Wednesday 2 November 2011

Under a Southeaster

We're being hammered by a strong southeaster at the moment, force 4/5 gusting at times to force 7 - the speed of the wind can be seen from the way the smoke is being stripped away horizontally from the Hebridean Princess' funnel. The strongest gust hit the front of the house just after five this morning with such a bang it woke us up. It's not an unpleasant wind and, at least, it's stayed dry, but things had better improve before Saturday when we have our annual firework display (see post below).

Wind speed, and the distance it blows straight across open water, control the energy of the waves. Considering that, for us on the Ormsaigbeg shore, a southeaster only blows across ten to fifteen kilometres of the enclosed Sound of Mull, the waves breaking along our beach are pretty impressive.

We've had more than our fair share of rough weather recently, and this is reflected in the amount of kelp and other seaweeds that are piled along the beaches. Mixed in with it is a dirty spume from today's breakers, balls of which are picked up by the wind and blown across the fields.

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