Fay, Gustav and Hanna

So, there I was thinking "this is a very boring, quiet so called hurricane season" when WHAM there are alphabetized storm systems coming at us from all directions. Clearly, a year in the Dept of Geography didn't impart me with enough meteorology knowledge to know that the peak season is 10 September (more activity on that day, statistically, than any other) and thus here we are in the thick of it. Tropical Storm Fay brought havoc to Haiti and the DR to the south of us, giving us a cloudy day with 3 huge downpours at the latter of the week before last. We then revisited Fay when we went to Miami for 2 days supply shopping - Fay had parked her large roundness off the coast and we watched the streets of Fort Lauderdale turn to rivers in a matter of moments as the rain came down. In her wake came Gustav who started up to the south of us, again, ravaging Haiti and the DR (is it any wonder that they are the 2 poorest nations in the region?!?!), not bothering us in the least but currently barreling his way towards Louisiana as a Cat. 3 hurricane. The Weather Channel - dedicated 24/7 to, erm, the weather, is a bit like car-crash TV at the moment with something approaching conspiracy theory high in the mix: Gustav is 'targeting' the Gulf States (erm, I might not have paid much attention in the Dept of Geog. but I'm sure Hurricanes as a rule don't target anyone in particular...). Last, but by no means least, allow me to introduce Hanna. She is currently a Tropical Storm that, briefly on Saturday morning, was forecast to became a Cat. 1 Hurricane. She is passing to the north of us right now, heading for the mid Bahamas. We woke this morning to cloudy skies, perceptibly cooler weather, and the rain started about lunchtime, although the wind is nothing like the gales that used to batter Portsmouth during the Autumn.

Tropical depressions in this part of the world generally start in the Atlantic and head in a westerly direction, often turning north as they approach the USA. The strongest winds in a tropical depression are in the quadrant to the right of the leading edge. So a westerly bound storm heading to the North of us (Hanna for example) causes comparatively less problems (the strongtest winds are away from us) than a storm passing to the south of us (Fay) where the strongest winds barrel along our southern shores. Of course how close the storm is (Hanna is a long way north) and the strength of the winds (a Cat. 5 hurricane passing 100 miles to the north of us would be a bit windy!) impact on the degree of weather we get here. If you see what I mean. Not sure that the preceeding explanation would be worthy of a Level 1 Geography Exam answer, but there you go! Visit the Wunderground.com website or the NOAA websites for more (accurate!) information. Tropical Depressions have numbers (Invest 93 for example...what does Invest mean?!?), Tropical Storms (next category up) get names - they are decided in advance and in alphabetical order (the first storm of the season - 1 June to 1 November get a name starting with A, the second a name with B and so on). Once the wind speed gets to about 74 mph we are in Hurricane territory starting with Cat. 1 through Cat 5 (wind speeds of 156+, gulp!). Quite what happens if more than 26 Tropical Storms develop in any one season I don't know....do they start back at A? Answers on a postcard to me, PO Box 198 Providenciales.

I was rather hoping to experience a hurricane....but maybe next time. Although, having said that, watching Weather Channel you kinda have to ask yourself just how much fun 150mph winds can be.....Western Cuba was battered by Gustav coming at them faster than a train last night. Doesn't really bear thinking about.

Oisin and I arrived back in the islands on Friday night after a long, long day. The Atlantic is one HUGE ocean which takes 9 hours to cross (to Miami), with St George (Bermuda) tantalisingly close for hours and hours whilst the plane seems to not make any forward progress. Maybe Bermuda is in fact floating in the ocean and constantly on the move? (note to self, maybe I should have paid more attention whilst in the Dept. of Geog....). Oisin, as per usual was a superb travelling companion: searching out the bags from a carousel, pushing one of the trolleys through Miami airport, cheerful and helpful all day (maybe the room service breakfast in the hotel at Heathrow did the trick!?).

Today he got to open his 'other' birthday presents - namely a Nintendo Wii which has proved a source of much delight and equal amounts of frustration as he gets used to the controls and how it works. His ability to master new equipment and solve problems is astounding, not to mention the considerable levels of patience he has for it. I tried to help him out with the Wall-E game (suitably eco-friendly, non-violent etc etc) and got frustrated in seconds. But....his concentration did allow me the chance to cut his hair to a more suitable length for school. He looked like a hippy when I collected him, and this morning, on the way to the supermarket he bemoaned the fact that his hair kept getting in his eyes with the windows open in the car!

I'm not looking forward to the first day back at school at all. I have a horrible feeling that we'll be back at square one in terms of settling him into a new class etc, and, having not completed the reading book that would have put him at the same level as his classmates, I'm not convinced that his reading ability is up to the demands of 2nd grade. But I guess I have all day tomorrow to worry that he'll end up repeating 1st grade after all.


That's all from the weather girl.

How the other half live

The lush garden

And the (lack of) noise

At 9.22 last night it felt very odd being thousands of miles from the wee boy that I'd given birth to exactly 7 years before.....but finally got to talk to the birthday boy at 9am my time when he was all bouncing and excited about this birthday presents (I'll need a whole other jet to bring them home in, apparently)!

This morning, at 7.30 we caught the boat to Pine Cay, a very VERY exclusive island a short boat ride from Provo. Pine Cay is a private island, where, if you have a couple of million dollars burning a hole in your back pocket you could buy a property. Only first you have to get wind that there is a house for sale (these folk don't advertise in the local paper) and then, having found a property for sale you have to a) be recommended to the rest of the community and b) be accepted by the rest of the community before you can buy. It is rather nice to know that no matter how much money you have, there are still some places that are out of your reach. Although the result is an island that is largely populated with rich, white American millionaires which sounds utterly ghastly.....

Anyway, even rich white American millionaires need staff and so we set off to install a new RO machine for one such household. We had to organise a boat through the office on the island that does that sort of thing (no public ferry service to this island) and when we got there, boy was I in for a surprise. Pine Cay has a very high rainfall compared to the rest of the islands and, on parts of the islands a good deal of dark sand covering the rock which means it is comparatively lush. We disembarked on the private dock and I was greet with a lush tropical garden (this is the dry sub-tropics), not a single noise save for the birds singing and the water lapping on the pontoon. A very rare experience for me here. The owners were not there (the place is probably empty for 90% of the year - after all, folk that rich have no need to rent out their pads) so we had the run of the grounds.

We did the initial work to install the RO machine and then set off for a trip around the island. Nicky has been working there doing landscaping and stuff for some 30 years and so knows the area well. There are no tarmac roads, no cars, and frankly, no people either. For an hour we saw a handful of men renovating another house and Junior down at the dock and that was it. There is no shop at all, those that come here to spend time in their houses have to bring everything with them from Provo. There is a small hotel on the island which does not serve non-residents and, what with the price of the resort being astronomical, operates as a great way of keeping oiks out of the place. With no cars, transport is by golf buggy which is rather fun. It really is the most surreal place - whilst it is mind-bogglingly wealthy, all the houses (which are few and far between) are lovely - a little weather beaten and ramshackeled, none of your swanky overly manicured lawns or drive ways here. The saving grace is that the island is only private down to the highwater mark.....all that lovely ocean belongs to us all and as soon as we get a boat we intend to sail along their exclusive water fronts!

Two hours later we'd run out of excuses to cruise around pretending we were multi-millionaires and hopped on a boat back to Provo. Here's what the place looks like:

An RO machine....for those of you that like that sort of thing.

Rush hour on the main road

The landscape with Caicos Pines (which give the Cay it's name).