On Thursday, August 9, 2018, our ship arrived at Grand Cayman Island. It took a little while to tender on a little boat over to the shore. We got separated from the kids on the way over, and they ended up on a different boat, but we all got there. Luckily, we could text each other when near land (and also send messages on the boat due to the cheap wifi messaging plan).
The activity I was most looking forward to on the whole cruise was to see the stingrays. Rather than pay $100 per person through the cruise line, we paid just over half that much to go with Captain Marvin, and had a much smaller group than the cruise excursion would have. This bus shows our entire group, which is about twice the size of just our family.
The bus driver told us about about The Cayman Islands. Apparently the British got there first, so they drive on the left side of the road and are still loyal to the crown. However, somehow the U.S. has dibs on the military presence there, so the U.K. has to get permission from the U.S. to bring any military force there. It is a pretty upscale and prosperous place, largely due to its trillion dollar international banking industry that stems from its being a tax haven.
Captain Marvin's took us on a small boat through a passage and out to the ocean. Linette was worried about getting sea sick, as she has in the past on small boats, but this ship was amazingly smooth. I commented on that to the captain, and he said, "Like a hot knife through butter," obviously proud of the boat himself.
A ways out into the ocean, and a little before reaching a barrier reef, there is a sand bar that lets you stand waist deep in the middle of the ocean. Boats drop anchor there and everyone gets out to see the tame stingrays, so it's called "Stingray City".
Sure enough, in short order the guide had gathered up a stingray and let us all play with it.
He showed us the stinger, and said that these stingrays wouldn't use it unless they thought they were going to die. Still, he recommended that we shuffle rather than step in the water so that we didn't accidentally step on one.
Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) was famously killed by a stingray, but that was a Bull Ray, which is much larger and more aggressive than these Southern Stingrays. Plus, these particular rays have been fed by people enough that they're very tame. That being said, Devin got stung by a stingray in San Diego (not sure what kind), and he was hospitalized. That one happened to hit an artery, and his leg swelled up like a balloon, so that was scary! But don't worry, I'm sure we'll be fiiiiiine...
Here's Kelsi holding one.
And wearing one...
And giving one a smooch!
And everyone got a turn.
Adam's first kiss! :D
They're slick and slimy, and it was awesome to be able to interact with them like this.
Meanwhile, stingrays were swimming around us, and would brush against our feet sometimes.
Stingrays don't have teeth per se, but they still had us keep our thumbs inside our hands (as demonstrated by Sienna above) to avoid getting scraped by their bony gums.
Even so, Erika's index finger got scraped enough that it drew blood. :/ (Hopefully she doesn't turn into "Stingray-Woman" in the night!)
It was awesome to have such a close encounter with these amazing creatures.
After our encounter there, Captain Marvin's took us to a nearby coral reef, that was on the island side of a barrier reef. A couple hundred feet beyond the barrier reef was a steep drop-off to a depth of a couple miles.
The coral was really cool there, with a good variety of fish swimming around. Visibility was great, too.
I love the deep blue color of this fish.
There were all kinds of coral there. At one point, the water started getting all bubbly, and I realized I had drifted too close to the barrier reef, where water crashes down, so I had to back off.
Just as it was time to move on, I saw something that was 4 or 5 feet long, so I followed it around for a moment. The captain told me it was a barracuda.
The spot they took us to next had a lot of fish.
Here's Linette over the coral.
And Erika.
And Sienna.
And here's an epic shot of Kelsi diving down to take a closer look.
This stingray is hiding in the sand.
Snorkeling with the stingrays and over the coral was an awesome experience, and I think everyone said that this was their favorite day of the trip.
With that, we headed back up the channel and tendered back over to our ship.
That night the kids hit the buffet for dinner because they wanted to watch the poolside movie.
So Linette and I had a "date" by going to dinner by ourselves. Here are the smothered stuffed mushrooms.
There was a show that night that featured songs from a bunch of movies (and a creepy guy artistically representing the audience, flitting in and out of the scenes). Other than the creepy guy, it was a very entertaining show. Here are the girls with the cast.
One of my favorite moments of the cruise was when we were all hanging out in the girls' room around midnight just talking and laughing. (Which, of course, we could always do at home...)
So that was a great day.
In the next episode, we wend our way to the Mayan ruins of Tulum and hope to get back to the ship on time!
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