Hilton Head Island: Moore acceptance words; snow; a final death poem

To call this a speech seems excessive, but these are the words I spoke on being inducted into the Moore 24 Hall of Fame.

When I received Karl’s email about this honor I was particularly pleased because it comes from a group of sailors I admire and respect.

People usually divide those who sail into cruisers and racers.  I am neither.  I am just a sailor.  I have received some approbation from cruisers.  I appreciate receiving some from racers.

As we all know George Olson and Ron Moore created a masterpiece.  I doubt that George Olson when he designed the boat or Ron Moore and his crew when they laid up hull number 40 in 1979 ever imagined that it would sail around the world.  It is to their credit as honorable designer and builder that  GANNET could.

I have considered whether I may have misused GANNET, circumnavigating in a boat intended to race around buoys, but I believe the essence of sailing is to experience joy and in that I have not misused the little sloop for she has brought me great joy and I know will again.  I am sailing to the Caribbean in the next week or so, and if I am still alive and in good health when I turn 85 at the end of next year, GANNET and I will embark on a longer voyage.

So I thank you for this honor and wish you joy.

The amount of snow and sleet expected continues to be widely different between forecast sources, but all agree that Hilton Head Island will have some snow and sleet this coming Tuesday and Wednesday.  

To put this in perspective the last snow fell here in 2018.  You may find online that it fell in 2017.  That is wrong.  Incorrect information on the Internet?  How is that possible?  I know it is wrong because we closed on this condo seven years ago in January 2018.  We flew back to Evanston and were there when it snowed on Hilton Head.  According to the Internet, perhaps accurately, the previous snowfall prior to that was in 1989.  

I have sailed in snow.  That was in EGREGIOUS approaching Cape Horn.  If I have to when caught at sea, I will again, but I will not leave port until the weather returns to something approaching normal.

I finished this rereading of JAPANESE DEATH POEMS with one which really is the end of such poems.  If I live long enough the book will come up and be read again.

For myself I deplore saying someone has been lost or that they have passed.  Face up to it.  They have died and as Toko understood what they were no longer is.