An unusually large swell

When Magic Seaweed predicts a swell in excess of 10 feet with a 17 second wave period then you know that something pretty interesting is going to occur.  As I prepared breakfast there was a rumbling of breaking waves in the background and the car was covered in a light coating of salt spray.

It didn't take long to find out why, as I drove around the corner at Corbiere there was just line after line of huge surf approaching the coast and numerous people staring out to sea.  Large surf acts just like a magnet, attracting people to the shoreline.

The photographs don't give a true idea of the scale of the surf but I was in a hurry, so I didn't have too much time to compose the pictures, as I was off paddling at Bouley Bay.  Although the Bouley Bay was sheltered from the largest of the swell I have to admit that the conditions were still large enough that I didn't really want to take my hands off the paddle, hence no pictures of my time on the water today.  Suffice to say that we had a good time, although a few people did end up practicing their front crawl!

 Looking towards La Rocco Tower

 18 hours earlier there hadn't been a ripple on the sea in this area.  This would not be a good place to launch from today.

St Ouens Bay was full of lines of enormous surf.  Its difficult to judge the scale as some of the waves are a couple of miles away.

 It doesn't look too big but the offshore breaking wave is probably well in excess of 10 feet.