Definitely getting windier here in Governor’s Harbour. Lots of whitecaps now and strong periodic gusts. No sign of rain but getting cloudier but sun still getting through. We already are hearing banging noises outside and we are trying to determine the source while we can get outside. No luck yet.

The sun is shining over Governor’s Harbour this morning with a good breeze and the harbour wit a good chop and whitecaps. The latest Radio Cayman update (you can listen to a live broadcast from their website) has Grand Cayman starting to get rain around mid-morning, tropical storm force winds around 7pm this evening and the worst of the winds (near-hurricane or hurricane force) in the early morning hours Saturday. We always hope the worst of any storm passes in daylight. It doesn’t seem to be the case with Gustav.

A friend just drove over from town and said there were lots of cars on the road but they were all parked! After Ivan everyone learned a hard lesson and now move their car to any high ground to be found anywhere- even on the road way roundabouts.

Predictions are for wave heights of 15-20ft and 13” plus of rain – up to 25” potential. Sounds like parts of Jamaica had lots of flooding problems and even lots roofs etc.

Ok, Later then.

Good morning,

It’s a beautiful morning (see picture below)  There is a very pleasant breeze and the bird are chirping!

We are definitely not feeling anything from Gustav, the rollercoaster, yet.

The satellite dish is down and anything of value is at my office which is a shelter building.  I almost feel like I have moved out of the house. Sunday will probably be spent putting my life back together.  When these things come (this is my second ; I had Dean last year), you feel like your life is on hold for a few days.  Can’t make any plans and need to prepare and then wait.  I was going to do my diving certification this week-end … Gustav put an end to that!

Cheers,

Micho

My blog about life in Cayman (and hurricanes)

http://cayman.micho.org

Got up to check the NHC 5AM advisory (only 4AM here). Gustav’s path has moved back closer to Grand Cayman at the moment. Here at Governor’s Harbour I can hear the wind blowing but between shutters and the dark I can’t see much! It’s not raining at the moment and I don’t know if it during the night. We had just a few passing drops around 11PM. It can pour heavily in one area and not get a drop in another on the island. The winds have not strengthened overnight but the storm has certainly gotten much bigger. Last night the winds were only extending out 45 miles from the centre. NHC now reports they extend 140 miles. This is a pretty big storm that will be felt by us and the Sister Islands. It is estimated that we will be feeling TS force winds by 11AM, less intensity before then, but clearly things will be picking up from here. The storm is leaving the tip of Jamaica and will hit uninterrupted warm water but with only 220 miles to go before the centre reaches us hopeful it won’t intensify too much until it is past us.

Well, everyone is long home now after finishing off their work today and getting their last minute supplies, parking cars in strategic locations and running last minute errands. Many if not all, businesses will be closed tomorrow as we are now officially in a Hurricane Warning.

I am in Governor’s Harbour, directly on Mitchell’s Creek and it is quite breezy tonight but nothing untoward. We have watched Gustav dance between us and our Sister Islands, head south, and return to the small gap between us once again. That is the preferred location going by the various expert predictions. Better for Grand Cayman and worse for Little Cayman and the Brac.

We will know more in the morning; as Gustav has demonstrated, this storm can change within a matter of hours. Intensification is our main concern. Most people will wait until morning to make their final decisions as to whether or not they will bunker down at home, move inland, go to a shelter etc. Other than that, everyone is well prepared as most people have been down this road many a time before. A category  2 or less will be welcome at this point since predictions had it at a Cat 4 at one point passing us. Anything less is a bonus.

Power permitting, will update as tomorrow progresses.

Hi everyone,

Offices are closed and supermarkets are relatively full of people.  Some lineups at the gas stations ; glad I filled up the other day!

One thing I noticed on my drive to the office to bring my supplies is that there seems to have been lots of car accidents today ; I saw at least 3 cars on the side of the road with significant damage.  Probably due to people being stressed out with the storm.

Here is one of Cayman Airways 737-300’s taking off for Miami. The new Cayman airways livery (AKA paint job) looks great in my opinion!  They are evacuating lots of people today.  Maybe it was Chris McTaggart at the commands, one of the other correspondents!

Here is one of the “mosquito planes” that is used to control populations of Mosquitoes.   Its solidly tied down next to the street in a high area.  Not something you see every day.

Micho

More pictures on my blog at :

http://cayman.micho.org

Good morning All,

I am very busy due to the changes and forecast that have happened early this morning, in addition need to make preparation and also fl the afternoon bank of Miami flights. Just posting again what I sent to my operations team as my personal observation.

Well folks quite a bit of an early morning surprise as Gustav has been moving very little during night and almost a drift south in the past couple of hours, but that westward movement is still expected  after a little of a west-southwest jog first. I am still hoping for the ridge to move further east so Gustav can get on the north-westerly trend early. The best hope is either for the NW trend at the latest when it crosses the west end of Jamaica or maintain that west-southwest trend longer than forecasted. I almost want to hope at this point that it does exactly what UKMET is now forecasting as Gustav is in a very dangerous location relative to the Cayman Islands. (see latest modules below). With all that appears I am still expecting the passage just east of Cayman, but closer than I expected yesterday.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 70 mph with higher gusts and with such slow movement Gustav will be back at Hurricane Cat 1 by next  major official report. I am still expecting a borderline Cat 2 “minimum” crossing our area.

I will post further as I have time and certainly will at least drop a note after I come back from flying tonight.

Everyone have a great day.

Warm regards,

Chris

Good evening Storm Carib – All,

Well it has been ages since I have posted on the site. As I mentioned when I last posted since I have been more involved management wise with Cayman Airways I have found little spare time to surf and post on the WWW. Being involved more in planning, management of aircraft schedules and crewing, in addition to actually flying  during the times of hurricane threats to the Island, I get little time to just browse.

I do get to see and talk regularly to folks that are regular posters and visitors to Storm Carib from around Cayman, so just today I promised someone I would drop by for a visit. As the modules started to project Cayman in the forecasted path early in the week and even more now I have been very busy with the planning and implementation of a shuttle service between the Island and South Florida both for the 4100 visitors and also local residents. I flew the later groupings of flights this evening and on my return late tonight decided to turn on the ‘puter and stop by for a visit to say hello, and of course check up on Gustav’s night progress.

I will copy my nightly report that I sent out to the company’s operation staff and flight crews and I will try to keep the postings going over the next few days. I do realize from years ago there are also a lot of people worldwide that have interests in Cayman and also family therefore use Storm Carib as a daily check up to see what’s going on in the Islands especially during the Hurricane Season. So here let me get my posting started:

The late evening update for TS Gustav now indicates movement to the West-Southwest near 8 mph.

We can expect a more westerly track during tomorrow morning as the ridge of high pressure now will  start to drift slightly South-South East which gives the satellite imagery of the northern associated upper level clouds the appearance of shear or as though it is flattening the northern edges. Eventually the ridge will start a more South Easterly drift in the latter hours of tomorrow evening which will then give Gustav a slight West-North westerly track. Gustav center should skirt the northern coast of Jamaica as it moves westerly towards the Cayman Area. I gear towards the UKMET module as being the most probable source of track forecasting as this one tracked both IVAN and DEAN almost identical to my home module. I expect UKMET to show tomorrows track passing even closer to Cayman, my guess 40-50 miles east. As you can see by the track listing below, all modules are starting to show a pattern closer to the Cayman area.

Intensification will be more prominent after sunrise tomorrow and if Gustav will increase or build forward movement even more, then this will minimize the Category ranking as it passes the Cayman Area. I expect a Cat 1 to borderline Cat  2 as it passes our area, but unfortunately expect a Cat 4 for the Galveston/Houston coast…possibly San Antonio..

Data tomorrow will give an even better forecast now that Gustav moves over open water tonight.

Well tonight’s flying was beautiful, almost clear skies, beautifully smooth, but the distant east lightning as we crossed Cuba reminded me Gustav was out there and trucking westward. One very noticeable difference, Calm Winds, no wind readout on the aircrafts computer from about 10,000 feet all the way up to as high as 30,000 feet. Cruising at 37,000 feet had a wind of Northerly and mostly less than 10 knots. Tomorrow is another busy day at the airport and office, but I again will fly the evening groups of flight and I will do my best to drop by for another post tomorrow night.

Until then, take care and a big hello to all the visitors and posters on Storm Carib, to Gert and the gang too, hope all is well with everyone.

Warm regards,

Chris

 Just for you all I have attach a link check it out

 http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic2/real-time/storm.php?&basin=atlantic&sname=94L&zoom=4&img=1&vars=111110000000000000000&loop=0

Sincerely,

David Michael Espeut

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 Well guys after looking at sat images I can see that 94L has a closed circulation wind shear has dropped off , I do believe we now have Cristobal has formed the path in which is clear tome is just south of Jamaica then curving  into Mexico I HOPE I AM WRONG , my fellow islanders I strongly recommend that preps should be in place already if not please get stated as these storms as they enter the Caribbean they develop fast and are very unpredictable , I am forecasting a strong cat 3 border cat 4 when it reaches 65 -70 deg Long ,

So long for now I will check back later, my fellow islanders in the east be safe hope you all just get rain from this.

David Espeut 

Hi everyone,

Not much happening on the weather front in Cayman!

It has been very hot and also very humid in recent days.  Compared to last year, I have been surprised by the lack of rainfall. It seems to only rain for 3-5 minutes every few days or so.  

Crab season here is in full swing!  There is a type of crab here in Cayman that lives inland and that comes out when its dark.  You have to be careful where you step and also have to avoid them when driving.  Many locals eat these crabs.  It’s quite entertaining to see cars driving around slowly, then all of a sudden a child jumps out, grabs the crab and then back into the car!

Here is Niko, a neighborhood dog having a duel with this crab!

Cheers

Micho

My blog : http://cayman.micho.org                                                                      

Hi everyone,

The Cayman correspondents are all back it seems!  Some much needed rain in the last day or so.  Everything was so dry that there had even been a bush fire in my area  a little while ago.  My wife’s tomato plants all died! L There was a great Hurricane supplement in the paper this week ; I hope everyone read it.  It reminded me that I need to refill my supplies as many times this winter I forgot my lunch (prepared by my lovely wife) and grabbed cans of Vienna sausages & peanuts in the stash I have in my office.

We made some shutters for our place this year.

Here is the before:

During :  Making holes in the concrete for the Barrel bolts.

\

Tadah!  The finished product.  Nice painted (2 coats) plywood with 4X4 inch barrel bolts.  Should do just fine.  Hopefully we won’t need them.  In any case, I have put about ½ of them up already as they keep the house & garage much cooler.

While I was laboring away, my beloved Husky, was … well … definitely not helping me!  She was taking a nap in the driveway and looking directly at me the whole time.  When I was done, she stayed there, virtually glued to the asphalt.  A little while later, she slowly got up and came inside for some a/c.

Cheers,

Micho

My blog : http://cayman.micho.org

Hi everyone,

The weather has been stellar in the Cayman Islands over the last few weeks!  Very little rain and lots of sun. It has been getting very hot however; I expect my next utility bill to be substantially higher than last month’s!  For the last week, we had a guest over, so with the great weather, we headed off to the turtle farm & all of the available activities there.  Here is a lovely brown shark in the “Predator reef” and a very large green sea turtle in one of the numerous tanks.

We also went for a snorkel & stingray city tour.  As you can see the stingrays were plentiful and very playful!  The color of the ocean was to die for!  Needless to say our guest was quite sad to fly back home on Monday morning.

On the hurricane front, we can see some shutters being put up. I heard some murmurs about hurricane supplies at the office today ; the season is obviously (and unfortunately) almost upon us. We shall be reviewing out list this weekend and taking a look at our shutters and other gear to see if anything needs to be done. Better be safe than sorry, but especially better to be ready and beat the crowds at  the groceries & hardware stores if a storm is on its way.  It reminds me of  Canada ; people wait for the first snow storm to have their winter tires installed.  As soon as the first one looms, everyone rushes to the garage to have them installed, only to find long waits when it could have easily been done a few weeks earlier.  I guess some things are the same, wherever you live!

Cheers,

Micho

Grand Cayman Island
My blog : http://cayman.micho.org