Activities begin today from the new Ecoventures Beach Hut (situated at the far right of the beach heading from your condo).
The Ecoventures staff (left to right: Joey, Dave and Steve) spent Maintenance Week refurbishing and re-roofing 'Eco-hut' ready for the winter season.
Joey took time to give us an insight into the fine art of thatching. He was taught the age-old skill by another wise Eastender named Overton McLaughlin.
The Silver Thatch Palm fronds (native only to the Cayman Islands) are first of all made into Jonkets (derived from a Middle English word meaning 'rush-basket' if you were curious - or even if you weren't, now you know).
The Jonket is made by using a folding and stripping technique that creates a triangular shape, allowing water to run off easily. They're attached to the roof frame using another technique but Joey said if he told us about that one AS WELL AS the Jonketing, he'd have to kill us. So we'll leave the rest to the imagination.
According to Joey the palm fronds should be picked on the day of the full moon. Caymanian tradition says that the thatch should then last for 6 stealthy years; Which is a good job, as it took almost 200 fronds to cover the Eco-hut.
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