First, though, I need to introduce Clare, my new love. We actually met a couple of years ago in a group of people-who-meet-to-do-things that I found via the Internet (www.social-and-single.org). Clare doesn't match my historic "type", but fortunately the group kept us in proximity long enough to enjoy each other's company, become friends, and then become romantically interested.
Traditionally, I understand that the woman recognises these things well before the man, and so it was here. I really should have twigged when the group was supposed to see a movie, which wasn't then shown, so we went to the pub instead. The evening chatting with Clare was much more fun than the film would have been.
Things came to a head when we arranged a pub visit for the two of us, just as friends - not a "date". Both of us actually wished it was a date but didn't know how the other felt. We now refer to it as "the date that wasn't a date, that was."
That was a few months ago and, as things developed, we decided to go to St. Lucia to use up the rest of Clare's leave for the year (I'd saved up rather more).
I wanted to go to one resort, but they didn't have any available rooms with air-con. So, after more perusal of TripAdvisor (bless its name), we booked at the Bay Gardens Beach Resort (#10 in SL). I'd already been stimulated to write a report myself for the first time (a resoundingly good one), when events took a turn.
A very fast, spinning, hurricane-shaped turn.
We'd booked a Friday sunset cruise, which was cancelled due to a weather advisory, but the evening passed uneventfully so we thought nothing more of it.
On Saturday there were blustery gusts playing boisterously with the tablecloths during breakfast, and talk of a storm on the way.
Tomas escalated into a category 1 hurricane unexpectedly. The winds grew during the afternoon to be quite impressive, and we spent the evening happily in the open-sided hotel bar/restaurant next to the beach, drinking and watching lashing horizontal rain.
We didn't really have any deeper appreciation of what we were seeing. After all, this was only a Category 1 hurricane and surely the Caribbean islands see much worse than that?
I think the problem was that Tomas was so slow-moving (9mph) that it sat over the island for a very long time and dropped a LOT of water.
We were supposed to be flying out on the Sunday night, but when the wind was little reduced that morning, it wasn't surprising when the BA flight out didn't leave Gatwick.
The St. Lucia ports authority (SLASPA) was appallingly poor at communicating, making no reference to the hurricane on its website and, very misleadingly, leaving the previous day's successful arrivals/departures up, dated as today's - suggesting all was fine when it wasn't.
After lots of Googling for news we eventually found a blog post from someone about 5 miles away reporting the Communications Minister statement via Radio 100 saying the international airport could be closed all week.
This wasn't good news, as I had to be back in the UK to fly out for another holiday on the Thursday (see next post for details).
The hurricane had done a lot of damage, mainly in the South of the island, killing 15 at last count and cutting off roads to capital Castries, tour-stop Soufriere and many other places including Hewanorra international airport. Obviously, though, coastal places on an island aren't cut off by boat, once the sea is calm enough.
We met one woman who was evacuated to our hotel (I think from the Jalousie Hilton). She told a horror story of 48 hours without power or water, inability to sleep due to sounds of mudslides, a (consequently) disappearing swimming pool and a 2am evacuation by 3 catamarans, overloaded and still insufficient; with disorganisation leading to some "survival of the fittest" :-(
In our 4-year-old, concrete solid, low rise hotel we had a few small, wind-driven leaks, minimal power blips and, eventually, Tuesday night without water in the taps. The staff stayed on to look after us throughout, rather than trying to rejoin friends and family. If we were impressed before the hurricane, we needed superlatives now.
With my following travel plans under threat, I had to try to get back to the UK by Thursday. I rang Kuoni in the UK. When the duty officer rang back she was unnecessarily short, emphasising I'll-temperedly that the airport was shut and implying I was unreasonable in wanting to bring myself to attention at this point. I imagine that she'd just been on the phone with someone who had been demanding miracles and had carried that over.
It was disappointing, as I've used Kuoni many times over 20 years and expected more professionalism. This wasn't particularly redeemed because she never contacted me again and, when Castries was again reachable and LIAT air shuttles started from there to Hewanorra airport, Virgin Holidays snapped up the seats for their passengers while the local Kuoni reps were still trying to come up with transfer solutions.
It did all come out OK in the end. The rep got us on the air shuttle (although I had to pay $50US per head while Virgin paid for their people). Relieved, I didn't mind too much sitting 7 hours in Hewanorra waiting for our BA flight, coincidentally awaiting reunion with my case that didn't make the first shuttle.
St. Lucia was fabulous, and will be once again when they've restored power, water and roads in the South of the island. And I have to thank again Bay Gardens Beach Resort and all its staff - definitely where you want to be if another hurricane ever visits.
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