Circuitously I made my way today about Sea Pines on my bicycle. Initially I had it in mind that I wasn’t up to the customary more prolonged route towards Sonesta at Marker 67 then back along the beach to Sea Pines Beach Club.  My prior investigations over breakfast informed me the High Tide was at 12:25 PM and the wind from the Northwest at 19 Km/h which translated to an undesirable shoreline course except perhaps from the northern end of the Island southwards.  Indeed it was the latter prescription I thought to follow first by accessing the beach near Ocean Gate whence I figured I might sail southward towards either Beach Club or Tower Beach.  When I made it to the beach my energy was sufficiently saturated to prompt me to lay down my bike then myself upon the sand.

As usual the soporific effect of the blazing sunshine and roaring sea instantly instantly vaulted me into the ether from which I did not recover for 35 minutes.  Upon awakening and sitting up on the sand I noticed people cycling at a distance from me in both directions, north and south.  The wind oddly appeared to be stronger from the south than the north.  In any event I had already extended my journey more than anticipated so I resolved to travel southward whatever the direction of the wind. It turned out that the wind was no hindrance, that it appeared to be coming more from the east than anything. In any event its source was ambiguous and by now irrelevant.

So convenient was the wind that when I succeeded to Sea Pines Beach Club (where pointedly there was virtually no activity – no doubt a result of the fresh weather at little above 50°F) I resolved of a sudden to continue around the bend to Tower Beach Club.  To date on this particular visit to the Island I had only frequented Tower Beach Club from the mainland; viz., I had not seen the beach from the shoreline because the sand there is notoriously wet and impassable except at Low Tide.

It bears remark that one of the drivers of my ambition for Tower Beach was that the progress whatever it may be was in the direction of the sun moving in the southwest naturally.  I derive incalculable thrill from the feeling of a burnished face and the sight of my trinkets in the sunlight with the background of the beach sand. The colours – including the weathered appearance of my hands – are impossible to repeat except with those ingredients of sea, sand sun and wind! This, combined with the purgative effect of cycling just shortly after High Tide, are sufficient to encourage the most healthful disguise of an otherwise obese structure!

As I approached Tower Beach the sand became increasingly impassable. From the uninformed eye the trouble is unrecognizable; but I immediately noticed that my tires were submerging ever so slightly into the taupe sand. It was I knew impossible to go further without having to walk my bike over the sand, not something I at all prefer, so I detoured towards the nearest escape route which was Marker 15. Tower Beach is at Marker 13. I have seen in the past that the more violent the North Atlantic Ocean, the less impassable is the sand at the southern end of the Island where it curves around the bend towards Harbour Town ultimately.

It seems all this activity inspired me to visit the Harbour Town Bakery upon my return home.  With the assistance of Apple Pay (I do not carry money with me when cycling) I achieved my gastronomic objective – don’t ask!

Parenthetically I left my mark in the sand – with about the same degree of solemnity as when I once remarked upon my footprints in the snow.