Storm Ophelia hits the cornish coast

Storm Ophelia slammed into the Cornish coast early AM today, At around ten 0 clock I arrived at lands end to check out The Longships with Peter Tonkin and Bob Sharples,  It was still five hours to the next high tide but we decided to hang around for a couple of hours as the sea state was rising and the south westerly's were howling and shortly after noon we started to get some interesting images, so should we move on to the promises of dramatic storm piccies at the famous storm picture harbour of Porthleven or stick with the longships for high tide.  Porthleven won, so we battled through the windy Lands End complex,  ( We had to reroute the long way around to the carpark as the wing beat us back while trying our best to get through one exit )

We arrived at Porthleven two hours before high tide but the sea was already looking quite dramatic as huge waves crashed directly inshore battering the breakwater and sea defence walls, Over the next two hours the sea built up its attack all along the shoreline with coastal properties and harbour features adding a sense of scale to the power of the sea, At the top of the tide large waves started to pass the breakwater heading into the harbour entrance and slamming into the shoreline that we were working from,  The wave shown in the last image was getting a bit to close for comfort and expensive camera kit so it was time to make a swift exit !

This storm was not any bigger than other winter storms during recent years but what made it such a pleasure to experience was the balmy air temperature and wall to wall sunshine throughout the day that improved the quality of all pictures taken while witnessing the raw power of nature and the sea.