At 1000EST the eye of Charley was 25 miles north of Grand Cayman. We should have been taking a shellacking. But no... Around 1100EST the rain just stopped. It never really POUNDED down like I've seen rain do here in the past. Trees are still swaying a little and I got a phone call from the boss to head in to work and start putting the systems back online.

I pulled in to West Bay boat launch to take a look at the water. It was rough, but not what I was expecting. Public beach on SMB was the same. Breeze, flap-your-pants-against-your-legs windy but not hurricane force winds.

Didn't see any damage at all. A few coconuts and a couple palm fronds (brown ones both) laying on the side of the road and some big puddles of water from rainfall. Nothing major though. Everything was buttoned up tight, and Charley seems to have missed us somehow.

I had to laugh when I read the Reuters report from Miami that “Hurricane Charley battered the tiny Cayman Islands and has his sights set on western Cuba now before aiming right for Tampa Bay” That's almost as funny as when they report mudslides in the Cayman Islands. We don't have any elevation for the mud to slide down from! the only “Deadly Mudslides” down here come in a glass and are full of alcoholic choclatey goodness.

About 10 mins ago I was watching the weather station updates from that guy's homepage in East End and the wind switched from NE@30mph to SW@12mph and then SE@9mph and now back to SSW@13mph. I guess that means we've crossed the “x-axis” if you will of the storm and are now in Quadrant 3. SW winds might bring some bigger waves into Seven Mile Beach so maybe Seb and Ben can go boogie boarding afterall.

Just waiting for the official “all clear” now. Tonight when I get home I'll put all the Hurricane Supplies back in the closet for next time.