Lots of discussion about the weather on the forum, while much of the country is in the midst of an arctic blast. I am a weather nerd, but just saw something this morning on weather.com. We all know about their hour-by-hour forecasts... and I have to say, they've been doing a pretty fine job of calling it within 24-36 hours around here lately. But this morning when I clicked on the hour-by-hour local, I saw that they now have detail down to every 15 minutes. "Yeah, right," I thought.
It was beautifully calm this morning when I went out to get the Sunday paper; walking by the canals, the water was like a mirror in the pre-dawn light. I checked the weather when I got back, and it was calling for the anticipated cold front to come in at 10:45. Pretty specific. At 10:30, it was 77º and still calm. At 10:47, the wind picked up and the temp started to drop. Pretty impressive. Our cold front will last a day or so and be just enough to need some long pants for tomorrow.
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Saturday, December 20th. Man does not live by boat alone. We've been watching the dredge equipment make it's way into our ship channel. The smaller tugs haul the pipe to the jetties, heavy equipment on land pull the pipes up and drag them onto the beach. We get a front row seat with Wild Blue. We decided to go to the beach on Saturday to watch the land stuff.
When in place, there will be several miles of pipe running along the beach. Spoils dredged from the jetties and ship channel will be pumped onto the beach. Hurricane Dolly did a number on the area, and these spoils will be used to build up more dunes to protect the man-made stuff on the island.
Remember when you were a kid and played with your Tonka trucks in the sandbox? Well, this is certainly the grown-up version...
This guy picks up one end of the pipe with a loop on his bucket and gets his end ready to haul down the beach. A large cat on the other end drags it. They move together at the same speed and push/pull these pipes down the beach to get them ready to hook together. The precision is impressive.
And we weren't the only ones fascinated by it; there was a steady stream of lookers coming by. I'm thinking... that piece of equipment is working in front of the "Beach Rental" stand... I wonder how many of us would pay good money to play in the sand with that thing for an hour or two? :wink
They will be working non-stop (according to the local newspaper) until late February. The last time the ship channel was dredged, there wasn't local coordination to get that sand moved up onto the beach... it just got pumped out into the Gulf. This is better at both ends of the dredge operation.
More of man's designs to try to keep Mother Nature under control. And planned for completion just in time for spring break. 8)
Happy Holidays!
Jim B.