We are getting killed with rain, lightning and thunder.

Pray for us.

MJ, you do us all in the islands a justice of telling us every day events and you eloquently master it.

As Kate said it has been Chamber of Commerce weather day here on the island for the past 3-4 days. We have been pre-occupied saying goodbyes to friends that are permanently leaving the island, Casey our master cabinet maker from Esperanza has left us for the blaring sun of Nevada and Chuck and Gaeta have sold their home in Monte Santo and have returned back to New Hampshire with promises of future visits (maybe by boat next time J)

But another reason for this update is concerning Vieques Air Link also known down here as VAL. VAL has STOPPED allowing dogs, cats and chickens on the flights. This is important for everyone returning to their homes this season to know in advance. You may call the reservations office at 787-741-8331 and they will confirm it but when you ask why they refer you to Francisco Cruz, the Director of Operations at 787-741-3266. I tried a few times today and they say he will not be in until tomorrow. This also messes with the efforts of flying dogs and cats off island to connect to the US Mainland for adoptions.

Pass the word along so somebody does not get caught off guard making last minute reservations with their pets and also hope and pray VAL changes their policies back.

Well everyone, the reason you have not received the final update on Invest 93 is that the island has been without DSL since yesterday morning a little after 6. I did a random sampling of friends that do have it and they are all still without.

Ironically on the 15^th I ordered a Sprint aircard and although it was supposed to be overnighted  by UPS it did not arrive until this morning since VAL stopped flying on Friday and did not resume until late yesterday. But it works great. It is a wonderful backup since we have no clue how long the DSL will be down. DSL has be acting erratically for a few weeks now, well before Invest 93 so I am not sure what’s up. MJ was told they we replacing old cables but with PR Telephone they could well be telling people that chickens fell from the sky and crushed the cables and that is why we have so many chickens running around the island. They will say anything.

Yesterday we received 1.85” in what seems like minutes for a total of 7.75” for Invest 93 and a total for the month of 15.55”.

It has been clear, hot and humid. It is wonderful to see sun again!

Once it cleared today I rejoiced and went outside to put everything back in place, clean the patio, polished the teak bar, rewashed all of the outdoor towels,  etc, etc.

Then I just looked at the radar and at the same time heard thunder. I told Lee he could forget finishing getting the leaves out of the pool. He might as well wait until the end of this.

We are not done folks! As long as we have DSL I will continue to post weather conditions, i.e. rainfall amounts, winds, etc.

Stay dry everyone.

Amen, our DSL is back.

Our radar was just up for a minute but then crashed again but Vieques seems to just be on the fringe now which is great news for us.

This has just be a rain event for us, very little wind, thunder and lightning in Isabel Segunda.

Sat. we received, .51"

Sun. we received, 3.82"

Today so far, 1.57"

Total for Invest93, 5.90"

Total for the month of Sept. 13.58"

Tio is mending well, thanks to Linda loving care!

I think it is time for us to get a Sprint card. The DSL has been going in and out far too much lately.

Hope everyone fared well here but let us not forget the season is far from over!

#1. Yeah!! MJ is back in Culebra

#2. Our current Mayor who is running for re-election is offering new washers, dryers, and fridges in exchange for votes. Isn’t this illegal? (told to us by a local friend whose daughter was offered a washer)

#3. I cannot wait for this election to be over, the speaker trucks are driving me crazy!

4. Tio Roberto goes in for his 2^nd surgery Thursday and is expected to be in the hospital for 3-4 days this time. Keep Tio and Linda in your thoughts.

Geez, yesterday will be remembered here for a long time. The lightning and thunder were already awake when we were headed out at 6 a.m. to take our Coqui dog to the beach for his morning run. We managed to walk the pier briefly before seeing the storms coming our way and we had a quick stop at Morales for Coqui food so we cut it short and headed there. Just as we got back to the house it started to rain. Most of the remainder of the morning we could hear thunder but we managed to dodge the bullet until 3:03 p.m. and then it just literally poured for under a hour. Because we are at the end of a paved road at the bottom of the north side of the island most of the water decides to come down the road, into our drive, then come into our patio and pool area which has a 2’ concrete wall/bench around it. Even though the deck is sloped to drain and we have drain areas every 8’ or so they kept clogging with leaves. The width from the wall to our door is about 20’ so when it was a few inches from the door I decided it was time to take action.

Armed in foul weather gear and with a dowel rod to open the drains and a broom, I spent about 10 minutes trying to sweep the water off the deck and down the center stairs that lead to our banana garden. I gave up. It was a no win situation. The lightning was so bad and consistent it was far too dangerous to continue. All we could think of was Jeanne, when we got 33” in a day and a half and we were praying it was not going to be a repeat. The storm, along with constant thunder and lightning literally sat above Isabel Segunda for 55 minutes, hard rain. The radar indicated we were going to get a break for a bit and get hit again but after that all we had was light rain and it apparently slid to our east towards St Thomas. Culebra must have also gotten hammered but I have not heard anything from over there yet. Amazingly we did not lose power.

All in all we received 3.07” for the day, 2.91” for the hour between 3-4.

We have lived here now for 4 ½ years and other than Jeanne, yesterday will be another weather day we will remember for years to come.

I am off to our condo on the big island until Sunday so there we will not be reporting from the north side of the island till next week. Kate from the south end of the island can keep you up to date and if anything needs reporting from PR I will let you know. As always for minute by minute weather for Isabel Segunda you can go to our online weather station at www.playacofi.com/weather.

For streaming music from the 50’s thru 80’s to listen to while riding these storms out (or anytime for that matter) visit our website www.tropicalglen.com.

Since 3:03 pm we have received 2.80” of rain and we have more coming in.

I will give a final tally later or you can follow our weather at our personal weather station www.playacofi.com/weather.

So far we have not lost power which is amazing! DSL we have been losing on and off.

Attached is a photo I took this morning from the pier looking towards Isabel Segunda. The rain was on the east side of the island and to the left of the land would be St. Thomas if it was clear and sunny.

Most of the day we have heard boomers, one HUGE one at about 10:45 directly above Isabel Segunda but we have received little rain here at the house on the north coast.

We did not go down to Esperanza today so do not know how they fared, wind, rain, etc. Since our weather is coming from the south they probably had greater wind than we did. Keep in mind that the wind from the north coast and the south coast is completely different due to a ridge that runs the center (east/west) of the island. Our wind was about 5 knots today, no sun but very hot and humid.

Josephine still lingers out there as a wave but does not appear to be doing much but it is wise to keep an eye out for her just the same.

Lee heard on TV this morning it could be December before parts of the Turks and Caicos restore power. Our hearts and prayers go out to them.

Since Hanna has left life is back to normal and the weather has been great. Last night apparently a strong cell came over the island around 1ish but I slept through it. Lee woke up and came down to shut a few of the hurricane shutters as a precaution for heavy rain but our weather system reported we only received .04”.

Four boats rode out Hanna down in Esperanza and as noted in a previous post 1 sank. This morning one local fishing boat and a visiting sailboat were all that were there so apparently all of the others were taken into shallower bays for protection. But all in all, Ike did not want to visit us.

I am not sure what is going on with Josephine but the Google Earth is tracking her as “Tropical Wave Josephine” and showing her moving west right now in our direction. Another wait and see for us.

Attached is a photo of a dugout canoe that was washed ashore by Hanna on a south beach. The colors are blue and green so there is some speculation it may have originally floated up towards our island from Trinidad, sank at some point and Hanna decided to bring her up. I wanted to bring her home to use in the garden but Lee overruled me on that. Overall it was probably about 15’. I would love to hear others theories or if anyone recognizes the style and which island it may be from. I am absolutely clueless how old it may be.

Enjoy the day everyone, keep a eye on Josephine but I think she will eventually be a fish storm.

Check out our websites www.tropicalglen.com  for those that enjoy oldies music and www.countryroutes.net for those who enjoy country.

Yesterday was quite a day. The morning started out with tropical squally weather and as from my last report you can see we lost power which lasted about 3.5 hours. This report starts off from there.

Around 1, friends of ours Nancy and Chipper from Nansea Charters called us from their cell to ask if we had the generator running and could we give them a marine and radar update. They were on the south side of the island in Esperanza and said it was blowing like mad and swells were barreling in. They were debating whether to move the boat to another location. Mind you, here at the house on the north side we had winds of about 3 knots.

We stayed on the phone with them for about 45 minutes when they had decided it was time to get out of there and move the boat to a shallow bay to the east. After that we decided to drive over and see what all the fuss was about. Oh what a fuss it was. Everyone was scrambling to get their boats out. The smaller fishing boats were lifted out and tied to trees. A few of the larger ones were not so lucky (photos below). The wind was blowing at what I would describe as a constant 25-30, others thought gusts were as high as 45. Crowds had gathered to watch.

One friends 27’ cabin cruiser was one of the unlucky ones. It broke free of its mooring and landed on the beach, thankfully not the rocks. One sailboat stayed on its mooring but as you can see from the photos, it sank on its mooring.

At about 5 we had a HUGE cell come over the island, one of the worst I had seen since we have been here 5 years now. It slammed us from the SW and we were not prepared at all because it had happened so fast. We shut our shutters on that side of the house, the 3^rd time we have ever had to do that.

Shortly after we received a cell call from a friend who was unlucky enough to be on the cargo ferry as the cell came through. She said she was trying to look out the windows and all she could see was crashing waves. She had no idea how close to Vieques they were and the boat was rocking like crazy. To sum it up she was not very happy at the time. (they had cancelled the passenger ferry)

After the cell went past we lost our internet connection, not the DSL,  until about 10 last night but we received a call not too long ago from a friend in Bravos that said his was still out.

This morning we drove around the island ride to look at the damage. This is from our observations and from eyewitness accounts of the few we have talked to. I am sure there was much more damage we are unaware of.

Other than the 2 boats previously mentioned the only odd thing while driving 200 west was that we noticed a Four Star DC3 cargo plane sitting at the airport which was a first for us. We can only assume it came in due to the weather. Pilon Road had many small branches down but they had been cleared from the roadway. Playa Grande still has huge swells coming in and has about 5’ of beach erosion at the jetty of the lagoon. Reports are that Hector’s By The Sea had 4 large trees down on his property. A large Flamboyan tree next to Tradewinds fell and blocked the Malecon but it has since been cut up and the road is open. Sun Bay lost a huge tree and they were there this morning cutting it up. Our friend from the cargo boat called from her home in Bravos after she returned to report large trees near her home blocking the road and the police were cutting it up with chainsaws.

They good news is the sun is now out, the schools are open as well as both gas stations and Morales is fully stocked with vegetables (hint, hint).

Now we just have to see what Ike brings our way since Hanna was a complete surprise.

About a half hour ago while outside taking advantage of the lull of Hanna and removing some older basil plants and with the intention of planting some new basil starts and tomato plants I heard the substation transformer popping.

Of course power went out. Lee went to the PO and said crews were starting to gather at the substation next to Chu Garcia’s on 200.

I was not going to do a update until later on the amount of rainfall since the feeder bands started arriving yesterday so since we are on generator I will indeed wait until all of the squalls have passed for a final update.

Hi everyone,

My new computer is now up after about a week and Lee and I  watched at about 3:45 this afternoon a wild system coming in from the rain forest our way.

We had very dark clouds, winds, but not more than about 10 knots and thought by the looks we would be losing Dish and going to Netflix. We lost no services, rain did not even register so it really did not give us the hopeful rain we wished for.

I am grateful we have a new person to the south Kate, since the north coast does have much different weather from the north, although we are only 4 miles apart.

For those here that know Tio Roberto, he has his first surgery yesterday, they took the major tumor out and will go back in soon, in a few weeks to remove the rest. Last I heard from his wife, Linda,  he was still in ICU, but Linda has not called to let me know the update. We are hoping he may come home in the next few days.

Which makes me ask you to think about your friends and neighbor. How well do you know them? We know many by their first names because we live on a small island and think as them as family. If we had to notify a family member of those, could you? We should not pry, but gently ask.

We think we may get a bit of Hannah, north shore winds and rain but let us keep in mind, this has been very mild for us and we have skirted everything so far. When you live on our island or any island they always say this will be the year.

So, as I always say, once again keep your fingers crossed this is “not the year we will get it” and pray for Tio and Linda.

I am glad my computer is back and as always our weather system can be found on at www.playacofi.com.

Karen