Location: Grand Cayman
Georgetown, Grand Cayman, is a unique place. It’s a town where every other shop has Tortuga in the name or a giant statue of the local pirate Big Black Dick standing outside, where tourists ramble the streets and dive shops pepper the waterfront. Ritzy malls line the boulevards, inside which are Dairy Queens, Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger Kings, and all the trappings of home. When I walked up to one of those malls in search of a bank with an ATM, pursuing the lead of a sign advertising Venecredit Bank and Trust, I pierced the facade, literally. After hiking up four flights of stairs, we found the Venecredit offices: a spotless, utterly empty set of rooms with an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper taped to the window with Venecredit and a big arrow printed on it. We decided that it was unlikely that a tax evasion front company would have an ATM and searched elsewhere. We moved from our anchorage on the southern side of the island early this morning, so we had yet another breakfast underway. After finding our mooring near Georgetown, those of us in PSCT got busy. We took a quick quiz on navigation lights, then started on the engineering presentations we’ve been working on for the last week. Those done, we headed to shore to experience Georgetown. A gaggle of us returned early after getting a delicious lunch onshore to get an early fun dive in. Everyone will be diving tomorrow, and they are in for a treat. The dive we went on today was one of my favorites from the whole trip. The underwater topography was varied and interesting, with patches of sand, coral, and little valleys cutting their way along the bottom. Barracudas, blue-striped grunts, and other fish swarmed along the bottom. As we settled down to dinner, a spectacular sunset capped off the day as the local square-rigged bark fired its cannons off in the distance. Welcome to Georgetown.