Stormy Weather

January 22-28, 2013

Tuesday:  Went to town for groceries and internet.  The only noteworthy thing from today happened on our way to town.   We rounded a bend on the curvy hilly road and ahead of us there was a cop car with lights on and the cop standing in his open doorway.   There was another vehicle just beyond him, pulled off into a rare turnout.  That guy was out of his car and talking into a device.   Not sure what was going on, Missy started to drive around.  Then the cop signaled that we needed to stay put.    After waiting for 10 minutes or so, we were pretty confused about what was going on.  There was no urgency.  Was there a crash further along and this was the best spot to stop oncoming cars?   Finally, a car came around the bend…and then turned around right at the cop.   5 seconds later, a camera car followed it!    It was completely rigged up with boom cameras on retractable arms.   Pretty neat!   They got turned around, and headed down out a view.   A minute later and we were cleared to go.    We passed a huge movie set parking area a few miles down the road.    It’s a good choice for filming a driving shot: great scenery and action packed curves.

Wednesday:  Windy and rainy today.   The surf was still too high for kayaking.   Mostly we hunkered indoors.

Thursday: Ditto.  We got to watch some guys unload a jetski using a special beach-wheeled trailer.  It was a mighty struggle for just the 3 guys to get it into the ocean.   Then, to our dismay, they took off down beach and out of sight.   We think they were doing some jetski-in wave surfing.

Friday:  Today we woke up to a lot of mist/fog and minimal visibility.   Smatterings of rain, which seemed to stop around lunch.   We thought the waves seemed smaller, so we geared up for yakking.    Since there was no sun for warming us up, we went with drysuits.  When we got into the ocean, we realized that the water was behaving much differently than we’d seen in the last few weeks.   Whereas before all the waves came in regular straight lines, varying only in size and where they broke (depending on the tide), now the waves were a crazy mishmash, going in all directions and creating chaos.   At first we thought we could stay kind of close to shore and mess around.  But the ocean created what I called piggyback waves.   Where you’d go to catch one wave, and then all of a sudden another stronger wave came up and joined it.   It was intimidating.   So we took a break and decided to wait to see if the surf would gentle in time.

While waiting, we walked into the surf (in our drysuits) and enjoyed the powerful pull of the water as the waves went in and out.   I only went up to waist deep, but my crazy sister went all in.   She loves herself some crazy ocean waves for swimming in.    It was kind of a funny sight, seeing her swimming in her drysuit.   It was cold water, but she didn’t seem to mind.    I probably might have joined her, but my hands were quite painful.  I had forgotten that I’d had the gaskets replaced and didn’t think to stretch them out.   My hands were turning purple.   So I sat out.    The ocean never did settle down, so once again we got kind of skunked.

Saturday:  Holy Moley!    We thought we’d had some wind before.  We were naïve.   Today we learned what real wind is like.   This was the first time we’d had strong, continuous gusts coming from the ocean.    It blew everything away that wasn’t fully tied down.   It gave you windchill burns on your exposed skin, even though the sun was shining and the temps read to be in the 60s.    Neither of us was motivated to try kayaking with that wind.    There were no surfers, which we’ve learned is a sign that the waves aren’t good.   Instead, the activity of the day was kite surfing!    I guess all the kiters saw the wind forecast, and the showed up in droves.   It was really fun to watch them.   Almost all of the kiters were just using there kites to help them surf the waves.   I thought it was kind of odd that they used regular surf boards.    But they were really good, and somehow got the boards to stay on their feet when jumping waves.   And they had no trouble going in any direction they wanted, at top speeds.  After an hour or so, one guy finally went out using a wakeboard-type thing.  It was rectangular, not curved.  But it had boots, so his feet were attached to the board.   This guy was amazing!   He went so fast, and made acrobatic cuts and somersaults and flips.    He was my favorite to watch.    Seeing all the colorful kites on the backdrop of the green/blue water was worth having to bundle up in winter gear.   (Made me think: perhaps some of my friends back home were kiting as well…but on ice?)

Sunday:  Same hurricane force winds today.   But, for fun, the direction changed.  Instead of hitting the rear of our rig, today the winds came from the side.   The rv rocked and bounced all day long.   And since our windows aren’t exactly storm-proof, we suffered annoying whistle sounds all day.    It was brutal.   The kite surfers were back today, but watching them was no longer enough to make enduring the winds worth it.   The only fun thing we did today was conduct an experiment with a seagull.   The question posed was: how would a seagull eat a raw egg?  In one gulp, or would he break it.   Turns out: he breaks it.  Which makes placing the egg on the picnic table a poor choice.  L    And the poor guy had no lips or tongue to eat with.   It was like watching someone try to eat a raw egg with a pair of tweezers.   Our night ended with some excitement.  We were visited by some noisy raccoons.   They were rooting around in the pickup bed, and Cassie was PISSED!   Since the truck is parked right next to the rig, she could see the raccoons and she barked her fool head off.   It was fun to tease her by lowering the blinds forcing her to have to nudge them back up to continue her verbal assault. 

Monday:  Same as Sunday.    We’re not cut out for these winds.   We’re beginning to think it was a Christmas Miracle when we first got here and the temps were high and the winds were low.    We’re looking forward to moving on tomorrow to somewhere quiet and calm.     Today’s seagull experiment involved oranges.    Turns out, seagulls don’t like oranges.