Hilton Head Island: apologia and giving directions

 Today while looking for something else I happened to reread the Apologia at the beginning of THE OCEAN WAITS.  Written forty years ago when I was half my present age—I pause to consider that startling fact—I believe it is still worth reading now. 

An apologia is not an apology, but a defense of one’s beliefs and actions.

 

What I was looking for was an incident brought to mind by Steve Earley’s entry about Day 5 on his winter cruise through Low Country waters.

http://logofspartina.blogspot.com/2022/03/day-five-

Here is the specific section:

  A big powerboat comes up from the stern.  A man comes out of the wheelhouse and shouts "This the ICW south???"  I tell him yes.  He goes back into the wheelhouse, confers with his captain, comes back out and asks "This the Skidway River?"  Yes, I tell him.  Seems like a boat that size ought to have a GPS.

I wrote to Steve that perhaps some people ought not to be on the water.

His story resonated with me.  I vaguely remembered something similar and late this afternoon found it in THE OPEN BOAT.  It took place on the afternoon I sailed from Suva, Fiji, in CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE.

As I later learned, tired and desperate to get into harbor, they put the ketch on the reef that night, rather than stand off and wait for dawn.  She was a total loss.  They were rescued.  Perhaps they too should not have been on the water.  I wonder if they ever were again.