Hurricane Leslie update – Saturday 6pm

Hurricane Leslie has finally got itself into gear and is now motoring at 8mph across the Atlantic Ocean but fortunately she is still driving in a direction away to the east of the island.

Leslie has dropped it’s strength and is now classified as a Tropical Storm (sustained winds less than 74mph) and is located approximately 250 miles south-southeast of us. The sea temperatures down there apparently are a little chilly but there is plenty of warm water ahead and it is then that Leslie will regain hurricane status. Hurricane’s are powered by warm surface sea temperatures.

The wind here has been getting up steadily during the afternoon and we went down to the tiny beach at the back of our house a little while ago and the sand had all been washed away.

Thankfully however it looks like to worst we will get tomorrow will be 50mph winds with a lot of rain, very different to the midweek predictions that were saying a category 2 direct hit. The main issue will be if we manage to keep the power. The island is used to and very adept at surviving hurricane forced winds but it will be the infrastructure that will be severely tested afterwards.