Yesterday evening, the waves were beginning to increase in size as Hurricane Gustav approached from Cuba. I took Caroline down to the beach to get a closer look. The wind was blowing the sand so badly that I had to keep Caroline on the opposite side of me to prevent her from being hit by it. Looking out from the beach (westward), the entire sky over the horizon had a slightly darker look about it. Just in the past 3-4 hours, the waves had gone from 1-2 feet high to around 4-5 feet with occassional waves appearing around 6 feet high. I counted at least a dozen surfers catching the waves. The current was very bad, pushing the surfers to the right (or northward) down the beach the moment they got into the water. The rip tide was beginning to show itself as well, as waves would crash and immediately begin to be pulled back for the next wave. I noticed today in the news that a couple in their 40’s were found yesterday from apparent drowning (one in the water and the other washed ashore), and I would believe the rip tide to be the culprit.
So this morning, Gustav headed towards New Orleans, as we awoke to some much larger waves and very wild rip tide. I could see the larger waves from our balcony as they crashed ashore. After breakfast, we played a bit, and then decided we would try to go in to Port St. Joe to pickup additional groceries and determine if the roadway down south of here (the only road on and off of the peninsula) had any danger of being washed out. As wWe approached the particular area that is prone to being washed out, we quickly noticed vehicles on the side of the road, some signs up as well as a tractor being used in the roadway. We asked the gentleman directing traffic if it was safe to go out and if we did, would we be able to get bac. He told us we could cross now, but that the tide would be at its highest around 3:00 and they were not sure if the road was going to be washed out by then or not. We elected to get out and take some pictures – see below – before heading back to the condo.
This is a picture of the water coming up over the rocks that protect the road used to access the peninsula (to the right is the gulf and to the left is the bay).
Waves crashing over road to Cape San Blas.
Staci snapped this shot of the girls and I with the rocks and waves in our background… WOW! You can also see some of the water down on the road.
Hanging on for a picture.
The wind was really blowing, pelting the back of my legs with sand. The waves to the right of us were crashing on the rocks and immediately being pulled out. It was amazing. Staci and I had never witnessed this rough of seas while at the beach, so it was unbelievable to see it in action. I can hardly imagine what things were like closer to the hurricane. Here is one last shot of how rough the seas were… absolutely incredible… the water is just relentless at this point.
This was quite a site!
It is around 10:20PM on Monday night now and we are calling it a night. We hope to be down at the beach tomorrow morning. We keep hearing that after a storm like this, the ocean really calms down and the water is beautiful. We shall see in the morning. Hope everyone is doing well!
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