Hello Friends,

Hey all, got wet this morning and brought back a few pictures to share. Decided to take a look at Dee Why where my mate Barry said he glimpsed lefts of interest. By the time I was looking they were less than interesting though. A few bods in amongst it, but not the quality of more NE exposed spots, so decided to push on over the hill to Curly.

0930ish, busy, but some quality too.

For whatever reason, I just haven’t been in the water there for yonks, so it seemed worthy of a look-see (this was around 930 or so when the wind was still NW). And indeed it was looking acceptable. But on closer examination, it seemed that the peaks were popping up, looking good for a few seconds and then shutting down or going soft. Still, a nice one came in while we watched and a mal guy got a long ride (see pic). Ok, filed that one away as fall-back option one.

Kneelo jagged a couple fun ones, including this.

On past south Curly… nup… banks n.g., swell direction n.g…. over to look at Freshy just because it was on the way. Size but not as good as NCC. Over the hill and into Manly. Nice looking right along from Queensy to south Steyne, but I was in the mood for Bowerness, even though the wind was sub-optimal. Got there and sure enough, swell hitting it okay, but the wind was beating it up… oh well, enough driving, decided to get wet.

Relatively bump free moment at the Bower.

Turned out to be pretty consistent and not super crowded. Sets were chest to head high with a few bigger ones. Not high quality Bower, but even sideshore chopped Bower is better than lots of other places. Grabbed a few snaps too, but had some issues with my camera which was annoying. Hope it’s not about to go belly up… eventually called it a day when the chop and rising tide just got too much around midday. If the swell sticks around and the wind does as it’s supposed to, the late could be fun.

1330: not much wind, mostly unmakeable without a ski to tow ya...

Before heading home, we pulled over for a squizz at the Collaroy-Narrabeen stretch. Seemed to be a goodly size crew in at Northy (what a surprise). A few more were scattered down the beach from there, but by the time you got to Marquesas, the only people in the water were a couple playing with a jetski and doing tow-ins.

A quick scan of the latest from the Bureau and MHL shows that Huey’s pretty much left the settings unchanged since this morning. So, if you can only make the late, I reckon you’re in with a chance!

Here’s what I wrote earlier…

0720: inconsistent, but there are one or two.

Not pouring with rain or excessively windy to start. That’s not quite in line with the forecast last night, but we’ll take it anyway. There are some waves showing up at Dee Why point, but it seemed to be pretty inconsistent for the three punters having a go a little after 0700. The MHL data is showing a less than optimal for Dee Why ENE windswell of a couple metres. Again, not quite into the range the models anticipated a few days ago, but I reckon there should be a wave at most places that worked yesterday.

The Bureau’s latest call is for NW of 13-18 kts along with a declining NE swell. Pretty obviously one should go sooner rather than later. The virtual buoy for the Sydney region is suggesting that it should still be in the surfable range (but pretty small) at NE spots through to Saturday morning. Wetsand’s whizzy new WAM interpretation engine plays the out the NOAA data in a similar way. And both concur that we could be looking at juicy south pulse around about Tuesday.

Have yourself a top old day!

Surf forecast issued Thursday 20 November 2008: seven day outlook for Sydney:

Nice waves tomorrow and Saturday… BIG on  Sunday, Monday…

Friday: about 2 metres East North East… (with offshore winds).

Saturday: Ditto…(S/SW wind change in the arvo)

Sunday: Comin’ up big with a blow… 3-4 metres at dead South places, then bigger say 5-6 metres with strong S wind.

Monday: around 5-6ish at dead South spots.

Tuesday: 3-4 metres South,  and easing back.

Wednesday: about 2 metres South, then East.

Thursday: about 2 metres East.

Water temp is churning around…currently a chilly 18.

Take care out there…not a good combination of variables.

Weather from the Bureau:

Forecast for Friday
Fine. Mostly sunny though cloud increasing later. Light to moderate westerly winds tending northeasterly along the coast during the afternoon.
Precis: Fine. Mostly sunny.

City:         Min:  17 Max:  25   Parramatta: Min:  15 Max:  27
Terrey Hills: Min:  15 Max:  25   Penrith:    Min:  15 Max:  28
Liverpool:    Min:  14 Max:  28   Richmond:   Min:  13 Max:  27

UV Alert: 8:50 am to 4:40 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 11 [Extreme]

Saturday Chance shower. Windy.

City:          Min:   18  Max:   20
West:          Min:   16  Max:   20

Sunday Shower or two. Windy.

City:          Min:   12  Max:   20
West:          Min:   11  Max:   22

Monday Fine.

City:          Min:   13  Max:   23
West:          Min:    9  Max:   24

Tuesday Shower or two.

City:          Min:   17  Max:   20
West:          Min:   13  Max:   20

Wednesday A few showers.

City:          Min:   15  Max:   20
West:          Min:   13  Max:   20

Thursday Chance shower.

City:          Min:   17  Max:   26
West:          Min:   13  Max:   28

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: W/NW 13/18 knots.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres.Swell: NE 2 to 2.5 metres.
Friday: Wind: W/SW 10/15 knots tending N/NE during the afternoon and increasing to 15/20 knots in the evening before tending NW later.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres increasing to 1.5 to 2 metres in the evening. Swell: E/NE 2 to 2.5 metres.
Saturday Outlook: Wind: W/NW 20/30 knots ahead of a W/SW change 20/30 knots during the day.
Sunday Outlook: Wind: S/SW 25/35 knots, reaching 40 knots offshore at times.

Along with energy harvesting sub-surface buoys, underwater turbines and wave-riding generators, we can now add another possible source of CO2-free power - really long pipes.

In an interesting article published by New Scientist, writer Phil Mckenna reports on a project being undertaken by US military aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin to harvest energy from the difference between cold deep deep water and warmer surface water.

FOR a company whose business is rocket science Lockheed Martin has been paying unusual attention to plumbing of late. The aerospace giant has kept its engineers occupied for the past 12 months poring over designs for what amounts to a very long fibreglass pipe.

It is, of course, no ordinary pipe but an integral part of the technology behind Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), a clean, renewable energy source that has the potential to free many economies from their dependence on oil.
“This has the potential to become the biggest source of renewable energy in the world,” says Robert Cohen, who headed the US federal ocean thermal energy programme in the early 1970s.
…
The idea of tapping the ocean’s different thermal layers to generate electricity was first proposed in 1881 by French physicist Jacques d’Arsonval but didn’t receive much attention until the world oil crises of the 1970s. In 1979, a US government-backed partnership that included Lockheed Martin, lowered a cold water pipe from a barge off Hawaii that was part of an OTEC system generating 50 kilowatts of electricity. Two years later, a Japanese group built a pilot plant off the South Pacific island of Nauru capable of generating 120 kilowatts.

Here’s the link to the entire article

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By the time i got out around 8.30am it was around 3-5 feet, straight offshore, clean and about 10 guys out and absolutely cranking with lines stacked to the horizon and some indo-style (not quite) right handers.  It’s hardly indo but it’s pretty good for a beachy in the middle of sydney.  Manly looked OK too, Bower was ripping.  Enjoy- should be the best day for months.