September 16th 2020 | Our first visit to Nonsuch has shown that the most visible damage from Paulette was to a few of the large Bay Grapes on the stairway on the way up from the dock. The outer island however did sustain erosion damage as expected, which will more than likely have been exacerbated by the more recent passing of Hurricane Teddy. The Team is aiming to get out there once the winds settle on the 23rd and will post updates accordingly.
September 14th 2020 | 2pm Bermuda seems to have survived in relatively good condition. We won’t however be able to visit Nonsuch before tomorrow at the earliest and the 6ft drop in the level of beach sand as seen at Elbow Beach further down the coast is concerning…
September 14th 2020 | 06:45 am We have now passed through the eye and the wind has flipped over to the West as Paulette moves away to our North.
September 14th 2020 | 04:45 am We appear to be in the eye as the wind has completely dropped out, the airport radar has been down since 2 am, but we have been able to produce the video below using graphics from windy.com
September 14th 2020 | 02:05 am Paulette’s eye approaches and is expected to pass over is in the next 2 hours. In this radar screen capture we are in one of the last gaps between the bands and are about to enter the red colored high wind 100 knot+ area of the circulation which should continue for the next few hours unitl we reach the eye. Power is now out so not sure re next update. Stay safe…
September 13th 2020 | 10:25 pm Paulette’s eye approaches with 100-knot gusts expected from midnight through to morning… We will keep tracking the approaching hurricane online and will update this page overnight as it progresses (or for as long as we keep our power and internet).
The projected winds will be from the North East, however the hurricane and its swells are approaching from the South East, and as Nonsuch is on the South East corner of Bermuda a great deal of coastal erosion is expected to Nonsuch and the outlying Cahow nesting Islands.
Jeremy and Peter spent the past week battening down and preparing Nonsuch as well as they could, and as the power array was turned off for safety, we will now have to wait until after the storm has passed and we are able to secure a vessel to get out there to see how it all faired.
A bit of good news: Jeremy rescued two Tropicbird chicks from low-lying nests on Nonsuch that would have otherwise drowned from the storm surge and they are now living in his bathroom.
As the Cahows do not return to Nonsuch until November, they should not be affected by this hurricane beyond possible damage to their nests. In similar past hurricanes, whole portions of the outer nesting islands have been known to collapse taking Cahow burrows with them, which was one of the driving forces behind starting the Cahow Translocation Program to Colony A on Nonsuch where our Cams are located…
Elbow Beach erosion