Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction | Non-fiction: Adventure with a Purpose

  • Home
  • Mike Scott Thrillers
    • Held Hostage: Search for the Juncal
    • Water Crisis: Day Zero
    • Turks and Chaos: Hostile Waters
    • The 3rd Key: Sharks in the Water
    • Oil and Water: Crash in Curacao
    • Return to Cayman: Paradise Held Hostage
    • Heart of the Maya: Murder for the Gods
    • Wreck of the Huron: Cuban Secrets
    • Guardians’ Keep: Mystery below the Adriatic
    • Flooding Hollywood: Fanatics at the Dam
    • Cayman Cowboys: Reefs Under Pressure
  • Withrow Key
    • Lyin’ Fish
    • Tales from Withrow Key
  • Thriller Audiobooks
    • Cayman Cowboys: Reefs Under Pressure
    • Oil and Water: Crash in Curacao
    • Return to Cayman: Paradise Held Hostage
    • Turks and Chaos: Hostile Waters
    • Lyin’ Fish
  • Agent AJ West
  • About the Author
    • Scuba diving thrillers!
    • Six Questions with Eric Douglas
    • Publicity and Interviews
  • Nonfiction
    • For Cheap Lobster
    • Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery
    • Oral History
      • Batter Up!
      • Memories of the Valley
      • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
      • Capturing Memories: How to Record Oral Histories
    • Dive-abled: The Leo Morales Story
    • Keep on, Keepin’ On: A Breast Cancer Story
    • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
    • Russia: The New Age
    • Scuba Diving Safety
  • Free Short Fiction
  • Collections
    • Mike Scott Box Set 3 (Books 7-10)
    • Mike Scott Box-Set 4-6
    • Mike Scott Box-Set 1-3
    • Tales from Withrow Key
    • Sea Turtle Rescue and Other Stories
    • River Town
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Adventure / Dive in! The Cayman Islands are all about the ocean

Dive in! The Cayman Islands are all about the ocean

June 22, 2015 By Eric Douglas

This is an excerpt from a newspaper travel story in the Charleston (WV) Sunday Gazette-Mail, published 6/21/15. The link is at the bottom to read the complete story.

By Eric Douglas
For the Sunday Gazette-Mail
The author’s wife, Beverly, poses with the 9-foot-tall bronze statue of the mermaid Amphitrite, located at one of the many dive sites around the Cayman Islands.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Rising from the sea floor thousands of feet below, Grand Cayman, along with the sister islands of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, makes an improbable Caribbean paradise.

The islands are small, without much soil or freshwater, and at the most only rise about 60 feet above the sea level. What they do have is incredible warm blue water with a gentle breeze and year-round warm air temperatures.

And scuba diving. The Cayman Islands have lots of scuba diving.

I’ve been there four times over the last 10 years. The first three times were while conducting safety training for local dive instructors and to do research for my latest novel, “Return to Cayman,” which is based on the island.

On my last trip, my “reason” for visiting was to hold a release party and book signing, with all proceeds from book sales benefiting a volunteer effort to restore a coral reef damaged when a cruise ship dropped anchor on a reef.

My real reason for traveling to Grand Cayman, of course, was the legendary diving.

For the avid diver, one of the best places to stay on the island is Sunset House. Sunset House and My Bar are featured prominently in “Return to Cayman” as well. The resort bills itself as “a hotel for divers, by divers” and it does not disappoint. The entire resort is oriented toward making it convenient to scuba dive, either off one of their boats or in unlimited shore diving for guests.

It’s easy to get there from Charleston. I generally leave out of Yeager Airport on the 7 a.m. flight to Atlanta and get to Grand Cayman in time for lunch at My Bar. It’s a small island, so the commute from the airport literally just takes a few minutes after you clear customs.

Situated about 200 miles south of Cuba, the Cayman Islands are located in the Western Caribbean just south of the Tropic of Cancer. Air and water temperatures hover around 80 degrees with very little variation. The rainy season runs from May through October, roughly corresponding with hurricane season.

The last major storm to hit the island was Ivan in 2004. It tore the island up, tearing roofs off of houses, but since then the island has only suffered on glancing blow from a storm.

– See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150621/GZ05/150629971#sthash.thbuPppB.dpuf.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Related

Filed Under: Adventure, Books, Diving, Photography, Travel

Get a free, exclusive short story!

When you sign up, you can download a free Mike Scott short story collection. Theses three stories are only available to members of the mailing list. Don’t worry, we won’t spam you or sell your email address. We hate that, too.

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

.

How I got into diving!

https://youtu.be/gKhw-4tORAM

Real Thugs: A Cult of Murder — Small groups of travelers have disappeared all over the mid-Atlantic without a trace. When bodies turn up with what appear to be ritual markings, FBI Agent AJ West is on the hunt for what might be a serial killer. Or something even more sinister. It’s a race against […]

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

View Book

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • Going to the circus! February 20, 2023
  • Cayman Cowboys is now an Audiobook! November 24, 2020
  • Halloween 2020 – as if reality wasn’t scary enough October 30, 2020
  • Real Trick and What Noise? October 30, 2020
  • Local Diving — Summersville Lake September 21, 2020

Blog posts, by category

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 ·