at night totally bug free.  We ate supper on the porch tonight and lunches and breakfast and absolutely no bugs!

Richard has been busy taking the boat out fishing.  He has been having a little luck.  We had tuna for dinner tonight.  Yesterday afternoon he did some bone fishing from his kayak.  While he bone fished, I went swimming.  I was not joined by a shark this time!  

This morning I enjoyed my bike ride and beach walk.  I noticed a black tip reef shark near the Conch Clubs boat dock.  Suddenly I seem to be seeing sharks!  After lunch Richard and I and Tom went lobstering.  We found several.  One lobster was huge!  He did not want to be eaten though.  We tried and tried to capture him!  We were in the water several hours.  I shrivelled up from being in so long!

Following are some photos of us getting ready to head out to go lobstering.  Or I should say, photos of Richard!

How about this great shot!

Getting ready to go lobstering.

We bring a kayak along to put the caught lobster in so we don't have a shark come get us.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Happy Valentines Day!  It was a beautiful, sunny day so I took my bike out and went on my beach walk.  What a fun time!.  When I got back I put in a load of laundry and took my book out to the beach.  Soon Richard and Jim returned from fishing with a nice fish.

In the afternoon I went for a swim.  I was out for a short time and was joined by a lemon shark!  I immediately came back in!  Darn!  Hope he doesn't make a habit of hanging around here.  I took the kayak out right away to see if I could find him but had no luck.  I will have to be careful for awhile.

Sitting on the beach under the stars.

Tonight we went out to the Beach Resort for valentines day dinner.  The weather is just perfect this evening.  We sat on the beach when we got back home.  Richard took a photo and video.  The stars were so pretty as the moon wasn't up yet.   We are so loving it here!

Richards fish.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Richard and I have been enjoying our time on the island so much this year.  It has been busy with water play, friends, and yard/beach work and so much more.  All this busy fun has been making the time fly by though!

Yesterday we did some major clearing on our property again and today tackled another area.  Soon we will be totally finished.  What will we do with our time then?  I am looking forward to being finished clearing.

Last night we went to McCoys for their Saturday night barbecue.  We went with Susan and Joe.  It was fun and the food was great.  We saw the beautiful sunset from there and on the way home enjoyed the gorgeous full moon!

Tomorrow it is back to fishing.  The wind has calmed down again.  We had two days where it was too windy.  The waves and swells in the ocean just get to high and dangerous.  So, I put my order in for a nice wahoo and some tuna.

Dinner at McCoys.