Life on Tangier Island ... The High Tide Edition

Saturday, October 4th

Well, tide has been up even higher today than yesterday! Today I am on an island in the middle of an island, because it has gotten so deep that my road is pretty much cut off until it recedes some.  It's an island thing, and I've seen it quite a few times in my 25 years of living on Tangier.  It is not dangerously high - and my side of Canton (our neighborhood) is fairly high land, so my plan is to just ride it out and do some crafts.

Here's a look at my bead stash being unpacked, along with my breakfast, the ultra nutritious mini chocolate donut.    Hey, I have an excuse - tide has cut me off from the grocery store - and I am having to forage for food in my cabinets.  LOL

Have a look out the window from my crafting kitchen table.  I am keeping an eye on the tide in case I have to try to get our vehicles to higher land.  They should be OK, our land up by the house is pretty high itself. This looks bad - but it could be worse.

This is worse....pics from Hurricane Sandy when my house was completely surrounded, and water was up my steps.  

View from my front door.  This was scary because the tide came mostly from the west - which is unusual.  I almost never get any tide in my front yard, so to see it coming up my steps was a bit frightening.

View from my back door.  I had waves in my yard.  Not good.

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Day two - it was right in the middle of my post yesterday when our internet went out.  It didn't come back on again til late this morning, so this post will be a "two dayer".  No internet when you are stuck in your house is not a good thing.  Well, I guess it could be if you took advantage of it and did things like laundry and cleaning instead of being on line.  I did not.

Yesterday on facebook a friend who flies, Nancy Lewis, posted pictures of Tangier during high tide taken from the air. I asked her if I could share the picture and she kindly said yes.  This will give you a very good look at what was happening yesterday. Photo by Nancy Lewis:

See that road with two bridges leading off to the right that looks like it has chunks out of it?  That's the road to my house.  Yikes!  It is underwater is some places, but if you had to, you could still drive over it if you were careful (not in a golf cart though). This is Canton Road, and my neighborhood, Canton, would be just off to the right of this picture.  You can also see my school in this picture floating up at the top left. Ha Ha.

Those buildings at the top right that look like they really are floating are watermen's crab shanties built up on poles out in the harbor.  So, they are actually supposed to look that way - don't worry about them.

My friend Carol lives on the main section of the island and was able to go around and take some pictures yesterday while I was cut off.  She got a lot of great shots, but I'll just share a few.  The following photos are hers from yesterday, and were taken from facebook.  Photo credit to Carol Pruitt Moore:

Well, let's look at the bright side.  They won't have to go far to get their catch of the day.

Wading to get on the boat.  This is why I didn't get to go off to Salisbury yesterday and spend my Michael's 25% off Friends & Family coupon.  :(

The bridge situation.  Here is why most of West Ridge and Canton were cut off from Main Ridge yesterday.  
All above photos by Carol Moore.

Now, back to me.  Have a peek at some of the things I worked on while I was in the house yesterday.  I worked on some jewelry, but mostly I did more beaded ornaments.  

I also wanted to share a picture of one of the silver trays I turned into a mini chalkboard. This one was a baby shower gift for a former student of mine. Congrats, Carrie!

I am SO glad to have the internet back on!  But, I've got lots to do today, so bye for now.  I hope you are enjoying the blog, please feel free to leave a comment below.