Grey Day

Not a lighthouse blog. Not a lighthouse blog. Not a lighthouse blog. Not a lighthouse blog. Not a lighthouse blog. Not a lighthouse blog. Not a lighthouse blog. Not a lighthouse blog.  Really.

But driving down to Scarborough along the Western Seaboard today, we did stop off at Slangkop for a short snap session.

The waves were a little disappointing, way short of the 42-55 feet we had been promised. But the weather was dramatic, with bright sunshine and heavy squalls fighting for our attention in an icy Atlantic blast.

Other photos from the day are here.

I can’t feel my fingers

The weekend in Cape Town kicked off with heavy rain from about 3am this morning (rather than 3am this afternoon, which makes no sense at all, obviously. My point is that it was 3am this morning, rather than any other morning).

It’s not like this wasn’t expected. One of the (many) good things about living here is that the weather is quite predictable. Stuck on the corner of Africa with literally thousands of miles of ocean almost surrounding us, it’s fairly easy to see what’s coming and warn us about it. And warned we were:

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Wind, rain, swell – lots of each of them, which surely means a trip out with the camera tomorrow.

Currently, it’s 10.2C and the pressure is 997mb. The pool is overflowing and there are puddles all over my lawn. And with the wind increasing and the pressure still dropping, it seems like the worst is yet to come.

In the midst of all this, I have prepped with homemade soup, cottage pie, pasta “thing” and home-baked fresh bread. Looking good, then.
And then we’re off to Newlands to watch the rugby. Memories of the sleet at Italy v Paraguay in 2010 spring to mind.
I’d rather be in the stands than on the field, but right now, I’d rather just watch it on TV and enjoy my soup.

Today &Tomorrow

It’s been a funny day. Due to my hard work on the public holiday yesterday, I found myself with a rare day off with a wife and some childcare.
We made the most of it, out for breakfast and shopping for a new car. I don’t want a new car particularly, but I do need a new car.

The current 6000mobile is getting on a bit and it’s starting to get to that point where it’s becoming false economy to keep it running. Additionally, it was bought in a previous era: living in the City Bowl and before the arrival of our kids. Things have changed and it’s suddenly small and impractical.
This car shoping is not something I enjoy either. It’s a lot of money and it’s being given to a salesman. I’ve spoken to a lot of them today and I’m frankly amazed at how many of them have first-hand knowledge of working for the company whose vehicle I am considering. What are the chances?
I’m not sure whether I should be impressed with their intimate knowledge or concerned about the evidently huge turnover of staff in the motor retail industry.

Tomorow will be more fun. No salesmen – just a desire to go out and look at the effects of the storm which arrived in the Cape earlier this evening.

Expect photos. 

Wave, Daddy

Back from Agulhas and although, as I suspected, the stormy conditions last week led to some huge waves battering the Southern Tip. Sadly, while they those waves were doing their thing, I was sensibly sheltering from the rain, playing lego with the boy in front of a nice open fire.

When we eventually emerged, things had subsided a bit.

Still, there was the odd one which reminded you of the power of the ocean. But mainly, today was devoted to finding interesting shells and throwing big stones into the sea.

Perfect.

I’ll upload some more photos tomorrow.

Behold The Fetch

If you are currently residing in Cape Town, you cannot have failed to notice the somewhat extreme meteorological conditions that are prevailing this morning. The rain – and there’s a lot of rain – is travelling horizontally past our windows, assisted in no small part by the ridiculously strong and blustery northwester. It’s dark, it’s grey – dark grey – and it’s cold. Cold, dark grey.

Winter. She is here.

But where did this remarkable weather come from, I hear you ask. Well, here’s your answer: :

This was the situation at midnight last night. Now, ten hours later, Cape Town (central, “helpfully” indicated by a tiny red dot) has slipped underneath that pointy line indicating a phat cold front, linked to those double-barrel low pressure centres. And that’s why we’re getting what we’re getting right now.

But, while windguru is predicting swells of up to 7 metres for the Cape coast this weekend (and that lengthy fetch shows you why), any avid surfers will probably be disappointed, as Spike from wavescape indicates:

Gather yer nuggets Wednesday as rising 12ft beasts smack thy chops stukkend. Dik SSW surf swells in glassy sea > light NW. Epic. FB 3′ early, 4-5′ in arvi. Cooks.Thursday neargale NW smelts 10′ mess, FB 4′ in stiff offshores. By lunch, strong SW thro. DIK RAIN drench from 8am. Friday heaving 5-10′ storm sea, ragged SW winds > S. Heavy squalls subside a bit. C-c-cold. FB ragged side going onshore. Saturday heaving 5-10′ storm junk in strong S > SSE. FB kak. Sunday lekker calm, leftover 3-5′ S swell. FB fun 3′.

Thanks for that, Spike. Lucid as ever. Consider my chops smacked stukkend.

The forecast for the weekend does suggest that things will calm down a little, although if you were expecting a hefty tan by Monday morning, you may be barking up the wrong country.

Me? I’ll be heading down to Cape Agulhas, where those mad swells will hopefully bring some mad photo opportunities.
And yes, I’ll be taking my thermals along with me…