Sand Castles: Remember digging castles in the sand as a kid? We'll the weekend before last we did the same except we built a seawall around our van to stay dry. And we did it.
Bad News: On Friday, October 7, 2011, Dana went for his now 6 mile round trip run past the pier and back. He had seen the Gulf touching the asphalt roadways providing access to the beach. The exits from the beach leading to the asphalt roadways had become flooded with salt water (only good for 4 wheel drive). Back at camp, localites who were out for 4 wheel adventure stopped to inquire and allowed us to listen to the National Seashore Weather Report for Friday and the weekend. Nothing unusual or out of the ordinary was reported. So, we stayed put as high tide had not overtaken us. We could see the Gulf of Mexico had become fierce and watched Saturday as high tide kept getting higher and higher.
Taking Precautions: On Sunday, Dad moved the van up 5 feet and we put two planks under the rear tires and two short boards under the front tires. Dana also began building a sand & seaweed berm around the rear of the van using a 5 gal. bucket as a precaution.
Battered By The Powerful Gulf Water: Eventually, our berm was breached by a rogue wave. Therefore, more sand was hauled in. Monday afternoon was the worst as we were hit again, and again, and it looked like our berm was going to be washed away. But, we didn't give up and spend the rest of the day repairing and strengthening our sand wall. For a while the tide was coming in on all sides and was against the dunes up and down the beach. Even the hole (12 feet across and 4 feet deep) we had dug to get our supply of sand filled with water with each wave and helped take the pressure off of us. When nightfall arrived we didn't know what to expect Tuesday morning. However, the onshore wind had changed and was now blowing a gale out of the north. Dana, worn out and cold, went right to sleep. Dad, didn't get much sleep, he kept an eye on the tide.
Keeping An Eye On The Gulf
If It's Not The Tide It's The Fish: During the night the tide had come up on both sides and had come over the berm only on a small section without damaging it. As the day progressed we could see the Gulf become less fierce and knew we were now "in the clear". But, now there are thousands of dead fish on the beach and many more are expected. Red Tide had moved in stretching at least from Galveston, Texas to somewhere down along the Mexican Gulf coast.
