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- Earl, Fiona, Gaston... keep a good eye out in the BVI!
  • By DearMissMermaid at aol.com
  • Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 12:32:32 EDT
Hurricane Earl seem to want to take his Virgin Island spirit to the outer banks of North Carolina, then on to perhaps Massachusetts.  With 140mph winds, I feel sorry for the folks making a hasty evacuation. Labor Day weekend, coming up is usually their last big vacation and holiday weekend before summer is stashed away for another year.
 
Tropical Storm Fiona has decided to perhaps go visit Bermuda.
 
And Tropical Storm Gaston... he is totally undecided about his fate!
 
Has anyone heard or seen reports or pictures about Bitter End and Biras Creek on Virgin Gorda?
 
Anegada´s Tourism-Based Businesses Largely Affected By Earl
Platinum News Online
Meanwhile, there was one irate businessman; Aubrey Levons of Big Bamboo Beach Bar/Restaurant which is located at Loblolly beach, who told BVI Platinum News ...
 
 
Rotary Gives Relief to Anegada
Platinum News Online
This is my first and I was afraid," Checo told BVI Platinum News as he waited to collect some supplies. Immediate Past President, Leroy Moses of the Rotary ...
 
Overseas aid not necessary – Governor McCleary | BVI News
In the aftermath of Hurricane Earl, the Territory has no need for overseas assistance as the BVI has the necessary equipment to clean up, Governor Boyd ...
 
Personally, I think he should have welcomed any offers of outside help with open arms. My gosh, they still have roads torn up from the floods of 7 years ago!  That old derelict wrecked boat at the Sandspit has been there more than a decade, since another hurricane long past. I know islanders are resilient and have a can-do attitude, but why not clean it all up with a real thoroughness and graciously accept outside help. 
 
One major problem after a hurricane or storm or flood, is the displaced garbage that turns up every where, on the shores, in the mangroves, on the beaches and so on. Some boat owners will simply abandon their wrecks where they are, leaving it up to whoever to do something or in many cases, nothing about it. Let's bring the beauty back to the BVI as quickly as possible.
 
 
 
 
 
 

- Hurricane Fiona was a non event GOOD!!!!
  • By DearMissMermaid at aol.com
  • Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 09:50:58 EDT
Fiona passed with out making herself known to us.  We had a sunny day with no rain and the evening was a bit cloudy but no more than we would occasionally see.  As I have been living on Snack food and fruits and warm beer for several days and was WAYYYey tooooo tired ( I was pooped), to cook for myself the first night back on da good ship... I went to the Red Rock Cafe at Penn's Landing and had a nice dinner.  Had a great Mushroom Soup.... (no these were not the same mushrooms from Bamba Shack!!!)...and Caribbean Chicken Breast.  Had a large bottle of sparkling Water... nope did not even have a hard drink.  I was so tired and probably a bit dehydrated from getting the dink back in the water and putting the outboard back on I was too thirsty to even consider a hard drink.  Well I will have to admit I did have a Sundowner a couple of hours before on da boat.
 
The night was very calm with just a little breeze and winds continued to shift from North to North West to South West to South and back around.  We are now a bit South East at about 6 to 8 knots with a little roll in the bay from the South West.  Seas are 2 to 3 feet may get higher in the Sir Francis Drake Channel later.
 
One thing that is very obvious with our recent brush with Earl... the mountains have changed color or colour is you wish.  They are now showing a brown tone.  This is from both Wind Burn (100 MPH winds do that!), and damage from the salty sea spray and rain.  While we had lots of foliage stripped off, more will soon drop from the wind burn and salt spray and not just near the water but well up the mountains... all the way to the ridge tops here in East End.  They do not show up on Photos yet but in a day or two I'll bet I can get one that shows what the eye can already see.
 
Gaston looks dangerous.  Everyone is holding their breath wishing him away.  On present track he could hit us directly or possibly worst pass to our West, giving us the worst of the storm force.  Still too early to know but no one is undoing the storm prep we did for Earl.  I did put my Cockpit cover back up for shade but with out the solar cells.  Later today I may attempt to rig one on the rail or deck to give the batteries some power and ease up on the Honda 2000i that is pumping its little heart out to allow me some charge time and a few electrical appliances I have aboard including da computer!
 
more later
da Wayward Sailor
 

- Wow
  • By DearMissMermaid at aol.com
  • Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 07:19:38 EDT
WOW, you can see the bowling balls rolling off Africa, coming down hurricane alley...
 


- Keep an eye out for Gaston and Hermine
  • By DearMissMermaid at aol.com
  • Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 06:50:48 EDT
The Tropical Storm spaghetti projections for Gaston is all over the place. The bad news is he has slowed down movement to 9 miles per hour. This is not good. It gives him time to stew and possibly build up into a hurricane.   Winds are currently at about 40mph, location 13.5 N 38.2 W, 1550 miles east of the Lesser Antilles.
 
Right on his heals is the future Hermine?
This looks like a cozy foursome golf game coming off of Africa, FORE!
 
On a sad note, a friend called from Ecuador to say her boat was among one of the heavily damaged, in pictures from West End. She thought someone else was taking care of it, and was a bit shocked to see it wrecked.
 
My phones, both cell and Skype.com has been so busy, as has my email.  A few times my email program crashed and the laptop screamed "STOP!  My memory is overloaded!"  as I tried to look at webcams, satellites, instant messages, weather news, pictures, videos and so on.
 
My puppy, Houdini Harley, was super patient while he was being totally ignored. I put him out on his tether and thought he was being very quiet, as usually I hear the squeak of his toys, or him romping around with his soccer ball. Then I realized he had somehow opened up the carabineer on the tether and run off to play at the neighbor's!
 
Finally I took him out for a really nice long walk, then another friend of his came back from a 3 day trip, with a treasured tennis ball for him to play with, so he was able to slip back into his spoiled-rotten mode.  Mostly he likes to lay right beside me as I type, but sometimes he crawls up on the desk to say "Hello?  Puppy here!  Play with me!"

- OhMyGadda, Watch out Anegada!
  • By DearMissMermaid at aol.com
  • Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 00:27:03 EDT
Another one coming off Africa, chasing after Tropical storm Gaston (could that be the future Hermine?) .... tis the season!  Fa la la la la la!
 
 
Earl is looking at North Carolina as a possibility...
Fiona is moving quickly Northwestward,  passing the BVI, while peeing along the way...
 
Gaston is setting his sights like a bowling ball, undecided which pins (islands) he's knocking  around in his path...
 
Stick around folks, this could get interesting...
 

- 27 pictures from HURRICANE EARL in the BVI
  • By DearMissMermaid at aol.com
  • Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 18:27:49 EDT
A BIG thank you to the fabulous photographer who so generously supplied these photos of West End, Tortola, Frenchmens Cay and Sopers Hole.
 
yn

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- Earl, Fiona and Gaston, busy week of storms in the BVI
  • By DearMissMermaid at aol.com
  • Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 17:50:55 EDT
Keep your eyes on Tropical Storm Gaston, I don't trust this boy one bit, and my crystal ball doesn't like him either!
 
Looks stormy from Jost to Tortola, as FIONA passes by.
 

- Back on Board
  • By DearMissMermaid at aol.com
  • Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 17:34:51 EDT
Wayward Sailor sent pics
 
 

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