Waiting for Noel's Legacy

Hurricane Noel has now raced off to the northeast of us toward Nova Scotia. I checked the surf this morning around 7:20 and the surf conditions were intense and heavy. The First Street beach access was edged with fairly deep beach sand and plenty of sargassum from the very early morning's high tide. The wind was offshore, northwest about 30 knots with higher gusts. The breaking waves were at least double overhead and with smoking crests shredded by the torching wind. The north current was clawing the beach and dunes re-built after Hurricane Isabel 3 years ago. All I could think about was how good the surf was gonna be tomorrow. The offshore wind was forecast to subside and stay offshore. It would take until tomorrow for the surf to clean up and line up nice, and we even might have some leftovers on Monday.

I just returned from a 25-mile tempo ride. I stopped at what's left of Kitty Hawk Pier to check the surf on the way home, back down the Beach Road. The pier was chopped off by Hurricane Isabel leaving only the pier house and a stub of the original pier. Since then the Hilton Garden Inn, chocked full of tourists, sits where families and surfers and fishermen used to park their vehicles to use the beaches nearby and the pier. I understand the economic forces at work here, but it's sad to see a sign standing at the pier ramp which warns "for use of hotel guests only". Many a local child learned to surf or fish there including my son whom I saw get his first true tube ride there when he was 11-years old.

The surf there this afternoon was quite heavy busting hard on the sand dunes around the foot of the pier ramp and tearing away at the foot of the dune a little more with each successive wave. The outside sets were monstrous forcing the pier pilings to tremble and vibrate like guitar strings as they filed to the beach.

Tomorrow should be the day and tomorrow afternoon the time.