M. was stopped on the road near the snorkeling area of Preston Bay by a waving, frantic F.

« The sea poisoned me! » he yelled, « The sea poisoned me! »

One of his feet was already swelling to unbelievable proportions so M. rushed him to the clinic. It turns out F. had been stung by a sting ray. Three times!

He was in such terrible pain that when the nurse told him to put his foot in warm water, he overdid it a little.

Now he’s got second degree burns on top of that. The water was boiling.

It’s another world down here. Not quite there yet.

The dice have been thrown. I am officially homeless and unemployed. Scary void, extraordinary freedom. I have music playing very loud, shielding me with a blanket of sounds and lyrics from the unforgiving world out there, for a while longer.

People smile and stare, my journey has become strange to them for they are unwilling to lower their own guard and must keep up with the pointless race. C’est chacun pour soi et dieu pour tous, après tout.

Hours pass between empty walls that in turn collapse towards me and expend to the distant horizon. But soon motion will prevail and the island will spit me out with relief, like a way too hard seed to be planted somewhere else.

Remember when we found misery,
We watched her, watched her spread her wings,
And slowly, slowly fly around our room,
And she asked for your gentle mind...
Misery is a butterfly,
Her heavy wings will warp your mind...

[Blonde Redhead, Misery is a Butterfly]

I’m not pro-military, and I love aviation. The following belong to both categories, to be smiled at, nothing else...

Basic Flying Rules: )oquoteTry to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there.

When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash.

It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.

[U.S. Air Force Manual]

Continue reading "A little aviation humour"

Handsome male seahorse, works as seaman, still quite seaworthy, multiple bands, very long snout, loves music (« I’ve been through the desert on a seahorse with no name... »), never seasick, seack sense of humour, lives in prime Bloody Bay location with view down the Drop Off, unafraid of giant divers, will carry offsprings, seaks attractive female seahorse with seamilar qualities to share seafood and seaweed, admire the seascape, take short nocturnal rides on the seaway looking at the starfish, and make lots of little sea devils.

A Jewfish, recently renamed Goliath Grouper (!?), sits under a black light at the popular Dancing Minnow night club

The end of winter brings tormented weather, but tonight the seas settle down on Bloody Bay.

West Indies Whistling Ducks doing Tai Chi at sunset on the Booby Pond.

Our world is a small place! The internet has definitely erased borders and shrunk distances. Here is a summary of the international visits this web site has received since the Geoloc feature was implemented:

(Let’s keep in mind that every time I log in for maintenance and posts, I register a hit which most of the time shows me as being in the States, for some weird reason, hence the much higher count for that country)

United States - 1332
Canada - 188
Cayman Islands - 167
France - 19
UK - 17
Spain - 17

Continue reading "Geoloc summary"

Suddenly there is no going back, no way out, you’re committed. It’s the moment when bridges collapse behind you, when doors are slammed and silently locked. The shores you left behind are but a memory, having faded in the haze, out of sight and out of mind. Each new step carries the entire weight of your mission and the threat of quick sands jumps out of the dusty pages of an old book, all too real now, demanding respect. Faces become blurry, masked by your speed and erased by the bite of time. Turning around and looking back will only make you fall. Pushing ahead is the only remaining option. It’s the point of no return.

Well it seems this blog is going to slow down for a while. My brand new laptop’s LCD screen just died on me and I think I need a new inverter. Needless to say the odds of me finding one before I leave here are slightly worse than the odds I’ll become Miss Universe. My only hope is to find an old external monitor; if I don’t, I’ll have limited email access from the office, but that’s pretty much it...

Did I mention I hate f!$#%$&*#$*ing computers?

Here’s a wonderful text that was sent to me by a friend. It echoes my opinion that the destination isn’t so important, it’s the ride that counts. Thanks Julie!

... I would like to beg you, ... to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

[From a translation of Letters to a Young Poet,
Rainer Maria Rilke]

I’ve posted my official farewell to Little Cayman on Paradise-divers.com