Yesterday’s blip showed the effect of waves on a footpath during high tide so today despite the misty damp weather, we decided to walk from Dirleton to North Berwick when the tide was low. We knew it would been impossible later to walk along the beaches with the highest tides of the year.  The sea had eroded much of the sand dunes east of Yellowcraig and even undermined part of the footpath alongside the golf course at North Berwick.  During the winter storms much of the sand at West Bay has been washed away leaving large stones and the wall at the harbour which was breached in late October and January had been threatened again by the waves.
The storms have also recently uncovered the wreck of a wooden two masted ship called Verein after it had been buried for many years near Yellowcraig. The 25 metre long German boat which was carrying a load of oak timber to Sunderland had taken on so much water during severe gales in October 1881 that the captain decided that the boat would have to be beached to save any loss of life. Fortunately the crew of seven survived and the remains are now visible due to the erosion of part of the beach.