Compare the two photos, above and below, Before and After, taken at the same spot on the ocean, halfway between Marconi and LeCount Hollow. Chez Sven is located two miles from the ocean. Over the weekend, during the storm, we could hear the ocean roar, which meant waves were pummeling the coast, not as bad as further south, according to the weatherman, but dramatic none the less.
Sven and I went down to the sea late Sunday afternoon, after the fog had rolled in. “I miss hearing the fog horn,” he said, remembering one in Sweden. That’s how much fog there was. We walked right, as is our custom. The fog kept growing thicker, so it was only possible to see a few yards by the end of our walk.
I felt sorry for all the people who only walk this beach in the sunshine. They don’t know what they’re missing. It’s a totally different place. Spooky, perhaps, but amazing to experience. The beach looked as if a giant Halloween witch, with a great big broom, had lingered for fifteen days and swept the exposed sand clear of debris, stones, shells, seaweed, everything! How smooth the surface. The dune was no longer the same either. I had detected cracks over the past few months, but now the change was spectacular. Whole layers had fallen away, revealing sediment of different shades of beige, evident even in the fog. I did not have my camera Sunday, so we came back yesterday to record the erosion. There was a line of burnt ocher that we took to indicate the presence of iron. I don’t like to think that the land mass is eroding, but that fact cannot be denied.
