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Fortress 1281Home \ Fortresses \ Jan-Feb 2001 \ 1281
Location: Lanikai Beach |
Sunday, January 28, 2001
I didn't realize it was Super Bowl Sunday, that's how much of a sports fan I am.
When I did remember, it made no difference; I went to the beach anyway.
-Shut up and get to the pictures-
Although the last documented fortress was last December, I did make a couple trips to the beach earlier this month and I did build a fortress wall, but it was small and it didn't have any interesting features. It was more just for fun. Lately, I've decided to be more selective about documenting the fortresses so I didn't include it.
Lisa and I headed out for the beach around 1:30. Low tide was around 12:30. Since the tide would be on its way in, I brought the drainage pipes. We started out for Bellows Beach and figured it would be relatively empty since it was Super Bowl Sunday. But when we got there, it was rather crowded. Actually, Bellows doesn't really get crowded; there were just more people there than usual so we left for Lanikai Beach and found it to be less congested.
Since the tide was already coming in, I would have to carry buckets of water to the construction site. I selected a site that was only about ten feet from the tide because the slope was a little steeper than Bellows and thus, the tide would travel a shorter distance in the same amount of time. Even with the short distance, it was still a drag carrying the water. One thing that really helped in construction was the fact that I now had a shovel and could move a lot of sand in a short amount of time.
I used my two 5-gallon bucket molds to speed the process of piling the sand. After about an hour, I had six towers piled up, but still needed to add to their height by hand. At some point though, I started feeling like I didn't want to build this one anymore. I'm not sure what it was, but I think I just wasn't in the mood to build a sand fortress. What should I do though? I didn't want all that work to go to waste. So, I stuck it out and began carving.
I worked fast and pretty much made this one up as I went without any real plan. One tower collapsed after I took just a little too much sand away from it trying to create a half arch next to it and it didn't even bother me that much. None of the towers were very tall on this one and with less than normal enthusiasm, I whipped it out pretty quick just to be done with it.
Still, a few people commented on how cool it was. Once again, young and old, male and female, the appreciation of a sand fortress seems to be universal, which made me feel good about my decision to complete SF1281, even if I didn't really feel like it.
The tide wasn't coming in as fast as I would have liked and wasn't getting close enough to flood the fortress, so I flooded it myself a few times, both for me to take photos and to demonstrate the drainage system for observers.
At about 5:30 I had taken all the photos I wanted and we were ready to leave. A couple people watched as I dug a small trench behind the fortress to remove the drainage pipes. I had almost dug out enough sand and was digging my hand in for one more scoop when my fingers hit something rigid. I had a feeling I knew what it was. When I threw that last handful of sand out of the way, a big crab popped out of the trench and quickly crawled away from me towards the fortress. Its body was about the size of a racquetball and surprised us all. I have dug up plenty of small crabs during fortress construction, and it always freaks me out for a second, but it's rare to get one this big. It was a big freaky sucker.
"Woow! A crab! Look at that!" the onlookers said as it paused at the base of a tower, looked at me, then fought its way up and over a wall next to a tower and ran for the water. Silly crab--there was an arch right next to it he could have crawled through. I guess he was still a little groggy from being rousted out of bed so early.
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