When I turned on the floodlights, the deck chairs and tables were slowly sliding northward, being driven by the 30-40 mph steady winds. They weren't tumbling or anything, just sliding around on the rain-soaked planks, rearranging themselves in a calm, orderly fashion. It was like I had discovered the secret life of lawn furniture.

"Oh, pardon me!"

"No, excuse me, and please, tables first."

"Why thank you. And how're the kids?"

"They're just fine. The eldest is off to refinishing school in the fall, and the toddler is growing up to be quite a little stool."

"That's nice. Well, so long."

"Goodbye now. Hey, let's get together for lunch some day!"

Okay, I didn't really hear them talk to one another. But I was still half asleep and it was surreal watching the furniture move around like that. Anyway, Kathy and I managed to go back to sleep in the midst of the storm, despite the frequent lightning, howling winds, house trembling, and thundering, uh, thunder. In the morning, neither of us was surprised to find the power was out again, this time for most of the day.

Thinking that we would probably lose all the perishable food in the fridge and freezer, Kathy had a brilliant idea and took out a couple dozen shrimp, wrapped them with bacon, and skewered the little buggers. I started a fire in the grill, Kathy got out the cocktail sauce, and we had a fantastic lunch accompanied by the ubiquitous Cuba Libres.

Then we drove off looking for a working phone to call the electric utility folks. Halfway up the mountain, and before the turn off to Leverick Bay, we came across some guys in hardhats. One of them was working his butt off on a utility pole, and the other three were standing around with their mouths open, looking up. Working folks are the same everywhere, I guess. I slowed the jeep and Kathy asked if they knew the lights were out at the Pink House. They said, yea they're out all over.

So we figured they had it under control and would either get the power on again, or not. Either way, we headed back to Savannah Beach for some more fun in the sun. The one and only road over the mountain goes through the second little town (Spanish Town / The Valley being the largest) called North Sound. Oddly enough, the town of North Sound is the nearest to the Pink House on South Sound. Just trust me on this. In the middle of the little town there is a church, and just about the time we arrived in front of it, a well-attended funeral was ending. A local policeman had me stop the jeep on a very steep (as they all are) road, and we waited for everyone to file out of the church, most of them walking home down the hill. We got to meet most of the people in North Sound, and many of the folks on the island as they walked past our jeep dressed in suits and black dresses and greeted Kathy and me, sitting in the jeep wearing swim suits. Everyone was quite nice, despite the circumstances, but we weren't sure whether to smile or be sad. The deceased turned out to be "Mr. Anegada" -- the guy who built the first restaurant and hotel on the sunken island, and he had many friends on Virgin Gorda, Anegada, and even Tortola. He had been killed in an accident, welding an oil drum for a barbeque grill that exploded. After a half-hour sitting in the hot jeep, greeting the mourners as they left the church, the policeman asked me to proceed slowly up the hill, which was a trick given that we were on a 40% grade and there were dozens of people in the road.

Finally though, we made it back to the beach. We spent the rest of the day snorkeling around the amazing reefs there. We saw a sea turtle, another small stingray, the school of Blue Tang again, and an enormous school of Silversides, so big the water looked cloudy from a distance. We lay out on the beach for a while, but the wind was still blowing hard, and by the time Kathy woke from her nappy, she had been sandblasted to a shiny finish on one side of her body. Better than going to a spa!

We eventually made it back to the Pink House (the funeral folks were still milling about when we drove back by). Miraculously, the power was back on. All of the food had been saved, but the ice cream had to be eaten immediately. Somebody had to do it...