summer time

There was the most dramatic tropical storm Friday night. Thunder and lightning like I have never experienced! The lightning was so bright it was like a spot light in the house each time it flashed. Julian slept through the entire storm, however, little light-sleeper Max came flying down the hall to land in more secure sleeping arrangements - wedged between his mum and dad. The rain came down so hard I was sure I'd find something leaking.
And I did.
One of the side slat windows in the guest bedroom was open resulting in a new indoor wading pool for Max. Thank goodness for tiles floors - between water, sand and potty training Max (a slow and painful process I may add..)- it's a constant battle to keep floors clean. There is, however, a good breeze that blows through the house managing to blow a lot of it away - well most things at least.



After all the rain, the remainder of the weekend was quite pleasant. We had a couple of birthday parties and some needed down time. We were down in Magens Bay and the water was crystal clear and the beach was quite quiet.

Julian completed eight weeks of sailing camp on Friday. He is becoming quite the confident little Optimist sailor - steering and tacking the boat. I went down to the Yacht Club last week with Max and watched them out sailing and it was quite the sight. Julian was having a great time and doing really well -- even though he spent more time looking back and not where he was going. Then again, there are a lot of people we race against who do the same thing.



Speaking of racing, Mark and I continue to go out racing on Friday nights and now have full use of an IC 24 for a year. We have taken the boys out on the boat a couple of times with friends and anchor at Christmas Cove and do some snorkeling. This week is the last Friday night race and then everyone hauls out the boats to ready them for hurricane season. Many people take their boats around the corner to the lagoon which is a protected area for boats, and there are sheds, boat shelves and other options depending on what your boat insurance wants you to do.

Hurricane season also means our business is busy with service calls and quotes on new machines. The summer has resulted in many rolling black-outs on the island where WAPA (Water and Power Authority)shuts down the power grid in specific areas to reduce and limit some of the consumption. Needless to say, as soon as the power goes down there are calls into the office because someone has a generator that hasn't switched on.

The island is still fairly steady with tourists and hotels are apparently quite full. Cruise ships continue to slide in and out of the harbour and the traffic on the road definitely isn't any lighter. It is more humid these days - but thankfully there is a breeze that makes it less oppressive. Generally, people run their air conditioning more this time of year but so far our house has remained quite comfortable.

We are planning a small break from island life and will be heading to Florida for a week. It will be a good opportunity to get a few things not found here and celebrate Max's birthday with Mickey and Donald. The boys don't know they are going to Disney - so it will be fun to see their faces when we get there.