We had a quiet morning at the house, with a short grocery store trip and then left around noon to meet our charter boat from Georges Water Sports. We met them over at Kaibo marina where we had lunch on Saturday. They were already at the dock when we arrives and Sean and Mikol welcomed us on board,
They took our shoes, handed us snorkel gear and got us familiar with the boat. They also had a large cooler of Water, soda and beer on board, We took advantage of the water.
We headed out to stingray city where there is a large colony of stingrays. The rays are used to the boats coming and know that they could get food. We jumped into the water on a sandbar which was about chest high. Sean jumped in and looked for a specific female stingray that he said seemed to enjoy the whole thing. We were swarmed by a group of rays because we had some squid with us. When Sean had gathered the one ray in his arms we were each able to feed her and then hold her. she didn’t seem to mind one bit, even moving closer to us as we held her. The taught us how to hold her so that we didn’t hurt her or stress her and once we had all fed he and held her Conrad let her go, she stayed close while we were there but then swam off after we boarded the boat. There were two other boats in the area while we were there but not the large crowds of boats that we had heard about.
Steph holding her stingray
Conrad and the stingray
Shawn and Sean holding the stingray
Kasey and Sean with the stingray
Cody holding a Stingray
Conrad talking to the Stingray
having fun
After the stingrays we headed to a snorkeling area close by to snorkel and look at a reef where there were loads of different beautifully colored fish. we saw more varieties than we could count. They provided all of the snorkel gear and a pool noodle for each of us so that we could float around. The currents were pretty strong and the water was a bit choppy so it was a bit of hard work but fun.
After snorkeling we headed to starfish point where we rounded up a few starfish, learned a bit about them and each held one. As long as you didn’t pull the out of the water, which is illegal here, they didn’t seem to really care. Sean found most of the starfish but Conrad Sr found the biggest one.
We put all of the starfish inside of a circular area with us standing on the outside to see how they move, and it was really amazing how fast they moved. They headed towards the area of least current, and Kasey was the winner with a starfish reaching her feet first.
All of the starfish that we collected
Sean telling us about the starfish
Everyone holding a starfish
Kasey and her starfish
Conrad and Steph and their starfishs
Conrad and Steph and their starfishs
Cody and Kasey and their starfishs
Cody and Kasey and their starfishs
After starfish point we headed to a large area of mangroves that cover over 30% of Grand Cayman. It is illegal to cut down or destroy the mangroves so this area is all protected and it’s something of a nirsery for Stingrays, starfish and lots of other kinds of fish and jellyfish who come to lay their eggs or give birth in the case of stingrays which are live births. The babies can scoot into the mangrove roots and the larger predators can not get to them. It was really beautiful and peaceful.
Mangroves
Red, White and Black mangroves