Portreath harbour wall 'destroyed'

[SteamyTea]

Well not exactly, a small section that separates the carpark from the inner harbour beach tumbled down during the night. It is possibly 200 years old, so they don't build them like they used to.

I did not find it that impressive when I got there.

But the second picture I took I found more interesting, and the third just shows how important a surf shack is.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

That window looks like it was just secured with foam!  There's no evidence of proper fixings that I can see.

[MikeSharp01]

2 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

There's no evidence of proper fixings that I can see.

Nope - not a one, but the glass didn't break, at least that's a blessing they can just pop it back, foam around it and all will be fine.

[SteamyTea]

I was going to get the local radio girl back (I declined an 'interview' as she was way to distracting) and tell her that the windows was the real story.

Looks like a FENSA claim to me

Sun is now, so that wetsuit should be dry.

 

Now as that looks like a bedroom, the old joke about "did the earth move for you too"

"No, but the frigging window has fallen in".

Edited January 3, 2018 by SteamyTea

[ProDave]

Was it wind or waves that pushed the wall over and the window in?

[Jeremy Harris]

The inner harbour area is reasonably sheltered, so my guess is that a bit of that hut hit the window, perhaps down near the bottom, and knocked it out.

[SteamyTea]

I don't know for certain, but wind was from the west, so was across the carpark.

As the small cafe seems totally undamaged (this is lower than the carpark and closer to the beach), I suspect that wind driven waves built up the water height along the main harbour wall.  When high tide and low air pressure caused a extra sea level increase, there was enough energy to push waves up the slipway.  This extra water mass was enough to damage the old wall where a newer set of concrete steps had be cut in.

In Cornish terms it was not a huge storm (unlike Feb 2014, actually a set of storms), but probably the wind angle was just right for this to do the damage.

 

Just had a look at the tide chart and at Perranporth (10 miles up the coast) the tide was at 7.4m, so quite a high one anyway.  Add a bit of storm surge and wave/water containment and it could easily topple an old wall.

[SteamyTea]

A picture says a thousand words

 

[SteamyTea]

The upside is that the beach looks a lot better with a fresh covering of gravel.  Usually it is covered in shit, from both dogs and the failing sewage system when it rains.

Portreath really is a smelly place and even though it is close to me, I hardly ever go there.

Time for a coffee in a proper port I think.

Edited January 3, 2018 by SteamyTea