Our B.V.I. Adventure

After a long week dealing with Hurricane Earl and his aftermath, we were anxious to get off island, at least off of our island.  Our cable was still out, so football watching at home wasn't an option.  {And it sure was brutal knowing that all of our friends in Gainesville and at home in Knoxville were tailgating their hearts out!}

In search of ESPN, Adam, Michael and I headed to Scrub Island which is a private island just east of Tortola.  It's been open for about the same amount of time that we've lived here...so it too is relatively new.  :)
Gorgeous right?  The marina there is impressive too.  Unfortunately, Hurricane Earl claimed this sailboat:
We spent the entire day at the pool - they actually have two pools.  The second one is up above the stone wall on the left side of the photo.  Oh, and there's a hot tub up there too! 
We had lunch at the swim-up bar and enjoyed the day immensely.  And don't kid yourself, we each took a turn down the slide.  It was nice to get away to a new place.  Former managers of Marina Cay, Joe and Karen work at the resort and we were happy to run into them that afternoon.  They took us on a tour of the island.  {Thanks y'all - it was amazing!}
We also made some new friends.  Joe and Karen invited the new managers at Marina Cay over for a drink.  Their names are Craig and Vanessa.  They're from the UK and just delightful.  Michael has spent some time with them in a work setting but this was my first time meeting them.  We were having so much fun together we decided to stay for dinner!  It was delicious!

Scrub will definitely make the list for our next visitor...are you reading this Courtney?!?  Get excited!
Oh, and about ESPN...they had taken down their flat screens at Scrub in preparation for Hurricane Earl but hadn't put them back up yet.  So no Gator football for me.  No football for any of us.  It was still a great day.

James tied a rope together to form a circle on the ground.  Standing inside the circle, he slid the rope up to his ankles.  Keeping the rop taut, James climbed a 30 foot palm tree in a matter of seconds, all the while yielding a machete in his right hand.  A few whacks later and the coconut was loose.

 Back on the ground, James swiftly shaved off layer after layer then presented it to Michael to drink.   

Michael said it was delicious.  Have you had milk from a coconut like this?   I think it beats the Coke machine at most offices, don't you?  James is his own Coconut machine!

Yum!

This post may be a few days late...my apologies.  Internet and other resources (power and water) have been sparse this week.
Here are some of my photos of the damage caused by Hurricane Earl:
Thank goodness this tree caught the awning from the nearby sports complex.  Scary to think what damage it would have caused to homes in the area.
Oh, and the letters that spell Pusser's on the warehouse came down...we found a few of them.
For more photos of the damage - including some from Anegada, the island hit hardest by Hurricane Earl - go to www.bvimusic.com.

Well, we survived our first hurricane in the BVI!  Here's a recap of our day...
Much of the island lost power in the early morning hours on Monday - long before Hurricane Earl hit Tortola and the rest of the BVI.  Our friend Adam came over around noon - conditions at his house on Todman Peak were deteriorating quickly.  It's interesting how drastically different the weather can be at various locations on this little island.
We enjoyed a nice lunch and watched a little bit of The Hangover, before finalizing our hurricane preparations.  That included removing all of the screens from the porch windows and closing the last of the hurricane shutters.
It wasn't until 1:45 p.m. that our power went out.  
Our house is situated on the south side of the island.  And as the hurricane swirled into the Caribbean Sea, the wind was blowing from west to east.  That's right to left looking at the Sir Francis Drake Channel from our porch, which is the view in this photo:
The rain followed in the same direction so we were able to sit on the porch and watch Earl move in without getting wet.  We mixed a few rum drinks and watched in awe as the waves got bigger and bigger and the storm intensified.  Adam got a call from the owner of his house to tell him some windows on the west side of his house were open.  This was puzzling because when Adam left his house, hurricane shutters were securely on the windows.  {Turns out, the shutters did blow off, but the windows were in tact and everything inside was just fine.  But what a scare!  There was absolutely nothing he could do about it at the time!}

This next photo was taken around 4:30 p.m. as visibility was getting worse.  We were amazed how much protection the house and the mountainside provided us.  You would think we'd be drenched sitting on the now-open air porch, but we didn't feel a drop...  
...not until much much later, that is.  We moved inside around 5:00 p.m. as we could sense a change in Earl's direction.  It didn't take long for the boys to seek out the guitars and play a little music.  I tried to record a few of their tunes but the sound of the wind dominates the audio. 
We took requests on Facebook and our friend Rodney suggested CCR's "Who'll Stop the Rain."  Nice choice!  We also want to thank our Facebook friends for giving us updates on the storm.  Not that the news was all that comforting as Earl grew to a Category 4...ha!
Around 7:00 p.m. I made black bean soup.  That's the great thing about having a gas stove - it works even when you don't have power!  We played dominoes, told stories and listened to the storm rattle the hurricane shutters.  Since the walls of our house are made of concrete, we left very secure.

From 8:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. the wind howled and the rain lashed the house relentlessly.  The porch was soaked and leaves were everywhere!  A few more rum drinks and we were ready to go to bed.  We received word that Earl had reached Puerto Rico and we were told that things would begin to quiet down.  We cracked the shutters to allow air to move through the house and tried to sleep...

Earl was fascinating, a bit scary, windy and wet all rolled into one!  As a musical tribute to Earl's exit, here's the Dixie Chick tune...you guessed it, "Goodbye Earl!"

It's 10:30 a.m. on Day 271.  We just got back from Road Town where Michael had to close up Pusser's flagship store. 

Some of the ladies who work there came in to help as well.  In the case of flooding, we moved all of the items from the floor.  We also brought in items from the glass porch on the second story.  Apparently it is susceptible to leaks.  And in the worst case scenerio, the glass could break which would surely make the inventory decoration for the landscape below. 


Earl is now a Category 3 and it's expected to gain even more strength as it approaches the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico...we are only 60 miles east of Puerto Rico, so if you see video on the news from there, you can imagine that's what we're experiencing too.

Before we left to come home and finish preparations here, I shot some video of the palm trees right outside of Pusser's in Road Town.  Not sure how strong these winds are, but it's clearly just the beginning.



We are back at the house and fortunately our power is on and we still have cable, which is a miracle!  Everyone else we've talked to has been without power all morning.  Ours has been intermittent, but I'll take it!  Thanks for all of the thoughtful comments on Facebook!  We appreciate all the prayers so very much!!!

It's 8:30 a.m. on Day 271.  Hurricane Earl is on his way. 

Five of our seven hurricane shutters are closed and locked down.  We're waiting to close the other two because it's going to get hot, especially when we lose power!  (So far so good; we even have cable this morning!)

We are only experiencing rain and wind.  Overnight conditions were pretty still - almost too still.  Despite spending an afternoon at the Tamarind's pool bar yesterday and taking a melatonin to help us sleep last night, Michael and I were up every couple of hours, checking the weather reports and looking out across the channel.  Looks like Earl will be upgraded to a Category 3.  The folks over at Dear Miss Mermaid are updating the stats pretty regularly and adding photos from around the BVI too.

Here's the view from our porch this morning:

Since I snapped this photo with my iPhone just a few moments ago, the wind has picked up.  You can hear the waves crashing now, as a band of rain washes over us.

Oh and just in case you've forgotten what it normally looks like:

We're hearing that the worst of Hurricane Earl won't get to the BVI until this afternoon/evening.  We'll be ready!!! 

Michael is heading into Road Town to secure inventory at the warehouse and the store in Pusser's Pub. 

Thanks to everyone keeping us in your prayers!

Just this morning, the National Weather Service upgraded Earl to a Category 1 Hurricane. It is expected to gain strength over the next 24-48 hours as it approaches the Leeward Islands, then the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and beyond.


So what does that mean for us? Well, there is no such thing as an evacuation plan here.  I guess we could catch a flight and head for Florida but that requires a layover in San Juan.  Evacuating is not all that practical, especially for a hurricane that's not a five.

Yesterday, Michael and I checked all of our hurricane shutters.  They're on metal tracks, which required a little bit of WD-40 to get them working properly.  We will need to remove all of the screens from our porch, and bring in all of our patio furniture before closing up the house.

We've stocked up on candles, flashlights, batteries, non-perishables, water, rum, etc...


The one thing I'm dreading is a long power-outage and not because we'll be in the dark - I can handle the dark.  I'm not so sure how I'm going to handle living here with no fans.  For those of you who've visited us, you know how hot it can be when there isn't any wind and that's with fans running full speed.  We'll have neither and who knows for how long.  We've heard 8 hours is the longest time we've been without power after a hurricane...we'll see. 


I'll try and update OurBVIAdventure from my iPhone, that's if I have service!  We hear that service could be interrupted...

If you have any tips or suggestions for riding out a hurricane, we'd love to hear them!  It looks like we have some time to enjoy our Sunday, before the winds pick up and the preliminary thunderstorms reach us.  Keep us in your prayers!