Maldives Day 12 - Storm in Paradise!!!

6th August 2021

I wake up at 5 o'clock: Storm!

When I look out the window, our bungalow neighbor is fishing his bathing clothes out of the bushes, because the wind has scattered them everywhere and saves his towels that he left on the plastic loungers in front of the bungalow. I quickly go outside and collect our air mattress and the other inflatables. Luckily, they are protected behind the loungers and haven't flown away yet. Half of our bathing clothes, which were hanging on the rod to dry, have fallen down. I bring everything inside.

By now, the husband is also awake and helping me.

After another 10 minutes, we decide to bring in the cushions for the loungers as well. It's quite windy.

However, completely without rain - only wind 🤷🏻

I'm curious what it will look like tomorrow morning. I can't imagine that the storm will be over in 3 hours, but let's wait and see.

This morning at 8:30 it's still windy and cloudy, but the situation seems to have calmed down.

During breakfast at 9 o'clock, the waiters eventually roll down all the blinds and move the tables away from the windows. Since I've been waiting the longest for my omelette, the family urges me to eat quickly. Our waiter Mohamed says that a storm is coming and it will rain... 'very soon'.

We watch the snorkel guests in disbelief as they board the snorkel boat for the excursion.

Why they still allow a snorkeling trip with this black curtain of clouds and the obviously impending bad weather is a mystery to me.

We eat and drink quickly, then we go out. It's still quiet inland.

My son and I take a look at the beach in front of our bungalow, it starts drizzling lightly. Many holidaymakers are frolicking in the sea, many are lying on the beach.

Then it happens very quickly. On the horizon, we see a yacht "disappear" into the rain cloud every second, and just as quickly, the few raindrops turn into a full-blown shower with gusts of wind around 10 o'clock.

We quickly bring everything from the bungalow terrace to safety: the cushion for the loungers, all the bathing clothes, swimming gear, and towels. Most of them are already wet because it's raining at an angle.

My son puts on his swimming trunks and runs joyfully through the rain, which is probably quite refreshing.

The husband suggests jumping quickly into the warm sea!?

Well then. Both of them run through the storm into the sea and come back shortly after. There are too many waves and the rain would feel like needles. But it was fun apparently 😉

Now we are lying in bed with various entertainment electronics and watching the storm through the big panoramic window.

The idea of watching the Olympic Games on TV is destroyed by the message 'No Signal' on the screen. That figures....

Let's see how long the bad weather lasts 🤷🏻

After an hour, the rain stops, but the wind is still blowing over the island and whipping the waves up the beach slope, so that occasionally a wave splashes towards the bungalow but sinks into the sand long before.

I am sitting with the kids in Bungalow 117 and watching the spectacle through the panoramic window. Crazy weather...

At 12:30, we take advantage of the brief lull in the rain and walk to the restaurant with umbrellas.

However, shortly before we remember that because of the Friday prayer, lunch is not served until 1:15 pm, so we sit in the Sand Bar and play a round of 'Phase10'.

The waves lash against the concrete walls at the piers in front of us. One wave actually gets so high that it almost reaches the Sand Bar.

After another round of 'Lama' and mocktails 'Lime&Lemonade', we go to lunch. Here too, the view through the lowered transparent blinds is very 'stormy'.

Some people also don't dare to sit at their window seats. Some couples have asked for another table for lunch today, "away from the window".

It starts raining and storming again, so we go back to the Sand Bar and play more games.

It's really exciting to watch the waves.

When the rain subsides in the afternoon, my son and husband jump into the sea, because now there are great waves for wave jumping.

In the lagoon, Dagmar & Paul from the water sports station are speeding past us on surfboards with kites and doing cool jumps. The two of them are visibly happy about the weather 💨🌊

Today will be the first evening without a sunset drink, the sunset is missing due to the clouds and it's quite uncomfortable at the Beach Bar with the storm and occasional rain.

After dinner, we sit in the Sand Bar again and treat ourselves to the first cocktails of the day: Whiskey Fizz, Tequila Sunrise, and Black Russian 🍹

CHEERS 😇