Although Kingston is a harbour city, its own shores are too dirty and small for most beachgoers. Therefore, on the weekends, most city-dwellers looking for a break head to either Hellshire or Lime Cay, both about half an hour from the city in different directions.

Lime Cay was the first of the two that I visited. It was Wayne’s last full day in Jamaica, so we decided to cut him some slack and head to the beach with his friend Marvin, who is doing cool robot stuff here. Lime Cay is a little island just outside the Kingston harbor, and getting there requires a first stop in Port Royal, a small town at the end of the Palisadoes (peninsula) past the Norman Manley Airport. Port Royal is notable because it used to be THE hangout spot for the real pirates of the Caribbean until a huge earthquake left most of the city underwater and most of its residents dead. Nowadays, Port Royal is more a tourist attraction than a residential area. From Port Royal, you took a ferry (the “Y-Knot”) out to Lime Cay, passing several smaller and less idyllic cays on the way (like Gun Cay, still covered in British fortifications). The ferry ride over was definitely bumpy; if it had been a car, I probably would’ve gotten ill, but for some reason the water instills reassurance and calm in me and I spent the ride grinning as the boat jumped through the choppy waves. The girls in front of me were not so excited–they were determined not to get wet (a strange thing, considering their destination!) and covered themselves with towels while shrieking instead. Read the rest of this entry »