Hilton Head Island: half legal; 1986; breakfast on EGREGIOUS

 

The South Carolina registration and home port decals arrived yesterday, but first I had to remove the Illinois numbers from the bow.  I bought a spray bottle of decal remover from Amazon.  I read and followed the instructions.  I applied it repeatedly.  It did nothing.  On leaving the marina I threw the still almost full bottle in the trash.  On returning to the condo I did more research and bought from Amazon a 3M eraser wheel, something of which I had not previously known exists.  It is an attachment for a hand drill.  I dutifully attached it to my DeWalt battery hand drill and it removed the Illinois numbers from the starboard bow quickly and easily.  I am quite pleased.

Today Carol and I went down and as you can see applied the South Carolina numbers to the starboard bow and home port to the transom.  We have done this before and it all went as it should.

GANNET has never had a home port.  For those who live elsewhere, in the U.S. vessels documented by the U.S. government must display a home port.  Vessels registered with a state may, but are not required to do so.  Of my vessels, only EGREGIOUS—San Diego; THE HAWKE OF TUONELA —Boston; and now GANNET have had home ports on their hulls.  I have said that my home port is the world, but I expect Hilton Head to be my last land home and am pleased that GANNET now has a home too.

At present the little boat has South Carolina numbers on her starboard bow and Illinois numbers on her port bow.

Carol and I are going sailing tomorrow and will anchor somewhere for the night.  When we return I will go into the slip bow first which will put the port bow to the dock and this coming week I will replace the Illinois numbers with the South Carolina ones and end small boat schizophrenia.

You can clearly see the difference in color between areas I have recently touched up and the faded coats I applied eleven years ago.  I will polish the hull to see if I can make them blend together.  If not the little boat will be repainted next year and we will have to apply decals again.

I had the pleasant surprise this morning of receiving these two photos from Graham in Australia along with this email:

My friends, Rex Byrne and his partner, Louise Wilson, met you on Lord Howe Island in 1986 and just sent me the photos below. They were in their early 20s in 1986. Clive Wilson (still alive) is Louise's uncle. Rex was  a young singlehander who fell in love with Louise when passing through in 82. They did not have a boat in 1986 but have since done a couple of circumnavigations and are still cruising.

I thanked Graham and replied:

Lord Howe is as beautiful an island as I have ever seen and not much known outside of Australia and New Zealand, which may be to its advantage.

Almost forty years ago.  Hard to believe.

Give my regards to Rex and Louise when you can.

I have sailed to Lord Howe twice.  It is located 420 nautical miles ENE of Sydney, Australia.  It is a small island only 6 miles/10 kilometers long.  The regulations may have changed, but when I was there the number of permanent residents was limited to 400 and the number of visitors on the island at any one time was also limited to 400 in a noble effort to preserve its great natural beauty.

In the photos the blond is Jill.  The funny looking fellow with the mustache is me.  And RESURGAM’s hull was a deep burgundy, not the brick red the photo has become with age.

Carol and I biked to a supermarket yesterday.  When together, I push the shopping cart while she forages.  I was standing obediently in place in an aisle and looked at the nearby shelves and found an old friend:

Almost everything changes in fifty years.  I certainly have.  But Clabber Girl Baking Powder has not.  I recognized it instantly and turned a can around to see if the same biscuit recipe is on the back.  It is and on the EGREGIOUS circumnavigation those biscuits were my breakfast every morning at sea when I could light the stove, which on EGREGIOUS was a two-burner kerosene Origo.  I first read of such stoves in a British magazine that said they run on paraffin.  As an American I wondered how they got the wax into them until I learned that the British call kerosene paraffin.  Another of their endearing eccentricities.

I had no oven and baked on the stove top on a low rack in a frying pan with lid.  The biscuits were very good.  I ate them with jam or honey.

This was long before I learned the virtues of uncooked oatmeal.  

I cooked more on EGREGIOUS than I ever have again.  One trend in my life has been toward simplicity.