All is well here, the sun is coming up with hues of pink, orange  and purple, rather interesting.  I am still really tired, but  trying in earnest to wake up and post.

 

Weather has been gorgeous for a few days now. The birds just started chirping outside and so far it's very quiet, I haven't even heard a car drive by but the roosters are crowing now too. What?  Did they sleep late again?  The sun came up an hour ago!  Sheesh...

 

Some people complain about the roosters, but I don't mind them. I just wish their girlfriends would leave me fresh eggs I could find!  I love eggs, anyway you can cook them. My favorite is poached. I have  microwave egg poacher that does two in under a minute in a non stick plastic thingy. Yum!  Some days I toss cheese in with the raw eggs, and microwave that, and then I have poached cheese eggs. They can also be overcooked and then it's like a boiled egg without the shell.

 

86 degrees and the winds just picked up but the seas are fairly flat. A great day for dry sailing to weather! 

 

I didn't get to post yesterday, I was at the hospital again, but it's OK, they released me again.  Apparently my blood pressure is too low. Too low?  I thought only high blood pressure was a problem. By the time I made it home, I was exhausted and slept like a rock.  They claim I lost 22 pounds last month. I find that hard to believe.

 

I took a little bag of goodies to a long term patient friend of mine. We spent many hours on the veranda and bedside, gossiping about the staff and contemplating life, death and meds.  We noticed that the old ambulance van which is no longer an ambulance, is now used by staff to run hospital errands. 

 

One day we were snooping around and  found the keys inside, and we were thinking of going for a ride to a nearby restaurant to get food as that day's hospital fare had been particularly disgusting.

 

I was just about to assist in hefting  him out of his wheelchair and into the van, when security came out and said "THEY want you inside."  That was the signal that THEY (doctors or nurses) were looking for us  and we had to return to our beds. Oddly enough, no one, not even security, asked us why we were messing about with the van.

 

For days afterwards, we wondered the what if...  What if we had made it into the van and out to eat somewhere else. Would they have missed the van? Would they have missed us? Would they have sent the police to look for us?   Would we make headlines?  "Hospital Patients Steal Van in Search of Better Food". 

 

Would they have really tossed us in prison with all our medical problems, or would they have simply yelled at us not to do that  again. Would it have brought attention to the eclectic nutrition (and lack of!)  the hospital serves up?  

 

I was thinking of our many conversation about "borrowing" the van, as I was leaving home yesterday.  Next to my door,  I had a coiled up extension cord, so I grabbed it and tossed it in his bag of gifts too. I hope he didn't think me strange to bring him that as an added gift.

 

While I was waiting to be seen by the doctor, I located my buddy. He was thrilled to have company and out of all the little gifts, LOVED the used extension cord. I knew from being in the hospital that electric outlets are at a premium and hard to come by.  He was ecstatic, as apparently he couldn't keep his radio within arm's distance, and had to get in and out of bed to turn it on or off or change the station. This is particularly hard on him, since he must use a wheel chair and most radios (like his) do not come with remote control.  Also, it meant that whenever he had to recharge his cell phone, he couldn't listen to the radio or watch TV until the charge was finished.

 

Now he was ready to reroute and rearrange his accoutrements and make good use of the extension cord. He was extremely pleased with the gift. So if you go to the local hospital here, bearing gifts, take an extension cord! 

 

I remember, when they transferred me to the private room, I practically had to rearrange the entire room, so I could use the lone outlet for my computer, while in bed.  While in the  the ward, I had one of the few outlets near my bed, and we were always unplugging my hospital bed (it was electric for changing position) so that other patients could recharge their cell phones.    Often we forgot to plug the bed back in, and long about 3 am, I would wake up and push my bed buttons, only to realize I had to get out of bed and plug it back in.

 

Funny how little things can make a huge difference. An extension cord in paradise...

 

Remnants of Fred are still hanging around, but doubtful he will regenerate, but if he does, he gets to keep his name.

 

 

 

Here we are in mid September and we are surviving without the threat of storms!  86 degrees, clear skies with sunshine and a few bright white clouds for decor.

 

 

 

 

85 degrees with faint winds and clear skies here, a perfect day to be doing watersports in the Virgin Islands.

 

We have two more tropical waves to watch off Africa, nothing to bother us for now. We MIGHT just make it through the season with nothing to scare us much!

 

 

Those are the ones that we don't hear about for weeks or months, until they don't turn up where they should have, then loved ones (or in some cases enemies!) start looking for them. Most have equipment on board to monitor the weather, but many do not. There are still people that set sail in small boats to cross the ocean with little more than just a compass and a bag of rice.

 

On the beach in Cruz bay ,St John, I once met a guy in a tiny little 16 or 18 foot homemade boat.  He had sailed all over creation in it. He basically had to sit or lay in the same spot the whole time. He could pull it up on the beach, by removing components from the boat. Each interior section on the boat was removable. Like he removed the anchor locker and rode, then a compartment full of simple foods, a locker of foul weather gear and scant clothing and so on. He had piled all these containers on the beach, and was now pulling the empty boat up on the beach. It was built of plywood with West System Epoxy Resin  painted over it. His pride and joy was an expensive compass, that nearly cost as much as the materials to build the boat. I never did get around to asking him if he had charts or how he used them in such an obviously wet sailing boat.

 

He was very skinny, using a bit of rope to hold up some tattered shorts, that most would have used to change their engine oil with. It was clear he had missed quite a few meals and his eyes were sunk into dark sockets.

 

He was telling me how he decided to "cross over Florida" by renting a car and putting the boat on top of the rental car!  He had the removable containers in the trunk plus back and front seats. He had some friends help him put the boat on top of the car, but the weight of it, dented the top of the car in. He drove west to east, across Florida to launch his homemade boat. After it was safely in the water, he said he laid down in the back seat of the car, and was using his feet to try to kick upwards and pop the roof dent back up!  He more or less did and turned the car in. The person accepting the rental car,was pretty busy, and  just merely glanced out the window at it, and didn't do a close up inspection to see that something was afoul with the roof.  He said he set sail within the hour before they could find him.

 

He was island hopping with a view towards crossing the Atlantic. I wonder if he ever made it.

 

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Argh mateys!  I hope you sprogs are in fine shape today!

 

Fred has become a mere tropical storm and seems very shy about moving or building up strength. I think when he heard about the future Grace warming up for action off the African coast, he decided to defer to her. I guess he is nothing more than a bilge sucking rat at this point.

 

Okay, you scallywags and rum swizzlers, it's a might beautiful day today!  Very calm seas and only wisps of winds about. A great day for boating, though it's going to be a real lazy day for sailing but should be fantastic for diving or snorkeling. I expect it might even be a good day for plundering and lootin' the slower ships.

 

Can you tell I am practicing up for Talk Like a Pirate Day?  It falls on September 19th, next Saturday, you scurvy scum breathin' varmits.

 

86 degrees here on my old rust bucket on the high seas, you can tell it's me by me Jolly Roger flying in the riggin' and my gold swords pokin' outta my ears and me neck doubled and tripled  up with all the gold chains I been lootin' from those I sent to Davey Jones Locker! Also, I got me seashell toering on me toe!  Course, doubtful you ever get that close to me anyhow...

 

Yo ho ho!  All ye wenches and rag thieving belly achers, I leave ya with my words of wisdom;

 

 

 

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Himmacane Fred is near stationary in the middle of the ocean, just pouting. I don't think he likes his name!

 

Winds are down to 80mph and he is barely moving, but still a hurricane.

 

Another tropical wave is rolling off African to give Fred some competition! She could be the future Grace, just give her a few days to make up her mind and earn her name.

All is clear here, with a great view of the Sir Francis Drake Channel with Norman Island to the left and St John to the right.

 

 

 

 

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Well, Hurricane Fred is puttering and sputtering at 5mph with 90mph winds. He is expected to become near stationary, while he thinks long and hard about his next move. Hopefully he will stay far, far away from us in the BVI!

 

I had a wild day in town. Had to run back to the mechanic to get something tweaked, town traffic lights were off , so traffic moved really fast with no snags. While waiting for my jeep, I had a horrible breakfast in town. The menu said "egg and cheese sandwich" $7.50 which  seemed a bit steep, but  I had already gobbled my medicine and had 30 minutes to eat or else dreadful things would happen,   so I ordered that on rye bread with mayo (the waitress said they had rye, wheat or white).

 

The sandwich arrived annorexically thin, so I asked the waitress where the lettuce and tomato were and she said "That is $2 extra!  You didn't say you wanted lettuce and tomato TOO!"  ($9.50 for a sandwich?)  It did come with 7 tiny potato cubes on the side, with some kind of coloring on them, making them appear yellowish-orange. The potato pile was so teeny, I counted the 7 little cubes for fun.

 

Silly me, I thought it was standard fare that sandwiches came with lettuce and tomato (and very often onion too!)  why sometimes you even get mayo or mustard!

 

I took a bite of the pathetically thin sandwich and all I got was bread!  I opened it up and there in the very middle was a tiny blob of very brown crisp egg, about the size of a poker chip,  and a smidgeon of cheese in the middle of the egg.  It must have been the world's tiniest scrambled egg, so well cooked it was totally dark brown.  It wasn't much more than a tablespoon or so with a bright orange dot of cheese on it.

 

I moved it over and tried to fashion a half sandwich but there wasn't enough egg and cheese to even make even a half sandwich, so I settled on a quarter sandwich! I had asked for mayo with it, but there was none of that either.

 

Meanwhile my dining partner decided not to eat her food and asked for the waitress. She pointed out all the problems with her food and said she wasn't going to eat  her meal, so the waitress took it away.

 

I showed the waitress my meal and told her I ordered an egg and cheese on rye but got white bread, which I could suffer through if they would send over another egg and a smidgeon more cheese to go with the rest of the very empty bread.

 

I ate my quarter sandwich and poked at my potatoes, wondering what the coloring was on them and why it was even there. Anyone ever heard of coloring potatoes for breakfast?

 

Awhile later, the waitress brought me a tiny scrambled egg, 2 pieces of rye toast sliced, a packet of grape jelly and a packet of butter but no cheese and no mayo.  By now I was giggling, not only was I getting ripped off, but apparently, the cook makes WHATEVER, and totally ignores the ticket.

 

How a cheese and egg on rye with mayo sandwich transformed into a blob of egg with toast on the side with grape jelly and butter, is beyond me.

 

I put the tiny egg on half the rye and tried my best to spread it out to cover the half slice of bread, but there just wasn't enough egg and no cheese at all.  This was getting really funny by now!

 

I finally fashioned another quarter egg sandwich and called it quits.

 

The bill came and I was charged, but my friend was not. Ah, life in the islands can get really strange sometimes. I thought sandwiches typically had enough ingredients to cover the bread from corner to corner. WHAT was I thinking?

 

I don't want to say the name of the place publicly, maybe I happened to hit them at a very bad time. Everyone else was at the bar and no one was in the dining section, save for another couple and they seemed a bit unhappy with their food too.

 

Next I went to the oriental place in town, named "Simply Delicious" and I got some wonderful oriental food to go. At least my lunch would be EXCITING!  tee hee hee.

 

I went to get a battery for an old watch, and the battery people pronounced the watch DOA. So I bought a super cheap watch and the sales lady offered to set the time for me.

 

HA HA HA!  I bet she had a GOOD laugh on me!

 

I went to the drug store to refill my meds, but they were out of everything I needed, so I gave up and decided to pray for good health and try to live without the meds. Near the exit they had lipstick on sale, 2 for a dollar. So I poked though it all and found a decent color, then tried to find a twin, which I could not. So I went to the counter and placed 50 cents on the counter,  to pay for the lipstick.  The lady said "They are TWO for a dollar, go get another one!"

 

I explained they didn't have another one that matched, and the other colors didn't agree with me at all (bright purple, dark brown, green and black)  So she pulled out a rack from behind the counter and presented me with more lipsticks and ordered me to pick one.  I found a nice cinnamon color, similar to the one I had.

 

 I pulled out two more quarters, making  one dollar, to pay  for the two lipsticks.

 

That will be FOUR-FIFTY she said.

 

I mumbled something about the lipstick being two for a dollar and she pointed to the one I had just picked out and said "THIS one is four dollars, and that one is fifty cents!"

 

How did this all go so wrong?

 

Good grief!  I wasn't going to buy lipstick at ALL!  But since it was 2 for a dollar, I figured two extra lipsticks on sale wouldn't hurt, I use the stuff every day and sometimes in the heat of the day and running around with it in my purse, it suffers and often falls apart before I get to the very end.  So I shoved both lipsticks back at her and said, OK, I give up!  I smiled, I wasn't mad, just CONFUSED!

 

She shoved the one lipstick back at me and said "Just give me 50 cents!"

 

I left there and headed home but after a few miles, I felt truly awful. I stopped at Nanny Cay and drank 3 tall glasses of unsweeten iced tea with lemon.  I admired my new watch and the strap thingy that holds the extra bit of strap in place, after you buckle it, FELL OFF. I mean all I did was LOOK at it.

 

I sat there laughing, thinking I should have STAYED IN BED!

 

Around 11 am, the restaurant became SUPER busy and I thought WOW, they are popular. So I paid and drove home, feeling a bit better, after rehydrating.

 

At home I looked at my watch, pleased to be home before noon and began working in earnest on my projects and sweating profusely.

 

I began to get super tired and it was only 5 o'clock. But then I noticed the computer said it was 6 o'clock!  I looked at my watch and realized the kind sales lady had set the time all right, but it was  off by an hour. *sigh*

 

I hope she had a GOOD laugh on me today!

 

I've sure been full of giggles! 

 

tee hee hee!

 

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Well, Ferocious Freddy has gone and got himself in a big dang hurry and overnight went from a Tropical Storm to a Category two himmacane. Winds are 105 miles per hour and he is marching along at 13 miles per hour, headed  West-Northwest, but expected and predicted by the pros to turn toward the Northwest and then turn North Northwest. 

 

To confuse matters further, he is expected to strengthen in to a major hurricane then weaken again on Thursday.

 

Here in the British Virgin Islands, we had some hard rains late last night and since 5am we have had loads of loud rumbling mumbling grumbling thunder. It sounds like somebody is bowling in the heavens with giant bowling balls.  We here the crack of the ball hitting the floor, then the rumbling as it runs down the lane, next the thud and thumping as it knocks out a few bowling pins.

 

Amazing.

 

Hurricane Fred

 

 

Himmacane Fred is busy!  Winds at 65 miles per hour, and his movement has slowed down to 14mph, headed west,  he is 210 miles across, a big boy already!  His movement is expected to get even slower, so he has time to build up before coming over to mess with us.

 

 

It's official now, Tropical storm Fred is the sixth named storm for the Atlantic this year. I wrote about the future Fred at 10:40 pm last night then went to bed and he was apparently officially named 20 minutes later. We shall keep a close watch on him as he heads across the Atlantic. I don't like the looks of him already.

 

Called my daffy friend Fred, 6,000 miles away, he lived here in the BVI back in the dark ages.  He is one of those brainiacs with a ridiculously high IQ,  that is often out of the loop of current events and he of course had NO idea that a storm was about to be named after him. He laughed a good long time about it too.

 

Hazy Sunset

 

 

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Tropical depression seven could be the future himmacane Fred. A name like Fred hardly sounds like a horrific storm. More like something you would need a cute little puppy!

 

I guess if he become a major storm, we could call him Ferocious Freddy!

 

He is about 160 miles south of the Cape Verde Islands. No threat to us, but he is expected to move slower, which means he has time to build up. He is currently cruising west at 16 miles per hour and puffing away at 35 mile per hour winds.

 

Plenty of time for him to do something, before he arrives here!  Grrrrrrrr...  Looking at his photo, I can see the tell-tell tail, and that usually means a cyclone is building up strength. He is going to be our mid-September scare!

 

 

 

 

Well, I did my good deed today. Though my brain is addled. I wrote down LOST FUN and the phone number. I meant to write down LOST PHONE and the phone number.  *giggle*

 

I ran out to the store and to dump some stinky garbage. On the way back, just as I turned to go uphill, I saw an open cell phone laying in the road. The next person coming downhill was sure to run it over. I stopped on the hill, put my gear shift into neautral and let the clutch out. I  prayed my emergency brake was in good order. I got out of the car and grabbed the phone. (The brake held fine.)

 

I was also thinking about one of the "Six Feet Under" episodes where they show a guy backing out of his driveway in a mammoth SUV. He opens his driver door to reach down and get the newspaper out of the driveway. He tumbles out of his vehicle, and the SUV, still in reverse, drives over him and out into the street. Throughout the show people kept saying "He ran himself over with his SUV, how did he do THAT?"

 

I got home and fiddled around with the cell phone. It was obviously a very expensive one. I  called myself which told me the phone number. I thought about calling friends in Belgium, the UK, and New Zealand, then laughed, because I would never do that.

 

I was scrolling through the address book to see if I knew anyone. I came across some possible matches as well as "Daddy" and "Mommy".  Well, maybe I could call them and they could pass word to which kid lost the phone.

 

About that time the phone rang and I answered it. I heard heavy breathing. I quickly said "Don't hang up!  I found this phone and I wonder if you know WHO it belongs to!"

 

After a pregnant pause, the voice said "Oh, my!  It belongs to my brother-in-law, he was just here, looking for his phone!" 

 

I explained I had found it in the road and picked it up before somebody ran it down or found it and kept it for themselves. I was now home and gave him directions, to my house.

 

About 20 minutes later, a very grateful man came to my door and was VERY relived to have his "life"  back again.

 

So all's well ends well. I know so many people using "other" people's phones (phones they find and don't return) and I know how sad I was when mine was stolen, taking with it a valuable list of unlisted numbers to many friends all over the world.

 

It truly felt good to make a stranger HAPPY!  (Do random acts of kindness everyday for a richer life!)

 

Yippee!

 

In case you are wondering, he didn't offer a reward, and I would have refused it anyhow, well then again, had it been a hundred dollar bill... I might have had a HARD time refusing THAT!  But Tortola is a small island, and neighborly.  Typically LOST stuff does get returned to you.  He seemed like a very nice man and he was extremely grateful and thanked me many times.

 

Speaking of lost and found...

 

Once when I worked as a purser on a tall ship, 3 or 4 days into the charter week, an elderly lady said she MISSED her fun suitcase. It was a little square hard bag, that used to be popular with female travelers in another era, the kind that when you opened it had a makeup mirror, a removable sectional tray  and lots of storage pockets made of satin or silk. Women put their makeup, jewelry and unmentionables in this case and used it as a carryon. This was before the mammoth carryons that folks use today.

 

She said she had lost it on her way to the ship, and it had all her costume jewelry and makeup in it and all her FUN stuff. I got her to describe it to me and her last recollection of it, was when she set it down on the sidewalk, outside of the airport while waiting for a taxi. She turned beet red as she explained it had no name tag on it. After all she had used it as carryon and it never occurred to her, to put a name tag on it.  I told her I could probably get it back and she laughed at me like I had just told her a good joke such as the time a  dyslexic man went into a bra and....

 

So I left her laughing, went to the bridge and used our cell phone, which back then, was a very heavy affair attached to a huge battery. I made a few phone calls, and lo and behold, I FOUND her missing bag.

 

I saw her at dinner and never breathed a word to her even though she sat at my table with the captain.  He had asked her and he daughter  to join us after hearing her tale of woe. He was in on the scheme of things. We often had our bit of fun, he was a great captain to work with and we enjoyed amusing  with the passengers.

 

Early the next morning, the ship's launch was dispatched ashore with me and a crew member at the helm. The launch waited while I rendezvoused with a taxi mon in the parking lot then we headed back to the ship. The elderly lady came up for breakfast, chipper as ever. I guided her over to aour table and pulled out her seat for her.  She gasped!  She shrieked!  She clasped her hands in delight, then gave me a big hug and a kiss!

 

There in her chair, sat her missing luggage. She asked me over and over HOW on earth I found her luggage!  It had NO name tag on it and this had made her feel very silly when she lost it. Her grown daughter stood beside her, speechless,  with her jaw down to her chest.  

 

I told her this was Tortola, and lost things found their way back to the rightful owner, whenever possible. She immediately donned  some jewelry and lipstick, then sat down to breakfast. The rest of the week, she wore makeup and different costume jewelry every day, remarking that not one single thing was missing from her case!

 

At the end of the week, It was my job to collect bar tabs and shop purchases from the passengers. It was also a time for them to offer up gratuities, which we eventually split equally amongst the 12 crew. She and her daughter, gave the crew a hefty tip, more than double the typical amount. Before she left, I made sure she had a name tag for her bag, with her name, phone number and address on it.

 

I miss those halcyon days on that old tall ship. Sadly, during hurricane Marilyn in the mid 90's the ship was lost at sea.  Luckily the crew and passengers had ALL taken refuge ashore and left her on a jumbo mooring plus plenty of ground tackle. Several crew wanted to stay aboard, but the captain ordered everyone off. After the hurricane passed, the ship was never found.  Who knows, she could be lazily drifting at sea somewhere...

 

 

 

84 degrees with moderate winds and almost flat seas. Sun and clouds are competing for heavenly real estate. Two tropical waves, one off the North and South Carolina coast, and the other off Africa, poised to come and give us another September scare.

 

Mid September is when the most damaging hurricanes seem to have hit this area, so we aren't out of the woods yet, though airfares to come down here right now are cheap, cheap cheap!  So if you want a bargain vacation, come on down!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(\_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(\_(\_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loads of rain out west on Tortola Saturday.  Overcast today and a bit muggy. Last two nights have been cold like winter nights!  I had to use my handmade blankie (a jumbo afghan with a unique weave) to curl up in.

 

82 degrees and humid with slight winds.

 

The cat came in soaking wet yesterday, with COLD rain and actually wanted me to towel him off rather than just punk up his fur backwards. Then he did a few licks, and seemed immensely pleased with his clean self. He snuggled up to me and we watched a movie. Well, he did. I fell asleep shortly after the intro credits.

 

Another disturbance coming our way, nothing to worry about YET. But I'm watching it in case it's going to be  himmacane Fred paying us a visit.  Which reminds me, I've been trying to call Fred, and must reach him soon, I bet he doesn't even know the next one is named after him. 

 

It's ANT season in the BVI. I had to put out some Terro Ant Killer. It's food,  (bait!) you give them and 24 hours later, your ants are gone for a few months.

 

The cats are BUSY, left me a mouse and innards from something else as a gift.  How sweet. (Cough, gag, cough!)

 

I've got tons to do today and I am just so tired. I just laid down again and the phone woke me right back up. I wasn't really asleep, I was rubbing the cat's belly, he likes that, and my eyes were all ready shut. He was purring and not amused when I got up to find the phone.

 

He got real mad at me last night. He kept pleading with me to come to bed, and I was busy and so when I was ready for bed, he ran off like a stinker!  I could tell the way he swished his rump as he stormed off that he was thinking "kiss my tail!"

 

My voice mail works randomly, so I try not to miss calls. I changed my voice mail to let folks know to keep calling until they get me. It doesn't help when my voice mail gives me messages 3 weeks too late.

 

 

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Two more waves coming off Africa.

 

Now that Un-Erika has slipped by us, she did not given us the promised 6 inches of rain, though we got a bit in West End, East End is singing the blues.

 

I had a busy day in the rain, lots of people were coming over, I am downsizing my belongings, ad many that promised to come did not, but it was pouring down rains and the phone was acting up.

 

Many folks don't do rain...

 

One couple, new to the island, came during a downpour, ditto for another single lady, new to the islands. They haven't been here long enough to know better *tee hee hee*.

 

Heck, I should downsize my belongings more often, I have met some very interesting people thus far!

 

Maybe those that didn't come during the rains today, will manage to come tomorrow!

 

Life in the islands.

 

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Well, it is pouring down rain, visibility is less than a mile!  The Un-Erika has ARRIVED!

 

It's 82 degrees and feels like 70 as my shoulders are cold, but not my feet (not yet!) but I have turned off all the fans. Just steady rains, so glad I am NOT out in this mess.

 

Most people in the Caribbean refuse to go anywhere when it is raining. Folks are late for work or don't show up at all, especially if they have to walk to hitchhike. Typically we get very short (under 5 minute) showers, so that is why it is often heard in the islands "WAIT until it stops raining."

 

I am glad I am home today, I am super sore around my joints, I guess I need to buy more apple cider vinegar, as I drink that for swelling, but it also seems to take away the achy joint pain. 

Cloudy and breezy but where are the promised rains from the remnants of Erika?  Last night she was downgraded in to nothingness and not expected to regenerate any activity other than rains. So, where are they?

 

I am extremely sore, and going back to bed.

As of 5pm, all warnings were discontinued but we are told to keep monitoring tropical depression Erika.  She is still expected to dump up to 6 inches of rain on us.

 

Ok.

 

When?

 

 

 

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Tropical Storm Erika is 80 miles south of St Croix according to the Hurricane Hunters.  She is moving west at 9 mph, winds are at 40 mph and she is about 350 miles across.

 

The BVI is under a storm warning.

 

Currently we have sunny skies with clouds wafting by and medium winds.

 

Rains throughout the day. Tropical storm warning in effect for the British Virgin Islands. Very cloudy here. Erika winds are only 40mph, but the storm is 410 miles across. She is wandering around at 10mph.

Tropical Storm Erika is still disorganized but blowing 50mph winds. She may come over us in a day or so. Another disturbance (Fred?)  has rolled off Africa and is possibly headed our way, just to keep us entertained.

 

TS Erika is expected to bring 2-4 inches of rain with her, enough for some mud slides around the BVI more than likely.

 

 

Results for Tortola (18.45N, 64.53W):
The eye of the storm is about 378 miles (608 km) away. If the system keeps moving at its current speed of 5 mph and directly towards you, it will take around 75.6 hours (Saturday, September 5 at 8:36AM AST) to reach you. Given the current windfield (120 miles from the center), tropical storm winds will be felt in 51.6 hours (Friday, 8:36AM AST).

Well, I am sure lots of folks are entertaining the idea of taking off work Friday if we have 50mph winds. Unfortunately, the powers to be,  often shut down the elec-tricky when winds are that high. I just hope our fragile internet can last through the storm.

Now for you optimistic types, you may have noticed that GoBeach.com is now sponsoring this page!  Yippee!

Furthermore, if you book a Caribbean vacation villa on any Caribbean island with Go Beach, you get a free signed copy of my book!  If you already have a copy, then not to worry, books make GREAT gifts, after all, one size fits all!

And if you can't afford the vacation villa just yet, you can still buy my book at Amazon, even if you are flung in a far part of the world, they ship to just about anywhere!

 

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Erika is whipping up 50mph winds and meandering along, unsure of her path. We must keep a keen watch on this storm and see if and when she becomes a hurricane. Erika is 210 miles across, which is BIG considering how tiny we are!

 

Tropical Storm Erika is 390 miles east of  Northern Leeward Islands.

LEEWARD ISLANDS

Fast moving clouds going by this morning, some laden with rain but I haven't seen any come down to earth  yet. Experts completely disagree on Invest 94 as to what and when it may or may not do something towards becoming the next storm, possibly, Erika.

 

In other words, NOBODY knows except mother nature.

 

Might as well play pin the tail on the donkey and pick any place on this map of spaghetti!

 

And the winner gets... a wet and windy world...

OR  a scare for nothing!

This could be the one that sneaks right up on us, totally unprepared. Yikes!  The future Miss Erika looks ominous in my crystal ball. And while the experts can't seem to agree, several have predicted she is headed right at us!

 

Lots of different tracks predicted here!

Currently the future Miss Erika is referred to as Invest 94

What I don't like is that she is BIG.

 

Already my cats are asking for extra food and that typically means they wish to store their hurricane provisions right in their bellies!

 

I must admit, I am not prepared for this. I've been too busy getting well, after the hospital and that is dragging me down.

 

After a full day of living on Thursday, I woke up on Friday at 130pm, totally confused, like WHERE did my life go?  I'm not THAT old to be sleeping 20 hours a day (or am I?)

 

I once read a cute story about a lonely old man in Italy, who had no family and his retirement income wasn't enough for him to make ends meet.  So he advertised for a family to take him in and in return he would gladly fulfill a grandfather role in the family and donate all of his retirement income towards the family's living expenses.

 

Incredibly, a family (minus any grandfathers) offered to "adopt" him into their family and he moved in with them.

 

I've often wondered how he fared after that.

 

Well it IS beautiful out today and the birds are chirping away.   That's a nice sound to hear. I have been through many hurricanes and himmacanes and one thing I always noticed afterwards was the birds were GONE.

 

Where did they go?  Did they fly away before the storm?  Did the storm blow them away?  I just know it seemed eerily quiet and devoid of birds after each storm.

 

 

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Rains greeted us at daybreak. The tropical wave well west of us show signs of better organization and could be named by the time he comes to close to us late in the week. Boating conditions are perfect for the next few days and given that so many are still tucked away in hurricane holes, you can loads of solitude and numerous choices of moorings or anchoring spots.

 

At 6am the skies are shades of baby blues with a faint pink stripe thrown in for color this morning.

 

 

Nearing Sunset...

A view of the flat ocean through the entrance of

Tropical Depression Danny has gone bye-bye. No more Danny.

 

Today in the BVI, weather is gorgeous though lots of clouds around and it's a day for fans if you are indoors.

 

A strong tropical wave is headed our way with showers and may develop into something more powerful, so it bears watching.

 

86 degrees, flat cerulean seas, slight to moderate winds.

The islands are looking very green from the infrequent short showers. The caretaker showed up and said my cisterns are full.  YIPPEE!

 

My smiling cat has returned to the roost and amazingly to the same  corner he was terrified out of the other day. He lays there all curled up, not stretched out with his belly showing. At least not yet.

 

But he is being BRAVE!

 

 

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Ignore the picture below where it says click to zoom, that was a boo boo. It does NOT zoom. So sorry.

 

Grace Klutz aka Dear Miss Mermaid

 Clouds are wafting by but no rain in sight. Lack of trade winds is making it HOT. A big nasty wave is rolling across the seas.

 

Gray and overcast, 86 degrees at 6 am with slight winds. Another tropical wave is rolling off Africa that we need to watch closely. Seas are calm.  Good day for boating!

 

Tropical storm DANNY is not a himmacane yet, and is no threat to us. WHEW!

 

Everyone is seems is crabby about the heat lately, not enough winds to keep us cool, kind of humid. The elec-tricky turn off da current early yesterday and the crew wasguing on road below me, finally one man goes up in cherry picker to work on lines while rest of crew watches him. He was eye level with my windows and was quite friendly and flirty towards me... only on Tortola!

 

I took off to see nurse at neighborhood clinic, doctor was out, next I  ran some nearby errands.  My muffler pipe fell off so I sound like BIG truck coming! I went around a curve and met terrified rental car driver, he thought he was waiting on a big gnarly truck to come around curve! Sorry I scared him, but it was funny in an islandy way.   

 

Cruzins in Carrot Bay has reopened, so I sat in the shade of the garden and gazed at the ocean while eating a homemade hamburger.  Not the frozen beef you get everywhere else, but a REAL homemade burger. I didn't want fried so they made me a big side salad to go with it.  Back home four hours later and da curent still mashed up!  Grrrrr.......  Too hot to do housework unless I drag fan around with me and fire up generator again.  It was so hot, my dress was stuck to my back like glue. I drank almost a half gallon of juice to keep from dehydrating.

 

Friend called me to come see her new above ground pool, an amazing thing, 15 feet diameter and the sides were inflatable, never seen anything like it, but it sure was nice. She had elec-tricky so we felt blessed!  Pool came with pump and boarding ladder, as it was too tall to just hop in.  What a great idea for an instant pool.  I bet anyone with 15 feet square of flat space will want one.

 

 

Click here: British Virgin Islands Events

Sponsored by the folks with the BVI Classified ads at:

 

 

 

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The sun is out some but dark clouds abound. Yesterday at 5pm we had a lot of thunder but no rains.  It's muggy today as the elec-tricky is off again.

 

The guys are working on the street below me. Well, there is lot's of talking anyhow.

 

The tropical wave went well north of us, so no threat.  Might be another one heading our way, no rest for the weary!

 

My laptop battery is OLD and dies in under 30 minutes with about a one second warning, so I have to make this super quick, as I wrote my other blog first.

 

 

 

 

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Sunshine and rain, a great day for rainbow searching.  Right as I typed that, a rainbow appeared, as if on cue!  My picture is disastrous and just one of numerous reasons why the BVI should consider requiring underground cables. The British Virgin Islands is such a wonderfully beautiful country, but it's getting hard to take fabulous pics what with the encroachment of civilization. Though how civilized is it to mar such beauty?  One can only wonder and ponder, what I call ponderisms.

 

 

This morning I heard a rumble grumble mumble of thunder just before the sunny rains started. Raining sunshine?  We are on the fringes of a tropical wave that is predicted to become something. Could be the makings of himmacane DANNY. He is of no threat to us but those in the Turks and Caicos as well as the Bahamas should take heed and pay close attention.

 

Hurricane Hunters are flying out to investigate.

 

The Sir Francis Drake Channel is flat as a lake, that is St John on the right and Flannnigan on the left. there was a boat out there when I took the picture, but he seems to have vanished. St Croix is on the horizon which is rather fuzzy today.

 

85 degrees with slight winds and peek a boo sunshine.

 

 

 

I am feeling better, still weak, in pain and a tad grumpy at times, and other times super grumpy!

 

A big THANK YOU to everyone that has bought my book. Don't be bashful, ask a dozen friends to buy it too!  *giggle*  Again, thank you. Life is Good!  I woke up alive!

 

 

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Well, himmacane  Bill has gone bye bye, he lost his tropical characteristics about 190 miles northeast of Cape Race Newfoundland. I have friends from Newfoundland. We call them Newfies, I hope that is a term of endearment and not something else.

 

Today's surf picture is courtesy of Richard S.

THANKS for sharing!

 

Today's weather is boringly beautiful!  Scattered clouds, 86 degrees, slight trade winds, beautiful hues of blues!

 

 

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Weather is wonderful with a slight overcast sky and some light winds.

 

 

IS this what he meant???

The roundabout traffic lights are installed now!  Hope you can figure them out! 

 

Subject:

Oct. visit to Virgin Gorda

 

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1350 named storms in 154 years!  Amazing.

 

3700-3800 homes without power in Bermuda. Poor things!

 

You can thank big bad hurricane Bill for that...

 

Prayers and well wishes too all the Bermudans!

 

Very hot and humid here but the winds are coming back. Surf was up yesterday!  Yippee!

 

 

Nothing like 22 days in a hospital to appreciate each and every hour of your life!  Sometimes that breaks down to each and every minute!  Yesterday was rough on me, but through prayer, meditation, hypnosis and sheer will power I survived. I still write my recovery blog. I never knew recuperation could take so long!

 

Lori brought this article to my attention:

 

I hope we aren't in for the big bad earthquake!  Lawdy mercy. Concrete buildings are not for earthquakes though they are perfect for hurricanes.  Grrrrr.......

 

 

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My secret reporter says 20+ surfers are at Bomba's in Capoons Bay, often referred to as Apple Bay.

 

I've going crazy being home in my bedroom all week!  I may try to sneak out and go watch the surfers and try to catch some pictures. I set up a slide show of pictures I took previously of surfers on Tortola here at BviWaves.Com

A tad overcast today, not much wind at all, less than 5mph. 88  degrees here.  If I'm not dizzy, I hope to go for a ride today.

 

I just realized I haven't had coffee in over a month. My oh my. I don't know if the hospital had any or not, they never let us patients have any. They sometimes brought us hot tea with a peppermint tea bag. Often it was just a cup of hot water. I thought it was to sterilize our utensils. One day I asked about the hot water cup, long after my personal stash of tea bags had run out.  They said it was for the tea bag. I said "What tea bag?"  Turns out me and the other patients were all getting a cup of hot water and no tea bag.  For a few days afterwards, we all got tea bags with our hot water cup.

 

My prayers and well wishes go out to BERMUDA and I hope big bad himmacane Bill leaves them alone, though 115 mile per hour winds are no fun at all and can wreck your garden, no doubt.

 

I understand former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently fled Bermuda, interrupting their vacation. What a shame. (I still think we need a ship named the Hillary Rodham Clinton) it sounds powerful!

 

Now that I am home, I am drinking copious amounts of cold green tea with a bit of lime juice from the garden and no sweeteners. My face is swollen like a big balloon. Guess I better get cracking and find out what's in the mountain of drugs I am on. Grrrrrr.........

 

I'm still writing my other blog, the recovery blog with things unrelated to the weather and Tortola. 

 

 

 

 

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Not a bit of wind!  Big Bad Bill has sucked it all out of here!  VERY humid and two fans have done nothing to stop me from sweating. I guess a cold shower is next for me!

Cloudy with short scattered rains. I hope Himmacane Bill has gone bye-bye!

1029am and the rains have nearly stopped. But according to this satellite, we have more on the way!

 

Is this the outer bands of Himmacane Bill?  Or just a typical tropical shower?  It started at 1016am, so time will tell!

 

ANGELS again!  LOOK how close Hurricane Bill is to us!  So far we just have warm and humid weather here.   

 

 

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Flat calm and blue skies. Kind of eerie. No trace of Bill at all!

According to the 5pm hurricane Bill report, he has FINALLY turned to the Northwest. WHEW!  He is still extremely dangerous! Grrrrr.......

I don't think I will have shutters up.

 

My shutters are the cheap pain in the elbow type of big heavy metal sheets (unmarked) that require a zillion wing nuts to put them up. Shame they didn't number them when they were made for the duplex.  I only have 17 windows and it's up to the owner's caretaker to do them. It's part of the rent deal. My windows are jalousie, which makes them slightly stronger than regular sash windows, due to their overlapping, but still won't like 135 mph flying objects, especially flying coconuts which are like cannon shots in those winds.

 

I haven't seen or heard from the caretaker, in spite of the fact that ANA managed to blow some of the cistern collecting rain gutters off the place and I notified him. Grrrrrr...

 

I do have a baby generator, but I haven't had time to mess with it. But it was working fine 2 months ago *giggle*.  As long as my propane holds out, I have plenty of food, but if the tanks go bye-bye then OOOPS. I don't have much in cans on hand, but do have whole grains and dried beans, stuff that requires propane cooking. Ooops.

 

Of course I have my fridge full of half price yogurt!  Like 32 more containers, we rarely see a sale here, so I got carried away when they were miraculously half price the day I came home from the hospital. As I write this, it is barely raining and slightly overcast.

 

I called several someones to help me move the plants indoors, I am just wore out and weak and everything makes me tired. Sheesh, I have GOT to get better in a hurry!  Anyhow, the three people I called all said "It's going to Bermuda!  Don't worry!"

 

Sooooooooo...

 

I can only hope and pray the pros have it RIGHT this time and Big Bad hurricane Bill stays far away from us. But still, he is HUMONGOUS!  Just look at that picture above!

 

I went to http://www.cdera.org/  (Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency) and their front page hasn't been updated since Hurricane Bill became a category one himmacane. That doesn't instill much confidence!

OK Big Bad Bill!  Stay away from the Mermaid!

 

 

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No matter which picture you look at, they all look BAD.  Hurricane Bill is HUGE!  We are going to feel the outer bands, unless he goes due North immediately.  We could use SOME rain but we don't need Himmacane Bill to cry us a river!

Hurricane Bill is packing 135 mile and hour winds and it still on the SAME track of West North West and the pros keep saying that "gradual turn" to the northwest could happen in 24-48 hours, but um, won't he already be here by then?

 

IF HURRICANE BILL HEADS FOR US.....

Results for Tortola (18.45N, 64.53W):
The eye of the storm is about 634 miles (1020 km) away. If the system keeps moving at its current speed of 16 mph and directly towards you, it will take around 39.6 hours (Thursday, August 20 at 8:36PM AST) to reach you. Given the current windfield (175 miles from the center), tropical storm winds will be felt in 28.7 hours (Thursday, 9:42AM AST).

Now if Hurricane Bill continues on his present track, he will be 320 miles from us at 2:48pm  on Thursday, which is TOMORROW.  Let's hope for  the pros get it right and he turns and heads away from us! 

Sailors here have taken heed and I spoke with a charter boat captain who told me Paraquita Bay (our famous Hurricane hole) was a total zoo, full of boats with more trying to squeeze in. So THAT is good to hear.

West End still has boats, though most are at the far eastern dock but quite a few are still on moorings, though many have left.

This is West End Tuesday afternoon, when we were still overcast. The western docks are nearly empty while the eastern dock is nearly full. Scattered boats are left on moorings, though many have fled.

Click here to enlarge

 

Way too close for comfort!  I worry sometimes about the forecasters who live in Florida and NOT the Caribbean. We are just a teeny tiny speck on a vast ocean and if powerful hurricane Bill wobbles in the slightest, BOOM!  We feel his winds and rains. He is after all more than 350 miles across and he is a major hurricane, a category 3 with sustained winds at 125 miles an hour with higher gusts.

 

AND hurricane Bill has plenty of time to grow.

 

I have seen what "higher gusts" can do to a place. I flew over St Thomas about six weeks after hurricane Hugo hit in 1989.  I had sailed into port on a sailboat out of Florida.  I miraculously ran into my homeless boyfriend within an hour of coming into port and he told me our boat was never found, not even a stick of wreckage.  I changed jobs and ended up on a charter yacht for the lean Charter Boat Show that season.  After the show, it was discovered that yacht had few charters and a large power boat had many and a departing chef. I took the position, but a laundry across the island was holding my clothes hostage. They had run out of water and simply closed up, locking up my dirty clothes. The Captain gave me money to buy a ticket to San Juan, where the yacht was headed for refueling, repairs and provisions.  The pilot of our plane  took off and got permission for us to fly around St Thomas before heading for San Juan.  It was a sobering experience that made me cry.  

 

I could clearly see from the damages below, that it looked like a giant had walked across the island.  The places he missed in his giant stride were more or less fine, but the places where his footprint landed heavily were completely wiped out or at the very least had a denuded garden and blue tarp for a roof.  Many people reported mini tornados that hit just 2-3 houses in their neighborhood, then spared a few then jumped over and hit a few more, as if multiple tornados had sprung up during the height of the storm. FEMA (US agency) had already delivered blue tarps and I was thoroughly startled to sea the vast dots of blue throughout the island. Where there weren't blue roofs, were often just a pile of ruble or abandoned homes with no roofs and only one or two walls left standing.

 

I don't want himmacane Bill to hit us, but I know all too well what can happen if he does.

 

 

 

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The last post went out way too soon!  But Bert Klibride, the last pirate of the Caribbean, is featured in this video which showcases his final resting place undersea. (See below)

Click here: YouTube - VTS 02 1

 

HURRICANE BILL

Tortola is the teeny tiny red dot and that dot is MUCH BIGGER than the island is, we are barely 2 by 24 miles. NOW do I have your attention?  This baby needs to go NORTH of us NOW to avoid us completely!

 

 

 

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The hurricane hunters went and took a look at Big Bad Buffalo Bill, the himmacane who threatens to become a major hurricane tonight or tomorrow. This is NOT good.

 

He is projected by the pros to go well north of us, but those guys have been wrong before. Like they were wrong on Luis and wrong on Marilyn and both did a helluva lotta damage and caught many people unawares and grossly under prepared.

 

Sooooooooo...

 

I went through both those hurricanes in the Caribbean and it was NOT a pretty sight.

 

We were told Luis would be devastating and most people prepared though surprisingly, many did not. I was anchored in Cruz Bay on St John at the time. I had a 30 foot Catalina I had rebuilt to almost new condition and I was not insured. Although I preferred the term "self insured".

 

My friend, a young  lady who had sailed back with me from Jost Van Dyke, worked with me most of the day, getting the boat ready. We put her on my mooring, which had three anchors out on a swivel and I launched my other three anchors I normally carried on board with me. We put chafing gear on all the anchor rodes and the mooring lines.

 

Next we took down the sails and the bimini (shady thingy over the cockpit). The cockpit cushions had to be stored below, the propane tank which kind of rode outboard in a canvas covered milk crate had to be disconnected and stored below. I bailed out the rest of the bilge by hand, that last few inches that never goes out the automatic pump, then we took down the solar panel and stored it in my forepeak bunk, wrapped in my pillows and blankie. The man overboard floating equipment was stored below and by now with the big sails stuffed in the aft bunk down below, there was no room left for me or my friend!

 

I packed a tiny backpack with a change of clothes and a few sentimental items, my important papers and ID plus put on all my jewelry.  We climbed in the dinghy, tied the boarding ladder up so it wouldn't bang around and headed for shore. I prayed my boat would survive. I tried to burn a  picture of it  in my mind in case it was the last time I ever saw it.

 

Months before hurricane season, I had asked friends of mine if I could stay with them, in the event of a hurricane. Only fools stay aboard their boat for a hurricane scare!  And mama didn't raise me to be a fool.

 

Sure I am foolish at times, no doubt about it, but I do try to keep body and soul together whenever possible and not disappoint mom.

 

Ashore, I removed my dinghy engine, oars, gas tank, anchor and rode and stowed them in my jeep. The engine was bolted down to the back tail gate of my jeep which had a canvas roof. I locked it for good measure, and caught the butt end of numerous jokes, having an outboard hanging off the back of my jeep, next to the spare tire bolted back there. I told folks my jeep was now amphibious!

 

I was about to lash my dinghy to the trees ashore, when my friends, I would be staying with, showed up in their pickup truck and we loaded the inflatable dinghy into the back of their truck.  It too was now amphibious!

 

During the hurricane, I stayed with my friend miles from the harbor. I played their grand piano by candlelight and tried not to think about the ocean waves that were slapping their windows, even though we were about 60 feet above sea level.  

 

I called down to Grumpy's bar which was housing several boaters who had no where else to go. During lulls in the storm, someone would race out in the blowing rains and look at the harbor and come back and report which boats were blown ashore, which were blown away.  Every time they claimed my boat was still floating and I often begged them to tell me the truth if it really blew away.

 

When the hurricane had  passed, we rushed down to the harbor in my friend's truck which still had my dinghy lashed down in back and lo and behold my boat was floating about 100 feet from where I had last seen her. The bow was covered in spaghetti caused by the anchor lines which appeared hopelessly tangled. Her boot line was showing at the water's edge, so her automatic bilge pump had worked throughout the hurricane, if she took on water and nearly all boats do take on water. 100+mile per hour winds can open up seals and cracks and blow rain inside.

 

Sadly, the entire port side of my freshly painted boat, was covered in angry red marks, like some angered giant had taken a huge red crayon and drawn scribbles up and down the sides from bow to stern.

 

While I was preparing for the hurricane, this IDIOT, showed up and launched a big red channel buoy near my boat. I had asked him not to do such a ridiculous thing. He had been paid at some point by the port authority to launch these new buoys. He greedily wanted to launch them before the hurricane in hopes they would blow away and he would get paid AGAIN to launch new ones again.

 

He had launched this heavy red buoy with the super fresh red paint job right on top of one of my anchors, no where near the proper place where the buoy belonged,  and I had told him so. We had verbally fought about this, but he ended up cursing me out and speeding out of the harbor, dropping new buoys all over the place and no where near the correct alignment for the harbor channel. Grrrr...........

 

Several boats were crashed on the shore, including one great big one that had a drunken caretaker in charge  while the owners were away. I know they wished 1,000 times they had hired someone else!

 

A few boats were missing in action, one was later found crashed ashore at Jost van Dyke.  One crew member and his boat was missing. He was found days later paddling a battered kayak with a flip flop. He had been blown out to sea and crashed on a deserted island where his boat broke up and washed away. No one knew he was on this island. One day a battered kayak washed ashore and another day he found an old flip flop. His clothes were in tatters and he was sunburned when he launched the kayak and tried to paddle with the flip flop to an inhabited island. A lone boat that was out and about (a dangerous thing after a hurricane as the sunken boats have not yet been charted and you run the risk of crashing into a barely sunken boat mast!) had spotted this poor soul and rescued him.

 

Little did we know, that days later, hurricane Marilyn would slam into us.

 

 

105 mph winds!  Lawdy mercy, hevaen help us all!  Dis is not good. Of course the BVI is beautiful today!

 

But Big Bad Himmacane Bill is just building up a solid punch and he needs to turn a good bit and miss us all. He is HUGE!  A healthy boy! 

 

The Hurricane Hunters are going out to investigate so we will have better info later on today.

 

 

My recovery blog is still going at

 

Pray he misses us all!

 

 

    

 

         

 

               

 

                   

 

                        

 

No matter how you look at Himmacane Bill, he is HUGE and our island is teeny tiny itsy bitsy. This big bad boy is going to have to seriously go North, in order to miss us completely!

 

 

 

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ANA gone bye-bye! 

 

Wild Himmacane Buffalo Bill is menacing at 90mph winds with a broad storm range of 290 miles across!  He is meandering at 16mph.

 

If he headed straight for Tortola:

 

Virgin Islands (UK)
The Department of Disaster Management (DDM) in the Virgin Islands (UK) has issued a Hurricane Advisory and placed its national response system on stand-by in preparation for Hurricane Bill. The island was on a Tropical Storm watch this morning in anticipation of Tropical Depression Ana but has since stood-down and reported no damage.

728am THUNDER!

729am GUSTY winds!

731am Rains abated,winds around 30mph

 

 

825am skies are gray, but no rains

 

850am REALLY gutsy gusty winds! Thick gray overcast skies.

 

904am winds are whipping around West End at 30-35mph

 

908am POWER went off! Da current done mash up!

 

909am Power back on, WHEW!  Very sticky and muggy, WHITE caps down the Sir Francis Drake channel.

 

 

Ana Banana is HERE!  Visibility is reduced to less than 2 miles. Rains are poring down and winds are picking up.

 

WELL, before I can finish this report, I go out to look and I can not SEE the Went End Sopers Hole Harbor entrance!  It's like the earth really is flat and the harbor just drops off into gray nothingness!

 

Maybe the pros were wrong on the size of Ana Banana!

 

 

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Rumble, grumble, mumble, the lightning and thunder is lighting up the dark sky at 530am/  Winds are picking up and the thunder is long and deep growling. Did the pros make a mistake on Ana Banana?

TD Ana is going south of us and TS Bill who is not quite yet a himmacane is predicted by the pros to go well north of us.  I still watch him closely as the pros have been wrong half the time. *tee hee hee*  But who is counting?

 

 

 

 

That mountainous terrain is where we keep the big boulders and the mud for the mud slides!

 

Now we just watch and wait on Himmacane Bill and pray he goes well North or South of us!

 

Tropical Storm Bill is likely to become a himmacane REAL soon.  He is packing 65mph winds already and only needs a few more to officially become a himmacane.  Tropical Storm Claudette  is threatening Florida and Alabama. Plus we have sweet little Tropical Storm Ana headed our way who is currently technically downgraded to a tropical depression but she is expected to cry me a river with 2 to 4 inches of rain.

 

 

Well that's a good things cause my washing machine is throwing up stuffing, something mysterious happened to it in my absence, like it ate a pillow and now is regurgitating the stuffing which is sticking to all my clothes. I have run one load 4 or 5 times now with vinegar, trying to loosen the sticky stuff from my mermaid dresses. Grrrrrrrr........  So I look forward to replenishing the cistern.

 

You can buy all these fancy green cleaning products or you can buy plain simple white vinegar and it has 1,00 of uses around the home. I'm amazed I just paid $6 for a bottle of the plain white stuff. Food is going out of sight here it seems. A bottle of Joy dish soap was $4.45.  I've tried the cheaper brands and they just don't last as long as Joy but it sure is pricey.

 

Results for Tortola (18.45N, 64.53W): The eye of the storm is about 1678 miles (2701 km) away. If the system keeps moving at its current speed of 16 mph and directly towards you, it will take around 104.9 hours (Friday, August 21 at 1:54AM AST) to reach you. Given the current windfield (140 miles from the center), tropical storm winds will be felt in 96.1 hours (Thursday, 5:06PM AST).

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Tropical Storm Bill has slowed down to 12mph and winds are at 60mph, this is not good at all!

 

Results for Tortola (18.45N, 64.53W):
The eye of the storm is about 1796 miles (2890 km) away. If the system keeps moving at its current speed of 16 mph and directly towards you, it will take around 112.2 hours (Friday, August 21 at 3:12AM AST) to reach you. Given the current windfield (140 miles from the center), tropical storm winds will be felt in 103.5 hours (Thursday, 6:30PM AST).

 

 

 

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TROPICAL STORM ANA what if...

Results for Tortola (18.45N, 64.53W):
The eye of the storm is about 704 miles (1132 km) away. If the system keeps moving at its current speed of 20 mph and directly towards you, it will take around 35.2 hours (Monday, August 17 at 7:12PM AST) to reach you. Given the current windfield (70 miles from the center), tropical storm winds will be felt in 31.7 hours (Monday, 3:42PM AST).

 

TROPICAL STORM BILL what if...

Results for Tortola (18.45N, 64.53W):
The eye of the storm is about 1888 miles (3038 km) away. If the system keeps moving at its current speed of 13 mph and directly towards you, it will take around 145.2 hours (Saturday, August 22 at 6:12AM AST) to reach you. Given the current windfield (70 miles from the center), tropical storm winds will be felt in 139.8 hours (Saturday, 0:48AM AST).

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Tropical Storm ANA has sped up to 20mph forward motion with 40mph winds with the usual higher gusts. We are still under a storm watch. Storm force winds are 70 miles from the center, so even if the eye misses us, it has to miss us by 70 miles or more for us to miss the high winds.

 

Tropical storm BILL looks like he could become a himmacane soon. He has slowed down to 13mph (not good!) and he too spreads out to 70miles form the center, but he already has the tell tail look of  himmacane, so he needs careful monitoring even though he may not reach us until later in the week. He is blowing winds at 45mph, so this is not good, that he is slowing down and building strength.

 

There is a new depression in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, lurking towards Florida,  but it's no threat to us at this time. Whew.

 

 

 

Tropical Storm ANA and tropical storm BILL are both headed out way. YIKES!  Why did I leave the hospital?

 

Sheesh! 

 

Both have only 40 mph winds, but behind Bill is yet another mess that could fire up into something. Grrrrrr....

 

No wonder my kitties are begging for food to fatten up!

 

Bobby's Market delivered some easy-to-make foods for me today (and the case of Rum) for the storm party...  The kitties came running in on the heals of the delivery man, crying out like they were absolutely starving!

 

Funny enough  The Perfect Storm is on the cable box today. 

 

Incredibly, Tortola is drop dead gorgeous today!  But West End is already emptying out of boats. I stopped by a place overlooking Nanny Cay on the way home from the hospital and their docks were half empty too, very odd as last summer they were packed.

 

 

And, I have absolutely NOTHING stocked up for the hurricane party!  DOUBLE  YIKES!

 

I better start making my list:

 

Rum

Cat Food

Rum

Batteries

Rum

Candles

Rum

Canned Soup

Rum

Bottled Water

Rum

Cat Litter

Rum

Canned Tuna

Rum

Generator Gas

Rum

 

 

TS Ana is moving at about 16pmh with 40mph winds.

 

This is real bad planning all around, I am still very tired and weak from the hospital. At least no one is assaulting my left arm anymore. My right arm is in pretty good shape, though I had a few battles to keep that arm safe!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clouds are dark but no rain yet.

 

Watching that mess east of us to see if it develops into anything.

 

Still in hospital.

 

Going to try to climb out of bed and go see the big outdoors soon!

 

Lawdy mercy, I hope I don't still be in this place if/when we get a hurricane. Then again... might not be a bad place to be.

 

Basement entrance to emergency room...

 

 

 

 

 

I hear there is a chance of a tropical cyclone coming our way from the Cape Verde Islands and I want to fatten up and get ready!

 

That's the only chance of a purr-icane I sea on the fur-rizon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Miss Mermaid is STILL in the hospital.

 

The hospital log blog is at:

 

Jumbys!  Take  a stroll before heading for the parade!

 

The next three days are public holidays in the BVI.

 

Weather is perfect for carnival!

 

From the window I watch the sun crest over the eastern mountain. I strain to hear the faintest chirp of a bird above the usual medical beeping machines, like soothing wam honey to a rough throat, it was nectar to my ears, ever so briefly.

 

Life is good. 

 

I am still  alive and vertical!

 

But I'm still in hospital. 

 

See current hospital blog at:

 

 

 

 

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The satellites show our area as clear, but we are heavily overcast with the sun hiding behind gray clouds. It's breezy and I can see the sun is thinking about coming out front at some point.

 

Sopers Hole in West End was packed full yesterday, nearly all docks and mooring balls were taken.

 

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