Mother Nature Is Unhappy

Britain has been pummelled over the last few days by severe weather. It has steadily whacked the Southern coast quite badly. One area, a railway in Dawlish, Devon had its ballast washed away leaving the track looking like an unsteady bridge across a gorge in an Indiana Jones film. You can see the story of that here.

Like a muppet with a camera, I went out and decided to brave the cold and show what the weather was doing to the coastline. I am not overly happy with the way these turned out, but that was because I was being buffeted by the wind. I was also having to avoid the waves coming over the shelter I was standing under. Here are a few shots. I have used Photoshop to brighten them as they were difficult to see.

A Few Other Bits

I took some other photos today. There were some of the sea being a little choppy, and the weir (little waterfall) that I photographed a couple of weeks back, and the water level has risen dramatically. Then there are the Victorian light along our road.

Jack Up Rig

I spent over an hour this morning trying to find a decent title for this post. I even used an anagram generator, but some of the words were far from flattering. So I decided to use the proper title for the ship I saw and posted yesterday.

I did a search this morning for “Oil rig legs on a ship” then “On a vessel” and found a Jack Up Rig. It appears that this vessel is a Jack Up Rig. A ship that lowers its legs to the sea bed and then lifts the main vessel up above sea level. Because of what it is, it cannot go on its own. There is no propulsion so it needs another ship to pull it.

You can see the large ship in front that is pulling the rig.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2334PojhWjU

 

 

 

Do You See What I Sea

Okay, so some of these titles are getting just a tad silly now.

Today, when I was looking out to sea, I noticed a lifeboat was out and about, and then noticed the small dinghy one and then the slightly larger than the dinghy one. One of two things was happening.

1. The smaller dinghy was dropping things in the water for the larger ones to try to pick up in the shortest amount of time in a training exercise.

or

2. People had dropped things in the water and they were cleaning it out. I am hoping that it is the former. So I took some photos. Carry on after this gallery …

Later on, my son pointed out that there was something rather large on the horizon. So I stuck the  bigger lens on and took some shots. The vessel is about 15 miles away, and still the size is about the same as the lighthouse, so that thing must be HUGE!