Today’s storm seems to have passed. We’re down to about 45 knot winds, and have decided it’s safe to turn the generator back on, and go online.
We didn’t get much reading done, the storm kept our full attention! We easily reached the predicted 50 knots sustained winds. No telling how high the gusts reached.
The waves were spectacular! They crashed onto our beach higher and higher as the tide rose to above 18 feet around 10:45 a.m.
Right at the high tide the storm reached the peak of its fury. Our wind generator was turned off and the auxiliary brake had been applied. It spun lazily in the wind all day, but at the storm’s climax it suddenly took off, spinning madly, furling, and roaring loudly. We’ve seen this before, but only with the old wind generator. Remembering that from previous years, I’d about decided the other day that the new one wouldn’t do that. I was wrong.
We lost the lid of a fish tote we’d salvaged from a beach north of here. We had stored it on our beach until we figured out what to do with it—we were going to do something fantastic with it, we just didn’t now what, exactly. Now we have to go out and see if we can find it again when the weather calms down.
We also gained a big log right across the veranda beach. It’s just over a foot in diameter, and it’s wedged in the rocks right in the middle of the route I use to walk to the water’s edge to fish. We’ll have to decide if it’s a problem or not, and figure out how to dispose of it if it is.
We didn’t get very good photos, but we tried. We had difficulty holding the camera steady while the wind buffeted us. Digital shutters never seem to capture what you’re trying to photograph, either.
View from the garden. The tote lid can be seen at lower right, headed for freedom.
A wave breaks on the "veranda rocks."
We stayed inside as much as possible. We had some tense moments, but the storm has passed. It’ll be very interesting to see what happened elsewhere. We heard on the radio that the police had closed streets in Haines. We suspect they got some snow. When we hike out, we’ll be sure to take along bow saws. It’s very likely we’ll need to clear the trail as we go.