At Water's Edge ... edge??

Well, last Tuesday night, since Earl had been in the neighbourhood, it was understandable that the waves were kind of crazy, the surfers happy, we (divers) understood that we had to wait a few days to go back to the underwater life ...

Thankful because the winds were not so strong, no damages at sight, Fiona decided to go far to the East and Gaston disappeared into the ocean, I took my time to contemplate the ocean every evening, and morning... and afternoon... waiting for the waves to calm down and start the cleaning process (there was sand almost everywhere...) .At least a little bit.

But no. That never happened. Every night I went to bed with my iPod because the noise was too loud for my taste and every time I went out to check the proximity of the waves, they were kind of closer... yes, even leaving some kind of memorabilia on the deck.

When finally Thursday evening, all the dogs decided to go to sleep somewhere else I realized that probably the deck had become a bit dangerous.

So I asked Kirk what was going on with the waves and everything and he explained stuff to me about the winds and things like that but suddently he interrupted his own explanation to ask me: - Why? Are you spending the night still at Water's Edge with this weather?

I said: - Yes, why?

And he replied: - You should go somewhere else when hurricanes are around.

I felt in his tone that it was kind of obvious but what do I know about hurricanes? Nothing. Except that they have people's names in alphabetical order, they form when there is a low pressure system, and some other scientific stuff that for prevention, safety and common sense are not very useful...

So I promised I would go somewhere else for next hurricane, hoping the waves will go back to their normal behaviour today but no. Still our usual calm turquoise waters are only in my memories but not in front of Water's Edge that now more that "edge" is almost "in".

When I came home this afternoon, the waves were breaking against the deck and the water sometimes reached the street on both sides of the house. Weird. Really weird.

Before sunset, the dogs one by one disappeared. Probably trying to find a dryer place to stay...

Only Tipsy, Paws and Chiquito stayed. Tipsy looking at me with those 'May I come in?'eyes, Paws trying to find a corner where to sleep and Chiquito hiding his attempts to open the kitchen door, unsuccessfully.

Now it is 8.30 pm and nothing changed so I do not think it will improve tonight. Let's see what happens tomorrow....

Between Earl and Fiona

And yes. It's hurricane season and the wind is all around the island. Earl was as close as 100 miles or something like that with winds of around 135 mph. Level 4.

Yesterday night was really noisy and the wind kind of strong.

Cockburn Town (well, you know, our "downtown") seemed so lonely...

SandBar was closed the whole day. Joan's Deli at least was closed when I stopped by in the afternoon. I spent most of my afternoon at Salt Raker on line but Erika told they would close around 7. Everyone was trying to stay at home, waiting to see what would happen.

I went to Cee's early in the afternoon to buy some things to have at home and the moment I left the supermarket rain and wind started. Useless to wait really. So I started walking while Princess looked at me like asking: Why? Why do you have to choose this moment?

Anyway, halfway home, Uli stopped his car and gave me a ride and avoided me the effort of fighting the wind and end up in the pond...

Late at night, at home the waves sounded as if they were in my bedroom, so iPod on to make sleeping easier...

My guardian dogs (now they are around 6?? or 7?? ) decided not to sleep on the beach for obvious reasons and at least 3 of them (Princess, Paws, Steve) were on the deck.

I came home around 9 pm after having dinner at Osprey with Valerie, this French diver/art gallerie owner who came a couple of weeks ago, and with whom I have been diving (deep dives!!! :) a lot. We tracked Earl in her iPhone for a while and it seemed to be already moving away from us but around us, it did not seem like that...

She left me all the things she did not use and did not want to carry with her (that usual gift/treasure for us, who live on ths island and know the value of conditioner-hair repair treatment-etc. stuff...). Among other things, she left me some food such as turkey for my dogs since I am vegetarian, so all of them had some kind of "hurricane special" last night. Thanks, Valerie. Steve, Tipsy, Princess, Paws, Chiquito and Chiquita loved it and I think they were a little surprised about the unusual menu.

In the middle of the night I woke up to go to the bathroom (located outside) and I had to fight a while with my door to open it but it was ok. The waves looked unusually high but not thaT scary anyway. The sound was not nice though. My bathroom floor was wet but not completely flooded (there is a leak on the roof and when it rains too much it is flooded...) so it was not that bad... and I fought again to open the door to come back inside but that was it.

Now, being a bit later than noon, wind still here but not that strong, it's sunny and the ocean looks like in winter but Earl is no longer close to us.

Fiona is 640 miles from us, but it seems that her path is going to be NE taking her far from us.

This is just the beginning of the season so candles, batteries, water, food, credit in the cell phone, Off, always. And good thoughts and good vibe to keep the hurricanes away. The best thing is all of us look after each other and our little beautiful island.

See you tomorrow or some other day before weekend...