Da Caribbean News Ledda
First and foremost, hurricane season has unleashed some deadly storms this
year. I can't remember when I looked at the weather station on the computer
and seen so many hurricanes spinning around at one time. First Florida copped
a flogging from hurricane Charlie, mostly with rain damage and a little wind.
Then came Francis which came within 60 miles of us - mostly scaring us with
its 150 mph winds, but really not touching us except for a little wind and
rain. She carried on to Florida via Bahamas and pretty much flattened everything
in her way.
Next came Ivan who traveled south of us producing large swells on the south
shore. Prior to Ivan coming this way, he devastated the lower islands, Grenada
received the worse and was left with only 10% of her buildings still standing.
Some boats are still reported missing from the harbours. Boats as big as 70
feet have just simply disappeared. As it passed by us we caught a huge amount
of rain, which was good for the cisterns, but once they were full the rain
just became a burden. We are back to having pot holed roads and dirty ocean
water. A couple of days of sunshine and all will be good.
Ivan went on to flatten Jamaica and the western end of Cuba. He continued
to moved over the Cayman Islands and left nothing in its wake. Ivan then moved
up to the U.S. coast into the gulf and caused massive damages to people and
property. The most recent hurricane was Jeanne which passed well to the north
of us and again left us with more rain than we know what to do with. We are
looking closely at other developments spinning off the African coast, but
nothing threatening at this stage. We have remained relatively unscathed from
the weather once again and feel lucky compared to many other areas in the
Caribbean.
The guys around here are sick of pulling everything off the boats and tying
it all down for the hurricanes, then a few days later having to pull everything
back out and put it back together. Generally it takes me about 2 days to hurricane
prep the boat. During Francis we had 18 dock lines attached to Lionheart.
If I had more things to throw a line around, I would have used them. People
have tied to anything they laid their eyes on. Some guys have tied up to mangroves
and palm trees, power poles and buildings. Whatever could be tied down was
tied down, but luckily for us it was all unnecessary.
At the moment I have Dave, the owner of Lionheart, and his lovely lady Deb
staying here. Lionheart has already taken on a transformation as Dave goes
to town on the various bits and pieces. It has been three years since Dave
was down on the boat, so obviously there's been a few changes. He loves to
get in there and take on technical projects which I simply don't have the
knowledge to attempt, so I'm looking forward to getting back on a better,
brighter boat.
The islands at the moment are, as you would expect, very green. Many of the
obscured local fruits are producing the goods. Our Avocado tree, or as the
locals call them, the Caribbean pear, are in abundance. We are pulling a couple
off the tree every day and there are still loads up there. Another favourite,
especially for Lucie, is a type of plum. It is bright yellow and tastes quite
sweet. You find them growing wild, so you can bet that the local children
always have a pocket full.
We finally took a break for 5 days and headed off to Puerto Rico. We stayed
in a very fancy hotel, the Ritz Calton no less, and had a wonderful time.
Unfortunately, while we were there the swell jumped up to an enormous level
bringing all the local surfers out of hibernation. I sat there in this pristine
hotel on the beach front watching wave after wave breaking. I was like a child
asked to sit outside a lolly store. Neverless, we had a great time in the
shopping malls of Puerto Rico, spending money like it was going out of fashion.
Since coming back to Tortola I was lucky enough to get a couple of good surfs
before the swell completely disappeared. The surf this early in the season
has inspired me to build a new surfboard, so hopefully we will have the waves
to try her out.
I hope this news leeda finds you well in whatever you're involved with and
that you are surrounded by friends and happy moments.
Take care of one another.
Mobbsie
