Think sauna. Non-stop sauna. For 3 months. Make that 4. Welcome to summer in the BVI. Today with the heat index the temperature in Road Town is a blistering 41°C and we’re enduring 92% humidity too. Thank goodness there’s a breeze – if you’re alongside the coast. Walking around town is murder. So, for that matter, is driving: if your upholstery is leather or, worse still, vinyl, the backs of your legs will blister on the seat when you climb into the car. The distances we drive aren’t long enough for the air conditioning to kick in properly, so you drive around with the windows open in the hope of cooling the super-heated tin can just a little while you’re in it. Small wonder then that life in the tropics happens at a slower pace than elsewhere.
Night-time brings little relief. True, the sun has gone to shine on other places in the world, but the breeze drops too, leaving sultry thick air filled with the incessant whine of mosquitoes and the whir of fans creating an illusion of coolness. Everyone does everything that they can to stay in air conditioning for as long as possible. The office looks very attractive for longer than usual!
My computer’s background picture is a wonderful picture of cool, leafy shades of green taken in France (not, I must add, by me). When I return to the office from running errands in town face lobster-red and clothes fetchingly stuck to my back with sweat I luxuriate in the welcome relief of the AC, chug a cold bottle of water from the fridge and try hard to think myself into the scene in the screen …
Sadly, sliding into the sea doesn’t even offer any real relief as the sea surface temperature is now 30°C – think nice warm bath, not cool mountain stream!!!! This is total madness. Oh well, not only does the picture above make it easier to feel cooler – the knowledge that we’ve less than 3 weeks left until we board a plane to Paris makes it easier still. Although we’re not very popular with friends right now, and it’s hard not to crow.
I have a gizmo on the computer that gives me a constant update on the weather in our region in France. In time we’ll install a weather station at Les Terraces and be able to give real-time information for Sainte-Foy, along with a web cam giving views of the Dordogne, but for now we make do with the public data. As I write, the temperature in Bergerac is 27°C, and it will cool to a perfect-for-sleeping 14°C later, right around bed time. And the humidity is a paltry 48%.
Roll on July!