I had the pleasure of visiting a local elementary school for their Halloween Parade. My friend’s daughter, Dawn, was Princess Ariel. Dawn recently lost her front baby teeth so getting her to smile is, well, like pulling teeth. 🙂 She still makes a beautiful princess. Happy Halloween!
After a quick lunch at an IHOP in Newport, RI I reviewed my options. There’s a lighthouse I’d been meaning to try to find so this seemed a good opportunity. The Lighthouse is on Goat Island. I don’t know anything about that island either so the whole thing would be an adventure…and maybe there’d be some surf there.
I pulled out my trusty GPS and plugged in the address. It began by leading me back toward the Claiborne-Pell Bridge. I didn’t want to go over the bridge again and have to pay another toll but I decided to trust the GPS and sure enough…right before the bridge entrance was a left with a sign “Goat Island”.
Taking the left took me into historic downtown Newport. There were lots of signs for Goat Island to support the directions my GPS was shouting at me. Right by the Newport Visitor Center and Terminal a right turn took me to “The Causeway to Goat Island”. There was a little park on the right and a place to pull off the road so I stopped . I could see the Lighthouse and a great view of the bridge.
It’s just a little lighthouse.
The seas here were pretty calm too but the sun was starting to go in and out. It wasn’t quite so bright and sunny and a breeze had sprung up. A sailboat was cruising around the harbor.
I wanted to see if I could get a different angle on the lighthouse but when I crossed the bridge it became clear that the Lighthouse is located on the property that belongs to the Hyatt Hotel. There wasn’t much parking except for guests so I decided to move on.
Retracing my steps brought me back to downtown Newport. I wasn’t that far from the Mansions so I decided to try Ocean Ave. On the way I drove into Fort Adams. I just pulled into the parking area but I have added it to my list of spots I want to return to on a better day. The sky was rapidly clouding up and it was starting to sprinkle. A large helicopter circled over the bay.
Leaving Fort Adams I took a right. When I reached Ocean Ave. there was a barricade but it had been moved to the side of the road. The car in front of me didn’t hesitate so neither did I. And that’s where I found them…those angry seas that I knew had to be out there.
As I took pictures it began to rain harder. I moved on along up the road to Breton Park.
Along here the ocean was even wilder.
What an adventure! This had my adrenaline pumping. The wind was really blowing now and it was raining quite hard. I do believe the waves were getting bigger while I watched.
But all things must come to an end. The Newport Police arrived to throw everyone out.
They were nice about it but made it clear that it was time to leave. Like the road in Jamestown to Beavertail State Park, the end of Ocean ave was closed while crews removed sand and debris so I had to take a twisty series of side streets to get back to Broadway. By now it was really raining hard as I settled in for what looked to be a long , wet ride home. But I was satisfied. I’d found the angry seas.
I wonder what it would have been like on the Newport Cliff Walk? Now why didn’t I think of that!
Ok I was a good girl. I did not go out in the hurricane looking for storm photos. I stayed home. I was bored. But every time I’d think about venturing out I’d hear another horror story about tree limbs hitting cars or even whole trees falling… but one day is about my limit.
I was thrilled when I got up this morning and saw the sun trying to peak through. By 9 am it was shining brightly. There was a breeze but no major wind gusts. There was no reason for me to stay in today.
I had lots of places I could check out..The cape, Falmouth, Scituate, Jamestown and Newport RI??? No way would I get to all of them they were too spread out.
Scituate was on the news. Photos there looked pretty tame now so I headed south to Mattapoisett. Neds Point Light is pretty easy to get to and I figured it would give me an idea of what the ocean was like today. Getting there turned out to be the challenge. The Neds Point Rd. was closed with a huge tree down but one of the residents gave me directions to get around it. Those took me through a residential area with a lot of pine trees. It was easy to tell when you would see down branches because you’d smell that wonderful pine sent before you even saw them.
Once I got to the lighthouse in its little park I couldn’t believe it. It was like nothing had happened.
The sky was blue, there was no damage and the seas were calm.
I enjoyed the ambiance for a bit then decided to head to RI, specifically Beavertail Sate Park. That place can kick up a surf without any storm. I was sure I’d find some big waves there.
To get there I had to go over the Claiborne -Pell Bridge. It’s a beautiful bridge. It’s huge!
When I got to the toll booth I asked if it had stayed open during the hurricane. The collector told me he was only going to tell me once…they need SUSTAINED winds of 69 miles per hour. He said they only had sustained winds of 45 MPH during hurricane Sandy.
I mentioned that I’d seen quite a few boats moored in the harbor as I came over the bridge, did they ride out the storm out there? He said yes, not the smartest thing to do.
Then my time was up. Another car was behind me. I wished my toll collector a good day and continues on my way.
Along the shore you could see the debris left by the storm so it was easy to judge how far up the waves had come but the road was clear and before I knew it I was tuning down the road to Beavertail State Park. That’s when I saw the blue lights. Oh oh road block. I made a left and parked, grabbed the camera and headed down the hill to the corner. A women coming up the hill said I was a day late..I should have seen it yesterday. As I suspected the road had been completely under water. (This is what it normally looks like)
Today they were cleaning it up and had the road closed so the workmen could complete the chore.
On a side note I was told that IF I was able to get across to the other side I would see a car floating in the bay. A woman had run 2 police barricades because she didn’t want to be trapped on the “wrong side” of the bay. When she got to the low-lying section the water was too high and carried her car into the bay. Here the story changes depending on who is telling it. Some says she swam to shore and was rescued by the police others say she got out before her car went in the drink. Either way what she did after that was walk to the nearest bar and get drunk. Most of the folks I spoke with said they hoped her insurance turned her down. They were pretty irritated by her irresponsibility.
I hung around for a bit but by 1:30 it was pretty clear it would be several more hours before they opened the road so I headed back across the bridge to Newport, RI.
Well here I am stuck inside. Fingers crossed the power will stay on. Hurricane Sandy is pounding the East Coast with high winds, storm surge and extremely high tides helped along by the full moon.
The power went out for about 3 hours but there hasn’t been too much hard rain …at least not where I am anyway.
I don’t live right on the ocean and I’m not on the first floor. We have a lot of rivers that crisscross our town, some are tidal rivers and we do get flooding from those sometimes but it never reaches my area of town.
(Waves roll in at Winthrop Ma)
Photo by: David Brazier, Winthrop, MA.
I have the sliders to my deck open and can hear the wind blowing and gusting but it’s very warm. If it weren’t for the drizzle you wouldn’t even need a sweater.
They say Hurricane Sandy is the biggest storm to hit the Northeast since a hurricane in the 1800’s. New York City is flooding even now and there is expected to be major shore erosion on Cape Cod.
I wanted to go down to Beavertail State Park in Rhode Island to see if I could get some “angry sea” photos. I changed my mind when I saw pictures on the news of the waves on Narragansett Bay.
There’s a section of the road to Beavertail that is very low with Narraganestt Bay on the left and the tidal flats on the right. I’m sure that’s underwater right now.
Photo By Steven Senne
But here in my little corner of the world it hasn’t been as intense as Hurricane Irene which dumped torrential rains along with the winds. My neighborhood had huge trees come down during Irene. I watched them from my deck but there’s been nothing here this time. Not to say there aren’t trees and limbs down other places…just none near me.
(Taunton MA)
We still have a number of hours to go and the longer the wind blows the weaker the trees will get so we may still lose a few. Tomorrow I will venture out to see what I missed by staying inside today.
