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Fortress 9020Home \ Fortresses \ Sept 2000 \ 9020
Location: Bellows Beach |
Saturday, September 2, 2000
Lisa, Meiko, and I went to Bellows Beach. After checking the tide charts, I saw
that the tides were perfect for a drainage system fortress. Low tide was at 12:15 pm,
so the plan was to get there around 10:30, then I'd have a little under 2
hours to build until low tide, then two more hours to carve until the
tide returned to the fortress and started flooding it. This was the plan.
But I slept late, and so we got to the beach about 11:30 am. I had to jam.
-Shut up and get to the pictures-
When building a drainage fortress at Bellows, I can't make it small. It has to be big to withstand the harsh tide of Bellows. I brought my buckets and put them to good use, stacking four 5 gallon bucket molds around the front and two on the back at each rear corner.
My disposable camera only had one picture left on it, but fortunately, Meiko brought her camera and it had about ten exposures left. The sun was hot and bright--harsh conditions to work in, especially carrying the occasional 5-gallon bucket of water and sand. Since we got there late, the tide started pounding against the fortress before I was finished, but I stopped frequently to dump buckets full of sand around the front to help delay the inevitable.
I incorporated two arches on the front of this one. I tried to make a third in the very center, between the two front towers, and in fact, I did build one. But very soon after completion, I noticed severe cracks forming. Upon closer examination, I noticed that one of the supporting towers was not facing against the arch, giving it the full support it needed. There was an angle involved that was allowing the arch to slide forward on that side. I knew it would not last more than another minute, so acting quickly, I reached down, grabbed some sand and started filling the arch back up. It worked, and the arch stopped sliding. This is why there is no arch between the two central towers.
Once the tide really started rolling in, it flooded the fortress nicely. In fact, this fortress was flooded more times than any previous fortress--at least a couple dozen times. (That is my favorite part of the day when I build a fortress with a drainage system.) So I was happy.
I asked Meiko to take some pictures for me. Not only did I have sand on my hands, but I thought it might be nice to possibly get a different view from someone else's eye. I did take a couple myself too though, including one action shot of a tower falling over as, at last, the tide started to take it down. Then we ran out of film in Meiko's camera too.
Then I watched as, even though the towers were falling, the drainage system kept right on working.
It was 4:30 when we left, and it had been a good day at the beach.
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