Incredible scenes down here on the south coast this weekend. I don't think I've ever experienced the ferocity of a weather event such as the one that was raging overhead all through Friday night.
You may recall that I stopped on the south coast this weekend as the OH came down to spend Valentines with me in a hotel in Waterlooville.
Possibly not the most salubrious of places for a Valentine's dinner so after I bent his ear a bit, we headed off and found a lovely little place right on the beach that used to serve as the local lifeboat station. We got there at about 7pm, just as the wind was beginning to whip up a bit of a chop out at sea. This gradually increased in intensity and an hour later I asked the waiter if he'd mind if we moved away from our window seat as there was a noticeable draft and I could see that the glass was flexing with each gust. So we moved to another table and by the time we had finished eating, we were in the teeth of a full blown hurricane. A couple on a neighbouring table were getting data live and direct from a buoy just offshore from where we were sat and it was beginning to go off the scale - 68 knots, 73, 78 all the way up to 88 knots!
The roar from this weather system was like a jet engine and the whole place was being battered by these huge plumes of spray that were crashing into the pub's windows - and we were upstairs so a good 20 feet up. How the hell it all held up I'll never know and what I didn't realise was that the waves were also whipping up a lot of shingle and throwing this up against the building and right over the rooftop. In fact, it was exactly this phenomenon which caused the disaster at Milton on Sea just along the coast from where we were that very night. I think the inn's former status as a life boat station probably had a lot to do with the tenacity with which that building stood up to the conditions that night.
Leaving the pub, we walked out to a scene of complete and utter devastation some of the outdoor tables and chairs were now kindling wood and we had to wade through a newly created lagoon of seawater to get back to the carpark. This was literally knee deep and OH had to carry me on his shoulders to stop my Jimmy Choos from getting ruined.
Anyway, we survived and it was actually rather awesome having a grandstand view of mother nature in full song. That said, it wasn't half good to see the sun today
You may recall that I stopped on the south coast this weekend as the OH came down to spend Valentines with me in a hotel in Waterlooville.
Possibly not the most salubrious of places for a Valentine's dinner so after I bent his ear a bit, we headed off and found a lovely little place right on the beach that used to serve as the local lifeboat station. We got there at about 7pm, just as the wind was beginning to whip up a bit of a chop out at sea. This gradually increased in intensity and an hour later I asked the waiter if he'd mind if we moved away from our window seat as there was a noticeable draft and I could see that the glass was flexing with each gust. So we moved to another table and by the time we had finished eating, we were in the teeth of a full blown hurricane. A couple on a neighbouring table were getting data live and direct from a buoy just offshore from where we were sat and it was beginning to go off the scale - 68 knots, 73, 78 all the way up to 88 knots!
The roar from this weather system was like a jet engine and the whole place was being battered by these huge plumes of spray that were crashing into the pub's windows - and we were upstairs so a good 20 feet up. How the hell it all held up I'll never know and what I didn't realise was that the waves were also whipping up a lot of shingle and throwing this up against the building and right over the rooftop. In fact, it was exactly this phenomenon which caused the disaster at Milton on Sea just along the coast from where we were that very night. I think the inn's former status as a life boat station probably had a lot to do with the tenacity with which that building stood up to the conditions that night.
Leaving the pub, we walked out to a scene of complete and utter devastation some of the outdoor tables and chairs were now kindling wood and we had to wade through a newly created lagoon of seawater to get back to the carpark. This was literally knee deep and OH had to carry me on his shoulders to stop my Jimmy Choos from getting ruined.
Anyway, we survived and it was actually rather awesome having a grandstand view of mother nature in full song. That said, it wasn't half good to see the sun today
one day at a time 
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