Morning After The Storm

We had such a storm night before last!   Howling wind, crashing waves, torrents of rain, booming thunder, strobes of lightning.  It seemed our little cabana was rocking-n-rolling all night long while we were trying to sleep. Click here to hear the music.

Loud noises that sounded suspiciously like furniture being dragged across the back veranda outside our bedroom windows really got our attention - we don't have furniture on the back veranda.  And the sound of the rain coming off the roof intensified. What the heck was going on?  All we could do was close the windows so the rain didn't blow in and try to get back to sleep.

After very fitful sleep, we were awakened by silence.  And deep red skies.  Here is what we saw:

The most magnificent dawn ever.  And a calm sea.  What a relief from the night's cacophony!

It was still too dark to see clearly, but there was on shape on the ground in front of the cabana.  As the sun rose, the daylight revealed a shade panel from the pergola on the back veranda on the sand in front of the cabana.  The wind had blown it up and over the roof to land, undamaged, on the sand below.

Shade panel from the pergola, covered with Coolaroo(TM) fabric, survived intact its airborne journey up and over the roof.  Another panel, also intact, was on the roof.  No rips or tears in the fabric - amazing.  All we had to do was shake the sand off and screw it back down on the pergola.  We used additional screws this time.

A total of 3.6 inches of rain fell during the storm, which is great.  So far the rainy season has not been rainy enough, especially for those of us who rely solely on rain for all of our water.  And also for the many farmers throughout Belize who are suffering through crop failure due to the unseasonably dry conditions; another effect of the El Nino.

The sea was calm and perfect for working on the breakwater.

The crew preparing to set more bags for the breakwater.  The far end of the breakwater is just below the surface of the water behind the boat.  I took the shot from the dock.

 They made great progress, getting 5 loads of bags set.

You can just make out the white bags of the breakwater just below the surface of the water on the far side of the boat extending all the way to the dock.

 A great day for this work.

One of five turtle gaps is visible here.

It was a lovely calm day and we made a lot of progress on Stage One of the breakwater.  The calm was short-lived, however - the wind picked up around 5:00pm and is still blowing hard as I write this 15 hours later.  The wind-fueled waves did bring in more sand to the area protected by the breakwater.  The section to the north where we haven't built the breakwater yet is not faring as well.  So we will push to get Stage One finished as quickly as possible.

Sunset Balcony

A quick construction update here.  The screening for the veranda has been completed.  It joins up with the screened in portion of the old veranda and wraps around to the northeast corner of the addition.  Most of the north side of the covered veranda will remain without screen.  We like having a mixture of screened in and open areas.  What we call the "sunset balcony" on the upper level of the west side has been completed, too.  I am in happy anticipation of evening cocktails while sitting on the balcony and watching the sun set over the jungle. Salut!

The north side of addition.  The sea is on the left (to the east).  This shot was taken while they were putting up the rail on the sunset balcony. 

The sunset balcony has great views over the swamp around Black Creek and the adjacent jungle.  Before we venture up the stairs to the next images, queue up the appropriate music from the movie Vertigo by clicking here.

Stairs from the back veranda up to the balcony.

The footprint of the balcony is a roughly 10ft square with a tapered end off the north side of the square.

Looking toward the tapered end from the top of the stairs.

Looking toward the top of the stairs from the tapered end.

 The views are grand.

Looking south from the top of the stairs, you can see the older cabana with the shade cloth-covered pergola.  That 10-yr-old roof doesn't look too bad! 

View to the southwest across the swamp and Black Creek.

Those taller trees along the left horizon are the dense jungle through which the Monkey River runs.  The jungle is home to troops of Howler Monkeys that give Monkey River its name.  We can hear the monkeys howl during the still, pre-dawn hours.  It is a sound unlike any other.

The sunset balcony is 22 feet above the ground.  

15 steep steps from the balcony to the veranda and then another 16 not-as-steep steps from the veranda to the ground.

Do you think we need stair rails?