Hurricane Bill and Our Crickets

We've now definitely fallen into Fall. About 10 days before Hurricane Bill I saw a cricket on the floor in my office. I had to smile a private smile. That night as I returned in the dark from the grocery store, the Food Line(Lion)as I like to call it, I heard crickets raising hell all around the house. This was now the official first sign of our Fall swell window. We were firmly in it now. The crickets were here! I was stoked.

Hurricane Bill had pushed up between Bermuda and us, about 200 miles offshore. It was moving too fast at 20 mph and its wind speed had dropped to 90 mph as it fed on cooler water east of us. The swell from the storm's approach hit on Friday and was decent in some spots mostly south of Kill Devil Hills. The wind was west about 20 mph. The wind rules everything here. And frankly, we get much better, longer lasting waves from slow-moving storms (less than 10 mph) and tropical depressions---much better.

The next day the wind was northwest and howling up to 20 knots (1 knot = 1.13 mph) under sunny skies. A low pressure trough line approached from the northwest as I walked over the Martin Street boardwalk to look at the ocean. Its storm face is always contorted, exaggerated, and severe when big storms are around. It demands to be witnessed. What I saw is now stamped onto me forever.

The ocean was sticking out its chest and beating on it. The steel-gray clouds of the approaching front rolled under themselves toward the beaches like a great canopy roller riding a 30 knot offshore wind. Massive wave faces stood proud in the shredding air, their crests ripped back in spray and water vapor reaching about forty feet. From north to south, as far as one could see were these spraying mammoths.

Light flashes sparked off the back of my glasses lenses. What I thought must be lightning, were scores of tourists on condominium balconies firing their cameras at nature colliding. The rain began. I walked slowly to my car hoping tomorrow would bring the surf conditions that thrill me. It surely did.