Stormy seas at Rye Harbour

We wandered down to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve recently, to see how the repairs were getting on after the storm surge in early Dec 2013 - we were pleased to see that after just a couple of weeks it was all back in place:

Given how it looked earlier, that's very impressive!

Mind you, given that the materials they've repaired it with are the same as those washed away, it's only a matter of time before it happens again I guess... As if to underline this point, the sea looked pretty ferocious for the English Channel:

Not that these little Turnstones were complaining - they were dodging the waves to look for food that might be washed up:

The beach had certainly shifted during the storm - there was a new 8-foot depression in the shingle which hadn't been there before...

I hope it's a long time before we get another flood like that, but with sea levels creeping up a few mm per year, and extreme weather becoming ever more common, it might come again sooner than we'd like...

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Storm surge washes road away in Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

We'd heard that there was some significant damage in the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve due to Thursday night's storm surge, so we wandered down there at high tide today for a look... What's worth knowing is that this road was built in the 1940s and this is the first time the sea has ever come over it. That tells us something about the magnitude of this storm surge and the rise in sea levels over the past 60 years (about 10cm, or 4")...

There's also a video that some of the staff took of it at high tide on Friday:

What seems to have happened is that the tide got high enough to wash over the top of the road and plunge over the other side - there are several points where there are holes created by the water:

with the scoured shingle from under the road spread out beyond them:

But in some places the scouring went a bit further...

One of the passing places has collapsed:

and in another area the scouring caused the whole road to cave in:

this of course led to more scouring on the upstream side of the collapsed road:

and then scenes like this:

Parts of the road are now some distance away...

and another slab is a bit lower than it used to be:

The force of the water had also pushed the fence over and uncovered an electricity cable:

Part of me wishes I'd been there on Thursday night to watch it happen, but it probably wouldn't have been the safest place to be... Bizarrely I may have been the last person to cross this bit of road before it fell in, as I went for a night-time bike ride down there on Thursday evening (with some very bright LED lights) and crossed this part of the road at about 9:30pm - it would have caved in at about 1am.

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

High tide flooding in Rye

I went down to the quay this lunchtime to see how high the tide got... It was the highest I've ever seen it, though a I guy I was talking to said he'd been there at 1am last night and it had been at least a foot higher. Here's a short video, and then some pics:

Apparently last night this car was covered up to the top of the wheels:

How or why they'd managed to park this side of the flood barriers I don't know... I guess the windows are open to help it dry out! I was told that the water had been spraying through the flood barrier wall here, where it was still accumulating at high tide today:

The evidence of this could still be seen - silt on the pavement:

There was also some seepage going on today:

And the flood barriers were still closed:

Glad it wasn't any worse!

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

A quick bit of chainsawing in the woods

With the glorious sunshine yesterday afternoon, a quick trip to the woods was in order. The priority was to use the chainsaw to quickly produce some small logs to split up at home for kindling, which was done in pretty short order:

I also took up a treat for the wild birds, which I'm sure they'll appreciate now the weather is colder...

As there was still a bit of daylight left, I popped over to the area I've been coppicing, which is looking pretty barren now the leaves are mostly gone:

I didn't stop long, but managed to make a small start on the empty log rack I'd left there. These logs should be surplus to requirements, so we're able to sell some in future winters (this year we've only got enough to heat our own place...).

It was pleasing to see that the logs in the rack I filled back at the start of September have already started showing signs of seasoning, with a few of them developing splits in the ends:

Looking forward to burning them in a couple of years!

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Rye Fawkes 2013 bonfire, parade and fireworks - video & photos

Brilliant parade, fireworks and bonfire in Rye last night!

Here's a short video I put together of the highlights...

Loads of burning torches in the parade, and no accidental fires as far as I could see!

though it did look like this guy might have an accident...

Big crowds as usual, thousands of people there!

Looking forward to the next time...

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.