Looking northeast from our veranda. You can see how high the seagrass came at high tide. Normally it is washes up only to the level of the palm trees.
Fortunately, it appears that Rina has passed Ambergris Caye, and indeed all of Belize, with no more than a very high tide. The official San Pedro weather station reported just under an inch of rain, most falling in the wee hours last night, and some this morning. Bernie's weather station on top of Chico Caribe reports a 28 mph wind gust at 8:19 am as the highest wind we've received so far, and interestingly, that was right when Barry and I were doing our morning run.
The run was challenging because the tide was at or near its highest point at that time, and we both ended up with wet shoes after running through puddles; soft, wet sand; small waves, and sopping seagrass on what is usually clear beach. You can see in the photo above how high the tide came from where the seagrass is deposited. This tide cut off much of our running trail and made a mess out of what was left of it. Barry finally gave up on the beach and cut over to the road, but I stuck it out.
At one point on the way back, I hopped up on the trunk of a slanted coconut palm to avoid getting my feet soaked again, then jumped back down onto the sand when the wave receded. This was on a shoreline that gets minimal wave action normally due to the offshore reef. I can still hear small waves washing up on our usually placid beach outside our condo at 2:30 pm, but the tide is quite a bit lower than it was this morning.
This afternoon is lightly breezy with no rain; in fact, the sun is even peeking through milky clouds and the sea is turquoise again. Rina has lost intensity and should be moving north very soon and leaving Belize behind. Unfortunately, I am sure she will leave behind some beach erosion as her legacy here, but it could have been much worse.
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