In one of his rambling announcements, our captain announced as we left Colombia that we would have to anchor off-shore on the south side of the Grand Cayman Island due to expected rough seas. This meant having to find transportation into Georgetown after using tenders to get to the dock. Of course, those same rough seas caused our USS Kittiwake Sunken Ship Snorkel excursion to be cancelled the night before we arrived. We were able to book another one that would take us to the sandbar where sting rays gather and to a coral spot for snorkeling.

Our new offshore excursion was meeting near the dock, and we had some time to walk the coral reef beach before boarding the boat. There were lots of interesting things to see on this beach.

Our boat ride out to the sting ray sand bar and the coral reef was very choppy and cold. We had some regrets about not going into Georgetown with the rest of our traveling party. Tony was also starting to power through a cold and not feeling his best.

One of the crew members on the ship cut up frozen squid to encourage the sting rays to visit us. The water was shallow on the sand bar, and we were careful to shuffle our feet and move slowly to avoid stepping on the rays.

We purchased the obligatory tourist pictures taken by a crew member (expensive compared to our Cabo pictures). I suppose we are doing some small environmental harm here, but as long as their population stays in check from natural disease/predation these critters will continue to benefit from being fed and petted but not hunted. They come to the vibration of the boat engines because they know that means their favorite food will be there.

The snorkeling area was quite beautiful. The water here is much more clear than it was in Cabo. We saw different corals and many tropical fish. Unfortunately, the GoPro camera Tony was wearing leaked with a cracked screen so we didn’t get pictures of this activity.

We need to plan a trip back to this area to devote some time to snorkeling. It is such a fun and relaxing way to enjoy colorful ocean life.