Tuesday 23 January 2018

Highsided Windward


Before I started, I thought finding places to park might be difficult, or that I would run out of places quickly. Well three months on and its (so far) not been a problem. Some of the locations I use seldom, some regular. On this night, I settled down at a regular spot - its quiet and I share it with up to thirty trucks.

 

However, by 11 pm I was already awoken by the van rocking about in the wind. Normally I go back off to sleep but this was much rougher than before. The prevailing westerly was on my nearside and what I desperately wanted to do was park facing into it - Windward. But that would have meant blocking the entire road. I wondered how strong the wind actually was so I checked the weather on my phone. It forecast strong winds that would increase during the early hours - hmmm. At this point my son randomly text me about something unrelated - so I took the opportunity to ask him for a more detailed weather report:



 
I was alarmed at the fact that although it was already very windy - it was going to get even worse! I got out of bed, got dressed and went outside. As I watched my van rock about I noticed how warm it was. As I was re-entered the door I looked at the truck in front of me, a forty foot articulated HGV carrying shipping containers. Did I just see it move in the wind? did I? Indeed I did. It could weigh more than 40 tons - and its MOVING. You don't need to do the math to figure out my (Ive just realized at eleven feet high its 'high-sided') 3.5 ton van can blow over a lot earlier than a HGV...


Time to MOVE.

I drove about 4 miles to a sheltered spot, during which I got blown about quite a lot, reluctant to go over 30 mph - and I can tell you I looked very closely at every single tree on the way. 


















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