Cayman Islands trip (June 2009)

[islandmonkey]

Most island taxis charge more than their mainland cousins. Its the same here in Europe. Beware of one legged taxi drivers sporting eye patches, with parrots on the shoulder and say things like "Avast behind"!

Great trip Ron. Looking forward to reading more.

Cedar Key in Florida is a great place to drop into and Williston or Dunellon had good fuel prices when I was there.

Take care

IslandMonkey

[Ron Lee]

An experienced RV ocean flyer told me that soon it would seem like I was never even there. I think he mentioned 2-3 weeks. It actually happened within about four days.

[Ron Lee]

I made my reservation at Comfort Suites via CheapTickets.com while in Little Cayman. It is not ocean/beachfront but is just a two minute or so walk from the beach. Since I got there before my room was ready, I put my stuff in a luggage storage room and went out to eat lunch.

When I returned I was able to check into my room, change and head out to the beach.



I called Moby Dick to verify my Stingray City trip the next day.

http://www.mobydicktours.com/

The trip I was on started with a snorkeling session just a short ways from Stingray City. It was not very impressive. The stingray session on the other hand was great. You stand in a sandbar area where water comes up just above your waist. Soon the stingrays start coming around. You are taught how to feed them. If you wish, you can hold one. While there you get plenty of time to touch them, have them touch you, feed them, etc. Some folks may think of Steve Irwin. This is nothing like that. If I ever return to Grand Cayman I will do this event again.

Here is a lovely woman with a stingray



An underwater picture of stingrays



A stingray that has attached itself to my chest trying to suck out my lungs (just kidding)



On the way back to the hotel via bus, I was dropped off at the Public Beach. I had seen a picture of a coconut tree on the beach that made a great shot and I was told it might be about a 15 minute walk north of Public Beach. So I walked, and walked and walked and finally I found it.



I walked out to the street and stopped by a bus stop shelter to catch a $5 ride in a van to my hotel. The rest of the trip was spent in the pool, on the beach and in the ocean. Hardly imaginative but relaxing.

I did see a mother and daughter doing sand art and here is one. We shall see if anyone guesses what it is:



My last night there I did catch the sunset and took beaucoup hoping to get one good one.





Then back to the hotel to prepare for the flight back in the morning.

Next: Flight from Grand Cayman to Key West via Cuba overflight

[KirkGrovesRV8]

I will take this one !! Its Spongebob Squarepants;-)
I have a 3yr old;-)

[Ron Lee]

You are correct Kirk.

[Ron Lee]

Friday morning I got up early, checked the radar, TAFs, etc. I took a taxi to the Island Air area of the airport and waited. I was early just in case they opened earlier than 7 AM. No need since they unlocked the doors at about 710 AM. I checked the weather with the weather folks then cleared through the immigration lady. I had to process through the customs guy who was not there. The main area was called and he showed up about ten minutes later. Soon I was done and proceeded to prepare the plane for departure. Don the life jacket, get in, put on the oxygen cannula and I am almost ready.

I knew from reading signs that I had to contact Approach BEFORE starting the engine. I did. They asked if I was ready to taxi...which I was not. The engine was not running. They had me taxi to the runway...and I asked for an intersection departure. After a runup, I was cleared onto the runway where I was to hold.

Then they gave me my clearance info. They gave me the Stingray 2 departure instead of the Rikel 2 I was given info on. I was not happy with that and advised that I needed to go back to the ramp to properly prepare (as opposed to doing it on the runway). They gave me the procedure and another plane called in. While they responded to that plane, I got out the Stingray 2 procedure and made the needed avionics changes. And I was ready to go.

The flight over Cuba was non-eventful other than being a pleasant trip. After I got to ATUVI intersection, I was cleared direct to UVA VOR. Minimal reduction in travel and that was probably negated by a diversion around a convective cell that I had no desire to penetrate.

Approach and landing into Key West was normal. Once on the ground I asked to taxi to Customs which was at the east end of the field (Taxiway A11 I believe). I stopped in the painted area and waited. After a few minutes, no one came out so I called the tower and asked about the process. They suggested going to the door on the second floor and calling them. I started to do that and was met by three Customs guys. I got my paperwork, bags and processed through Customs. No problem. Efficient, quick and courteous.

Then I taxied over to the FBO to check weather north and departed for LaBelle FL (X14)

Next: Florida to home

[Ron Lee]

Leaving Key West to LaBelle FL (X14) was for a fuel stop. Checking weather there and talking to Flight Service resulted in the activation of the WUSS Doctrine. WUSS stands for Will Ultimately Stay Smiling (meaning alive). It is implemented whenever conditions are unacceptable for me. Repercussions as far as financial costs, vacation time lost, people at work being upset, family commitments etc have ZERO role in the decision to implement the WUSS Doctrine. In this case, a line of severe weather stretched across Florida ahead of me. Tops were in the 40,000 foot range.

I was able to acquire the airport courtesy car and found a cheap hotel. I had the airport gate and FBO door access codes for the next morning.

The next morning I left the hotel at 530 AM. I was surprised to see lightning to the west. After getting to the airport weather was again checked and evaluated. Around 7-730 AM I departed to the east to get away from the severe weather to the west, flew over Lake Okeechobee and with the aid of ATC started heading north. Weather along the east coast was much better and I continued in the general direction of adequate weather.

However, the conditions were such that I went to a two hour fuel reserve. That required an unplanned fuel stop at Keystone airport, FL. Again check the weather and launch to the northwest. I was over some clouds, under a broken to overcast layer with haze to 8000’ feet or so. Due to cloud clearance issues, I was around 6500’. I called Flight Watch (finally got it right) and asked about the best direction to clearer weather. They said that my present course was good and that clear skies were ahead. Soon thereafter I noticed the blue sky between the clouds and haze and they were right.

Fuel stops at Meridian MS and Sand Springs OK should have been all required but headwinds in western Kansas and Colorado required another unplanned fuel stop in La Junta CO.

From there it was a short flight home where I landed after over 11 hours of flight time that day.

Next: Lessons learned, mistakes and miscellaneous.

[Ron Lee]

Try as I may to do everything right, many trips have curveballs thrown at you.

1) On this trip the first one was the cloud system in Florida as I was heading to the Keys. I checked my 430 for the nearest FSS and tried to reach them. Nada but I may not have been patient enough. What I should have done is call Flight Watch (W for weather) on 122.0

Corrective action: Put a cheat sheet on this in the airplane.

2) Failed to bring my rebar tie-down rods.

Corrective action: Make a list.

3) Failed to bring my canopy cover.

Corrective action: Make a list.

4) The Marathon FBO opened at 8 AM. I really would have preferred starting my departure work sooner.

Corrective action: Check on FBO hours before arrival. The Jet Center there may be open 24 hours. I may have been able to walk through their building to get to my plane.

5) I was temporarily impacted by being directed onto the runway at Grand Cayman and then given a different departure procedure than I considered likely.

Corrective action: I had the second one close but it should have been out. I should have asked for my clearance on the ramp.

Good things:

1) I was never under any pressure to try to get through an area of bad weather. I had planned on making it to Little Rock after leaving Grand Cayman but quickly changed to LaBelle FL.

2) A two-hour fuel reserve in less than good weather conditions required an unplanned fuel stop but gave me greater options had weather deteriorated.

Other than those the fact that I made it safely without seeing a MiG or causing an international incident suggests that I did ok.

Having a wing leveler (track GPS) autopilot was essential to being able to fly over 11 hours in one day. A pitch autopilot would make it even better.

I do owe many thanks to other RV folks like Rosie, Jim Baker and Bill Souza for their help in minimizing the natural tendency to make mistakes.

Overall, it did serve a need to do something above and beyond the routine of flying to Salida for breakfast.

[Ron Lee]

The following are my recorded times for intersection/VOR crossings, etc. Ideally I made no mistakes in recording the times but if something seems amiss then assume an error. All times in UTC

A: Southbound, Marathon to Cayman Brac

Point Time
Take-off 1322
Departed Marathon southbound (About 5000? AGL) 1329
TADPO 1348
Saw Cuba 1404
UVA VOR 1411
UCL VOR 1444
LESOM 1530
Landed at Cayman Brac 1536

B. Northbound, Grand Cayman to Key West

Take-off 1307
RIKEL 1329
Direct to UVA so passed to east of UCL VOR
UVA VOR 1437
TADPO 1458
Landed Key West 1516

The KEYW landing time seems odd since I pulled up to the Customs
Office at 1527 and I doubt that it took me 11 minutes to taxi there. So
the last time may be off a few minutes.

About 2 hours 15 minutes each way and I had flight planned about 2:20.