Stranded--part 1

If one lives on a tropical isle, one should be prepared to be stranded. . .

The longest power outage yet, (again I’ve only been on island a month an a half) occurred yesterday. Previous power outages lasted only an hour or so; however, yesterday’s lights out stretched from 1 p.m. on Tuesday to about ten minutes after 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

Besides the inconvenience of having an electric stove and worrying about overheating milk in the refrigerator, the greatest torment results from lack of circulating air when ceiling fans are silenced. St. Croix experiences two seasons: wet and dry. October is part of the wet season complete with humidity and mugginess. (see minor flooding on golf course near our home photo 1)

Our temporary lodging is located in a valley and does not reap the full benefits of trade winds that residences in higher elevations do. While we refrain from using the air conditioning, since electrical costs are exorbitant, ceiling fans are a must have to remain comfortable.

The outage affected only a small area, lucky us, so we were able to buy a supper of kingfish and stewed chicken at a local West Indian restaurant. We mulled over the idea of seeing a movie at the Sunny Isle shopping center, the local retail heartbeat and general traffic snarl of the island, but decided instead to return home and light the hurricane lamps. (photo 2)

A generator is a necessity here. Short-term outages occur with some frequency, I’ve been told. Should a hurricane make land fall, one may be without power for some time. A local resident told us that post Hugo she was without power for 6 months.

I am surprised that the island has not invested in either wind or solar power or both because of the high cost of traditional power. However, I do not know how wind turbines or solar panels fair in tropical storms. I’ll be curious to learn if any other islands use these methods.