Tramontana!

CRW_1747
Originally uploaded by davidnmartin98

Greetings from the windy isle! Menorca has always been known as the windy isle out of all of the Balearics, and the last two days we have come to discover why. On Tuesday evening the sky became very dark and we felt the temperature drop sharply. We were about to experience what is known as a Tramontana, a special wind from the North that buffets Menorca in the off season. Apparently the last Tramontana was a good number of years ago. Although I have experienced storms and bad weather out here in the summer season before, I was curious to see what this would be like.
We closed up all the shutters on the outside of the apartment windows before we went to bed, and settled in for the night. Around 3am we were woken by the sound of thundering rain and tearing winds! When we finally got up at around 7.30am, the sky was clearing a little but the wind was still howling. Heading out for a walk to see the spectacle showed us that indeed the Tramontana was with us! Waves were crashing up over the coast road which I don’t think I have ever seen before. The coast road is about 100 feet up from sea level, and the waves were beating against the cliff face and showering over the whole road area. We were walking to see some friends, Sue and Alex, and the sight was amazing. After stopping into see Sue and Alex for 30 minutes or so, we headed back out to see what it looked like close up. The spray was magnificent; rolling dark clouds, whipping winds and the roar of the sea was the sight waiting to greet us. We stood for a while and watched, taking care not to get soaked as the waves threw themselves angrily up the cliff face. I fired off a few shots and then decided that it was far too windy and unpleasant! Then disaster struck. Just as we turned around with our backs to the sea to walk down to the front, an enormous wave broke up over the cliffs and soaked us from head to toe. Luckily we had our backs to the sea, and we had hats on together with heavy storm jackets. But the sheer volume of water that washed over us was immense, and my camera just died; water must have somehow got inside the camera. In a panic we rushed home, where we changed out of clothes and I started to see what was wrong. It seemed that the camera itself was functioning, but all the LCD displays, both for reviewing images, but more importantly the technical displays, for setting shutter speed and apertures had totally died. This would mean that the camera was effectively useless now as I would be unable to control any of the shooting modes, or be able to control the operation of the camera.
I decided that I had nothing to lose (other than $1500 which I don’t have on buying a brand new camera) and sat down with a set of screwdrivers to take the camera to pieces. I am no stranger to the insides of PC’s, VCR machines and other stuff, but the insides of my Canon camera was a much more daunting prospect. With no manuals or service instructions this was to be a touch and go process. Slowly after about an hour I had managed to remove the back of the camera, and started to explore. After removing a ribbon cable and releasing the back panels, I discovered a large drop of water sitting on the circuit board across the contacts that led to the LCD panels and control displays. After carefully drying it, I re-assembled the camera and hoped for the best. An hour later I tried the camera and noticed a faint ghost of a display appearing on the control panel segment. I checked the camera each hour and the display has been getting slowly stronger. The picture review panel is now fine, but the control panel (the important bit) is still showing up some weird symbols. However it does appear to be slowly getting better over time. The heads up display that is visible through the viewfinder is not yet fully readable, but that seems to be improving too. I am hoping that in a few days time it will be back to a usable state, though I doubt that the displays will ever be perfect again. I took the camera out this morning for attest run and it seems to be capturing images ok, although it is hard to see the control readouts still.
So, the moral of this story is watch out behind you when there are waves about! Today is Thursday and the winds are still in force, though a little less than yesterday. The sea is still swelling terrifically though, and it looks like it may be a few days until we are back to normal weather again. The picture attached to this post is the one that I took just before the wave got me. Enjoy it! It may be the last picture you see for a few days! I’ll keep you posted as to how the camera is doing.

Love, D & J