July 7, 2019
It seemed to us that the Cayman Brac Tourism Office didn’t receive vast amounts of traffic.
Nearly two months ago, we had stumbled across the office while having a wander about ashore, after first clearing in with Customs and Immigration. We poked our heads inside to ask a few questions.
The very pleasant and welcoming woman immediately heaped complimentary Cayman Islands pens, fliers and business cards upon us, as well as promotional luggage tags which, on one side, displayed the rather cryptic phrase “Find Your Caymankind”.
This phrase eventually came back around full circle nearly two months later, and we found ourselves departing Grand Cayman on a rather unexpected high.
The Cayman Islands authorities are very strict when it comes to returning any spear guns or Bahamian slings they have confiscated from boaters during their stay in the Caymans.
Essentially, they would complete all the clearing out paperwork and then allow us twenty four hours to depart, but they would not return the weapons until we were literally about to untie from the mooring and set a course for International Waters.
We had cleared out the day before, which allowed us to depart on a Saturday without having to pay overtime weekend fees to the the Customs & Immigration officers, but we still had to pick up our spearfishing equipment.
We had been instructed over the VHF to bring our dingy to the dock, where an officer would meet us.
After an hour had passed awaiting the arrival of the Customs and Border Control Officer who was in possession our spear guns and Bahamian sling, Kris made a brief visit to the nautical museum just across the street, in hopes of acquiring a last minute Cayman Islands courtesy flag.
The problem was that we had failed to bring any money along with us in the dinghy. Our plan was to hope for sympathy and enough trust from someone that we would call with a credit card number as soon as we got back to the Mothership.
On our final day in the Cayman Islands we were treated to an amazing display of what had been explained to us as Caymankind by the woman at the Tourism Office on the day we first arrived at Cayman Brac.
Today, a woman who was waiting at the museum heard that I was trying to get a flag and simply smiled and told Kris not to worry about it… the $30 Cayman Islands courtesy flag was a gift… consider it Caymankind… wow!!!
The CBC officer arrived just as Kris returned with both a courtesy flag and an unbelievable story. After we physically showed the officer our dinghy and promised our immediate departure, he turned over the underwater implements of death and destruction, sending us on our merry way.
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