I thought I had my recap of the past two weeks all ready to post, but then Friday night hit us with a big storm. It had been a scorching, exhausting week, especially for the guys working on the land development—they were sunburned and worn out. We were all looking forward to the weekend.
We had a swim around sunset, and as the wind started to pick up, we decided to leave our clothes in the hammocks instead of drying them on the deck. The wind intensified, so I went down to retrieve the clothes, only to find the hammocks bouncing and our clothes scattered in the water.
It was already dark, and I could only gather a few clothes and a towel. I planned to collect the rest in the morning, but after 20 minutes of stronger winds, my BF went down to check on the boat. He found it dangerously bouncing, threatening the newly-repaired deck. He yelled for me to help him get the boat onto the land, but it was too late—it was full of water and incredibly heavy. We both dove into the water and managed to barely drag it a bit towards the shore.
In the morning, we found the boat’s seat washed up by the lake. We couldn’t remove the motor because it was screwed in, and we were only able to save the gas tank that night. The rest of the wood was also swept away by the water. Early the next morning, we gathered what we could find—some clothes, motor oil bottles, and some wood—but we still lost many things. Fortunately, BF’s fishing gear was intact, though the box was filled with water, and his cane was safely stored.
On the deck, we took down the hammocks but found a few things broken. While we were in the water trying to secure the boat, the power went out. It took 24 hours to restore it, and now we have to eat all the food that thawed during the outage quickly to avoid waste.
Inspecting the roof terrace in the morning, we found it filled with water, and some of the plastic roofing had been torn off by the wind. We had planted new trees and brought over palm trees from the land development, but we’re not sure if they’ll survive. A big tree at the back of the house broke, but thankfully, it didn’t damage the roof. Our neighbor’s now bare land accelerated the wind’s speed, which contributed to breaking our tree.
The little house we spent so long fixing lost three panes of its plastic roof. But those plastic tiles are quite strong, and with the help of the land workers on Saturday morning, we managed to fix and reattach them. It had been raining in the kitchen all night, and another bedroom area was also exposed, leaving us with a wet mattress and a mess to clean up.
Overall, it will take a few more hours to fix the garden and the boat, but it was more of a scare than anything catastrophic. We actually slept well in the new room, with the cool breeze making the night quite comfortable. It was strange and unexpected because we’re not in a hurricane zone, unlike Belize or the Caribbean coast, and even stranger that nearly no damage happened in the nearby village. Apparently, we were at the crossing point of strong opposite winds, creating a mini tornado just for us. Quite the way to start the week!
In case you’re wondering, no, we don’t have home insurance, but the financial damage isn’t too severe. As usual, when things go wrong, I try to find three positives:
1. No animals were hurt. Our chicks, ducks, geese, and turkeys sleep outside, but they all found safe spots for the night.
2. In a week or so, I’m heading to Europe, and BF to the capital city. It would have been much worse if we weren’t there. We built a room for the handyman to sleep in our absence, but alone, he likely wouldn’t have managed much.
3. We managed to save the deck. If the boat had continued banging against it, it could have collapsed, causing a lot of work and cost to rebuild.
This week is packed with work as the architect comes to formally draft the plots. By the time you read this, we’ll have spent the entire weekend cleaning to get things ready.
That’s it for now, have a good week!