Hurricane Matthew Update

So far the mandatory evacuation is still on for us as we are considered "coastal" Carolina. But here's the (possible) good news.

The hourly update shows the center of the storm moving just a teeny bit eastward which would put the center of the Cone of Uncertainty (I'm learning a whole new vocabulary this week) off the coast. We would still get Category 2 winds (96-110 mph) but it's a whole lot better than the Category 4 winds (130-156 mph) that hit poor Haiti.

We plan to make the decision whether or not to evacuate tonight and not actually leave until Friday morning. My mom is on the east coast of Florida and she will join several friends at a hotel a ways inland. Think Hurricane Party for the over 80 set!

The third store was the charm this morning and we were able to purchase fresh gallons of drinking water, lots of batteries, snacks, and a cat carrier for Rosie. Store shelves are already bare of drinking water, batteries, and salty snacks and we had to take the only pet carrier left. The box says DOG carrier and has a photo of a cute little dog so Rose might refuse to enter it, but we shall see. We got Coleman stove gas for our small camping stove as there will likely be no electricity and filled the gas tank of the car.

But what will we do for entertainment with no electricity, no wifi, you ask?

Clever, eh?

 

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It's a Bird! It's a Plane ...

It's an ultralight! Making their way up the coast from Charleston, two planes flew right over our heads as we walked.

Boy, you just never know what you are going to see when you come to the beach.

"Ultralight aircraft in the United States are much smaller and lighter than ultralight aircraft in all other countries. In the USA ultralights are classified as vehicles and not aircraft and are thus not required to be registered nor is the pilot required to have a pilot license or certificate."

New pilots are "strongly advised," however, to get 10 hours of instruction before taking to the sky.

 

I guess these pilots knew what they were doing, license or no, as they soared gracefully along right over our heads. I would think, though, if you are going to be operating something so flimsy and high in the sky, there would be some training required.

 

 

 

 

 

This plane was very patriotic, red, white and blue all over with boxy squared-off wings and the pilot was sitting up.

 

 

This one was less colorful. sleek like a big bird. Or a paper airplane.

I am not sure, but I think the pilot was lying down in this one.

 

 

 

 

 

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We have a major hurricane barreling north toward us this week. We are in the "cone of uncertainty," that best guess of the National Weather Service of where Matthew will hit when and if it reaches the US.

We have begun to make some tentative preparations but in the next day or two forecasters will have a better handle on things and we will act accordingly.

Everyone hopes that it will make a right turn when it hits the Gulf Stream and veer away from the East Coast entirely, blowing itself out over the Atlantic where it will hurt no one.

Fingers crossed!

 

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My Very Excellent Birthday Surprise

The Writer planned a birthday surprise for me on Saturday, a boat trip to see the Georgetown Lighthouse and the wreck of the Harvest Moon, a pre-Civil War steamer, and shelling on a small island in the Atlantic accessible only by boat, appropriately called Shell Island.

It was so much fun!

 

Heading out of Georgetown Harbor you can see the working boats, a shrimp trawler (the rest of the fleet was out shrimping) and the local watercraft tow service, the small red boat to the left.

 

Four rivers converge in Georgetown to become Winyah Bay (the Waccamaw, the Black, the Pee Dee, and the Sampit) and empty in the Atlantic. In the distance is the bridge over the Waccamaw River that takes us out to Waccamaw Neck and Pawleys Island.

Shell Island

 

 

 

 

A horseshoe crab scrapes its slow way back to the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

Tidal pools with crabs and other interesting creatures

 

The jetty formed by black granite boulders brought down from New England extends 3000 feet out into the sea and protects the shipping channel into the Port of Georgetown.

The shipping channel was dredged out by steam-powered dredges in the 1800s. The sand that was pulled up created a series of small islands along the channel, including Shell Island.

 

People in the photo are looking for large shells using their feet to find them in the sand.

 

 

After a 45 minute walk on the beach, we boarded our boat for the trip back.

 

 

 

 

 

A pod of dolphins followed us for miles. You can just see the fin of one in the photo but there were many more, including a mother and calf that swam right alongside the boat and treated us with great views.

 

No one on our trip found anything like this. It's a whale vertebrae and was found on Shell Island by someone on this boat a few years ago.

Returning to Georgetown Harbor four hours later . . .

 

A mallard family

greeting committee/guide flotilla

in place

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was definitely worth getting a year older!

 

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Huntington Beach State Park

Just up Ocean Highway from Pawleys Island and its beaches, in Murrels Inlet we have another wild and wonderful place to walk and bike, Huntington Beach State Park. It's a nice bargain for seniors, half the normal price for the year for our car and whoever we want to bring along. And that includes acres of beach, nature programs, hiking and biking trails, and tours of Atalaya, the home of the couple who gave the park lands to the state in 1960.

The road into the park passes through a freshwater marsh lined with wood storks in the trees with many more fishing in the water. On either side are trails and observation platforms occupied by birders laden with their big scopes and camera lenses.

 

Something caught my eye along the path at the edge of the marsh, a "log" that was moving in the water.

Just don't get too close to the "log"!

You can see another young gator behind and to the right.

 

 

This beautiful cedar was on the path to the beach.

 

 

 

I wonder how many storms it has stood through and survived through the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought I would give you a break from beach pictures so we will just stop here in the parking lot.

I agree!

 

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I Can't Help It!

I am smitten with The Salt Life!

 

 

I need to get a shirt.

 

 

 

 

Oops! Maybe not that one!

 

 

 

This one?

Perhaps a window cling for the car?

 

Anyway, I admit my obsession and apologize in advance for MORE pictures of the sea.

~~~~~~~~~

We've had another tropical storm yesterday and we chose Huntington Beach State Park, about 25 minutes up the coast, for our morning beach walk.

Tropical Storm Julia

"Lose your heart to the sea and you will find your soul." - Anonymous

"The Sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."

-Jacques Cousteau

"Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone." Anonymous

Last night we were returning home from a history lecture. The full moon was playing peekaboo with the clouds, we were going right past the turnoff to the beach. We had to stop. The second visit in one day!

We heard the boom of the surf before we even got out of the car.

The waves were wild and loud and pounding right up to the dunes. The brilliant light reflected in the roiling water was like a million twinkling stars.

We were mesmerized.

 

"When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea,

and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise,

and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused."

— Rainer Maria Rilke

 

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Peculiarities of Older Houses

When we bought our "new" house, it came with several features that were probably quite modern and classy back when it was built. Now they are dated, undesirable, and in a some cases, useless. Take for instance our built-in, fall-out-of-the-cupboard-when-you-open-the-door ironing board.

This one is not ours but it's close to it. The Writer removed the ironing board (made of wood with heavy black iron legs) from the cupboard before I could get a photo, but this is what it looked like. It was dark and dusty and old.

 

Maybe if I looked like this when I ironed the two items a month I iron, I would have kept it.

(By the way, do real people sit down to iron? I stand and move all around the ironing board to get the best angle on the piece I'm ironing. Maybe that's just me!)

 

 

 

 

 

Now, what to do with this odd space, only 3 1/2 inches deep.

 

 

 

I got an idea!

It's now very useful. Unlike in a deeper cupboard, you can see what you have.

Another peculiarity of the house: see the smoke alarm on the right? It is at the beginning of the hallway which is 20 feet long. In that 20 feet of hallway there are three smoke detectors and one carbon monoxide detector.

To be sure to be sure!

 

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Pawleys Island Beach This Morning

 

Our new beach ensemble!

Chairs with canopies? None left anywhere at this time of year. Chairs at a height that we can gracefully arise from the sand? In September this is the only color left within a radius of 30 miles in any direction of Georgetown.

It does make it easy to spot our chairs when we come back from walking.

The umbrellas attach to the chairs and are semi useful, as long as there is no wind to blow them inside out.

I could hear this plane flying along the beach before I could see it. It made a heavy thrumming sound in the air you could feel as well as hear. The engine is on top of the plane and the propeller is behind the engine. I tried to look it up and the only thing I can find that looks like it is a "top secret Navy Seal" seaplane. You think it could be?

 

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