Grand Cayman Trip

I just realized, I haven't said anything about my trip to Grand Cayman. Well, in a word, spectacular! I was gone for 7 days, which means I had 5 complete days on the island. Grand Cayman is ex-pen-sive! It's so expensive that they don't even use the expression, "There is no such thing as a free lunch." Rather they say, "There is no such thing as a lunch under $10." Actually, I made that up. That's why it wasn't funny. But, I was prepared for the cost and did just fine. Though, I wasn't able to bring anything back for my friends or employees as gifts. But really, that is more because of the flight rules than a lack of money. I wanted to buy rum for everyone. Afterall, who goes to a Caribbean island and doesn't bring back rum. Me, apparently. The reason for this is because I either would have had to pack the rum in my suitcase or smuggle it onto the airplane some how. Neither sounded like good options. If I put it in my luggage, I don't think it would have survived. I sat next to the window on a few flights down there and was able to watch them load and unload the luggage. Gentle, baggage handlers are not. So, I didn't like the prospect of getting home and having rum soaked clothes. There are many things I enjoy rum soaked, but clothes are not one of them. I know a guy that this happened to. He had to throw everything away. The idea of smuggling something on board the plane seemed impossible. Plus with the close proximity of Guantanamo Bay, I chose not to push it. So, I plan to go to Sam's and get my employees some booze there.

The highlight of the trip was diving, diving and more diving. It was awesome. In five days we did 13 dives. The first two days I had to spend getting my certification. But our dive master was a pretty cool guy. He made it nice and relaxed. The only thing I was really nervous about was the "emergency assent". This is when if you run out of air while in the deep, you swim straight to the surface. This is a last resort, because you are risking getting "the bends" really bad. But, if you run out of air, and your diving buddy is no where to be found, you are better off getting the bends than drowning. What you do for the emergency assent is blow out your air from your lungs very slowly all the way to the surface. My buddy got certified in Jamaica and his dive master made him do this from 30 feet below the surface and the guy turned off his air. So, that made me a bit nervous. I was relieved when our dive master told us we were going to do it at 15 feet and we were just going to simulate being out of air, rather than actually turning off the tank. Piece of cake! The only thing is, I blew out too much air in the beginning and about the last 5 feet I was out of air. But I made it.

Once I got certified, it was time for some fun. My buddy and me went on a night dive. That was a bit freaky. I was swimming so close to my buddy that I got kicked in the face a couple times. I am glad he knew where he was going, because I was lost. I had no clue which way it was back to the shore. Later on, he admitted to me he was a little lost for a couple minutes, too. Which I thought he may have been, because at one point he leads into a dead end and then just kind of looked at me. Talk about reassuring. The next day, we went out on the boat and the dive master took us to two deep dives. We went to "The Wall", which is the point where the shelf the island is sitting on drops down to 6,000 feet. So, imagine being at 80 feet and you come to a cliff where all you can see is deep blue water. This is the area where a man from Omaha the day before we got there died of a heart attack. Now you know why he had the heart attack. We swam down a little ways to look around, only getting as deep as 115 feet. Like our dive master said, you really don't see anything different at that depth than you would at 60 feet. But, somehow you just feel cool being at 115 feet.

After that dive we went to another site. The dive master told us it was going to be murky down there. Which it was. The previous dive we could see for 100 feet, on this dive we could see 30 feet. Which the dive master tells us, by the way, that this is the type of water sharks like to hangout in. So, with this reassuring information we drop to the reef. Yep, murky! Yep, SHARK!!! Actually, I am the only one that got to see the shark. He was making his exit when I saw him. He was about 8 feet long and bookin' it outta there. Fortunately, my buddy believed me that I saw a shark. He said you can tell by peoples reaction that they truly have seen a shark. Usually a great deal of animated gesturing and excitement. To see a shark is actually pretty rare. My buddy has been on 70 dives and seen just a hand full of sharks. So, if this is what keeps you from diving, get over it. Plus, they really are more scared of you than you are of them. I think I heard that there are only about 5 shark attacks a year for scuba divers throughout the world. Most of them happen because someone is being stupid. For proof of this, go to youtube and look up shark attacks. I saw one bozo on youtube kiss a shark and the shark just about bit his lip off. Just enough was left attached that they could sew it back on. Side point here: I got a blister on both of my second toes and they ended up bursting (the blister, not the toe). Let me just say that an open sore and salty ocean water do not mix! Imagine having your lip bit off in that same water. Ow!! Talk about salt in the wound.

Well, that is probably enough info for you to digest for now. I will write more later. Until then, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. I'm Casey Kasem. (Is he dead?)