There are times in life when you feel downright lucky and today is one of those days. Bermuda survived Gonzalo without any loss of life, and we personally escaped with only minor property damage. We anticipated a much worse scenario, flooding, possible roof loss, which was widespread in 2003’s Fabian. It was 15 degrees of separation between a blow from the South like Fabian and a blow from the East that we had with Hurricane Gonzalo. As I watched from my unshuttered kitchen window I was thankful I was watching the waves crash to the side of the house rather than over the house. As a precaution we had sealed up all the doors with a caulking gun and moved most of our belongings on the bottom floor up to the top. We hunkered down in my office, playing a new game of “Candlelight Lego” and waiting for the eye to pass. When it arrived it was dark but we ventured outside anyway to investigate and our world had an eerie orange glow. We checked in on our neighbors, shared a glass of wine and then discovered all the planks from my father’s docks had washed into our bay so before the storm returned, yours truly went for a swim in her clothes and fished out all the planks, partly so we could reuse them, and partly so they wouldn’t sail in the opposite direction causing unknown harm to property or people. Chris and I had a large bottle of wine, a gift from Uncle Michael and Another Michael which we had been saving for a dinner party we never got around to hosting, so we decided to crack it open for the special occasion. We still haven’t finished it but it is helping to ease the clean up process.

After we woke up at dawn the following morning to the ominous drone of coast guard planes flying overhead in an eerie stillness without the traffic, birds chirping, or the chatter of people that usually accompanies a weekend sunrise, we got up dusted ourselves off and did a survey of damage. To our utter amazement our power came back yesterday, making us one of the lucky ones, and enabling me to post this Hurricane aftermath update. We found the St. George’s Ferry sign in our yard amid the debris, many downed trees, and a hut from the garden thrown into the air but miraculously without hitting anyone’s house, and sparing Eva’s cedar tree by a few feet.

Later on, like many of the fortunate, we partook in Bermuda’s premier spectator sport, Hurricane damage sight seeing around St. George’s and St. David’s. From the vantage of my father’s boat, which emerged unscathed from its storm mooring in Mullet Bay we counted about forty boats either sunk at their moorings or on the rocks. Here are some photos of the damage around our house and in the East End area. Amazingly, the Settler’s Dwelling, which my father and volunteers built at Carter House, using tools and material from the 1600’s as the first settler’s would have done, withstood the Category 3 hurricane without damage. Unfortunately the St. George’s charter fishing vessel, Messaround, sunk at the St. David’s dock, although the boat next to it, Lucky Charm, weathered the storm. Not all vessels were so lucky, not even Lucky seen in my featured image aground at Ferry Reach. I hope “Lucky” has insurance.

I had better get back to raking leaves and clearing debris. Until next week. Enjoy the images.

Xx Derelict Mom