Thunderstorm - Take 2

Happy Easter everyone, keeping with tradition the weather is a little overcast and wet at times, keeping things interesting for all those Easter campers.

A few weeks ago it finally happened, after weeks of thunderstorm warnings from the MET Office the skies opened and we had almost a day of non-stop heavy rain, strangely Two Boats Village wasn't hit as bad as Georgetown. In Georgetown, there were rivers of water running to Long Beach and out to sea, a massive deep pool of water formed near the Georgetown Swimming Pool (Exiles Swimming Pool) and the main road through Georgetown was under water. I've uploaded a few videos on our Youtube Channel if you would like to see them. The result of the rain meant Needles road has been closed for about 2 weeks and only reopened today.

COVID is well and truly a part of daily life on the island now, although our strict isolation protocols mean it has never escaped into the general population, there are very few flights where there isn't someone who tests positive either on arrival or during their isolation period. I believe there are talks at a higher level on the island to decide if we should stop the isolation period. An unpopular idea in the Saint Helenian community on the island as it would mean isolation on the now shorter holiday trips to St Helena. As it stands there is a travel corridor between the islands with no isolation, providing certain criteria are met, one of them being the flight crew tests negative.

The sound of conveyor belts at the bottom of Georgetown, trucks rumbling along the roads means one thing, the Runway Project aggregate ship is finally back. The sea did its best to delay things by getting a little choppy when the jack-up barge was being docked which meant it took a few days longer before the unloading could start but once they did it has been running really well.

The Island's Conservation Department hosted the island's first-ever Marine Festival at the Turtle Ponds, a successful day with stalls, games, food and live music.

There's a new buzz around the island at the moment, as part of the Jubilee celebrations, there is a new competition for the newly created Jubilee Cup. A competition between all the companies on the island, which will see them compete in Darts, Skittles, Pool, Golf, a Quiz Night and finishing with Tug-o-War during the Jubilee Celebrations, collecting points along the way, the company scoring the most points will be crowned Champions.

On that note, it's bedtime, Easter eggs in the morning :)

Thunderstorm

January is over, and it flew by! So what's the latest on our rock?

We've had two Titan flights, taking islanders off the island and bringing them back, mainly people returning from their Christmas hols in St Helena and a few from further afield.

An A400 has been cancelled and then put back on again, arriving a week later.

The main excitement for the month came last week when the island received a possible Thunderstorm warning from the MET Office, but as the week went on, further updates indicated the possibility was decreasing and eventually it blew by without hitting us. Sandbags were deployed around critical buildings and several homes with memories of the downpour in March 2020 still fresh in many people's memories. Back then rain came non-stop for several hours, blocking the road near the junction to Catherine Point because a river of muddy water and large rocks was streaming across the road, the only way out of Georgetown was up Needles road! It wasn't just that road, all around the island there was damage and several buildings took in water.

Around half four this afternoon as I drove into Georgetown I saw the 5th runway contractor aggregate vessel leaving, heading back to get reloaded before returning. Normally another one arrives straight away but there is planned maintenance for the floating pipeline soon so the next one will arrive when the maintenance is completed.

Friday we will see the FIRS anchored in the harbour, restocking the island's shops, companies bringing in their materials and equipment and islanders receiving their overseas goodies.

The island is once again COVID free, so we’re back in the Amber Alert status.

And just like that, we're into February, have a good one :)