Sonoma coast get slammed by stormy weather . . .

Traveling anywhere in Sonoma County was risky during and after the storm so we stayed coast side. With the reports of 20' waves I couldn't stay cooped up in the house.

All of these photographs were taken at Duncan's Landing. Shooting here you and your camera can get drenched with one big wave.

I stood in the fierce wind and driving rain to get these shots.

Water runoff from the hills create new waterfalls everywhere along the coast. 

Please be mindful of the slick wet roads. Watch for falling limbs, downed trees and flooded roads. 

Tall Ships, Big Waves . . .

A ship load of visiting voyagers on a fog soaked day in Bodega Bay

With swells up to 10 feet, the surfers were out at sunset

Misty, gray, raucous ocean . . .

Brightened up to a steamy gold sunset as I ended my walk

I am where I want to be . . . 


Click here for 'Dark Side of the Lens' . . . a beautiful award winning video not to be missed . . 

 

Bodega Bay Surfers . . .

Six foot tide, big curly waves and 90 degree temps bring out the surfers

Our Beautiful Bodega Bay . . .

Kick butt kite-boarder . . .

This guy was so much fun to watch! He went all-out - flying down the beach faster than I could shoot! He was obviously having a blast as evidenced by his hootin' and hollerin' . . . I should've shot a video but I got so caught-up in watching him I was just enjoying the moment and not thinking about much else. . .
 

Great informational messages about alternatives to plastic and rethinking plastic waste . . .

 

 

No More Plastic!

 

 

Beach trash ~

Beach trash ~ cheap plastic toy & bait container . . .

The Nurdle hurdle . . .

Plastic 'Nurdles' ~ photo credit: onemoregeneration.org

What's a Nurdle?

by Charles Moore, Founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, onboard the Esperanza

Plastic is now everywhere. When locating plastics anywhere in the environment, scientists have little difficulty fulfilling the age-old saying, "Seek, and ye shall find."

But where do plastics come from? Most plastics are made from the natural gas portion of our petroleum resources. The gasses, like ethylene, are purified and turned into plastic by the use of polymer catalysts, which link ethylene molecules together to make polyethylene. Polyethylene plastics make water bottles, clothing fabric, and Tupperware as well as thousands of other products. So how does the polymer get to the processor who makes the goods for the consumer. The answer is “nurdles.” Over 250 billion pounds of nurdles are shipped around the world to plastic processing factories every year. Nurdles are plastic resin pellets that represent the most economical way to ship large quantities of a solid material, that is, in a pelletized form.

The pellets come in rail tank cars, and at 20-25,000 per pound, there are about a billion of them in each tanker. So many have escaped over the last half century during the transfer from rail car to factory by vacuum hoses, washing during rainstorms from rail sidings to the sea, that nurdles now represent about 10% of the litter counted on beaches worldwide.

In surface trawls for plastic particles aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza, nurdles have been found in every trawl. The plastic industry itself is the biggest single source of plastic particles in the environment.

 More beach trash ~

Kite boarder at sunset . . .

Sunny Winter Days . . .

looking from home out to Seal Rock this morning

Looking out to Seal Rock it appears the waves are unusually tall. I don't know the height of Seal Rock but I do watch the waves out there everyday from our living room window . . . these babies are pretty big . . . .

     looking out to Seal Rock on Wednesday, March 9th 

 March 9th surf

  

calm harbor this morning

The harbor was calm this morning. No sign of anything out of the ordinary going on. Bob at Bodega Bay Surf Shack reports decent waves out at the coast but makes no mention of the tsunami warnings . . . surfers are bad$## dudes (and gals), when most people run from monster waves (and rightly so!) they're grabbing their longest board. 

Last night I heard crashing surf over at Salmon Creek and Bodega Head. It was a calm night, no real wind. I'll post more after our walk today . . .

Wednesday, March 9th beach trash

beach glass ~ March 9th