Severe UK Storm 5th February 2014 hits coast at Hartland, North Devon

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• published: 05 Feb 2014
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This video was taken when a huge and damaging storm hit the UK on the morning of 5th Feb 2014 on the North West Devon coast, just north of Cornwall, facing out towards the Atlantic Ocean, part of historically on of the deadliest 5 mile lengths of coastline in the world for ship wrecks. The first footage is at Hartland Point, at the very north-west point of Devon where the Atlantic passes between it and Lundy Island and into the Bristol Channel, with very distinct strong current pathways seen from the cliffs on even calm days. From the reports of giant swell from the Atlantic and the way the ocean is squeezed into the Bristol Channel I had hoped to see waves lashing up and over the lighthouse but in the end it wasn't quiet as dramatic as that, looking like the waves braked earlier, however still some good video (despite it feeling very dangerous perched near the cliff edge on a narrow, slippy muddy path in gale force winds and rain filming it!). The wind distorted the mic on the video so much I take the sound off here and just let the Littermouth track 'Sea is She' play. I then moved on down the coast to Hartland Quay, famous for it's Wreckers Inn and it's museum dedicated to ship wrecks (get the idea of a theme going on down here!?). Here the sea was very dramatic with waves crashing around the Quay. Sometimes in shots out to sea it's hard to determine the size of waves but if you look at the shots with the rocky peninsula outcrop by the Quay you'll see a fence and people walking by it, I deliberately put that clip in to give you scale. I'd estimate looking at the people that the waves were easily 6m high in places and the spray and crashing water going up between 20-30m, possibly more. Excuse water getting on the lens in places, I can't see a way of filming close into rough seas and strong winds without spray getting on there. I was constantly cleaning. the other problem was keeping the camera still. I was stood battling gales force winds, throwing me about in places and shaking the tripod. The music is from a local based band called Littermouth. they are based north of Bude and provided a very appropriate track called 'Sea is She', a sort of reflection of a love affair with the sea ...she had a bit of a lovers tiff today though! More Littermouth music can be found at: http://www.littermouth.co.uk/ and an excellent video (shot near this video and some of the coast): http://youtu.be/QtUGDa4jcT4 and more audio tracks at https://soundcloud.com/littermouth I hope the video and/or music is of interest to a few of you! Video shot using Panasonic HC-X800 in 1920x1080HD 50p Still shots using Nokia Lumia 41 Mega Pixel phone Video compiled using Sony Vegas Video shot and produced by Steve Shelton www.stevestudio.co.uk