Hilton Head Island: high tides; three Japanese poems; and a splendid wall decoration

 

The low that was lingering offshore finally moved away yesterday afternoon, but before it did it caused the fourth highest tide recorded at Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the nearby Savannah River in the eighty-five years measurements have been taken there.  Of the twenty 10’+ tides ever recorded at Fort Pulaski thirteen have been recorded since 2015.  

I have noticed that the tides on Skull Creek have been unusually high these past few days, reaching almost to the base of the closest palm trees.  From my chair by our bedroom window I watched small egrets bobbing up and down on rafts of dead spartina.  

There is talk of building a creek wall, but I don’t expect that this condo and perhaps Hilton Head Island will be here in 2100.  But then neither will we.

From THE ANCHOR BOOK OF CHINESE POETRY.

The first two are anonymous dating from about 1600 A.D.  The third by Yuan Mei who lived 1716-1798 and seems particularly appropriate for one ten years older than the author.

As I have written here before Kent, self-proclaimed moveable ballast and maintainer of Audrey’s Armada of small boats, and Audrey have moved the fleet from near Pensacola, Florida, to near Norfolk, Virginia, because they were too settled and enjoy incredibly complicated moves.  I have found owning two boats beyond me.  They own about twenty.  I am not sure how many.  I don’t know that even they know.

One of them is a Drascombe Lugger, ONKAHKE, whose floorboards needed replacing.  Kent is one of you who can build anything and he made new floorboards.  Instead of discarding the old ones he and Audrey have hung them on the wall as in the photo above.  I am filled with admiration and envy.  We have blank walls in this condo, but I don’t have any old floorboards and I don’t think Carol would let me hang them if I did.

I thank Kent for permission to use the photo.

Sail on.