Farewell Grand Cayman

"Refuel" and "Repair":  those were the two boxes we checked on our Immigration paperwork when we arrived in Grand Cayman last Thursday.  That was our intention, but we've ended up enjoying so much more!  Our plan was to do the repair on Thursday, look around on Friday and leave for Panama on Saturday.  But here we are, a week later, getting the boat ready to depart tomorrow!

We've had a wonderful time in Cayman, and met some great people.  Our deepest thanks go to Mike Farrington of Compass Marine, for his help in getting us back on track, and making the trip up the mast...twice!  If you ever find yourself in the Cayman Islands, and need assistance with anything boat related, Mike's your guy!  In addition to getting the main halyard fixed, and the Geneker halyard repaired and rigged so it too won't chafe, we also fitted a new radar, a job that had been slated for Panama, but is now out of the way.

The New Radar Dome

In case you missed it in a previous post, Mike is also from South Africa, and it turns out he and Dave sailed together many moons ago!  They know all the same sailing folks...what a small world!  Also a huge thank you to Mike, his girlfriend, Karen, and her kids Paddy and Lily for the BEST BRAAI EVER last night!  We so enjoyed your company, and the boerewors was amazing!  Benjamin and Gaby enjoyed the company of other children for the first time in a while, and absolutely reveled in it!  We hope to see you "out there" in the not too distant future!

So today we headed downtown to the Customs and Immigration office and cleared out, so we now have 24 hrs to depart.  We've spent the day getting the boat ready for the next passage.  We have over 600 miles to Panama, and anticipate being underway for about 4.5 days, so we should get there sometime next Tuesday.  We are eagerly looking forward to meeting up with our friends, Garrick and Adrian, (who is coming all the way from SA!), and who will help us sail from Panama to French Polynesia!

So as we say farewell to the friendly island of Grand Cayman, we leave with 4 GB of music from the Jamaicans on "Oh Reely", a Rum Cake and a new phrase..."Yeah Mon"...

Yum...Rumcake!

Our home for the last week:  the Barcadere Marina

Keep tracking us on the "Track us Here" tab, and so long, until Panama!

One quick final video link below of last few hours in Cayman this evening hanging out at the yacht club pool with our boat in background:

Having fun at yacht club pool on last day in Cayman