California may be having a ‘heat wave”’ at this writing, but things were mostly windy and temperature pleasant when I stopped there.
Hollywood Beach, Oxnard California was my home for the four months Pepperdine University hired me as a visiting professor.
Nearly a century and a half before, Seaman Richard Henry Dana Jr sailed by our beach. I decided to reread his Two Years Before the Mast. Found out strong winds in California were not uncommon when Mexico owned the land.
For two years before our Civil War, Dana crewed as his square-rigger sailed up and down Mexico’s California coastline. The crew collected cowhides to take to Boston shoemakers.
But Dana spent considerable time ashore because the winds blew too strong for sailing. One morning I saw just how strong the wind can blow,
As I drove down the coastal road enroute to Malibu and my morning class, a Santa Anna wind coming off the mountains, racing to the Pacific, blew over a semi-truck and trailer in front of my car. The gust pushed my car over the highway centerline. Traffic behind me stopped.
Luckily, no one was injured. The truck driver climbed out the passenger window. Highway patrol arrived. Traffic resumed.
This West Texas boy knows about strong winds, but nothing like the wind that nearly blasted me off that beach highway. Must admit, puffery—including the Hollywood movie publicity version—is bigger and stronger in California than in Texas.
Photo by Lewis McNeal at Pexels
