Last week was fun, we went from watching a tropical depression build, hoping that it might magically disappear (we all need some delusion/ optimism in life). To reality hitting, as it was officially called a Tropical Storm & given a name, Tammy. Not long after that, it moved up the ranks to a Hurricane status in some areas. She was not playing it cool it seemed.
Tammy held our interest more than most (since we procured our boat), due to location. The storm started a lot lower than most & was on a trajectory that would place it very near to Martinque, where we have our boat currently. Early on, we were both a little concerned parts of the island might take a direct hit, but it was fine, it did in fact turn & our little hurricane hole, kept it’s reputation in tact.
The eye of the storm passed by Martinique on Saturday, but the only real impact to the area where we have our boat, was a decent amount of rain on Sunday. It appears that the area wasn’t hugely affected by higher tides & the other islands that have been hit so far, don’t seem to have fared too poorly overall, which is good.
Keeping tabs on Tammy for a week + has been a great exercise in studying weather reports and getting to know the area a little more extensively than we have until now
I didn’t realise how vague some of the tropical storm reporting was until Tammy happened & then I suddenly felt a need to decipher reports that made mention of areas (without naming specific islands). I now know the names of the Leeward1 & Windward2 islands (see footnotes) & that they make up The Lesser Antilles, which is the correct way of referencing the area of the Caribbean that we plan to spend most of our time in to start, rather than the broader “Caribbean” term that everyone knows.
For anyone else who is visual like me, I have embedded an image from Google Maps to show the island chain & give a general idea of the area. You can click on the “view larger image,” (top left of the image below) which will take you to google maps, where you can further scroll around the area & zoom in, if you so desire.
Once you have a point of reference, it makes looking at the Tropical Storm Force Wind Probabilities archived graphics, a bit easier to decipher. You can totally ignore that link, but I suggest having a look. It’s actually pretty neat to watch the images of Tammy as a slideshow & see the storm move about.
As much as tropical storms & hurricanes are par for the course, whilst the oceans continue to warm there is an expectation that they may become more intense. Not great news if you like to be on the water like we do or live along the coastlines.
Here’s hoping that people actually start to listen to science, rather than their hip pockets at the continued expense of the planet. Yeah, I know, I know, that seems very optimistic, given reality, but don’t forget I am somewhat delusional, as already mentioned.
~E
- Leeward islands are;
US Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy. Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Guadalupe, Montserrat, Saba
↩︎ - Windward Islands are;
Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Martinique, Barbados, Dominica & Granada ↩︎