Noel lashes Cape Cod

From the Henry Beston Society (www.henrybeston.org)

Noel is here, and the worst, we're told, is yet to come.

In true Henry Beston fashion, I headed out to Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Light Beach in Eastham this morning. Beston, the original Cape Cod storm chaser, would have been in his glory standing in the 40-plus mph gales on Coast Guard Beach, with sand and horizontal rain slicing through the air from the northeast.

We've managed to piece together a few pieces of video from the storm in between technical glitches from hell and brief power outages here at Beston Society HQ in South Dennis.

Coast Guard Beach had some folks coming and going, mostly out to the overlook area in front of the Coast Guard station. More traffic was flowing in and out of Nauset Light's parking lot, but only a few hardy souls ventured out of their vehicles to have a closer look. Many cars were passing through to have a quick look, looking more like a Dunkin' Donuts drive-up line on any given weekday morning.

While these certainly weren't conditions to go jumping into the surf, it could have been a lot worse, particularly if this had happened last week when the moon was full. Much of today's storm occured prior to the hours leading up to high tide. Last week's high tides were running over two feet higher than they are today.

So why would anyone subject oneself to these conditions?

"There is a nurturing power in any natural environment, and a healing touch, which the soul of man sorely needs," wrote Nan Turner Waldron, author of Journey to Outermost House, who ventured out in more than a few of these storms herself. "Every one of us needs to feel beyond self: to feel small measured against distant horizons; to feel powerless against the winds; to feel voiceless against the thunder of the storm."

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