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3rd Nov- Off to Cayman

Our few days so far in Bonaire has been a nice break from the sand and sea. We are a stones throw away from shops and civilisation. Omazey even babysat all our children and Helen and I went out for an evening walk and ended up having a few drinks and Dinner at a fish Tapas bar on the sea front.

Chris, Jonathon and myself went for a dive off the back of the boat. Jonathon has done the course but not got the ticket, and Chris hadn't been before but was keen to try. So I took them down to 3 metres and they got used to things then we headed off 50 feet further back from the stern of our boats where the reef is and it was absolutely beautiful. Better than I've seen anywhere before. The reef was teeming with reef life. We went down to 50 feet and it was a great dive. It has wetted their appetite to do the Padi course. Helen and Sophie are even keen to do it. They do Padi starting at 10 now.

I managed to book my tickets for Cayman here. Flying via Jamaica to Cayman return was 300 US dollars. A bargain seeing as though the flights through Miami were going to be near on a thousand US at such short notice. I hope that Cayman get back to normal as soon as possible. We need our tenants back in as we are struggling with the loss of income.

So This is my last log before I fly off to Cayman Tomorrow. It is Conors Birthday today and all the kids are at the birthday party and Helen is ashore trying to get her eyes seen to as they are giving her jip at the moment. I've just had to jump in and swim to the dinghy as Helen made the fatal mistake of casting off the dinghy before starting the outboard. She couldn't start it, and had drifted 100 feet before shouting to me for help. This could be an interesting week for her surviving on the boat with the 4 children while I leave for Cayman for 9 days. But she's done it before, and OB are sticking around, so she'll be fine.

8th Nov - Sorting out the Cayman house

I arrived in Cayman after a stop over in Jamaica, but Immigration didn't let me in to Cayman as I didn't have a letter from immigration (err how was I supposed to know that), Jamaica airways should have checked in Jamaica and not allowed me to board the plan without one. But as ever, I managed to talk my way in again !

Amy Burke, our rental Agent and friend met me at the airport, then we went out for dinner at one of the few restaurants open. It was her birthday the day before on Thursday. The kids were there and Mia was so excited about the letters and photos from Emma, she so really wanted Emma to be there. They mentioned that they may come down to Panama when we are there as they Holiday in Panama and say its great.

I'm riding around on a bike that Amy lent for me, but I only use it to go up and down West bay road to eat breakfast. I haven't found a grocery store yet that is not flooded out as I have been working none stop. There was a collection of food in the high cupboards left over from the tenants and the microwave works so Ive been eating what I can find. Rice and packet soup sat and sun so far. I'm going to treat myself to pasta and chilli flavouring tonight.

Amy managed to replace one air-conditioning system unit and that cools the downstairs living room, but there is plasterboard missing above the front door and porch that was blown through from hurricane Ivan as well as the Garage and so mosquitoes get through from outside. So I had to sleep upstairs. The box room was open but with no aircon it was so hot. The upstairs' playroom door was locked and all the keys were thrown out with the kitchen after the hurricane. So after the meal out at around 11 pm I climbed onto the roof of the house using the climbing frame sensing a way in and luckily one of the playroom windows was unlocked so I climbed in and slept on the sofa under the fan with the windows open (with mossie screens attached) - who needs air-conditioning anyway - it was just like being on the boat!!!

The house has been cleaned well and the swimming pool is clean and back up and running (no heater replaced yet) All the plasterboard is removed - washing room, kids-bathroom/toilet, bedroom2-bathroom/closet, understairs/toilet. The cracks that have appeared after the hurricane are just settlement cracks and shouldn't pose a problem, we will fill them and repaint. Amy has lent me a phone - Ive phoned Donald, our landscape man and he has been in and cleared all the rubble and crap from the drive way that was thrown out, he also is sorting the garden out. The huge "big leaf" tree out the back fell and broke the fencing, they are going to chainsaw it up and take it away. The sunset is alot nicer with it gone , but there is no privacy from the house out back - good job that house is only occupied for 2 weeks a year !

When I heard that we were likely to be underinsured and likely to come out short off cash to rebuild the house I spent a whole day sifting through the fly infested, poo-ridden pile before it was cleared away, looking for bathroom tiles to try to retile the plasterboard areas. My plan is to cover most of the bathroom walls above the sinks with a huge mirror and use the reclaimed tiles to border it. The master Bathroom is all ok, except the steps upto the bath which I will replace with closely matching tiles as I couldn't find any reclaimed ones.

The biggest problem which has arisen is the fact that I think we are underinsured !!!!!!!!. I am meeting with the loss adjuster this morning to battle it out, but after speaking with Kent and Amy, the loss adjusters value the rebuild of the property at 130CI per square foot, and our insurable amount must be within it or they prorata the claim down. I have totalled the square footage up with precise measurements, excluded the garage and porches (80ci/sqft) and did the calculation and it comes out at 530,000 CI we were only insured for 410,000. This means that of the 200,000 CI claim that we are putting in we will only receive 160,000. This is going to be an issue so Kent is working with me to ensure we have included everything on the list, making sure everything is realistically as accurately as high as possible, then we have been going through and working out what things can be shortcut on repair to save money.

We may hopefully just come out break even on the claim.

Where we could really save is if I could spend 2 weeks here and do alot of the work myself, but I know that's impossible with our plans to head to Panama.

Its a shame we were under insured as this would have been a great opportunity to "up" the value of the property by giving it an uplift.

Its bad camping here by myself - I'm surrounded by items of our previous lives, lots of the wedding presents, and its sad and lonely.

Cayman hurricane pictures

http://dolphins.typepad.com/photos/cayman_hurricane_damage/index.html

http://www.davidwolfephotography.com/Stk/Ivan/index.htm

leaving Cayman Friday

Hi,

Feel free to call me on 001 345 925 0870 - Sorry I cant make out going calls from here. The voice mail dosent work either - so just keep calling.

Rob

12th nov - success in Cayman

Well after a lot of hard work speaking to kent and amy, the insurance adjuster, aswell as gardeners, aircon contractors and swimming pool people, and also the planning department and building survayors and engineers, I have managed to sort the insurance claim out and have come away with a great plan to get the place back on its feet again.

Kent and Amy Burke, our rental managers aswell as our rebuiling project managers have been absolutly fantastic. They are working flat out not only on our house but about another 20 or so houses in the same prediciment after Ivan. They have managed to put together realistic quotes for all the things damaged to the house very thoroughly. They have made the whole process of dealing with the loss adjuster, through their hard work, a very advantagous position for me.

I met the insurance company and after a few meetings regarding some disconscerting cracks that have been developing for years and have been exagerated by the hurricane, we mutually decided that they will pay to have them repaired and if there is still further subsidence then a future insurance claim should be filed. They were happy to go ahead in this way.

But then there was all the problems with the house caused by Ivan. Kent had totalled up over 300,000 dollars worth of repairs. I remeber sitting in margarita in Venezuella and to ensure we had our tenants in as soon as possible, to get our insurance check as soon as possible, I had faxed a letter to the insurance company to accept the settlement of 160,000 dollars. Luckily my broker, Donald Jackson at IIB in Cayman held onto the fax and didnt file it. When I arrived in cayman and had meetings with the loss adjuster the value of the claim seemed to increase every day. I think he was getting worried that it was sipraling out of control especially with my dramatic presentations on the cracks.

And then after a meeting with the loss adjuster I mentioned was there any cover for rental loss. He said there was since I asked - they have been actively not mentioning it unless it was brought up as they want to get as many of the properties back up and running as fast as possible and I had just hit on the fat that I could have upto about 8 months of rent paid for me so that I could relax and take the building work slowly. But I wanted to get our tenants back into the property as it was their home and they had noweher to live. So I settled for 4 months rent paid for by the insurance company and we would try to get the tenants in asap, or sooner.

Our Tenants Max and Mark Rawlins have been superb. Our mutal plight after Ivan struck brought us together even though we had only met a couple of times. We had lost our house with its memories and they had lost their home with their memories (as well as lot of their personal stuff). Max came back to the island straight after the hurricane and organised alot of savalaging of theirs and our stuff - Our Denby dinner set and other personal items. She has been very patient and extremely stoic with regard to the rebuild. We met a couple of times during my 10 days their and I tried to reassure her that I would do everything I could to get her family back in the house as soon as possible. We both spent an afternoon shopping for furniture and she was a great woman to shop with. We looked through catalouges, she chose furniture within minutes, I wrote the cheques and delivery within 2 weeks - job done.

So the final meeting came with the Insurance loss adjuster and expecting him to beat me down at the lasst minute bassed on our under-insurance possibility I sttod my ground on all of Kent's estimates, only allowing him to knock me down on our contents being under-insured and losing 5,000 rather than knocking me down on the buildings and losing 70,000. And he agreed !!. So I signed and he left and I was happy. We had our lost rent (which cripled us) repayed, and we had all our repairs to the house covered as well as being able to put the kitchen back to its forma self and some. Repaired walls and ceilings and a great coat of paint or three around the whole house.

All in all not a bad weeks work !

donkeys

Donkeys

day out

the truck

Cactus

Bonaire

Bonaire