1st Jan.: New Year’s Day at Lepe
I usually book double NCI watches on both Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. I figure that, since I no longer drink or celebrate the festivities, I will be at least one watchkeeper who is not suffering from the night before!
Boxing Day was dank with mist in the air. Nonetheless there was a procession of groups of swimmers each spending a very short time in the water. By the afternoon when the tide retreated Lepe spit was busy with people.
New Year’s Day morning was very different. It was the windiest I’ve known it at Lepe, walking across the grass was a battle against the wind. For the whole morning the wind was gale force 8, the waves on the shore were large, and there was nobody on or in the water except for two youths who had a short wade in the waves. We heard from Calshot that two foil pumpers had landed having set off from Lymington. We did not see them pass so they must have been quite far out.
Waves were breaking over the seafront road to Exbury. Most cars turned around but a few drivers demonstrated their 4×4’s by driving through the flooded road. The next time I drove along it there was still lots of sand and shingle across the road, so their cars would have been hit by a bit more than salt water spray!
At 1230 the front came through with a short period of heavy rain. The waves disappeared almost instantly. It was a good demonstration of how the short fetch waves were purely wind driven (the wind was SSW). When the wind dropped the waves disappeared.