Clifftop in the mist with menaces — gentle rumblings and occasional breaking waves

One of those very special hiking lunch-stop experiences that come 'out of the blue', or, in this case, out of the mist! The sea mist was doing a great job of 'cat and mouse' with visibility, so for a good bit of the time during this recording I couldn't see the sea below at all — just the ominous gentle rumbles and occasional crashing wave reminding me of its presence…

The tide is high, but starting to go out, so the sea is right up against the cliff base and most of the time the quite chunky swell isn't breaking before having its little altercations with the cliff base. Just once in a while a wave comes that is large enough to break anyway, giving a sense of drama then, and gradually the waves become more inclined to break as the tide continues to go out.

I made this recording on 14 April 2015, during my lunch stop on a relatively short hike on the coast path from Porthtowan to Perranporth. The greyness of the sea fog for some of the time had clearly sometimes affected my impressions for the worse at times, for I was really thinking it wouldn't be worth making a recording at my lunch-stop point, part-way on the coast path between Chapel Porth and the iconic Towanroath mining ruins, but fortunately I did a double-check on that by use of a method that I nowadays call Helpfulness Testing. That gave a 'strengthening' response to my recording there anyway — and I ended up really glad that I had 'listened' to my own deepest aspects and not just to my potentially wayward 'ordinary mind'!

Advisory

High-grade headphones are particularly recommended in order to hear all the detail. Also, because the stereo imaging has been enhanced, that may cause a certain phasiness or phase cancellation points when you listen through certain speakers, whereas that effect doesn't occur when listening through headphones.

This recording taking place. The sea mist was doing a great job of 'cat and mouse' with visibility, so for a good bit of the time during this recording I couldn't see the sea below at all. Just the ominous gentle rumbles and occasional breaking wave reminding me of its presence…

A later recording taking place at the same spot (5 February 2020). The recorder's black furry windshield is pointed to by the arrow.

Techie stuff:
The recorder was a Sony PCM-M10, with just one furry windshield — a Røde DeadKitten (original, more effective, version).

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshield, and more recent processing with the A1 Stereo Control VST plugin (200% widening).

Please remember to give this recording a rating — Thank you!