We choose to get away from the popular Seven Mile Beach area for our dive vacations and so from the rental plaza at the airport, we drove toward the East End of Grand Cayman. It's about a fifty minute drive and halfway along there is a nice IGA where we stop for groceries. It's a "vacation." I get to make breakfast and lunch and most nights we go out for dinner.
Groceries loaded between dive gear, we continued on to The Reef, our home-away-from-home for the week. Now after spending all that time and money on food supplies for breakfast, we discovered a new perk with our condo rental--free continental breakfast. Who knew? Not us.
As we settled in for the night, so did Tropical Depression-Soon-To-Be-Storm Nicole. The next morning, we awoke to thick clouds and frothing ocean and "liquid sunshine." Well, divers are all wet anyway so we donned our gear and headed out. The good news was that the boat could head for calmer waters on the north side. The bad news was that it was very dark overhead meaning we could have used the dive torch (flashlight) we'd left in the car.
Still, the diving in Cayman is good even under those adverse conditions. And it isn't everyone who gets to see fish sleeping in past their wake up time. Seriously. They were laying in little coves or flopped over rocks almost looking like they were dead but they were still asleep. Without the bright sun, they didn't know it was time to be up and about.
That evening we went out to dinner and watched a bank of storm clouds move in. Just as our waitress was handing us the check, a huge bolt of lightning crashed nearby. When our eyes adjusted again, there was no waitress! It was an unbelievable disappearance! We went inside and found her cowering under the bar. She recovered long enough to finish the transaction.
We drove back to our condo and settled in to watch some TV. Just as we found something to watch, the lights went out. Now let me tell you, it was dark! The moon was somewhere above Nicole I'm sure but it wasn't any help. Luckily we found the dive torch and we headed for the only spot in the resort that had light-the bar, of course. Somehow they were managing to mix drinks by a small light. I'm guessing they were getting creative. We were told it would be a couple of hours before the lights would come back on. While we used our flashlight to get back to our room, we passed others who were using their cell phones. Some were even texting and walking! Luckily the lights were back on in about an hour and we were good for the rest of the night.
After tons of rain that night though, schools called off the next day and so did the dive operation. Storms were blowing so hard that it wasn't safe to go out in the squalls. Ah, but our misadventures were to continue even when Nicole decided to leave town. . .
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