Spared by Joaquin? Not so the Bahamas.

It’s Tuesday morning and hurricane Joaquin is only a distant memory.  Well, at least for those of us that were spared the brunt of the storm.  Here on the CT River the worst we were exposed to was higher than normal tides.

Others were not so lucky.  Some in the Bahamas, particularly on Rum Cay, a spot where we spend some time a few years back, really got slammed. I understand that the government pier, the only landing point of any consequence on the island, is gone.  This pier, and it was a fairly substantial one, is just match sticks now.   Here’s what it looked like when we were there.   That pier was the only link that they had to get supplies.  The water leading up to the pier was barely deep enough for the mail boat to power through, leaving huge plumes of swirling sand in their wake. When the mail boat came in during our visit, about everybody on the island showed up to enjoy the spectacle and pick up their supplies.   Check out this link to my post about the mail boat and this important lifeline.

Rum Cay is a beautiful place but I expect that this marina looks very different now, if you can get in at all. Few hurricanes cause much damage in the Bahamas, partly because the residents don’t build right on the beach like we do here in the States.  However, as the islands are so low, most areas only a few feet above sea level, an occasional direct hit, like they got last week, causes great destruction.  It’s going to take a while for them to recover from this blow.

This video gives you an idea of the speed of the winds that battered the islands. This was taken from the second floor of a home and most of the islanders have only one story homes so the flooding hit them particularly hard.There aren’t many photos around of the aftermath but this shows typical out-island homes and illustrates what many are dealing with.  I have heard that in some areas, all of the homes are damaged or destroyed.  So, all of this does make my trials getting Pandora ready to head south pretty insignificant.

As it stands now, Pandora’s bow thruster issues are getting closer to resolution and I am optimistic that she will be in the water by later this week.  Hopefully, we will be able to head to Hampton VA over the weekend, where I will leave her until I return to prepare for the Salty Dawg Rally that gets underway in early November.

It’s sobering to think of what we might be facing here in CT if Joaquin had not veered off to sea after bowling through the Bahamas.   And, to add insult injury, with the loss of the government dock, getting building supplies to the island will be a huge undertaking and getting back to normal will take a long time.

We should certainly count our blessings.