I think it’s official – hurricanes visiting Bermuda in October has become the new normal.  It used to typically be September until a few years ago; we have consistently had some pretty hairy storms this time of year in 2014 (Faye, Gonzalo), 2015 (Joaquin), and now again this year.

Like in 2014, we had two storms fairly close together – first up was Karl a few weeks ago.  Luckily it didn’t develop into anything more than a tropical storm, which by our standards is basically a stiff breeze!  Nevertheless we ensured that we were prepared for the inevitable power outage with a cooler of drinks (yes, we had water as well) as well as putting all our outdoor ‘stuff’ inside.

Here our ‘trusty’ radar catches Karl as he passes by the island – the center of the storm skirted us to the south.  No harm, no foul.  You know it wasn’t too bad when the radar stayed operational for the entire storm.. 🙂

Next up was hurricane Nicole, who was a bit of a different beast than Karl.  This storm formed at the end of September and slowly dipsy-doodled it’s way across the Atlantic, eventually building in intensity to a strong category 2 storm on it’s approach to the island from the south.

(I think Cooper knew something was amiss… animals can tell these things, right?)
 

Anticipating a pretty hard hit, I went around the yard to take a few pictures of the house and yard, figuring there would be some fairly dramatic before and after shots.

We went down to John Smith’s bay to check out the wave action again (we did the same for Karl), you could see the waves were much bigger this time around.

The evening before the storm was due to hit, it was upgraded to a Cat 3 and forecast to strengthen further still prior to making landfall… at 6:30pm we still hadn’t had any of the rain bands.  By midnight the storm was closer and was now a slightly scary Cat 4 monster, and a big one too.  It started raining around 1:00am – didn’t look like much sleep was going to be had overnight!

We had some luck bestowed upon us in the wee hours, as while the winds were building and the rain coming down we somehow managed to still have power until mid-morning the following day.  The storm was actually downgraded around 9am to a Cat 3 before making landfall as well.

It wasn’t long after hearing of the downgrade that the power started to flicker, we nearly lost it at 9:30am and by 10am mother nature had her way and we were now without the comforts of air conditioning and video games.  We entertained ourselves building Lego and playing games before heading outside for a stretch and some air while the eye of the storm passed over us around 11am.  It always amazes us how the storm just stops for about an hour, like it’s giving us a break, before coming at us hard again from the opposite direction!

  

The afternoon was more of the same once the storm picked up again.  We had some delicious grilled cheese thanks to our gas stove (the things you do when you’re bored and hungry!) and chilled out for the rest of the afternoon while we waited for the storm to pass.  The storm’s last gasp was around 4:30pm or so and then miraculously just before 8pm our power came back on!
As is typical, the island fared pretty well during this storm as with most others.  Some of the trees around the yard suffered a bit but no major damage was had.  It was not until about a few days or so after the storm when the ‘burn’ from the salty sea spray on everything brings a fall-like browning / killing of the leaves; it’s basically like fall just arrives overnight.  Daily temperatures cool a bit, all the leaves are gone – bye bye summer!

After a little raking and a car wash we’re back to normal.  Until next year…!