The 1999 Solar Eclipse

How can you describe the indescribable ? Well I shall try, but it will be difficult....

The day was Wednesday 11th August 1999, I was staying in the Travelodge at Tiverton with the children. I had got both the children to set their watch alarms for 06:30 as I had a feeling that traffic would be busy in the morning, and with the weather forecast giving South Devon a better chance of seeing something than Cornwall, then I was sure that many people would be heading that way - just as I had planned to, many weeks ago.

So at 06:30, the alarms started to bleep and it was time to get up. Clothes had been prepared the previous evening and by 07:00, we were all in the car starting our journey. We had not had breakfast, and I had not even had a cup of coffee as I didn’t know where we would end up, so didn’t want to have to go to the toilet that often !
Anyway, onto M5, then A38 to Plymouth, then some other roads to Totnes, Kingsbridge. Then onto Salcombe, which was the most Southerly point in Devon, and on the same latitude as Falmouth in Cornwall, therefore giving it a 100% total eclipse. Getting into Totnes was a trial, lots of traffic here, so I was right. Then it was heavy going all the way into Kingsbridge, and the road to Salcombe was slow. Lots of camp sites all along the way. At the top of Salcombe hill, I saw signs for a Park & Ride into the little seaside town - turned in, and was waved away as it was full ! This was at 08:15 !!!

So I thought, only one thing to do, go into Salcombe itself. I continue down the hill and everywhere was littered with cars. On the pavement, on places you wouldn’t expect cars...
I followed the signs for the Town Centre, and of course the car parks were full. I saw two cars parked on double yellow lines on the side of the road leading to the Harbour, so I pulled up behind them. As this was on the Harbour front, I was pretty pleased with where I had ended up. It was now 09:10 and time to look for breakfast as we were all hungry. Looked to see where everyone was heading and followed them. We saw a sign for a walk into the town and followed that. It was a lovely 5 mins walk along the sea front, which of course was taken up with people getting their ‘spot’ for the eclipse. Anyway, into town and to my surprise most of the shops were shut ! The only open ones, like the Bakers had queues a mile long outside them. Continued on until we came to a small food shop and at the back was a sandwich bar. Ordered 2 cheese salad sandwiches for James and myself as Catherine didn’t want a sandwich for breakfast. They were very slow in preparing it - they hadn’t known what to expect with all the people milling about in the town.

Got the food and then we walked back to where the car was. Then we found some toilets, which was good news for us all ! Continued our walk along the Harbour and we could see people up on top of the cliffs to the left of us surrounding the Harbour, which is really where I had wanted to end up, but could see no way of getting up there, so I gave that up as a lost cause. As we came to the end of the Harbour, I saw a small path leading up the grassed cliff behind me, and two people walking up it - we followed. Through a style and up onto some ground that had a sign nailed to a tree that read ‘Private Property - no Camping’ on it in large letters. Of course, like the double yellow lines today, I ignored it. Up and up we climbed until we had the most amazing view over Salcombe Harbour, the town, the estuary and beyond. God himself couldn’t have chosen a better place to view the eclipse from - I was very chuffed.
Now we were settled on top of the cliff, I was ordered by my children to climb down again and get the ground sheet and camping mat that I had in the car boot for such an occasion ! OK, so I went all the way down again, and all the way back up again, with the stuff and some food and drink that I had in the car. It took about 10 mins in all....
Right, now we were settled for the eclipse - food, drink and something to sit on. The only trouble was the weather. The sky was full of broken cloud which was getting slightly thicker all the time. It didn’t look too good for views of the sun.

However, as 10:00 came and went, there were some breaks in the cloud and we could put on our solar viewers and take a glimpse at the sun that had now very clearly a chunk taken out of the top right hand quarter of it. Catherine was a bit ‘iffy’ about the whole event, but James was filled with enthusiasm, like me. All told, there were about 8 of us on the high ground, and we got talking to each other. The man next to me had come down from Northampton with his son, and he had a light meter and temperature gauge with him - which proved to be handy later on, as he kept us informed of the disappearing light and temperature drop.

As time progressed onto 10:30 and beyond, the cloud cover was obviously going to stay which everybody agreed was a great shame. 10:45 and 28 mins to go. The sky was by now starting to get a bit dimmer. Then by 10:55 with 18 mins to go, the clouds to our right (which was West) looked like the colour of thunder clouds, but you could tell they were not clouds of this type at all. I then turned around and saw a load of sheep running at us ! Someone had opened a gate to our right and the sheep had come in. They looked at us, and quickly went into another field at the top. Then at about 11:00, there was a strong one-off gust of wind that swept over us all. I had read about this wind in the newspapers, and that was definitely it. It was unique to the weather that morning. At 11:05 with 8 mins left, things were beginning to get a bit dimmer, a sort of twilight in the morning, but the far distance out of the estuary and into the sea was light (as it was outside the area of totality), which was very strange.

Then at 11:10 with 3 mins left everybody was looking at each other and wishing the moment would come. The light was by now quite dim, but not an evening dim. However, things around us were clearly visible, but a bit murky. At 11:12 with one minute to go everybody was looking up into the sky wondering what to expect - I had been judging the light levels by my ability to see the church spire in front of me. It must have been about quarter of a mile away (in a straight line). The spire was grey, but clearly visible. I kept looking around in all directions. By now, the temperature had also dropped by about 5 degrees, and the children who had been running and jumping for 5 minutes or so to keep warm, stopped. We were all looking to the west, as that’s where it would all come from - but what ?

Then all of a sudden what can only be described as a shot of dark greyness moved across the sky from right to left at speed and people started shouting "Here it is". Indeed this was it - the sky went from a light grey to absolute blackness in about 10-15 seconds. I have never seen anything like it before - ever. It was as if someone had quickly turned a dimmer switch into the ‘off’ position. I could no longer see the church spire and the effect was awesome. I felt like crying (as by the newspaper reports did many people), but instead I just clapped spontaneously, as did most of the people around me. We could hear the cheers and yells from the people on the cliff top around Salcombe, but after the initial yells and woops, it fell silent. The far south in the estuary was still light, but a sort of dull yellowish light, but this did not affect what we saw in Salcombe - blackness. Everybody was stunned, and just kept looking all around.

Then, everything happened in reverse - from blackness to lightness in 20 seconds, or sooner it seemed. Again people yelled and cheered and I clapped again. How else could you express your feeling for something that puts into perspective just how powerless and insignificant everyone is. The word ‘amazing’ was felt and heard all around. The blackout - totality - had lasted for 2 mins and 3 seconds - but that must have been the shortest 2 mins of my life. I wished it could have lasted a great deal longer.

We stayed for about another 10 mins, just to recover, then it was a case of gathering up everything and taking it all back down the hill and into the car. We said our goodbyes to the others there, and off we went. Back into the car and out of Salcombe - as was everyone else it appeared ! We got caught in the most horrendous traffic jam ever. I shan’t go into great detail here, but we eventually got back to the Travelodge at 18:30, having been into Dartmouth for a small stroll en-route. All the roads were nose to tail - even the A38 duel carriageway and the bottom section of the 3 lane M5.

Was it worth it - you bet it was - every second - I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.......