Surf Check: Westport

An absolutely brutal wind was blowing Friday, strong enough to knock power out to 80,000 people. We sent a crew out to check the waves.

The wind was SSW, which eliminated the South Shore from any wave watching consideration.

The South Coast gets the shaft on Nor'easter surf. Even the SSW winds only tune up part of the SC, as Martha's Vineyard blocks or lessens much of the heavier surf.

That leaves us Westport, which the Vineyard doesn't serve as a barricade for. She also is very accessible.

It has been a slow storm season. There hasn't been much in the way of high surf or heavy snow. 

We would have gone to Tiverton or Little Compton, which also get high surf with SSW winds. However, it's about a half hour getting from Horseneck Beach to Sakonnet Point, and we didn't have enough sunlight left.

We only consider Rhode Island to be South Coast for this SE Massachusetts website during storms with SSW winds.

There was a nice crowd at Gooseberry Island to check the waves.

I was technically at Gooseberry Neck, as the road was blocked. If I was really motivated, I'd have hoofed it out to the southern shore of Gooseberry Island. It would have been dark by the time I got there, so I just hung at the Neck.

It hasn't happened yet, at least not while I was there with a camera, but Westport is the most likely place to maybe see waves breaking on houses... at least on the South Coast. The SC is more threatened by hurricanes, which don't happen here that much.

You do see houses on stilts from Westport to Wareham, so the SC does get hit. It might be where we set up if a hurricane approached. Nor'easters tend to send our photographers to heavyweights like Duxbury or Eastham.

In the picture above and the video below, you can see Westport using a bulldozer thingy to push the water off of East Beach Road.

Sometimes...

... we do a rapid fire one-two shot from the same vantage point.

South Coast Surf Check

We went to Westport, Mattapoisett and Fairhaven to check the surf.

Westport leads off.

We went to Horseneck Beach and Gooseberry Point, Neck or whatever they call it.

FAIRHAVEN

MATTAPOISETT

Off to the South Shore....

Surf Check; South Coast, 1/24/19

South Wind = South Coast for the Surf Check people.

Brutal south winds, gusting over 60 mph, were pushing the surf ashore.

All of the pictures are from Westport. All of the videos are also Westport, save this one below of a New Bedford wind station near Carney Academy.

Westport has a few different places to check surf. Horseneck Beach was very choppy, as the winds were piling up water and messing with the surf.

One of the few waves that would hold still for a shot.

The road will be needing a good sweep once Mister Tide recedes.

Bad rock for a surfer to get surprised by...

If this storm hit a few days ago with the supermoon...

You can visit Westport in a storm and immediately know why they have quite a bit of undeveloped coastal property.

I get soaked less often than you'd think that someone with my job would get soaked. I grew up on a beach, and have a sixth sense about where to hide from the surf and spray.

The road to Gooseberry Island was closed, so this is the best I could do.

Westport must get trounced by hurricanes.

Duxbury residents who don't favor seawall repair should envision this as Powder Point.

I was in Westport at high tide, this part was getting it worse than anywhere else in town that I saw.

Westport is the only south facing town that isn't heavily protected by Martha, Elizabeth and the Grey Lady, our southern islands.