This was our 21st consecutive trip to GSB. For the past dozen years, we have gone for 2 weeks in mid-July and have stayed in Tulip. When we learned that Tulip would be available post Irma we told Tina to keep our name on the reservation board.

Travel to and from VG was uneventful. Flying into SJU was our first indication that there is a lot of work to be done. We saw many houses with blue tarps serving as roofs. We took Cape Air from there to Beef Island. We didn’t have a lot of time to make the ferry, so it was hard to make observations. There seemed to be more cars than normal parked over in the Trellis Bay area and can only assume they belonged to construction workers. We had read there were still boats on the beach but seeing them there was difficult to process. It was even worse as we approached the Yacht Harbor in VG.

Visually, VG looked like VG with pieces of the puzzle missing or badly distorted. The old Bucks grocery store in the harbor was essentially a shell of a building with twisted parts. The Methodist Church on the top of the hill was badly destroyed and there did not seem to be a lot of repair work going on. The Catholic Church fared better. As we went on, we passed a lot of uninhabitable houses with occasional ones still occupied despite the damage. While the vegetation of VG has made a strong comeback, much is still missing. Over to our right we passed a set of building that looked to be apartments being rebuilt. It was pointed out to us that this was Fischer’s. We could not recall ever being able to see the rooms from the street – too many trees and other vegetation blocking the view. We were also thrown off by the fact they were two stories. We were told that Fischer’s decided to put on a second floor. We passed the schools. The high school is destroyed to the point of not being able to be used. The old middle school is essentially being shared with the high school. High school classes are held in the morning and middle school in the afternoon, or vice versa. Kindergarten and first grades are in the building up front. We were later told that the buildings are essentially one room with multiple classes going on and very noisy. We think there is another school up near Leverick which is faring better due to the generosity of Richard Branson. There are places in the road that are bumpy; other places not so bad.

We reached GSB and there is no mistaking it even though the Guavaberry sign on the fence was missing. The drive up to Tulip reminded us of what had happened to this lovely island. Bougainvillea had guests, not so the rest of the way up. Gardenia and Alamander basically had concrete foundations. A lot of work has been completed on Mango: concrete foundation, floor and deck, walls up and a roof up but shingles remained to be put on. There was work going on inside most of the days we were there. There were empty, cleaned-up spaces where Plum and Lime Tree had been. We understood these will be next summer’s projects. Frangipani and Cedar looked like they were close to being ready for guests with active inside work going on. We saw considerable progress on Hibiscus during our stay, they were working on the foundation and pouring concrete pillars the first couple days, then a concrete floor and deck went in and finally on our last day they started putting up the walls. Tamarind looked close to being ready. The maids were regularly doing inside and outside painting during our stay. Guavaberry and particularly Banyon looked guest ready. Then Tulip. During our two-week stay, we were the only guests up on that part of the hill. There were guests staying in Lily and we’re not sure about Ixora. The houses are being painted gray and looked good. Tulip was in transition with the deck railing painted gray and the rest the red wood. That made it easier for us to handle. Despite the ongoing construction, noise was never an issue.

Tulip looked the same from the outside and the inside. The only real difference we could tell was that it seemed to have a new toaster. Fresh picked flowers on the table as always. The deck had the most changes. Several of the planks had to be replaced. Also, larger beams were added to support the roof. Two were added about two feet adjacent to the house and the ones on the railing side were repositioned and larger.

The view from the deck was essentially the same but once again with some changes. With the limited vegetation, there was a clear-cut, direct line of sight to the beach. Houses in Little Trunk that where not visible from Tulip before could be easily seen, or at least their roofs. It was possible in places to see cars go by on the road. Telephone poles were visible. Looking to the east we were surprised by the number of big boulders behind us. The reconstructed Mango is slightly higher than before and blocks out the view of Tina’s house. No problem looking out and seeing Tortola and the other islands. Without the full vegetation, Frangipani and Cedar are more visible walking down to the beach. And the tree between Banyon and Tulip is gone, giving a more unobstructed view to Banyon’s deck. We didn’t think of this as a problem, just a change that might exist for a few years. In years past, there had been a little cactus growing in one of the boulders off Tulip’s deck. That did not survive. The chickens and goats however did.

On the other side of the road, Palm and Oleander were being worked on periodically during our stay and looked close to being ready at least on the outside. More extensive work was being done on Cashew as it looked like it might have been a total rebuild.