Flow of Midway Swash is from left to right. Here, just a few feet from the ocean, a noisy “serpent” of water has formed.
Flow of Midway Swash is from left to right. Here, just a few feet from the ocean, a noisy “serpent” of water has formed.
On this cold but calm day, I was surprised to find that Midway Swash was gurgling like a mountain stream as it approached the ocean. On closer inspection, I noticed that a “writhing serpent” of water had formed at the swash's deepest channel, and this was the source of the noise.
The underlying sand had formed a washboard surface, in a sine-wave pattern. The size of the wave is probably determined by the size of the grains of sand at the bottom of the swash, but as I am not a hydrologist I cannot say that with certainty! The channeled water was leaping over the washboard in a sequential series of arches, as if a long sea monster were racing from inland toward the open ocean water.
This guide to Myrtle Beach is sponsored by Mitchells Publications.
Copyright © 2009 Patricia B. Mitchell.