The Lightkeeper's Blog

An unusually high tide hit earlier in the week and made a big mess all around the point.

This was the red sky in the morning from the famous adage. Later on there would be a loud wind and rain with a damaging tide that filled up the road for hours. Both roads were inaccessible coming on and off the Point for several hours after high tide.

I made a start on Friday afternoon. The walkway on the ocean side was cleared to a point beyond which I knew I would need the wheelbarrow. The walk by the flag pole island got enough attention that you could pass without breaking an ankle. Cleaning that up I got a good look at the beach and the new angle created by the tide. There will need to be a good deal of rearranging before the boardwalk can go back in place. The slope is severe right now and no amount of shims is going to bring the walk back to level. The beach is also quite narrow. In one 18 foot stretch it has narrowed to only 4 feet and I need 5.5. The tide also scoured a spot up by the tower. This is will likely mean I need to wait until the project is complete before having the path leveled for the walk. Anyone doing the service will need to get into the yard and that won’t happen until the restoration is wrapped up. I am told work will begin again on April 22. I was glad I had stacked up a big pile of lumber on a rack that had been used as a work bench. All of that lumber would have been in the harbor otherwise. The rack itself was shifted by wave action.

Last weekend I took the shop vac up into the Tower and worked my way down. It is cleaner than it was but will need some soap and water to have the stairs come back to complete health.

The handicap spots were made accessible once again. The porta potty remains. It was off the sidewalk and listing when I went out and was made secure against the fence. I was grateful it had not tipped over as another one nearby had. The fence itself has become in need of attention. I pinned in the top post but there is a great deal of rot evident. With another tide on the way Wednesday into Thursday we can see what kind of a ride these pieces go on next.

The trick is to do a little at a time. At the top of this last photograph you can see where it all gets dumped. The ocean carves out a hole and pushes all the material onto the walk from that hole. The cycle sees me filling it back in with the wheelbarrow and crossing my fingers. It helps when everything is dry. That was not the case yesterday and I will hope for things drying out in the next day or so.

This breech is roughly 75 yards from this keyboard. The odd thing about it is the lack of rebar folded into the concrete. There is another similar breech from this tide on Oceanside Drive at the bottom of Wampatuck Ave. These were not walls that were suspect in any way. Now they are.

The other handicap spots were cleared to finish the day. I have learned my limits and I called it quits for Saturday. This morning I took on the big island out by the revetment, raked out the rocks, and scooped up all the debris in a big chunk of the road. The tide started splashing over again which left some roadway remaining to be swept up. I will take another run at it after school tomorrow.