All's well here, Arthur is blowing but not so hard anymore. He's been a good wake up though, we do have to get our hurricane stuff organized as this season has started quick.

Hurricane season actually starts on June 1st and as the first named storm, Arthur arrived a day early.

I've taken a lot of pictures, the sea is gorgeous when it rages. We are so used to the calm, flat crystal clear waters of the Caribbean that when it is opaque and covered in white caps and waves I find it spectacular. I could hear the wind howling and the waves pounding all night last night.

In this pic, the color change in the water is right beyond the reef where the depth drops off.

It's a great dive site actually, just off the reef in front of our condo. There are long fingers of reef with sand between them and lots of fish.

It's about 40' to 60' feet deep on the seaward side of the reef and about 10' to 15' on the bay side - thus the difference in water color. Normally, you see only the change in water color and in the afternoons an occasional whitecap, these are huge waves rolling over the reef right now.

As you can see, the reef is a ways out, the waves are rolling all the way in though and have come right up about 10' from the base of our building.

During the last 3 hurricanes, Dean, Wilma and Emily, waves rolled right through the first floor condos and were breaking across the road behind the building. Dean broke up the retention wall that Wilma had badly damaged and now we have nothing to keep the water from undermining the foundation. Not a pleasant thought. The owners have all agreed to pay for the wall to be replaced but the work can't be done now because it is turtle nesting season and it would or could disturb their nests. So, we are all hoping that no big storms come in here until after September when we hopefully will get the wall replaced.

For those that asked how the 4 legged critters were dealing with the storm, here's all our dogs hanging on the bed as far from the windows as they can get.

That's actually the master bedroom but we've moved into the guest bedroom because those shutters that allow you to lay in bed and look out over the sea, have such large gaps in them that we can't air condition that room with any success. The only time I really like or want AC is to sleep, I do love my heavy blanket and cool, dry air for sleeping. A carpenter came by yesterday and is going to make me new shutters that are solid and that fit the opening better so I can close the room off if I want AC.

This is Manuela, our domestic goddess. I've taken a lot of pictures of her over the years and I don't think I have a single one with her eyes open. In the past, she never smiled in pictures even though she is a very happy person who smiles a lot. Now, she smiles but she still immediately closes her eyes.

We went out to dinner tonight with friends and the whole town seems deserted. You know that thing where you sit around with friends and say "where do you want to go eat?" and no one has any ideas and it gets later and later and, if you live here in the boondocks that means your options start dwindling as everything closes pretty early.

Finally we all agreed that we just didn't want to be near the water. Heh! That strikes me as funny somehow, everyone wants to sit with their toes in the sand on a Caribbean beach and we just want walls and floors and away from the wind.

The light at dusk tonight was incredible. I don't know that I really got it in this picture but the whole world was glowing, a kind of pink luminescence. Click this pic to make it larger and you can see the huge billowing clouds that are rolling over us. I have to say, I do get a thrill from wild weather like this. I'm not sure I'd want to stay here for a bigger storm but, I would be tempted.