After the storm

It was about 3 hours after high tide before I could safely walk along the coast path to Crovie.

Part of the path was covered by cobbles, swept over it by the power of the waves.

The waves were still quite impressive, but nothing to what they had been.

Storm damage to the road in Crovie.

I could see why the houses all have shutters - they're definitely necessary with weather like this!

The power of the sea

The storm and high tide combined gave a great demonstration of the awesome power of the sea.

Not a day to be driving along the sea front!

Wet feet!

I had to paddle to get out of the house...

The sea was pouring through the gap in the harbour wall.

And sometimes more than pouring...

The waves, combined with a particularly high tide, meant that the water was right up to the top of the harbour and as each wave came surging in, it came right over the road and pier.

This is the bit of road I had to drive over to get home!!!

Stormy weather

The dramatic view which greeted me one morning from my balcony...

Of course I had to take my camera for a walk and, whilst trying to keep it (mostly) dry, got a few nice views of the village.

Watch out!

Storm surfers

It's been quite stormy lately in Orkney, which has made for some impressive seas around the coastline.

This is Yesnaby a few days after the strom. The waves are still pretty impressive and I can only imagine what they'd have been like a couple of days previously.

As we were out west for the afternoon, we headed along to the Bay of Skaill to see if there were any kite surfers out, and happily there were. While they were getting ready to take to the water, I spent some time watching the waves hitting the cliffs to the left of the bay - very impressive.

At times the waves nearer the shore were so big, I could barely see the cliffs!

Kite surfer ready for the off...

I did take rather a lot of photos, and couldn't decide which I liked best, so have uploaded a lot here (and believe it or not, this is actually only a small selection of the photos I took.) I'm pleased with how these turned out anyway, as it wasn't easy to hold the camera steady in the wind, especially with fingers which were gradually getting colder and colder. And then it started raining for a bit..... which did give us a lovely rainbow - complete with a 'crock of gold'.

At least I kept my feet dry ... unlike some!

Hopefully the kite surfers will be able to see these photos too.... I don't know who they are, but Orkney being Orkney, I know the mother of a friend of theirs, so can hopefully get a message to them.  Enjoy. :-)

All photos copyright.