hurricane? what hurricane?

This weekend has been simply beautiful weather. In fact I just got back from sailing for over two hours in Cowpet Bay. Great breeze. I have been talked into sailing in a women's regatta in a couple of weeks and am trying to get in some practice sails. Believe me - there are not enough days for me to prepare for this event as I have done NO small boat sailing - let alone racing in over 20 years. Dark glasses, hat - maybe I'll go unnoticed.

And while you may think I should have had my fill of "breeze" - it still amazes me that not only did we go through a hurricane - but how the weather can change so quickly and dramatically.

Fortunately - Omar did not hit us that hard and moved through very quickly. The two hurricances that did really hit this island hard - Marilyn (1995) and Hugo (1989 )- were not only strong hurricanes - but they sat on the island for a long while, severly clobbering buildings, infrastructure - everything. The memories and experiences from these storms are still very vivid. We frequently hear different renditions of how residents survived the storm. The good news is the island is incredibly organized in its preparation of an oncoming storm.

St. Croix was hit quite hard this week. Much of the island was without power and several boats sunk, docks were lost and there was damage to many homes. Clean up and repairs are well underway.

After weathering the storm at our neighbours home - we returned to our house finding everything in place. No leaks, drips or anything broken. We still had a lot of clean up and getting everything back in place. Shutters to open and everything back out that we had warpped and put away in heavy black plastic bags. But it was all there!

The rest of the week was fairly busy playing catch up at work. I am anticipating some new interest in generators and even running some advertisments next week for some machines we have in stock - Hurricane Omar Generator Blowout.

Last night Mark and I went out for dinner with our friends John and Tara to St. John. We jumped on the ferry and took a taxi to a little restaurant that overlooked the islands. It was actually a fun adventure as well a good meal.

Back to work and school tomorrow.

Did I also mention we had an earthhquake last week that measured 6.8? We were outside on the deck when it happened and our concrete house barely moved but the metal roof made quite the racket.

Hopefully that is our quota for potential natural disasters.

Thank you everyone for all your kind (and frequently comical notes) to us. We love hearing from you.