Weather was, and remains, the story on Skinny Island this week. For fully five days now we’ve had winds out of the east/northeast in the 20-25 mph range. Constantly. And over the past three days, rain, in squalls driven in off the ocean. Much worse weather than we had with any of the five or so hurricanes which passed offshore from August until now. The ocean is in a whipped-up frenzy, with excessively high tides. Very beautiful to look at, and nice to listen to at night. Luckily, no signs of serious erosion as yet. This is apparently all the result of a large high in the Atlantic to our northeast, and a developing low down around Miami, creating, between them, a very narrow isobar field, which causes the extreme, consistent winds. Shutters all down on the ocean facing windows. Wind humming deeply in the power lines like a giant aeolian harp. Cross over the bridge to the mainland and you encounter rain and a little wind, but nothing like over here. We are exposed, and the first obstacles this thing encounters. No end in sight.
Found this interesting relic early two days ago. It’s a commercial electric cooler, and I think it may have come off one of the shrimpers we often see. Don’t know what happened to it, but it wasn’t out there after the next high tide. Wouldn’t want to run into it in the water.
Earlier in the week, before this thing reached such a crescendo, but was just getting stirred up, we came across a couple of other interesting water travellers. This jelly fish was the biggest one I’ve ever seen on this beach. It was a good 24-inches in diameter. On the same walk we came across this very large, elongated and barnacle-encrusted coconut. He’d been out there bobbing a long time. I love conjecturing where things like this originated. A lot of Gulfweed at the high tide line this week as well. The birds have all but disappeared, temporarily.
And in other news. We took our inside cat, Pico, (or Pekoe, as he likes to spell it,) seen here out for a walk on his leash, into the vet to see what was causing him to drink, eat, and pee so much, while losing weight, and as we thought, it was confirmed he is a diabetic. So, he’s been started on twice a day insulin injections, which he is tolerating like the champ he is.
A number of spectacular sunrises all week, with all the clouds and local weather.
The Skinny Island Post 
I used to really enjoy swimming down at Ponce Inlet back in the early 80’s this time of year, when the tides were so extreme, and the surf washed way up into the dunes down near the jetty… exposing the great palmetto roots and seagrasses as each wave receded… Good luck with your housecat. Josemaines was 17 years old when he contracted feline leukemia and started losing weight like crazy. Went from 20 pounds to 17 ounces, it seemed like… in about a year. He’s buried out back way down under the great tree (the full length of a long shovel handle).
Miss the beach. Miss you.