when we went to sleep last night,
there was just a gentle breeze, the windsurfers hardly had a wave to serf, as we left the hotel we knew,
today the weather would be the absolute opposite,
it was blowing a gale,
as soon as I took the camera out of its bag,
the lens was covered in sea spray,
the sea so rough that the surfers did not dare venture out into it, and they like waves!
low dark clouds were the order of the day,
we had planned a coffee on the pier,
so we braved the elements, it is hard to describe how strong the wind was, but you can see how it whipped up the sea,
the handrails you can see,
and the metal decking are normally out of water, even at the highest of tides,
not so today!
wave after wave would have swept away any fisherman foolish enough to fish there today!
the same along the coast,
no surfing today, the surf is really up!
looking down on the upper gantry, wavetops were coming through the gratings,
starting at this end,
and rolling down,
then just occasionally the big one,
which you not only heard, but felt,
a last look outside, it was bitingly cold,
a cake and a latte for Diana,
just a latté for myself,
outside it was miserable, as I went outside to take a few photographs,
but back in here,
we had our coffees to warm our hands up, sitting here every so often we could feel the pier almost shudder as one of the huge waves hit,
I popped outside to take a few more photographs, as you might expect, not many people about,
and certainly no surfers,
looking out to sea one of the four cruise ships at anchor,
Diana then came outside,
into the gale,
putting on a brave face,
Diana's hair like mine was being blown all over the place!
we crossed to the west side of the pier,
looking down,
I was amazed at the damage the storm had done, and the strength of the waves,
these gratings are about 7 feet by 2 feet, and must weigh a few hundred pounds each, but they have been lifted from the supports they were bolted to and moved a few feet,
for obvious reasons, the Eye was not turning today,
and then there it was, for the briefest moments a rainbow,
back at the hut I tried one of our kites,
way too windy, it just circled round and round and then for a change of pace committed hari kari and nose dived into the sand, eventually I managed, after adding a tail to the kite, to actually get it airborne for 50 feet or so, great fun, brought back many childhood memories of days at Dymchurch where you could always guarantee a wind, after a few more games of cribbage we were out,
for our evening meal we were at the Harvesters Durley Inn,
Diana decided on a cocktail,
featuring passion fruit,
a red for myself,
'Cheers!',
Diana's cocktail looked nice, but mentioned it was a bit strong,
the salad bar was included in the meal,
so we started on that,
Diana later said that she had a tad too much salad,
never mind, we just took our time,
for our starters, buttered mushrooms for Diana, prawns on a bed of salad with a spicy sauce for myself,
ribs for Diana, and there was a lot of them,
I just had to go with the turkey,
well it was (nearly) Christmas!
Diana could not eat a dessert, I went for a knickerbocker glory,
it was huge! after coffees we made a move to the hut, the meal came to just over £70, which considering the amount of food and drink that we had we thought was fair,
past the pier,
and the Eye,
we settled in as night fell,
as the evening drew to a close we made a move to the hotel, feet up, a spiced rum and we were off to bed.
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