Beach Time for a Funeral

[Riley Smith]

The weather has finally cooled enough to be pleasant at dawn. It feels great then but the afternoons have been filled with UV under a cloudless sky. Everyone is enjoying it, although there has been very little wind. We sat on the porch of the old house and discussed world events as the sun rose every morning and at the present angle, the sun peeking under the porch will fry your legs as it sinks lower in the southern reaches. It felt mighty good too, when the breeze finally appeared for a while, with those frying legs a signal to get going and do the deeds for the day.

 As I haven't been able to sail, I've grabbed what fishing time I could in those moments before dawn under lights. It's almost unethical to do that to my way of thinking, but almost every fish is generally released unharmed. I do take an occasional sample for the oven. Most people in the south would say frying pan and they'd be terribly wrong. Well, if you have a chef like my wife aboard.

The shrimp are migrating towards deeper water. I took the rod in very shallow water and stirred around in the mud and was amazed how many shrimp shot to the surface and I have seen it during very clear times where the bottom was carpeted with shrimp everywhere. Everywhere. It's an amazing sight if you ever manage to see it. As it is, the fish are loving it and the other morning the water was a constant commotion of strikes, shrimp jumping everywhere, and fish racing about. That's something to see too!

With light comes the birds and they add to the action of the bonanza before winter. There are also schools of menhaden riding the tides too, in addition to the billions of shrimp. The pelicans are in constant dive action as the tide falls. Low tide has been about mid-day so the mornings are an ATC controller's nightmare. Yesterday the heron flock arrived during the morning and proceeded to fight over fishing rights along the shoreline and on the pier pilings. The fishing usually slows as the light comes on and the tide current increases. By good light the fish are fearful of the ospreys and pelicans,  all manner of terns, herons of all stripes, gulls and everything else that loves a fish dinner. I think it is still too hot for the bald eagles to have made it this far south. We do have a local population but chances of sighting one are greatly increased in the colder months.

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[Doug SC]

Last month and this month to date has been a rollercoaster of travel and emotions. In Altamonte, FL my dad went into ICU and was put on a ventilator in mid-September.  We spent a couple of weeks with him. He was aware and we conversed with a white board but most of the time he was sedated. He was taken off after 10 days and went into hospice care. A week later he passed away. The funeral was Monday a week ago. I spoke at length about his life and many others also stood up and spoke. He was about a month short of 102. We have a house rented for the family to celebrate his birthday in early November but now we will have a celebration of life instead.

We got home last Tuesday and Thursday we were in Chattanooga, TN at another rented house with family to attend our nephew's wedding. It was fun to play with our grandkids and that made it easy to sleep at night. Our youngest is pregnant and due in early December. On Saturday the dancing went late into the night after the wedding, and my knees have been complaining ever since. We are home now, and it feels good to have the time to decompress. The circle of life was on full display .