On Dec. 12 I went out to North Point to see how the beach had fared during the recent king tide. So far, so good. It was the first day of an eight-day stretch of over 9-foot-high tides.

It was flat calm. Just cool green waters sliding along the riverside beach. If the weather stayed like this, we would be fine. But this was early winter in New England, where we hardly ever get eight days of good weather.

I made my way along the seaward dune of the newly completed dual dune system. It certainly looked better than a week ago when 8-foot waves were sliding up the beach face.