Day 3 - Saturday 31 August

One of the first things we do is to check on the strength of and projected track of Hurricane Dorian and each time we do now, the prospects for us are improving.

This is what we woke up to, now a Category 4 Hurricane (sustained wind speeds of between 130 mph and 156 mph) but it now looks as if it'll turn north before it gets to us. They all turn north in the end, it just depends on how far south they started and at what point they start to turn.

We got going and set off for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, a popular local eatery which presents itself as a place from the 'good old days'.  They confirm that by being one of the few eating places with no guest wifi!

We each had different items from the menu and thought it was generally good value, although the service was painfully slow.

This was mine - a 'smokey breakfast'

Joyce is eating hers. I also got with mine something more akin to afternoon tea so I asked if I could take it away.  The nice lady brought me a box plus a further two scones - 'biscuits' here - plus some extra jam so I'm able to share it with my holidaymaking colleagues later!

Elizabeth had one of her favourites

I posed in a rocking chair - pity we don't have a lovely front verandah at the villa!

These are the latest weather projections - 

This is what they call the 'spaghetti' - each strand is from a separate weather computer so you get the picture of an overall trend

At the moment the hurricane is hammering the Bahamas.

Monday at 11 am

We're a little to the west of Kissimmee

The weather today - all in Fahrenheit. We're north-east of Lakeland

And this is the forecast for the next few days - 

And this is what it looks like now from the living area of the house:

On our way back we had a drive round the other six communities that make up West Haven. All the normally locked entrance gates have been left open until the threat of the hurricane has passed so that the emergency services can get unfettered access to properties.

Have just seen one of these at the back of the villa

Photo by Sharon LaPlante for plantrealflorida.org

It's a Gulf Fritillary.  I thought from its markings that it was likely to be one of the fritillary clan but I'd never seen one like this at home when I was a lad chasing butterflies!  Such beauty.

We enjoyed our tea of scones/biscuits and jam/jelly - and some had toast as well! - and then we set off for Disney Springs, aka Disney Market Place and/or Downtown Disney - how many more times can something be re-branded?!

We had a good look round for an hour or two and got our free chocolate from Girardelli's.  We also managed to bump into the Strolling Piano man who was playing with gusto before moving on, but there wasn't any 'moving ivy' this time.

We then took advantage of the heads up we'd got from Chris that Domino's were doing a half price offer for online orders, so the evening was rounded off with pizza, red wine and a chaser of Diet Coke.

And so to bed, with Hurricane Dorian becoming more stable to track and continuing to pose less and less of a threat to inland areas such as ours.  It is now ravaging the Bahamas with winds of around 140 mph to 150 mph near the centre of the storm.

Day 2 – Upwards and Onwards

The good news about the flight delay – if it’s possible to have good news in such situations – was that our new travel insurance policy kicked in and we got free lounge passes for the 3 of us as our delay was longer than an hour.

It would be a long day ahead

We only had this new insurance because the old insurers had cancelled our policy when Elizabeth was taken to hospital and wouldn’t insure her again for at least 8 weeks after any successful operation.

We were offered two possible at Gatwick’s South Terminal – the No. 1 Lounge and the Grain Store and Café.  There was a long queue at the No. 1 Lounge and they were turning away anyone not pre-booked with them.  So off we went to the Grain Store.  The woman at the entrance said we could use the passes for up to £15.50’s worth of food and drink each.  With a long day ahead we all went for the full English with either tea or coffee each.  That came to around £13 each so we got it all for free.

Call me an old cynic of you like, but when we checked in early at the terminal the night before there was a fixed notice on the check-in desk from BA to say that it your flight was delayed by 2 hours or more, to ask what help, compensation etc passengers were entitled to.  Strange that our delay was officially down as 1 hour and 55 minutes!  In the event it took off more than 2 hours late so perhaps I should start asking the question.

On the other hand, the delay was due to the fact that the plane had come in overnight from Antigua and was probably delayed by Dorian, so perhaps it’s a bit mean for m to do that.

The special assistance boarding slot was very short and Elizabeth and Joyce were absent in the ladies’ retreat when we were called so we ended up boarding with the masses.  The staff were helpful getting us down the aisle and settled and the main mass of passengers then poured in.  Joyce thought the plane was enormous, but it’s only a run-of-the-mill job these days.  The plane moved off to join a long queue of others waiting for clearance to get to the runway and then we were off.

The flight was uneventful except for some quite strong turbulence mid-way.  The choice of entertainment was excellent and none of us were bored. The pilots were clearly trying to make up time and used a straight across the Atlantic route rather than going in the usual curve up to near Iceland and Greenland.

Land in sight on the mock up of the pilot's view. Titusville and Merritt Island are next to the Cape Canaveral complex

The Space Coast is now in sight

Cape Canaveral Complex including the service runway and the various launch pads near the beaches

Intra-Coastal Waterway below

Coming down ...

Notice how far away the control tower is

Soon land was in sight and we were down.  We waited for the cabin to empty and then made our way off. We had someone to push Joyce along and she showed us to the immigration officer for US citizens, Canadians and others legally resident and, as always, there were no long queues there.  It was even better for the fact that a Virgin Atlantic flight had arrived just before ours. A friendly immigration officer took our photos and stamped our passports, asked us how long we were staying and off we went – no fingerprints and no customs card to complete – what is going on here?!

The assistance lady stayed on with us while we were waiting for Joyce’s bag to appear but eventually melted away and it was only later that Elizabeth said she was probably waiting for a tip!  It never crossed my mind!

Then we were off to get our hire car – no queue there which was again a surprise and off we went to choose our mid-size SUV.  We chose a blue Nissan Rogue and off we went.

We were soon in familiar territory and stopped off at Walmart on Old Lake Wilson Road for some provisions and then on to the house.   We got the car emptied and had a welcome drink.  Alex and Tim had got us some water and a wind up radio in case of hurricane problems but the risk to us here is receding with each forecast update.

And finally, at 10.20pm US time, 3.20am UK time it was time to hit the sack.

Day 2 - Friday 30 August

I woke up to look at the morning's emails to see that our travel insurers have sent us a lounge pass as our flight is delayed, currently by 2 hours.

A second email was from our property managers which included this map - 

Looks like it'll land around West Palm Beach and then veer northwards towards Orlando! Currently they say the 'eye' of the storm will pass within 5 miles of Disney

and information as follows - 

Dear Homeowners

Hurricane Dorian is a category 2 at the moment, but has the potential to grow into a major hurricane. (If it does become a Category 4 hurricane, that'll mean sustained (i.e.gusts lasting more than one minute) wind speeds of between 130 mph and 156 mph

When to prepare

According to the weather forecast if she stays on route she will arrive here Monday, but I am sure we will feel the effects here starting Sunday. We usually receive advisories to not be on the roads hours before the bad weather comes in, so we have to be prepared now!

We will be moving all patio furniture, any loose items outside the front door or in pool area and garbage bins inside your home on Friday and Saturday.

If you have guests in your house please ask them to move all loose items inside and if they need help to let us know before noon Saturday, we will gladly help them.

All guests will be either phoned, visited or a note (see attached) left if they are not home.

Our management services such as cleaning, lawn cutting, pool service will be interrupted and suspended from Saturday Aug 31st until the after the storm fully passes. This could mean that houses where guests depart over the weekend might not be cleaned by the time your new guests arrive depending on how long a possible curfew lasts. We can only apologize for this but safety has to come first. Our cleaning teams will be back on the road as soon as it is safe to do so and curfews have been lifted.

How to help your guests

Even though the TV provides guests with the list of things to buy in case of emergency, we have attached a list that you can forward to your guests.

We will send information to Homes of America Rentals guests. Sadly, supplies are already becoming short. It is hard to get gas and water now. If you have guests in transit in Florida you may want to pre-warn them that all patio furniture will be stacked up, trash cans inside garage etc. Please ask them to not move the furniture upon their arrival.

Level of communication you can expect

We understand you will be incredibly concerned about your home and guests. We will be here for them and you in the best possible way the storm conditions will allow us to be.

As we will be extremely busy from now onwards preparing for the hurricane, we ask you to keep phone lines available for emergencies only.  We will continue to email you updates along the way. You are welcome to email us with guest travel changes and updates and we will monitor these also during the course of the storm. We will endeavour to respond to your emails or text messages as soon as we can.   Should the storm severely hit us, please note we may lose power - which means we may not have cell phone power or wifi.

Travel conditions

If you have guests arriving or departing Sunday/Monday/Tuesday, we expect there to be delays and changes to their travel plans. . At this point we are unsure when and if airports will be closed. During Hurricane Irma, airports were closed 12 hours before the storm hit due to the strong winds. Please ask guests to check with their airline.

We will do all the arrival and departure checks Saturday as normal.

Hurricane Curfew

If we are impacted by the hurricane, each county may enforce a curfew. This can differ from county to county. If a curfew is enforced this will mean no one is allowed on the roads the day after the storm has passed.

The county officials instruct the curfews to allow emergency crews to clear up roads where needed. (Fallen trees, large branches, etc...)

As soon as we are allowed back on the road we will be checking your villa and will report back to you. Please keep in mind, we need to check many villas but hoping to complete checks as soon as possible.

If you have any other concerns or you can't reach your guests to advise them on the above, please let us know.

Fingers crossed Dorian changes course but at this stage it's better to be safe than sorry.

Wish us luck over the next few days whilst we prepare all your homes and guests.

Thank you for your support.

Elizabeth, Graeme and Joyce set off for Florida!

We set off around 11.15am, collected some provisions from our local Sainsbury's and then hit the road proper.

Our first pit stop was at Watford Gap for a welcome McD's!

We continued on clockwise around the M25 and over the Thames at the Dartford Crossing before finally arriving at the hotel.

Needless to say, despite the fact that we had booked the hotel many months ago, they had made a pigs ear of the booking as they didn't have two adjacent rooms.  When we booked they said that Joyce couldn't be next door to us and also have an accessible room, so we had agreed to having two standard rooms.

The man on the desk went out the back of Reception and returned to say we were being given a free upgrade of two adjacent accessible rooms on the same floor just round the corner from Reception.