What do you think of when I say the following: Crystal clear water… sunshine pouring over you… not a cloud in the sky… the smell of coconut tanning lotion filling the air…? You’d think of the beach perhaps. Relaxing on a towel, and letting the sun do its job by giving you a golden tan.

You wouldn’t think of work, that’s for sure. But that’s how I spent my Friday morning. Working. On a boat. At Stingray City. And okay, okay – maybe I went a bit OTT with the tanning lotion. There was none. And maybe there were a couple of clouds… But other than that, it was perfect weather for our CML TV crew to shoot a trip to Stingray City for Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort.

I am a new member to the CML TV team. I’ve said ‘Goodbye’ to my CISPA and CISHRP Liaison Officer roles, and have started working as a Producer (no longer will I be referred to as ‘the CISPA chick’ by random people I don’t know when I go out)! This morning we arrived at Safehaven at 8am – not the best time of day for me, but I had my smoothie and tried to look bright, sparkly and enthusiastic about being up so early to jump on a boat and see some squishy fish… Which if I’m going to be honest, wasn’t so hard at all. I just had to think about all my co-CMLers on their way to the office, and I felt so much better!

I met our Red Sail crew for the day – Bob, Roy and PJ (I forgot their real names, but I’ll say that I’ve changed their names for privacy reasons), as well as staff from the Marriott and their guests, and more of the CML TV team. We set sail and headed towards Stingray City, taking footage along the way. It was great to be able to capture the excitement of people who had never seen stingrays before.

For those of you who have never been to Stingray City, it is a sandbar in the North Sound of Grand Cayman. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions of the Cayman Islands, and as the name suggests, has a high population of stingrays. Being Australian, I’m not overly fond of the slimy creatures but have to admit that it is an experience like no other. Once you get off the boat, you are standing in waist high water. The stingrays swim up to you (this is usually when I squeal a little bit), but most of the time just keep going past once they realize you don’t have any food on you. When you go to Stingray City on a tour, your tour guides will most likely hold a stingray and let you feel their wings. The texture on top of the stingray is like wet sandpaper, and underneath is like a wet Portobello mushroom. Once you’ve been in the water and are comfortable you can even have the opportunity to hold one, kiss it, or have it give you a massage! 

The video captures every part of the tour, and once it is uploaded on to our website, I’ll be sure to let you know! If you would like to view any of our other videos, please visit: http://www.cmlor.com/cml-tv/cml-tv.html