Big Storm hits Scottish East Coast

Last blog post of the year before the Retrospect post and probably the shortest cycle in distance after my commute...
North Berwick made BBC News Headlines today on Saturday when a big swell pushed in from the North Sea and several boats were damaged by an unsecured  container at the harbour on Friday evenings high tide swamped the harbour. Damage to sea defences and boats is estimated to be half a Million pounds...

I cycled west from the town along to Broadsands then returned on the high tide line where i could ,Saturday afternoons high tide was still over an hour away yet the waves were breaking on or above the high tide line. Only out for a couple of hours and about 5 or 6 miles cycled but it was amazing weather to witness.
I took the big Surly Moonlander as the beaches would no doubt be soft with the previous evenings high tide,

The waves were huge!...

The Friday evening high tide ripped out a lot of the sand along the high tide line, a lot was washed away on the West Beach, more than 2 feet to expose this pipe, it left a big gap at the foot of concrete steps leading to onto the sand.  Debris and sand was washed up onto Forth Street...

I rode into the wind above the coast along the grassy single track towards Yellowcraigs...

The bridge over the Eil burn is sitting 10 yards upstream than it should be!, but still ok to ride over!...

Onto Broadsands and the sand was very soft as i thought it would be. Ok on the Moonlander though. Surfers were out here ...

Big waves... amazing noise...

Here is some film i shot with the HD compact, under 1 minute i uploaded it on Flickr...

Some Winter sunshine low in the sky put a lovely colour on the sea and wet sand...

Still an hour to high tide yet the surf was still rolling in past yesterdays high tide line...

Amazing short ride,  i did not plan to take a camera to film, but decided `what the hell`, and grabbed the Tachyon SD (standard definition) sports camera and did mostly some helmet camera footage on the ride out and back, not the best quality now compared to HD, but quick and easy to edit!...

Song is `Isla de la Piedra` by Phontaine

The German...

Most people in the UK  have no idea about Ireland being Neutral during WW2...
240 Allied and German Pilots shot down were enterned on the Island for the duration of the war..
Some from both sides would became friends and stayed after the war ended and made a life there...

Another Midweek Commute Detour

Still a big freeze this week so like on Tuesday today i rode my pugsley up to work.
No wind today so really quiet with just the crunch of the tyres on the white rye at the sides of the road.

Sunrise 08.35;

A nice old Sunbeam at the garage next door to our workshop...

3pm and a half mile down to the beach at Peffersands, and the sand was frozen solid from the dunes down to the high tide line...

Fitted a 1962 Brooks Professional saddle i previously had on the Klunker bike, 50 years old and still loads of life in it yet. Wonder where that saddle has been before i bought it cheap on eBay a year ago...
Its real comfy too -:) ...

Sun had just set but it was that magic time of day with lovely light in the sky and on the sea. I only lasts a short time before the light goes flat...

Onto the beach, rock hard above the previous high tide line...

Lovely light reflected on the wet sand...

Through the woods as the sunset at 15.36, and on with the lights, i had both Magicshine 872 lights but only riding with one on lowest setting. I used both later once dark on full power for pictures...

Along the secret trail and although fozen solid there was no ice and there was loads of grip...

Then through to Tyninghame and along the river Tyne trails all the way to Haddington...

Mud free trails!, as you know i do not like Mud , So this weather is ideal for riding this trail that gets more muddy on the new section nearer Haddington...

Into Haddington and a look at the Xmas lights before heading home via the Garleton Hills...

Midweek Detour Commute

Been a cold snap again this week with temperatures not been above 3C, hard frost for 4 days now, best thing is of course winter sunshine and no mud!...
-4C today so i rode the pugsley to work today and went for a short ride after work...

Out tyred today at work!, tractors up from Northumberland last week and again today removing unused building materials from yard....

3pm and home time and made the most of the mud free frozen ground, 1C at lunchtime and 0C as i rode over the old road to North Berwick...

As the sun got lower so did the temperature...

Down to Canty Bay then around below The Glen Golf Club...

Hoped to do some film riding the rocks here but going to get to dark too get anything that good...

Down on the East Beach and along into Town..

Fantastic light...

Xmas lights warm the town but it was getting cold!, popped in to see Dave at Law Cycles and also enjoy a warm up ...

Back home and these wee fellows were feeling the drop in temperature. In this Swallows at my front door are 4 or 5 Wrens, Britain's smallest bird, huddled together to keep warm...

A month ago a codex add on on my PC stopped working and i could not upload HD film onto Movie Maker, finally i have got around to uploading and trying out Serif Movie Plus X6 editing software.
Unlike the Pinnacle software i had to un install because it froze my computer this works fine an i can also now edit MOV movie files from my newer Canon Power Shot A 3200 IS compact.
Takes a little longer to edit but i will get the hang of it,
The quality of the Canon HD video is good for only £70...

And you get decent sound of the waves and can see stuff in the distance and after sunset in the low light unlike the Go Pro. For ride by static filming and panning views it is ideal to mix with some on board footage.
Here is video footage shot on the Canon in a 1 minute Flickr film of the coast east of North Berwick...

So this footage combined with the Go Pro on the monopod and the helmet mount make for nice a wee film, click on the cog icon to select  to view in HD

Song is `In The Key Of Blue` by Quantic