Hurricane Season in the Tropics

Hello Family and Friends,

Woohoo, Hurricane Season is officially over.  Did you guys realize the season was extended?  It starts June 1st and ends November 30th.  The season use to end October 31st.  This was our 1st season to weather the storms.  We had some nice ones.

I got say this was truly a learning experience for us.  Sure we've been on hurricane alerts while living in Houston and yes, hurricane Ike hit before we left states but let me tell ya living on an island really puts things into prospective.

Prior to moving here we did some homework on the hurricanes that passed thru the island of Guanaja.  Hurricane Mitch was the most devastating at a Cat 5 for 72 hours on this island back in 1998.  He liked it so much that he wouldn't move.  Well, just like Texas...The history of a major hurricane hitting the islands is once every 25 years.  No problem; we can handle that!  Yeah right!  Never have we paid so much attention to the weather updates as we did during this season.  One late evening we were surprised by a TS Alex that developed 8 miles from here and quickly turned into a hurricane as it passed us.  We were woken with the heavy rain and strong winds that night.   I should say, "I was woken".  Sleeping Beauty Bob heard absolutely nothing.  TS Alex was a wake up call for me.  You have to be prepared for this tropical season especially knowing how quickly a system can develop without much notice.   

I don't know how many of you have looked at map and know exactly where we are.  I've learned my coordinates are 16 latitude and 85 longitude.  (Apparently that's Island Living 101).  Anyway, we're a very small island off the mainland of Honduras.  But not only is Guanaja a small island of 9 miles long and 3 miles wide; we live on a much smaller island called Clark Cay (pronounced Key) which is only a 4 acre private island located on the south side of Guanaja.  Let me tell ya...we feel the winds a lot stronger out here than those on the island of Guanaja and not to mention we are at sea level.   This arrangement has shed a lot of light on owning your own island for me.  I used to think having your own island would be the bomb, I'm sorry to say I've changed my tune.  It's freakin scary out here.  Now some of the other cays around us are a lot more protected with abundance of trees, plants and have higher elevation in the center of their island; they can barely see the ocean from their house but not Clark Cay.  You can see the ocean all around ya.

This is our apartment.  As you can see its elevated and due to
where it sits on the property captures best winds all year around. 
We leave all our doors open and catches all the trade winds thru out the apt.
HOWEVER, with that being said... Not so comfortable in 50+ mph winds.

We have amazing views from our deck.
We can see all the bone and reef fish swimming by in the shallows



This is Clark Ark.  A 40 ft panga that is tied up to the dock out front
As you can see it's totally exposed to the rough seas during a storm.
We have the responsibility of moving the boat out to a protected marina
near by.

A view from the dock out front.  We face the island of Guanaja.
Literally a 5 min boat ride.
This is just a cloudy day with a few rain showers. 
Wish I had pictures of the ocean during a TS.
The waters were extremely rough with lots of large white caps;
which is why you want to move the boat out early.
You don't want to be caught in the waters under these conditions.

Hurricane season isn't bad at all as long as you have a prep sheet ready, monitor the system often, tend to the boats early and clean up lose items.   All the cabanas here on Clark Cay have hurricane shutters and are very easy to close and lock.  We made sure to move all the patio furniture inside and remove possible flying objects.  All you folks who like to find conch shells and cool driftwood to display around the grounds...Thanks!  We have to pick up all that stuff and put in the bodega.  ha-ha-ha.

Now here was the major problem I had during this time...BOB!
Bob thinks I over react to "possible" storms.  Which he is probably correct BUT, living on an island with little time to react isn't a bad thing.  He always "assumes" the storms will stay on path and by-pass us or worse treat them as tropical storms.  He thought I was crazy when I wanted to pack up things such as water, food, flashlights, dogs, etc and be ready to vacate the grounds for safer shelter.   We fought a lot needless to say.  Safety wasn't his priority.  He felt we could do everything at the last minute and be OK.  I don't operate that way.  I would rather be ahead of the game than scramble at the last minute. 

So the storms that were close to home and we monitored along the way was TS Matthew, TS Paula and Hurricane Richard.
TS Matthew went directly between us and the mainland.  We got zero rain but high winds.  The winds actually pushed the reef closer to us.  TS Paula was minimal too but turned into a hurricane shortly after she passed us.  Now Hurricane Richard which I had renamed to "Dick".  He headed directly to Guanaja at a Cat 1.  OK we knew Dick was coming and Bob didn't want to leave Clark Cay.  I did however make him sleep down in one of the other cabanas.  I sure as hell didn't want to be up in our apt with all that wind whipping around.  Like I said, we knew it was already a Cat 1 and could become stronger as it approached.   As the hurricane was approaching us; I was on the Internet "facebook" with all my other island friends.  It was actually fun and comforting.  They had all been thru hurricanes before and told me not to worry.  The island can handle up to Cat 3 without any problems.  Homes are built for this situation and the surge is minimal within the reef.  At 2:00 a.m. all the power went out and lost communications with my friends.  Bob and I got the dogs, went to one of the cabanas and barricaded ourselves in.  My sleeping beauty Bob was out like a light.  As soon as the hurricane was upon us.  I was up.  The windows were rattling and I kept shining the flashlight in Bob's eyes to wake him up.  I told him maybe it was best to move into the bathroom.  He wasn't too happy with me and told me to go back to sleep.  How in the hell am I suppose to sleep?  This is my 1st hurricane.

Well, Dick was renamed once again to Lil' Richard.  He actually  was a small Cat 1 with 60-65 mph winds by the time he hit.  The property sustained minimal damage.  We had some large trees uprooted and tons of debris on the beach.  Took us a full week to get the beach cleaned up.  We're very thankful that all the storms that came our directions and didn't amount to anything but that just gives Bob ammunition that I over react.  So, do we balance each other out?  I would say we stress each other out.  ha-ha-ha!  More importantly...He's alive to tell his side of the story.

Well, we are into Rainy season now.  Our friends at Half Moon Cay informed us the best time to trim all the plants is October 16.  That's when we'll start seeing some rain.  Well, I'll be damn!  Oct 14th the rain started.  It rained every day for 4 weeks solid.  After that we would have some nice heavy rain around 2:00 a.m. till 6:oo a.m. and then the sun would come out during the day.  Loved it.  November is just about over and the weather has been fantastic.  Cooler temps high 70's,  lots of sunshine and rain in the evenings or early morning hours. 

Well that's my tale of the hurricane season.  Hope you enjoyed.
As always wishing you and your family true blessings,
Bonnie