A Lazy Daz kind of Sunday with Family and Friends

The first serious winter storm has just hit the greater New York area which was just the excuse Kelly Norris and her sons Jay and Mitch needed to escape to the sunny Cayman Islands for a quick vacation with Cayman friends. It was Mitch and Jay’s first visit to Grand Cayman and Sail Cayman was stoked to  take them on a Stingray City snorkel excursion where they finally met our friendly rays, fed them squid and kissed and held them.  Sail Cayman’s new Captain, Les Sanders also stopped at the barrier reef for a snorkel, but it ended up being a rooftop jumping session that was a load of fun and made for great photos as Lazy Daz has a hardtop shady roof which is perfect for jumping off of into our clear blue and warm water. Next stop was Starfish Beach. No snorkel trip in Grand Cayman’s north sound is ever complete without sipping on a mudslide or two at Kaibo before heading home into the sunset, a sublime orange sunset with just the sound of the boat engines, the laughter of happy friends and family and some excellent tunes by Captain Les.

 

The Simple Splendour of a Very Different Kind of Engagement

Daniel contacted Neil from Sail Cayman and asked us to help him set up a surprise engagement on Splendour In The Wind.

Now Neil  is all over surprises. He loves setting them up as much as he likes to get them! Next Daniel contacted Irene from Deep Blue Images so she could capture the magic moment when Daniel popped the question in the water at Stingray City.

As you can see from these photos Daniel and Valerie had a great time and Daniel’s surprise worked out perfectly.

Congratulations from Sail Cayman Daniel and Valerie. Thank you for choosing Sail Cayman, we loved having you on board and we look forward to having you back for your honeymoon!

Planning is Prudent!

Have you looked at the calendar, sighed, gulped and wondered to yourself….how did I get here? You have probably just had a great summer, you’ve just put the kids back in school, you are enjoying the piece and quiet but deep down inside you’re already planning your next vacation and dreaming of getting away from it all and ‘it all’ could refer to several feet of snow in your front yard or an icy wind blowing a gale at 5am when you are miserably scraping the ice from your windshield and trying to warm up the car.

It’s around this time you start surfing the web, don’t surf too far….type in www.sailcayman.com and start dreaming and making your next trip a reality. Sail Cayman has FOUR reasons why we can make your winter painless. We have FOUR reasons why your vacation memories will last you through the toughest winter;

Reason 1; Splendour In The Wind: At 47ft this luxury yacht makes sailing figments of your imagination very real. Enough space for 12 passengers with 3 cabins, 3 marine bathrooms and a stunning teak interior, a shaded cockpit, a huge deck filled with sun and plenty of space to just lie back and chill-out adds luxury to your vacation without the price tag you would expect.

Splendour anchored at Stingray City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reason 2; NautiGal: Adorable at 44ft, yet spacious and fun, this girl provides a small group’s dream day of sailing to your destination of choice. Arrive in style and sail away leaving the others behind, envious and wishing they were you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reason 3; Lazy Daz: Fast is the first word that comes to mind, then shaded, marine head, comfort, ample space, fishing, go where you want to, jump into clear blue water from the roof and keep your frosties cold! Think….this is how I’m getting there and back!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reason 4; The RIB: Think endless fun as you zip past everyone else in the yellowest, brightest and ‘go anywhere’ boat you have ever come across! RIB stands for Rigid Inflatable Boat. The adventure starts from the minute you get on and stays with you long after you get off and right through a long cold winter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sail Cayman has just returned from vacation to Ireland, the boats have all been hauled, serviced and rigged, the G&T is fully stocked, the ice is full to the top, simply make your reservation here: Please make my vacation awesome!

 

250 lbs of Lionfish to turn into fishcakes & tacos!

Following on Sail Cayman’s recent post about our Captain Orneil being an active Lionfish hunter we have more excellent news to share. The avid Cayman Islands Lionfish hunter teams took to Cayman’s waters this past weekend and rounded up as many of the invasive predators as possible as part of Cayman United Lionfish League’s cull #12.

According to this Cayman 27 report approximately 60 cullers on 13 teams competed for bragging rights and cash prizes, killing 579 long-spined vermin during the two-day tournament. Those fish weighed in at a whopping 251.7 pounds!!

Cullers reported the search and destroy mission isn’t getting easier.

“It was difficult to find the lionfish; second it was difficult to keep the lionfish on the spear; third it was difficult to keep the lionfish in the container,” said Heather Johnson.

“Those teams are saying it’s harder to find them. They’ve got to go further, they’ve got to go deeper, they’ve got to stay in the water longer, and they’re still only coming in with half the numbers,” said Mark Orr of the Department of Environment.

A culling tournament in late 2012 that Captain Orneil from Sail Cayman took part in as well netted more than 1,300 lionfish, more than twice the amount from Cull #12. Mr. Orr told Cayman 27 the numbers are proof the culling is making a difference.

“We are doing what what we are out to do, which is to lessen the number of lionfish that are out on the reef,” said Mr. Orr.

The cull also raised funds to support a 6-year-old girl and her mother. Both victims of domestic abuse. It was an Cayman’s ARK (Acts of Random Kindness) project spearheaded by recent Hope Academy graduate Pierre Lesieur.

“We’re helping the little girl get her education, as well as cleaning up the reefs and protecting our ecosystems,” said Mr. Lesieur.

“All the proceeds from our registration and everything also go to him, so we are hoping to help him help this young lady to a much higher extent than he was planning at the start,” said Mr. Orr.

Culler Joe Segelman said everyone who participates are winners in the tournament.

“No matter if you get one or 70 different lionfish, it doesn’t matter because you’re all contributing towards getting rid of the lionfish invasion that’s happened in the Caribbean,” said Mr. Segelman.

Sailing Thoughts

Sail Cayman has been pondering a blog topic for a couple of weeks now. We ran aground, so to speak, but then we found this quote by none other than J.F. Kennedy (or his legendary speech writers if you choose to be pedantic) and Sail Cayman came up with a topic called “Sailing Thoughts”. JFK really had a way with words…and women, but let’s just stick to sailing in this blog OK?

“I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came.”
J. F. K.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is this quote that prompted Sail Cayman to Google more sailing thoughts and here they are. Sail Cayman pays homage right here to the sailors/writers and adventurers, both men and women, who pinned these quotes as we think that they have nailed the feeling, the awesomeness and the pure wonder of sailing better than Sail Cayman ever could.

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain

“A bad day sailing is 100 times better than a good day at work” Anonymous

“Sailing requires the management of all the systems on the boat, plus all the controls on the boat, while assessing the weather and navigation. It’s planning everything to a fine level of detail and making the required adjustments all at the same time things are changing” Anonymous

“If you want to know what sailing is all about, just get in the shower with your clothes on, turn on the cold water, and eat a soggy peanut butter sandwich. While you’re doing all this, drop a $100 down the drain every 2 minutes” Anonymous

“Now I’m sick of a life that is too complicated. I want to wear shorts year round. I want to swim in the morning. I want to fish. I want to shop for fresh food in small markets. I don’t want to work my butt off to make payments and then pay for insurance and cleaning and maintenance and upgrades for things that I really don’t need to survive. I am cold and tired and I need a break. I don’t want my job anymore. I want to laugh with my family in the sun. I want freedom.” Anonymous

“If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most”
E.B. White

“Would you get bored of cruising?” One of the replies stuck out in my mind. The poster said “I got bored…but it took six years. Best six years of my life! Nothing has to be forever to be worth doing!” In my mind that is perfect! Anonymous

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
William Arthur Ward

“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when clearly it is Ocean.”
Arthur Clarke 

“Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk.”
Sir Francis Chichester

“Sailors, with their built in sense of order, service and discipline, should really be running the world.”
Nicholas Monsarrat

“To deal with men is as fine an art as it is to deal with ships. Both men and ships live in an unstable element, are subject to subtle and powerful influences, and want to have their merits understood rather than their faults found out […] After all, the art of handling ships is finer, perhaps, than the art of handling men.”
Joseph Conrad

“I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else.”
Joshua Slocum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.”
Thor Heyerdahl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Wherever we want to go, we go. That’s what a ship is, you know. It’s not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails; that’s what a ship needs. But what a ship is…what she really is…is freedom.” Jack Sparrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so it is with these profound sailing thoughts that Sail Cayman leaves you…but just before you go, we would like to put one last thought into your mind; “When will you make it your turn to take yourself sailing, to taste just a small thrill of adventure, to feel the wind in your hair, to look up and see the sails full of wind, to steady yourself against the keeled-over yacht, to hear  the ropes as they run through the rigging and then to turn your face to the sun and know that you are EXACTLY where you want to be?….When?

 

 

 

What Does Perfection Mean To You?

One of the most recent reviews on the Sail Cayman TripAdvisor page had only one word accompanied by 5 stars. The word was “perfection”. This got Sail Cayman thinking – yes we do think AND sail – and we decided to Google the word perfection. We found this;

per·fec·tion

pərˈfekSHən/

noun

1. the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.
2. a person or thing perceived as the embodiment of perfection.
3. the action or process of improving something until it is faultless or as faultless as possible.

This got Sail Cayman thinking some more about how much we try and make each and every single charter the perfect experience for our guests. How we try to be the perfect ambassadors in order to reflect the Cayman Islands as the perfect vacation destination. Then we thought about how perfect each and every one of our stingrays at Stingray City are. How perfect Starfish Beach is….how you can stroll from Lazy Daz and the RIB to the perfect beach with the perfect starfish. How you stand in the perfectly white sand on a perfectly sunny day.

We thought about all this so much we simply had to blog about it! What can be more perfect than cruising over the azure waters of Grand Cayman to our perfectly protected coral reefs in the Northsound under a perfectly blue sky.

They say picture tell a thousand stories. Here’s that perfect picture on TripAdvisor we are referring to…and some more, just to show what perfect times our passengers have and YOU will have!

 

 

#Caymankind #IslandLife #ILoveMyJob

Sail Cayman was thinking about a topic for this week’s blog. Last night we posted a link on our Sail Cayman Facebook page which was all about Caymankind. Today we thought…what exactly is Caymankind? How does one explain Caymankind? So we thought, hey why not explain Caymankind in our blog!

So if your curiosity is tweaked, here goes: Caymankind is more than just a people or a place. Caymankind is an approach to life. Caymankind is about the entire experience of Caymanian culture. Now currently there are over over 135 nationalities that call Cayman home and they all live together in harmony. Caymankind is all about the people, history, resources and traditions of the Cayman Islands. Visitors and vacationers should experience Caymankind as a feeling of joy. Caymankind should be a reminder to savour life’s most precious gifts – family, love, honour and magic times. It’s the sense that you can do more, be more and mean more.

For those who are fortunate enough to live and work on one of our 3 islands, Caymankind is a way of presenting oneself to work whilst at all times being courteous, compassionate and caring. From smiles to awesome experiences and magic moments, the Cayman Islands has something to make your day brighter than it already was when you got out of bed this morning and that’s Caymankind!

So by now you are probably asking yourself how Sail Cayman is Caymankind? Well that’s a really easy one to answer! And this is where #ILoveMyJob enters this blog. When you love your job, when you love what you do, when you wake up excited about the day ahead, that’s when you make a difference in someone else’s life. Neil, Orneil and Nick, the three captains at Sail Cayman love what we do! And our love for what we do is seriously contagious. Spend a morning or afternoon with us on a charter, on one of our 4 boats (2 sailing boats and 2 power boats) and you will leave the charter with a spring in your step and greater appreciation of the nature and all its wonders. And this too is Caymankind!

#IslandLife encompasses a huge variety of magic, wonder and sometimes oddities. Remember that just over 135 nationalities make up the 50 000 people living in the Cayman Islands, but only one thing brought them all together…the dream of living island life! The dream of never waking up on a cold and dark winter’s morning, the dream of not being caught up in traffic, the dream of not living in a concrete jungle, the dream of seeing sunrise and sunset & of course the dream of palm trees and pure white beaches. Throw into that dreamy mix the beauty of the underwater world, the unconditional love from our stingrays and incredible variety the Cayman Islands offer in terms of dining and activities and you have #IslandLife!

Sail Cayman always insists that pictures tell a better story so here you go, pics from our last charter on Lazy Daz. Post these in your Facebook & Instagram. Tweet away and remember to use #IslandLife #Caymankind and #ILoveMyJob !

Sailing in Splendour

Sail Cayman’s Neil Galway hosted a charter on Splendour in the Wind last week. The passengers hired Deep Blue Images photographer Irene Corti to capture all the fun of a great day in the Cayman Islands.

Our clients often ask us if our yachts have enough space and Sail Cayman thinks these photos give the perfect answer about what Splendour has to offer on a charter. Space, yes…and also an incredibly relaxing, sunny and action packed day.

The beautiful cabin on Splendour In The Wind

The most beautiful yacht on the north sound.

Shaded cockpit on Splendour In The Wind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chilling on Splendour in the Wind’s bow

Splendour anchored at Stingray City

Reef Snorkeling

 

 

 

 

Snorkeling with the rays

Neil brings a ray to the surface for the passengers to touch and meet

Great times on Splendour in the Wind at Stingray City

Family and friends ready to leave the dock for a great day of sailing on Splendour

Captain Neil Galway

It’s where you need to be this November

Sail Cayman has been blogging about summer in Cayman, Cayman sunsets, Stingray City, snorkeling charters, sailing charters and our charter destinations. If you have been following our Facebook page you would, by now, also know our Captains; Neil, Orneil and Nick very well and you would have met the pirate side of Orneil Galbraith who dons his pirate garb every year and transforms into a completely authentic pirate!

It is with this in mind that Sail Cayman is sharing the facts of the annual Cayman Islands Pirate’s Week with you, because who knows, you may just want to add this fun filled and often hilarious event to your calender!

Pirate’s Week is always held over approximately 11 days in early November. As this was historically always the quietest time in terms of tourism in Cayman, a plan was made back in 1977 to boost tourists numbers and to give visitors a fun filled reason to come to Cayman, to get in touch with their inner pirate and to have every reason to simply just be silly.  The event has grown from small beginnings to the absolutely enormous festival it is today with thousands of Caymanian residents and tourists alike attending and every year a group called the Seattle Seafarer’s Pirates make a special trip from the west coast to attend.

So what can you expect when you attend the Pirate’s Week Festival:
The Pirate’s Landing takes place in the George Town harbour a midst cannon shots, ear splitting explosions and the arrival of the pirate’s on the Jolly Roger, Cayman’s very own pirate ship. The pirate’s then capture the Governor (which should be interesting this year as we have our 1st female Governor in office) and a huge parade of floats, dancing and food is held on Harbour Drive. As the streets are blocked off the afternoon inevitably leads to a raucous evening of dancing with live street bands, DJ’s and food and beer stalls adding to the happy times. Fireworks go off at 8pm, always the best and largest display in Cayman.

Throughout the 11 days the pirates visit each of Cayman’s districts and schools and generally behaves like pirates. The festival ends with another set of outstanding fireworks, another street party and quite certainly many  headaches the following day!

So what are you waiting for? Book your tickets, buy your best pirate outfit and come on down to Cayman where it all happens every November!

Orneil, the Sail Cayman Pirate awaits!

The Importance of Seeing the Sunset

Why do we humans love to watch the sunset. Walk Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman any given night and you will see people either sitting and watching the sunset or enjoying an evening walk whilst watching the sunset. Happy Hour at any beach or ocean facing bar or restaurant in Grand Cayman has everyone facing west. Sail Cayman gets frequent bookings for sunset sails or charters as you have seen on our Facebook posts our clients share their images with us. So we thought we’d do some research and we found these very profound quotes today and thought we must share as they are truly beautiful and profound, just like a Caribbean Sunset in the Cayman Islands.

“Sunsets inspire us because light radiating through the clouds offers us some kind of reprieve that all the troubles and all the difficulties of the day are laid to rest in the beauty shown in the sky. It’s in our psyche to desire beauty at the end of the day, so that we can rest assured tomorrow will be perhaps a better day. We sleep better following a pretty or meaningful sunset” – Sandpoint PR.

“When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.” 
― George R.R. Martin

“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgundy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.” 
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.” 
― Jo Walton

“A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east.” 
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

“Never waste any amount of time doing anything important when there is a sunset outside that you should be sitting under!” 
― C. JoyBell C.

“In silence the three of them looked at the sunset and thought about God.” 
― Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib

“The pale stars were sliding into their places. The whispering of the leaves was almost hushed. All about them it was still and shadowy and sweet. It was that wonderful moment when, for lack of a visible horizon, the not yet darkened world seems infinitely greater—a moment when anything can happen, anything be believed in.” 
― Olivia Howard Dunbar, The Shell of Sense

“If I could lick the sunset, I’ll bet it would taste like Neapolitan ice cream. 
” 
― Jarod Kintz, At even one penny, this book would be overpriced. In fact, free is too expensive, because you’d still waste time by reading it.

“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.” 
― Elbert Hubbard

“Once I saw a chimpanzee gaze at a particularly beautiful sunset for a full 15 minutes, watching the changing colors [and then] retire to the forest without picking a pawpaw for supper.” 
― Adriaan Kortlandt

“I don’t know how long we stay that way, but we watch the sun go down together. The giant, burnt-orange sphere sinks towards the horizon, coloring the rock layers until it’s gone and the canyon is covered in shadow.” 
― Jennifer Salvato Doktorski, How My Summer Went Up in Flames

We here at Sail Cayman now hope you feel inspired to make every effort to see more sunsets!