Hurricane Irma - September 5, 2017

Tuesday, September 5, 2017. The singers were up early, as usual. We were getting up and preparing the coffee. Before the coffee was ready, we received a call from Noel, the host of Little Deadman's Cay. The conversation went like this: "She's coming." Me, "ok?". "Yeah, the hurricane. I think she's coming. But I got you a place and you can drive my jeep." Me, "So, we need to leave the island." "Yeah, we need to get you off the Cay before she arrives." Shocking news at 7 am. Unexpected. 9 am. Mr. Delancy calls to check on us. I explained my brief conversation with Noel and Mr. Delancy agreed that was a good set up for us. 10 am. We attempt a quick kayak but get a call from Noel. The airline, Southern Airlines, was trying to reach us. Noel wasn't really sure what was going on but told me to call them. I call the airline and the representative breathes a sigh of relief. She explained the hurricane was coming and we were being evacuated on Thursday September 7th. After a heated discussion on what we should do, I call the airline back just to make sure. The representative gave a light laugh and said our plane tickets were good for a year but there was no guarantee of us getting out before the hurricane hit. So I said, "ok, see you on Thursday at 8 am." We made arrangements with Noel to take us to Max's Conch Bar for some lunch and research. To this point in the trip, we had been blissfully unaware of any hurricane coming our way. It was time to see what all the commotion was about.

Hurricane Irma - September 2, 2017

Our flight to Deadman's Cay, Long Island was originally scheduled for 7 am. We got to the airport and discovered that the flight was cancelled. The airline sent us an email to notify us but we didn't read the fine print. Sigh. It was so tiny and the picture looked like the original confirmation email. Fortunately, I still had the hotel room key. I weaseled $60 out of the representative and we taxied back to the hotel, leaving our checked bags.

We watched some tv and then went down to Fat Tuesday for a drink. Finally, it was time to leave for the airport and get to our island vacation. We always go to Max's Conch Bar for conch fritters (above), cracked conch, beer and wifi. This is our only place to connect to the internet. At this point, the hurricane started to turn towards the Bahamas. We were blissfully unaware.



After going to the food store, fisherman, and liquor store it was time to load up the boat and get to Little Deadman's Cay. These supplies should suffice for the week on the cay (pronounced key in Bahamian.) It was sunny and steamy hot.

The view of Long Island from Little Deadmans Cay. This is one of many beaches on the cay.

The sun sets over the back deck of the house and it is stunning!

I was trying to capture the full beauty of the sunset. Photos never do it justice.