Norbert

Early Days

A significant hurricane hit seafront Mazatlan last season.   Though it  passed well to the west of Mazatlan and brought minimal rain and wind, it pushed very high waves towards the coastline.   It also coincided with extremely high tides and a "super moon."

The  hurricane was named Norbert.  Norbert was our introduction to "waves without wind".  Thus we could be in the palapa, drinks in hand, watching huge waves dumping sandy sea water into the pool and not get wet from blown spray.  To get a feel for this, see:  http://youtu.be/Db8n13dc0HQ .   

One wave was so strong that when its direction was changed 90 degrees as it slammed into the sea wall,  it shot straight up and lifted the roof from one of the small palapitas on the private beach.  It was like a giant water uppercut.

Following are some photos that show the "Early Days"

A few Scattered Sandbags....Nothing to be alarmed about here.

The waves are big, but the Palapa bar is open.

There is a little disarray but no cause for concern.

Paraiso 2 is not faring so well.  A huge volume of water is exiting below their wall.....taking their private beach with it.

Uh oh!!! Looks like we have a similar problem.

Huge volumes of water are coming over the wall and exiting slowly.  

However, we are optimistic. Check out Daniela's Winston Churchill "V" for Victory!

We are going to have this place cleaned up in nothing flat!

It looks like the water is exiting very slowly.   Exiting is bad!  Very slowly  is good!

But quite suddenly we can see that the water is draining faster and faster!   Where is the water getting out???   Arq. Montoya dons mask and snorkel to check it out.

As Milton said:  "they also serve, who only stand and wait"

And over time, the "hole below the wall" gets bigger and soon we can see the sand of the private beach return to its mother.

The Sand is Washed out by huge volumes of water coming over the wall.

Note: (1) In this month of high tides, this is low tide!!! (2) The beach is all but gone (3) water has drained out taking the private beach sand with it; (4) and the condition of the wall is precarious!!!

The strategy to protect the wall is straight forward.   Plug the hole to stop the erosion of our sand and then back fill to brace the wall against the waves.  The first step...build a "highway".

Then create forms with sand bags.

Arq.  Montoya is involved at every step. 

The cement is transported by wheel barrows. 

This is dirty, difficult and dangerous work!  

Notice the erosion and the now cantilevered steps from the pool deck to the "private beach" and that all hands are on deck.   Here we can see Adolpho in foreground,  Arq. Medina (wearing cap in background) and Juan Carlos (blue shirt by yellow bag)

The cement is poured and is setting up.....

And it is Monday, so it is potluck time.

But wave action over night destroys all of yesterdays work.  

Arq. Montoya always had a plan of action.   If sandbags and wheel barrows were ineffective, he would find something that worked!

Read the next post (The Response to Norbert) to see what happens next!

P2 fared worse than we did

Still early days,  These pictures were taken around Sept 5

Still early days.  "We'll have this cleaned up in nothing flat!"

 Except the waves kept,coming and coming and the huge volumes of water that came over the wall were starting to exit under the wall, taking the sand with them!

The waves kept coming and coming!

The first attempt to staunch the bleeding was to use sand bags for forms and deliver the cement by wheel barrow.  That was ineffective and after that wooden forms were used and the cement came by pumper trucks.

It seemed that just as soon as one leaky area was plugged, another opened up,  so pretty much all of the wall is reinforced like the section shown above.

You may not notice this the first time around, but it is very obvious in many photos that there is no beach.   This was my greatest worry!   At the peak of this combination of storms and seriously high tides, the drop from the top of  the wall to the sand below was 14 feet.  The other day when I walked the beach, I effortlessly stepped from the wall to the sand.    

And wouldn't you know it??? I don't have any pictures!!   However, if you need any reassurances I can arrange to get some.

Jack Spratt loved his fat

It helped him to stay lean!