Yet More Stormy Weather Taking its Toll.

Friday had yet another storm, yet another storm surge on top of a high tide. High tide coincided with lunch so I nipped out of work and spent my lunch break down at Eastney.

Some of the boats near the bus stop; the ones that were bumped together during the first storms were yet again bumping into each other. After three big storms they were now looking worse for wear.

A little blue boat was bobbing about and very low in the water and not far off sinking, the large yacht next to it had a broken roller jib. Its not looking good for boats in that area. One boat that is more or less a hulk had its deck separated from the hull. with the loss of rigidity the hull was starting to fold up on the bigger waves. To add to the misery, another boat with a lowered mast had bumped into it and the mast was thumping the cabin top every wave. Not conducive to a straight mast at all.

Back along the foreshore mine and Jim's dinghies were under water:

However, luckily the boats were fine, bobbing about on their moorings.

Others weren't as fortunate, this boat was floating a few weeks ago:

The tide wasn't far off overtopping the road in places, something I haven't seen down there, but I've seen the tide marks to show its been close in the recent past:

This boat had  broken its moorings again and this time ended up right up at the top of the beach.

Normal tides never come this high. They may come close a couple of times a year, so if it stays there then the owner is going to have a job floating it off again.

The woes of a boat owner battling the elements. Mind you, its far better if you use decent rope and anchors for mooring. Even better if you use chain. I do keep banging on about this, but chain isn't that expensive if you buy it from the right places and it doesn't chafes as much as rope does. Sure eventually you have to replace it, but maybe every couple of years or so for safety's sake.

Okay rope is cheap, but how cheap is it to hire a crane to drag your boat down the beach, or replace a mast after its been banged against another boat?