As I mentioned in my last post, by the time I got to bed it had been a long day. The last thing I remember was being told to call the airline the next morning to change my flight. My flight was booked with the assumption I was going to be on Little Cayman. Since we had to move to Cayman Brac I'd have to make some adjustments.

I woke up the next morning and called the number I was given, no answer. I then called another number I had and talked with a woman on the other end. I explained that my flight was initially for Little Cayman and now Cayman Brac and if that would be a problem. She told me I was the only flight booked for the day so no problem and just to give her a call once I was at the airport.

With that taken care of, I felt like an asshole because I had to wake up my two crewmates so we could untie and then get back to the dock. So after bugging them for 15min. they finally got up and we tried to figure out how we were going to get off this stupid tank we were moored to. After about 30min. of struggling to get the loop off the hook we said screw it and just put a float on the end of the line and dropped it in the water!

The night before when we docked the water was pretty calm, this morning, not so much. We had to struggle to get the boat close enough so I could jump over to the dock and then have my 50lb bag of gear thrown over as well.

I hopped in a cab the dock guard called for me. It was driven by a little old Cayman lady. She was pretty funny and drove like a bat outta hell! Even with all that speed I was still surprised how big the island seemed. Looks so small from the ship.

Anyway, I called the other lady back to let her know I was on the way to the airport and she told me she'd take off now and would be there in 45min. It was at this point I realized the Cayman's don't do Daylight Savings Time. So I was an hour early. Which means I robbed my crewmates of some precious sleep...DOH!

I got to the airport and checked in. The lady behind the counter told me that the plane would be there in about 2 hours. I was like, no I called she said she would be here in 45min. It was at this point I realized I was talking to a different airline. It was a private charter!

The flight they had booked for me was going to be about $75 to fly me to Grand Cayman. This private charter was going to be about $900 Cayman Dollars which is over $1100 US!!! Holy shit was I going to be screwed. I called my old boss asap to explain the problem. Luckily he took it in stride and was willing to pay for it if it came to that. Even so I felt guilty as hell.

So the charter pilot arrives and she comes over and asks where my other 7 people are. I'm like huh? It turns out she thought I was the group leader for 8 people on Little Cayman, hence the familiarity during my calls. She was like crap, I gotta go! I have 8 people probably freaking out on Little Cayman! Whew, I dodged an expensive bullet there.

Two hours later I get on my scheduled flight and head to Grand Cayman. From there it was line after line after line to get on my flight back to the States.

We flew OVER Cuba which was surprising. I would have thought we'd have to fly around but I guess not. As I was looking down at that country, I thought to myself, man they love their straight fuckin roads! Lots of them were many miles long and straight as an arrow. There also didn't seem to be many population centers there either.

After landing back in the States I had to go through the secondary search again. I had to grin as the inspector pulled out my titanium dive knife. Luckily, I had all my other scuba gear so I wasn't just some nut with a big knife in my bag.

I got home about 30min. later and just relaxed!

Labels: Travel

posted by WarWolf at 4:25 AM 0 comments

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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I'm Back!

Well, I made it back from the Cayman Islands in one piece! Sometimes my life rocks...unfortunately not often enough to offset the usual suck.

The short version of my trip:

Flew to Key West on Friday. I got to fly the Cessna C210 we used for most of our flight over the Keys! Undocked the 75 foot converted fishing trawler that night around midnight. Drove down and around Cuba only violating their waters for an hour or so to save time as we rounded the bend. No patrol boats intercepted us.

After cruising the open ocean for 3 and a half days we finally made it to the Caymans. During most of the trip I'd say we saw about 4 other ships total. That got me to thinking how screwed we'd be if the ship sank. I don't normally get seasick unless the boat I'm on really bounces around. This one was a bouncer...but just enough to keep me on the verge of being sick, which I think was worse than just chumming the water and being done with it.

Anyway, we were real close to Grand Cayman and anticipating just dropping anchor and firing up the grill and relaxing. But oh no, we get a call that we have to be at Little Cayman instead. That added another day to our trip!

Once we got to Little Cayman, we wasted no time dropping anchor. Instead of firing up the grill, me and one of the other guys grabbed our dive gear and checked out life beneath the waves. About 10min. after we got back on the boat one of Little Cayman's official boats came out to see WTF we were up to. We told them we just got there and since it was after office hours for Customs we were going to just anchor and then clear Customs in the morning.

They proceeded to tell us that we would have to clear Customs that night and unfortunately, we couldn't do it on Little Cayman, we'd have to transit to Cayman Brac...THREE hours away! By the time we got there it was close to 11pm or so. Dark as hell and we're trying to find an unlit dock in an unfamiliar country.

As we finally found what we thought was the dock, I had to call out that something big was in our path and if we didn't turn we would be screwed! It was some huge metal tank floating and anchored in our path.

We finally got tied up on the dock, and during that process I realized I'm still freaked out about ropes after my accident. Good times. Once we shut down the engines we had Customs officers board our boat and one dude who had to go around fumigating to make sure any foreign insects died before being introduced into Cayman Brac's biosphere.

So Custom's finished with us around midnight and we were beat. We figured we'd just stay tied up at the dock since I was getting off in the morning to catch a flight. WRONG!

We were told that wasn't allowed and that we should tie up to that floating tank since it was strong enough to hold a boat our size. Not a problem we thought, but it turns out this tank wasn't the best thing to try to tie up to.

There was one loop we tried to get a line through, but instead I ended up getting our only boat hook yanked out of my hand. Mother Ocean claimed that. We finally went with the Lone Ranger approach and just tossed a loop over the top of this semi-hooked piece.

Once that was finally done, we decided to toss some steaks on the grill and relax a bit before calling it a night...FINALLY!

Shit, this story went on a lot longer than a thought. Ah well, I'll go into more detail in other posts later.

Labels: Travel

posted by WarWolf at 7:46 PM 0 comments

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Friday, June 16, 2006

Off to the Cayman's

Talked to my old boss tonight after dropping a friend off at the office. They need a diver to help put in environmental friendly moorings down around the Cayman Islands. Long story short, I’m off and I’ll be back in a week or so!

Labels: Travel

posted by WarWolf at 5:38 PM 0 comments

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Sunday, May 14, 2006

I've Moved!

Well, I've finally made it to Florida! Now I can get my life moving again. The trip down was uneventful for the most part.

I rented a 10' U-Haul truck on Wed. morning. On the website it shows their trucks having built-in ramps but it turns out the small one I rented didn't. This made loading my bike in it quite an adventure. Ended up using a long board that looked ready to snap at any time.

I spent the rest of the day loading up all my shit. That pissed me off since I didn't realize how much crap I had and I'm now on a mission to toss most of it once I get a chance. I like being a minimalist and all this crap I'm lugging around isn't helping me fulfill that goal.

Once I had everything loaded I took a short nap and then got on the road around midnight or so. Since I didn't have my Sirius satellite radio in the truck it was a long, quiet and BORING drive! I started to nod off at the wheel a few hours into the trip so I pulled into a rest area and took another nap. I then started the whole process over again.

By the time I got to Florida the excitement of being close to my goal kept me awake the rest of the way. I was making good time when I see the traffic advisory saying I had to detour from my direct route highway to one that ran through the heart of the Everglades.

That's one thing that pisses me off about Florida. Highway 95 is in pretty good shape and I didn't hit a single toll the whole way down from PA. I'm forced to hop on Highway 1 for 300 or so miles and get hit with a fuckin $8 toll when I get back on 95. I have no idea where that money goes because the road is pure shit. End rant.

Another thing about Highway 1 is that there aren't many gas stations. I was starting to get low on gas and saw a sign saying there was one at the next exit...I didn't see anything so I kept on driving. Another sign said the next station was 9 miles away. I think it was going to be close, and it turns out I was right...the truck started beeping out of fuel just as I pulled up to the pump.

The rest of the trip went off without a hitch. I arrived at my new apartment around 8pm and unloaded the truck except for my motorcycle. I then realized I was tired, hungry and THIRSTY! I never drink tap water, so I fired up the mighty U-Haul to head to the grocery store! After that mission was accomplished I got back and started arranging a few things then finally called it a day and went to bed.

The next morning I called U-Haul to see if they had a ramp I could use to get the bike out of the truck. They said sure come on down. So I talk to the guy once I get there and it was a totally different story! Sigh. Another guy is like, 'no problem, we'll get a bunch of guys and lift it down.' My bike isn't a Harley so instead of 900lbs mine only weighs a little over 400lbs so it was doable but I was hesitant because I didn't want to see it get dropped.

Another guy came over and suggested we back up one of the bigger trucks with a ramp and transfer the bike across then down that truck's ramp. Great idea! After the bike was down, I went in and filled out the paperwork and got a chance to ride my bike in FL for the first time, and it felt great! A little hot with all my gear though, so I've gone squid....just a helmet when on the highways, but no helmet when cruising down the beach. I always wear gloves though since my extensive crash experience shows that my hands always touch the ground :)

Anyway, I'll post more shit later along with pics of my new place and the car my buddy set me up with. For now though, I'm heading to the beach to swim!

Labels: Travel

posted by WarWolf at 9:15 AM 0 comments

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Thursday, February 02, 2006

Immigration

As I mentioned in previous posts, I flew back to the USA after leaving Nekton. Unfortunately, this meant I needed to have all my stuff packed. So I had a backpack and two large rolling bags that weighed about 70lbs each. I also had a leg I could barely put weight on. I figured I would only have to deal with the bags until check-in and then again once I was in the States and hopping in my friend's car. Boy was I wrong!

 

I got to the Belize airport and waited in line for about 10min. as we made our way to the check-in counter. As I got closer I noticed they were searching bags before checking them in. I was ok with that, I was just hoping they would be ok with the HUGE titanium dive knife I had in my one bag. It was going to be checked, but you never know. Luckily, it never became an issue, the checker didn't even see it. We were too busy talking about diving and I was telling him about the ship I was leaving.

 

I finally get my bags checked-in and my boarding pass and make my way through Belize customs. I get hit with a exit fee and some other crap and I'm sent on my way. They also hand me a immigration form for the USA. So as I was waiting for my plane, I decided to fill out the form ahead of time. I was going to pick up some gifts for the family, but I knew I was going to be hurting for cash in the near future so I passed on em.

 

So after a 2 hour uneventful flight I land in Miami and start making my way towards US Immigration. By this point my leg is killing me. I was only given anti-inflammatories and no pain-killers at the hospital. So I'm gimping along like an old man when I turn a corner and see a huge mass of people waiting in line. I was like "fuck." The last thing I wanted to do was stand forever in line on my one good leg. Luckily, it turns out the lines for US Citizens is a lot shorter. I actually ran into a couple that had been on the boat that week. They asked how my leg was doing and mentioned how they had seen it happen and how lucky I was. I totally agreed with em!

 

I finally get up to the Customs Agent and hand him my passport. He types a few things into the computer and is like "Come with me please." I remember thinking "What the fuck!" So we started walking down past all the other counters with the Agent having to stop every few seconds to let me catch up since I was limping so bad. We end up at a locked door that they buzzed us through. Inside was dozens of other people in the same predicament I was. I was told to have a seat and someone would call me shortly. From the number of people in the room I figured I was going to be waiting for a long time.

 

When my name was called less than 5min. later I thought to myself "this can't be good." I had two new agents escort me to get my luggage. So here I was limping all over the airport to get my luggage while flanked by two armed guards. I get my luggage and they have me follow them to a holding area. As we enter I notice some rooms with closed doors which I assumed to be strip search rooms. Perfect. The guards have me put my bags down and have a seat. While one guard is typing things into a computer and making calls to inquire about my past the other guard is interviewing me.

 

After a few minutes, the two guards were talking quietly by the computer. Around the same time about six new guards enter the room. Holy shit, what the hell did they find in my past!!!??? I have to admit I was initially kinda flattered that they thought it would take that many guards to control me. I was then crestfallen when I realized they were just in the area taking a break.

 

One of my original guards came over and did a quick search of my bags and declared them clean. The guard on the computer also said I was clear with no warrants and stuff so I was free to go. They apologized for all the hassle saying the guy who flagged me did so before any of my info was even entered into the system which was unusual. They felt bad for making me limp all over the place that they took me to a special Customs Agent to get processed instead of making me go back upstairs with all my stuff and wait in line.

 

As we were waiting we chatted about diving in Belize and how spearfishing and stuff is illegal down there and crap like that. While we were standing there an Agent passed by pushing a cart full of confiscated booze from Cuba. There must have been a hundred or so bottles. They take em and empty them down the drain, which seems like such a waste. Ah well, anyway after my passport was processed we all shook hands and I was free to go.

Labels: Travel

posted by WarWolf at 2:08 PM 0 comments

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