- - Tortola & Virgin Gorda (BVI) - -

We just had a cold hard rain as daylight quickly transformed into darkness.

 

To see lots of  videos from the Turks and Caicos of their hurricane floods and damages, click here.

 

Internet access is awfully slow and interrupted often in the BVI this weekend.   Fun fun fun!  We  had some SUNSHINE today. Woo Who!

 

Warm and Sunny Regards,
DearMissMermaid.com
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TS Hanna is dying out and TS Josephine has already died down, but big bad himmacane Ike is such a bully now as a category 4 (out of possible 5) and winds of 135mph, with much bigger gusts.  Not a pretty site. Prayers for all those in his path, the Turks & Caicos have already taken a beaten. If you want to help, then scroll down to yesterday's post and donate to the Red Cross (links provided below).

Himmacane Ike spaghetti (which came with this disclaimer: If anything on this graphic, causes confusion, then ignore the entire product. )  Now THAT is telling the honest truth. Remember, this is just the EYE of the hurricane tracks, the storm is HUGE spreading about 145 miles from the eye. Yikes it's Ike!

 

The Florida Keys are under mandatory evacuation, but I've heard from the coconut telegraph, that many residents plan to HIDE and stay put. I hope they are pretty hearty, because if it knocks out the power and  bridges and so on, they will be on their own for awhile. I suspect the reason the authorities want to evacuate EVERYONE is so that they don't have to send aid back in, if the damage is catastrophic and it could be, so I hope you Parrot Heads think this one through and DO NOT stay on your boat, no matter what. It's NO place to be during a hurricane. Just ask my dear departed dead friends who tried to ride out a hurricane aboard...

 

On Tortola at 1030am it is 85 degrees with moderate winds, and a very thick haze over the area. I am trying to bring up the Sahara Dust map to see if that is what is over us, but my Internet has slowed to a pathetic crawl, so I give up and wish to get this out while I still can!

***********

Pink Oleander

 

For some Fun Reading:

 

 

 

Warm and Sunny Regards,
DearMissMermaid.com
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TS Hanna is about 425 miles south of Wilmington NC with 65mph winds. Himmacane Ike is about 460 miles north of us with 125 mph winds. YIKES it's Ike! 

 

TS Josephine is 665 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands with 50mph winds.

 

It's a roller coaster out there! 

 

We had unsteady drizzle throughout much of the night and wee hours of the morning as the tail of Ivan passes over us. At 830am the skies are decidedly overcast with the sun in a fickle mood as to when or if he will appear. Enough rain to keep us saturated, if we get any more major rains, then we are ripe for rock and mud slides plus flooding.

 

The Sir Francis Drake Channel is just flat and mirrors the sky. 

 

My cats are tracking up the place with little muddy paw prints. *Sigh*.  You can see where they come in the door and walk AROUND the fluffy rug.  That rug  was put there for humans AND cats to get the mud and dirt and grime and rain off one's shoes or feet or PAWS.  I don't know HOW to get this through their fluffy little hard heads. GRrrrrrrrr... 

 

Last night some friends came over and we had a pizza party. I made extra so I could have leftovers today. Ha ha ha. What was I thinking?  We didn't have two crumbs leftover to rub together!  I bought some whole wheat flat bread that was 12 inch in diameter, also known as pocket bread, as if you slice it open, well there's your pocket. But leaving it whole and topping it with tomato sauce, basil, thyme, oregano, garlic, pepperoni, onions, mushrooms and cheeses then baked until the crust was crisp,  ohhhhhhhh man,  it came out wonderful!

 

SO this morning, realizing there was NO leftovers, I thought I would whip up  a simple scrambled egg sandwich. SPLAT. Egg lands on the floor. I so much wanted to go back to bed, if this was an omen of things to come. But leaving egg to dry, is like leaving permanent glue on the floor, so I managed to clean up the icky mess, make a sandwich and survive. 

 

The cats inquired about breakfast and their wet-food bowl has vanished. Very odd. We looked high and low for it. It's oval, the only two oval bowls I own belong to the cats, one for dry kibble, one for wet food, both are oval so 3 cat heads can share together. Nope. I refuse to have six cat bowls. The little guys have learned how to share. Sure they have a squabble now and then, but when it's feed time, all squabbles are forgotten and they always eat in peace without fighting. I have caught one cat, who sometimes shoulders the other cats out of the way, and I pick him up, deposit him outside and shut the door. He must think I am awfully mean, but I am trying to teach him that shouldering his buddies away from the food dish is not acceptable. He isn't too bright though, so he is very slow learning this, but now he seems to eat in peace without the need to "lean" on the other cats making them move.  (Sneaky little guy!)

 

I don't know WHERE they hid their bowl. It's a mystery.

No questions asked.

 

Warm and Sunny Regards,
DearMissMermaid.com
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Himmacane Ike is punching out winds of 145 mph!  He is northeast of us at 22.7 N...55.8 W with movement towards the west northwest.

 

Tropical storm Hanna is sprawling all over the place. She is holding just under hurricane strength with only 70 mph winds.

 

Tropical storm Josephine is still quite a ways away with 60mph winds.

 

On Tortola we  still have dark clouds and gloomy weather here with flat seas and no wind.

I caught a rainbow this morning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The BVI has been in a thick overcast all day with intermittent rain squalls and occasional gusty winds.

It would appear Fay has stalled and is growing bigger and we have her tail spraying down on us, like a territorial dog marking her territory!

 

Himmacane Ike (21.6 N...52.7 W) has become the 5th hurricane/himmacne of the season, with 70 mph winds,  and has moved north and hopefully will pass north of us Friday or so across open waters.

 

Stormy Josephine (13.8 N...29.9 W) is sporting 60mph winds and not a threat to us..... yet.....

 

84 degrees, dark and stormy in the BVI.

Warm and Sunny Regards,
DearMissMermaid.com
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Tropical Storm Josephine is south of the Cape Verde islands with winds of 60 miles per hour, moving at about 13 mph.

 

Tropical Storm Hanna is meandering off the coast of Haiti with heavy rainfalls.  We even had a big rainfall right at daybreak.

 

Tropical Storm Ike could very well miss us, as he is now slightly north but still east of us by about 835 miles with 65mph winds.

 

Lastly, Tropical Depression Gustav is slowly dying out across the southern states.

 

I wrote the above at sunrise, then forgot to to mail it!  I was still sleepy and the dreaded jerk-hammers had not started their work, so I tried to go back to bed. Of course by 700am, the jerk-hammers were in full force and I was up again. Grrrrrrrrr...

 

Yesterday da current done mash up FOUR times!  What's wrong with dem elec-tricky folks?  It's not even a real storm and dey can't keep our current running. Sad, just sad.

 

I met a young man who had just spent two years at war. He came here for a month long vacation to recuperate. He said in the first week,  he was here, the BVI had MORE elec-tricky outages than he experienced in  a war torn country over the past two years. He was laughing about it, but said it was true, and I believe him. These outages are an embarrassment and make us look plain silly.

Dark, gloomy and flat, looking at a near bare Soper's Hole in West End, Tortola, BVI with the USVI in the distance. No sunburn today!

Warm and Sunny Regards,
DearMissMermaid.com
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Yikes! Tropical Storm Ike is about 1200 miles east of us in the BVI and we shall watch him closely and often while he figures out if he wants to be a himmacane or not. He is moving west at about 15pmh, with 50mph winds.

 

Gustav has downgraded to a tropical depression. Hurricane Hanna has downgraded to a tropical storm. Tropical Depression Ten (Josephine?) has been numbered and noted near the Cape Verde Islands.

********

We now have 5 different houses in my neighborhood using jack hammers. Most are underpowered so it takes them three times longer to do a job. It's frustrating, I want to wrap their jerk hammer around their neck. I think all my neighbors are deaf. WHAT???  Yes, deaf!

 

I get a nice home office on Tortola, and then we had this construction explosion. But they've about run out of land in my neighborhood and I am lucky to be on a large lot, just that I wasn't planning to learn to work by jerk hammer noise, grrrrrrrrr...

 

I ponder, how can you be building to code and plans if half of all your work has to be jerk hammered out again?  What am I am missing in this picture?  Today, I noted another neighbor is going up another floor and argh, on the last floor, he jerk hammered all his window frames out. Poured thick walls without window frames, craziest thing I have seen. Then he jerk hammered the window holes.  Seems to me that just weakens the wall again, but I'm not a builder, just a dreamer.

 

Maybe years at sea, aboard a quiet sailboat, just listening to the waves slap the hull, was music to my ears. Sure there were times I had the stereo at near max volume and other times at subdued peace, but there were times when I just sailed to the gentle rhythm of the winds and waves occasionally interrupted by a seagull chattering or some other bird tweetering.

Looking at Ginger, Cooper, Salt and Peter Island, BVI.

Warm and Sunny Regards,
DearMissMermaid.com
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