Sunday, May 20, 2018

Hilton Head Island: sex on the deck; the Polish voyage revisited




        I am writing from the screen porch about to walk down to GANNET to spend the night.   I want to post this here where I have good Internet.
        Yesterday I was sitting on a Sportaseat on the floor when I noticed an anole on the deck, his red neck pouch inflated.  This is done to intimidate male rivals or to attract females.
        I waited a few moments and then stood and found two anoles entwined.  They were not fighting. The male greener and smaller than his female partner.
        The photo is the best I could make with my iPhone shot from within the condo.  I did not want to move closer and disturb their moment.
        Afterward a bright green anole remained on our deck most of the afternoon.
        I saw him twice dart forward, catch something, and chew satisfactorily.
        I do not know if it was the same small lizard.  
        If it was, perhaps he has fond memories and hopes of repetition.  I wish him fulfillment.
        A few days ago I saw a brown anole walking along the gutter drain.  I don’t know why we find some creatures attractive—koalas and baby pandas, and others abhorrent—cockroaches; but I find green anoles charming and brown not.

--------
        I thank James and Markus for clarifying some aspects of the Polish sailor’s voyage.
        He did not self fund the voyage.  He had sponsorship.  More than twenty.  
        As I expected his boat was not the smallest to circumnavigate.  An Australian, Serge Testa, circumnavigated in an 11’10’/3.61 meter boat in the late 1980s.  
        The Polish boat is probably the smallest to have circumnavigated nonstop, but only by a few inches/centimeters.
        Still it was a difficult and impressive voyage, although really slow.  270 days was less than 100 miles a day.  I pretty much did that in CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE.  I’ll leave it at that.
        It is quite possible that the Polish sailor never claimed to have been self-funded or the smallest boat to circumnavigate.  Journalist have been known to get facts wrong.
        You can read on the Internet that I am the first American to have sailed around the world alone.  That is, of course, not true and a claim I have never made.  I was the first American to have sailed around Cape Horn alone.  Apparently some journalists can’t tell the difference.
        You can also read on the Internet that I am the greatest sailor who has ever lived.  While I appreciate the compliment, that, too, is a claim I have never made and never will.  That there has never been one greater,  well, that might be true.
        Back to Skull Creek and GANNET.