Trip Report Part VI "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes"

Posted by Ron Metz on September 07, 1999 at 20:29:29:

Trip Report Part VI "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes"

Saturday
Dawn
The barometer has risen during the night, although the wind was still howling,
only this time from the other direction. Our first peek outside, its raining and
still blowing and gusting but nowhere near as bad as during the night. Its almost impossible to open the doors on the windward side of the house ,40 Knots of wind can put a lot of pressure on a door. Chas and I ventured outside and downstairs to fired up the generator only to find the VHF radio was not on the same circuit that the generator was on. I knew that extension cord I brought would come in handy for something.!

5 A.M. position 26.7N 76.9W
As report by Azimuth on a boat somewhere in Marsh Harbour, I think.

8 A.M. position 27.0N 77.0W
Barometer Bob reported that Dennis was about 25 mile north of Marsh Harbour blowing
steady at 90 MPH with gust to 115 MPH. Looks like Green Turtle is catching hell
now. A trip outside to survey the damage proved to be a pleasant surprise, not a
lot of damage. A tree down here and there, many limbs and coconuts covering the
road and everything else. Some time during the night the phone went the way of
the power, OUT. More good news?

Well, needless to say the VHF was working overtime. Everybody checking in and
worried about everyone else. The damage reports began coming in, the initial
reports were good news, it appears that Elbow Cay at least escaped with little
damage. A few roofs damaged and several boats had broken loose and a couple had
sunk.

Now speaking from experience, hurricane damage is in the eye of the observer,
First, is everybody alive, is anyone hurt?
Second, how much damage do you have?
Third , how much damage does your neighbors have?
The conclusion is, if you and your property survived, it wasn't too bad.
If its your roof or boat that's damaged, the storm was hell!

11 A.M. position 27.3N 77.2 W

The wind has really laid down only around 30 MPH. White Sound and the Sea of
Abaco is still all white caps but with the wind from offshore, the ocean is almost
smooth with large swells breaking on the beach. Before the storm, the beach in
front of RockyBay was as the name implies, very rocky and the sand was covered
with flotsam and black bands of dried sea grass. After the storm, even at low
tide, it could have been called SandyBay. A lot of sand had been deposited over
night but even more impressive, it was completely virgin and pristine. No trash,
no grass, just pinkish white sand. Maybe Dennis has taken all this stuff back
to were it came from. One more interesting observation, the famous blue hues of
the ocean and the Sea of Abaco were gone, replaced by water the color of cream.

We killed the generator to save gas, only one can left. Took a tour to Justin's
to check his damage, more good news everything looked great. I walked back to
RockyBay by the way of the beach, still can't get over how clean it is. We went
down and fished out all the pieces of the boat dock that had came off during the
night when it was under water, cleaned up all the limbs and Palm Fronds that
covered the driveway (watching out for falling coconuts) and manage to get open
a few of the storm shutters on a very warm house.

Late that afternoon we fired up the generator again, got very needed showers,
and ran the hell out of the blender. Its off to Pina-Coladaville once again.
This time we did a very good job with the hurricane party! After a late dinner
everyone was dog tired and went to catch up on some much need sleep.

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