tcm
...
Apparently about 50 boats lost, and a fair bit of property damage on the island. I was in a house high on the hill so away from the sea but seems we were even more open to the alleged 95kts. In the morning before we were planning lunch and hair appointments, then suddenly midday the small TRS is upgraded to a hurricane, and lots of oops well, should be over soon ... but it battered away with lotsa wind all afternoon and into the night, perhaps the full force felt for 4 hours, the system moving at 10mph. If anyone knows t how big the waves were in their hellish storm - it wasn't that hellish, cos in a hurricane you can't see more than a few feet if that with the massive wind/spray in your face. We repaired stiuff at the start of the storm, but gave up after a second attempt and went back in. Those on the boats said they may as well have got off the boat cos their efforts were so puny. Things like sails unfurling and pulling down the mast, lots just blown ashore with broken moorings, some sunk by others smashing into them. Ashore where we were almost all the leaves blown off trees and blasted onto the house as if thru a blender but seems this was more violent than elsewhere. Lovely sunny again now though. I sorta understand why the carib is a bit scruffy broken if that's the sort of thing that happens from time to time. I took a chainsaw round the island to help clear trees, but a crane would have been more welcome from the wrecks driven onshore. Rethinking some of the construction ideas - eg hurricane shutters must be made of steel and manually operable for when the power goes, roof made of concrete, and just forget anything flimsy like solar/wind powered gadgets. Boatwise, I was right to be elsewhere this time of year, and even more right to have er sold the boat a few months agoi, ahem...
