Month: June 2018

You know it’s time to stop and take a long hard look at your life when, while sitting in you local watering hole singing drunken songs with your mates, the busker buys you a drink instead of asking you to buy him one…

OK the watering hole is The Grand Old House looking West out over the Caribbean Sea. Where every night you are treated to the most beautiful sunsets or lightening storms over the sea.

The sommelier greets you by name as you arrive.

Petra the waitress knows what everyone drinks and has the first round waiting on the bar as you walk down the drive.

Oh and the busker is playing a concert harp… admittedly he is playing Elvis songs but he plays them well.

Yep, life is pretty good!

Poppy and the rest of her Synchronised Swimming team on National T.V. We are very proud of her and all the girls and Nicholas:

SWIMMING: CAYMANITE SYNCHRO ROCKS PALMS IN SUMMER SEND-OFF

Cayman’s artistic swimmers stepped their games up once again Wednesday (20 June) at Caymanite Synchro’s summer send-0ff.

Head Coach Alissa Moberg says their performance was a demonstration of just how far they’ve come.

“This was a whole different show then what we pulled off before CARIFTA. We have twice as many routines, some of them changed their music which made it much more difficult. I can’t keep up with this group, they just keep pushing the envelope.”

The show featured 29 swimmers performing 22 total routines.

12-year-old Nicholas Isabel says their two years in the sport transformed them.“I feel like we’ve improved a lot. At the beginning, we didn’t know anything about synchro, now we’ve improved a lot. I’m really happy with the turnout.”

One familiar face to Cayman’s amateur swimming community made her debut: 11-year old Camana Bay Aquatic Club’s Jillian Crooks. After breaking six domestic swimming records at the 2018 Cayman Islands Aquatic Sports Association (CIASA) National Championships, while winning 5 medals in her debut at the 2018 CARIFTA Championships. Crooks says she was happy with her synchro debut.

“When I jumped in the water, I forgot a tiny bit of my routine. My coach said if you forget something improve. It was fun.”

Coach Moberg says she was impressed.“I think she awesome for her first performance.  She’s only been practicing for maybe two months on and off because she’s been training hard for CCCAN and some other big competitions. This girl can do anything.”

All in all, a night to remember for a program on the rise.

https://cayman27.ky/2018/06/swimming-caymanite-synchro-rocks-palms-in-summer-send-off/

After weeks of preparation and practice Saturday was the big day. The Flowers Sea Swim. So the gang met on the beach registered and sun creamed ready for the event.

After weeks of overcast weather it was a scorcher, just perfect for the swim with a breeze to take the edge off the heat. Only we were swimming north to south and the breeze was blowing south to north so we faced a current pushing against us for the whole swim!  Even the Olympians who swam the race commented on it.

Despite the current I managed a slightly quicker time than last year and improved my finishing placement by 52 places. I moved from 556 to 504! Poppy in the meantime improved from 576 to 336 this year! Just amazing.

The race start

The elite swimmers powering away

The winner crosses the finish line 17 minutes later!

The pictures were taken by a local drone controller Damien Murphy of Air Vu Media. They look amazing.

The elite swimmers finished the course in under 20 minutes! The winner took only 17 minutes. They swim like dolphins!

At the finish line we were given our medals, a goody bag, t-shirt and were fed and watered.

The special guest there to enjoy the atmosphere and soke up the sun was none other than this chap:

Doctor Frasier Crane / Beast himself.

After the speeches the free prize draw. 1 in 7 swimmers won a prize. But as it got down to the very last prize we ‘Reads‘ had not won a thing.  R4 and R9 were called but not 5,6,7 or 8. Then the last number called was… R5! Me. I won a return flight to Cayman Brac. Which is really handy as we are planning a dive trip over there. Weekend break on a Caribbean Island here we come!