the morning after the night before.

Finally, we have power again - which is good because that saucepan was going to take an age to boil water on the bbq. Last night, about 5pm Osh and I noticed that everything had gone quiet and the wind had dropped. But, and here's the critical thing, the barometer was dropping fast, which is not good. The only conclusion we could come to, was that the eye of the hurricane (where the pressure is at its lowest but the winds at their most benign) was right over the top of us. We were 2 hours from the next available storm update, and a conversation with a friend with boats in a harbour confirmed that the winds + the low pressure + high tide was going to spell disaster down at the lock-up where many of my possessions are still in boxes. So, risking the opposite wall of the hurricane slamming into us when we were out, we rushed out in the white truck to get the boxes of books and photos off the floor. We got to the lock up to find that the sea was inches from the door....and we got home with the weather still calm (phew).

Still having no idea where the storm was, but the sense that she was about to come hurtling out of the gloom at us again, we went to bed (barometer still dropping, far lower than I've ever seen it go before). Sure enough, in bed with Osh (too scared to sleep on his own) the winds came at us again. Yesterday during the day they were battering the front of the house, once the eye has passed over, the winds come from the opposite direction so were slamming against the patio doors in the bedrooms. Even I was alarmed at the crashing and banging outside so we all snuck upstairs to sleep in the big bedroom.

I have truly never seen anything like it before - the wind was stirring the trees outside around like they were in a blender. It was awesome to watch (no chance of any sleep on account of the noise and trepidation that the doors were about to give way) but, this morning, now that the wind has dropped, I'm rather glad it's all over. Except that Ike is late for the party and is now running towards us....looks like Osh is going to have more days off school!

Veteran islanders are all a bit stunned at how we were 'caught out'. She was predicted to be a tropical storm, no-one knew until the last minute that she was going to be a hurricane or, more importantly that she'd sit on top of us for 36 hours (these things normally shift in about 6 hours) or almost turn back on herself!

Will keep you all posted. Suffice to say, we are all well, but very tired from lack of sleep.