Thursday, June 14, 2018

Hilton Head Island: why; not; more spartina


        The usual afternoon thunderstorm just passed.  One of their virtues is that they cause an immediate 10ºF drop in temperature.  A pleasant 76ºF/24.4C now.
        I am sitting on the screened porch.  Slow rain is still falling, but with no wind it is not coming in.
        If any of you wonder why I am not resuming the voyage until January, the above image is the reason.  The hurricane season has started.  That is the inelegantly named Bud.  I don’t mean to be sexist, but I really wish hurricanes were still all named after women.  I would much rather be destroyed by an Alice or a Maria.  To be killed by a Bud is ignoble.
        That image is a day old.  Two days ago Bud was a Category 2 hurricane.  Now he is only a tropical storm.  Still he is right on the track I will eventually sail from Panama to San Diego and he won’t be the last storm this season.

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        A short film at the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day site is stunning.  Really beyond imagination, though it does its best to stretch ours.
        There are fleeting moments when I almost doubt that the universe really is all about us.

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