Hilton Head Island: thanks and so far, so good ; helmsman; over; my kind of boat

 

First I want to thank all of you who have sent me good wishes on becoming ancient.  It is heartening to know that I have been appreciated and may have been a good influence to some.

Carol and I have had two lovely days.

On my birthday she drove us to the ocean side of the island where we walked on the beach.  We returned to have lunch in GANNET’s cockpit.  Then went out to dinner at a restaurant named Poseidon.  Her choice.  Following which I did indeed have a few sips of Laphroaig and raised my glass as I said I would.

Yesterday we biked three miles and back to Dolphin Point which is on Port Royal Sound.  I don’t recall ever seeing dolphin there, but I almost always do on Skull Creek.

In the afternoon we went to a theater to see the latest James Bond movie, NO TIME TO DIE.  I saw the first James Bond movie, DOCTOR NO, in late May 1963 a few days before I graduated from college.  I think I have seen all of them since.  DOCTOR NO was low budget.  Sean Connery drove a Sunbeam Alpine in the chase scenes, not an Aston Martin.  We enjoyed NO TIME TO DIE which has deservedly received good reviews.

This was our first visit to a movie theater in probably two years.  This was an independent theater which surely has been hemorrhaging money since the pandemic began.  I don’t know how they have been able to stay open.  On a Friday afternoon there were only eight of us in the widely dispersed audience.

We returned to a frozen pizza expertly doctored by Carol accompanied by a bottle of Chianti.

This being seriously elderly has been pretty nice.  So far.

James sent me a fine poem, ‘The Helmsman’, I did not know by a poet, W.S. Merwin, I did not know but will investigate further.  I thank him.

Though I have no official status I officially declare the hurricane season over.  At least for Hilton Head.  As noted here before for reasons I do not know the tropics went quiet at the beginning of October and have remained that way.

According weather.gov: The first condition (to sustain a hurricane) is that ocean temperatures must be above 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit).  Below this threshold temperature, hurricanes will not form or will weaken rapidly once they move over water below this threshold.

Today’s ocean temperature at Hilton Head Island is 63ºF/17.2C.

The vessel in the photo at the top is NOAH’S VIOLIN.  She is slightly longer than EGREGIOUS and THE HAWKE OF TUONELA, but I doubt sails as well.  I like her anyway.  The explanation: