St Thomas 2020
Day 11: Wednesday, July 29
Riding the storm out...here comes Tropical Storm Isaias
Well, we knew it was coming and really didn't know what to expect. I had been keeping a close eye on this storm for awhile. The locals had been talking about it and the potential to become a hurricane. When we went parasailing they talked about it coming this week and we had to get our trip in with them at some point before it hit. When we went scuba diving they were talking about how they had to get the boats moved to the "safe" area before Wednesday.
So, here we are. I knew I would take this opportunity to start packing up things we didn't need anymore and the dirty clothes because honestly, we managed to have enough clothes for the 2 weeks without having to wash them. Kendra, however, wanted to wash hers because they had ran out. She said the place at Sapphire was a little expensive and not open long enough hours. So, she used the van and took them to the laundry mat instead.
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I managed to sleep in until 8am this morning and immediately went outside to check the situation. The wind had picked up quite a bit and you could see the palms bending over in the distance. The waves had definitely picked up as well. It looked somewhat gloomy out. The guy that took the beach chairs in and out every day reported to work as usual although those chairs were not coming out today I could guarantee that.
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Mr Eeerka was still out doing his job despite the wind.
The family was up shortly after I was and time for some breakfast. Since it was going to be a gloomy day spent mostly inside, I tried to cheer things up a bit from the start.
Time to wash and inspect some of the rocks and shells we collected over the last week.
I have to admit, packing is always so depressing and it's even worse when you are doing it days before you leave. It was really hard to concentrate and I would take multiple breaks an hour just to inspect outside. Wind still picking up and blowing the palms harder...and people walking along the beach. The security guard was out as well.
I took a video of the wind and storm picking up. Then we noticed there were several paragliders out and taking full advantage of these winds and waves. I would pop out to check them out every so often and then finally we decided (once the rain stopped for a few minutes, we decided to go out to get a better look).
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We stood under some of the grape trees and had several friends around us. I'm sure they were wondering what these big birds out there in the ocean were.
Since this was a day of staying "home" and not getting to visit a beach, you know I'm going to take full advantage while I'm standing out there watching the paragliders to take more pictures as if I was visiting a new beach.
As we watched and I took pictures, it would rain off and on...then I knew we had over stayed our visit and should have walked back about 5 minutes earlier because all of a sudden it was POURING! Now normally this would not be a problem and we'd just make a run for it. However...no running for me on this foot. Ugh
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We would hide under the grape trees for awhile just waiting for the opportunity to make it or break it.