Quote Innerchild :
"I swam every morning for 2 years winter and summer around the pylon to end of groyne and back, although we had moved by 1988."
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"Moved by 1988"
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Adamant that the reef was covered with sand ?
Well, I can remember the little reef myself, around 1988 .
I think in Winter , much more so than summer , that sand and beach shape change consistently.
The reef maybe covered & uncovered regularly.
Beach Sand isnt as permanent as a reef is.
1988 was a "la nina" event that caused storms and beach erosion .
(Links have been provided in previous posts )
If a car was on top of the reef , and there was sand covering the reef it wouldnt act as a cushion anyway .
A bit of sand on a solid rock reef is not going to protect a car if it scrapes over it upside down .
Another factor is the
Swell direction at the time (1988) is crucially important. Ive provided the historical data , Angle of degrees in previous posts .
The swell direction is crucial because of rottnest island , garden island and gage roads acting as swell blockers shadowing cott beach from the South to SW to West.
The swell direction , according to the data i provided (links in previous posts) was around Nor-West which is completely different than the recent event on sunday which was WSW .
Theres no islands blocking the swells if its come from the northwest .
All these factors have to be considered.
Weather forecasts or tide forecasts are not excact or correct .
Forecast and hindcast are different.
Below is an example of predicted and Actual tide data showing how the barometric pressure affects tide levels.
Tides can go the other way just as easily too , dependant of hpa pressures.
http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/imarine/albany-tide-and-wave.asp
http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/imarine/cottesloe-tide-and-wave.asp
Cottesloe data showed 1.5m maximum
on sunday. This is no comparison to the power of waves on the 20th or 22nd june 1988
.
(Links to graphs have been posted previously)