Hilton Head Island: workboat; Mary Ure; halcyon days

 

While Carol played tennis this morning, I went for a bike ride and then to GANNET where I waxed the transom, hoping to blend the twelve year old paint with the new I recently used to cover around where I had to sand to expose the hull identification number in order to register GANNET in South Carolina and to touch up worn spots.  Above you see before and after.  It turned out better than I expected.  

Aesthetics count and I have budgeted to have GANNET’s topsides painted, but as I have noted getting work done in Hilton Head is more difficult than any other place in the world I have kept a boat for very long and I just do not want the hassle.

People often say that GANNET is a pretty boat.  In part that is because she has clear and simple lines and in part that I do not put a lot of stuff on her that clutters up those lines.  I am amused when I overhear someone say, “That boat doesn’t have enough stuff on her to sail around the world” as they have many times about many of my boats, which demonstrably did have everything actually needed to sail around the world because they did sail around the world.  So many things people say are ‘essential’ aren’t.

GANNET is not a yacht.  She is a work boat.  My standard has always been how a boat looks a boat length distance rowing away from her.  I am very pleased that waxing will keep GANNET passing that test.  I think when I am finished waxing she will look quite respectable for a forty-five year old circumnavigator, and that I will be able to keep her that way for the duration.

Richard Murphy has been a great find.  I like and admire almost all his poems.  I could easily post one here every day.  Here is one I read this morning.

These have been halcyon day in the marsh.   Not too hot.  Not much rain.  No insects.  Mosquitos are not often a problem on Hilton Head, which is surprising because there is so much standing water.  Hundreds of ponds.  But no-seeums are sometimes intolerable.  They seem seasonal, but I have yet to understand their cycle.  They are not now present and we are spending time on the deck, rather than in the screened porch.  Breakfast.  Evening drinks.  I like living with the least membrane between myself and the outside world.  These days we are.  Halcyon indeed.