Hilton Head Island: VICE; removed; books read; freeze dry food bought

        Predicted rain fell all yesterday afternoon, so we went to a movie theater and watched VICE.  Regardless of one’s political views, Christian Bale’s portrayal of former Vice President Dick Cheney is extraordinary.

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        Today is sunny and cool.

        We walked on the beach before checking out of our hotel, then drove over to the condo, swinging past the locked boat yard, where GANNET is still in the travel lift slings.  However, the tape at her waterline has been removed which leads me to believe that they have finished painting and she will go into the water Monday.  Three premature cheers.

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        Here is the list of books I read from July through December:

A NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY AND RESTORATION OF MRS. MARY ROWLANDSON   Mary Rolandson

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA   Ernest Hemingway

CHESAPEAKE   James Michener

CANNERY ROW   John Steinbeck

SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS   Carlo Rovelli

D DAY THROUGH GERMAN EYES   Holger Eckhertz

D DAY THROUGH GERMAN EYES BOOK 2   Holger Eckhertz

ARMOR AND BLOOD   Dennis Showalter

GENESIS   Eduardo Galeano

ANNA KARENINA   Leo Tolstoy 

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS   Kenneth Grahame

MADAME BOVARY   Gustave Flaubert

CHESAPEAKE OYSTERS   Kate Levie

THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie    

               Barrows

WHAT WE BECOME  Arturo Perez-Reverte

FIRE   Sebastian Junger

THE FIRE AT MORNING   Scott Ridley

UNDER FIRE  Henri Barbusse

STORM OF STEEL  Ernst Junger

AT FREDDIE’S   Penelope Fitzgerald

TELL THEM OF BATTLES, KINGS & ELEPHANTS   Mathias Enard

EUROPE CENTRAL   William T. Vollmann

A TOMB FOR BORIS DAVIDOVICH   Danilo Kiš

THE STORY OF MY ESCAPE   Giacomo Casanova

SUGAR MONEY   Jane Harris
AS I LAY DYING   William Faulkner

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        A friend asked what freeze dry meals I bought and which are my favorites:

        Here is what I bought.  The order is how Amazon shipped them to me.  I’ve put an asterisk by my favorites, though most of my favorites are New Zealand’s Backcountry Cuisine, which I can’t buy in the US.  Several of these I have not tried and so am taking on spec.  If they are terrible, I probably have enough others so I won’t have to eat them except in emergency.  I have indicated those with #

MH = Mountain House

MH Beef Stew *

MH Italian Style Pepper Steak with Rice #

MH Chicken with Dumplings #

Backpackers Pantry Potatoes with Gravy and Beef #

MH Sweet and Sour Pork

MH Chicken Breast with Rib Meat and Mashed Potatoes #

MH Rice and Chicken *

MH Beef Stronganoff with Noodles

MH Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Backpackers Pantry Louisiana Red Beans and Rice *

Backpackers Pantry Sante Fe Style Rice with Chicken *

MH Pasta Primavera 

MH Chicken Fried Rice #

MH Chicken Stew *

Alpine Aire Leonardo da Fettuccine *

Alpine Aire Three Cheese Chicken Pasta

        The choices are completely subjective.  Many people might hate them all.

Hilton Head Island: cleaner; an appointment in Samarra

        Just before noon yesterday we drove to the boat yard where I found a young man named Jackson sanding GANNET’s bottom.  The yard is doing a better job than I would have.

        Naturally I was particularly interested in inspecting the area of the keel repair.  As expected it appears perfect.

        We drove by again in late afternoon.  The yard was locked and from a distance I could not tell if the first coat of paint had been applied.

        Rain is due this afternoon.  Next week looks to be dry.

        Hopefully GANNET will be back in the water Monday or Tuesday.

        I wrote to a friend:   I take pride in routinely in making voyages no one else would, but I confess that I am sort of like a 77 year old kid, were such a creature possible, in being back at sea level and about to make more ocean passages on GANNET.

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        I just finished rereading APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA, John O’Hara’s masterful first novel.   Originally published in 1934 and set in 1930, it portrays the seemingly senseless self-destruction of a young man of the country club class in a small Pennsylvania town.  I last read it decades ago, but had not forgotten that the title comes from a passage from Somerset Maugham quoted at the beginning.

        There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.  She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.  I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.  The merchant lent him his horse and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.  Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?  That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was  only a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

Hilton Head Island: out

        GANNET was hauled from the water yesterday afternoon.

        While fouled and black with slime, her bottom was not as bad as I expected.  Remember when looking at these photos that her bottom paint is white.

        Because of the shallow depths on the sides of Skull Creek, the travel lift has to carry boats farther here than anywhere else I have experienced, about a quarter of a mile/.4 kilometer.

        We left as the bottom was being pressure washed.  We will drive over this morning to see how the little boat looks.

        The rain is holding off and I expect the first coat of paint will be applied today.  Tomorrow does not look promising for coat number two.

Hilton Head Island: from the balconies

        Our two hour flight to Savannah took all day due to a failure in the aircraft monitoring system just before take-off—better before than after—resulting in a return to the gate and transfer to another aircraft, all of which was handled as efficiently and courteously as possible.

        We landed in Savannah at sunset, several hours later than scheduled, and Carol then drove the forty miles to our hotel on the ocean side of Hilton Head, arriving after dark and a stop for a bottle of champagne.  From our balcony we could hear and smell the ocean, which was wonderful, but not see it.

        The champagne was consumed with fish tacos from room service, mine blackened mahi-mahi, Carol’s shrimp.  Both good.
        While I am routinely awake at midnight during passages, I almost never am on land and wasn't last night.

        This morning we drove to the condo, where boxes containing about half my freeze dry meals were waiting—most of the rest is due today—and then went to GANNET.

        We found the little boat pretty much as I left her, though a little clammy inside.
        The batteries were at full charge.

        I fit the newer Torqeedo which started as it should.

        I tested the three Raymarine tiller pilots, all of which are working.

        The depthsounder works.

        The wind instrument works.

        All this is suspiciously as it should be.

        I mopped up a little water in the bilge with two paper towels and we left to return to the hotel and a walk on the beach.

        On this sunny January 1, with a light breeze and temperatures in the low 70sF/low 20sC, there were many people on the beach, walking, riding bicycles, sitting, building sandcastles, throwing footballs, even a few children in the water.

        Tomorrow GANNET is scheduled to be hauled for antifouling.

        I am writing in our hotel room with the door open to the balcony and susurration of the ocean.  

        It is good to be on a coast.

Evanston: 102; 12,636; 2; a correction

        Light snow fell each of the past two nights, leaving the upper flatlands frosted and pristine in bright sunshine this morning.

        Yesterday I placed my order for 102 freeze dry meals with Amazon—17 different meals x 6—which with the 50 to 60 meals already on GANNET will take me through June.  If I am not in some port by then, I’m in trouble.

        I also ordered a back-up Jetboil stove, having used my backup on the sail to the Chesapeake, a replacement ratchet screwdriver, a backup rechargeable battery charger, and packs of 48 AA and AAA non-rechargeable batteries.  As I have noted, I have become ambivalent about rechargeable batteries, some of which rust on GANNET and all of which take an entire night to recharge.  And a pack of Tanka buffalo meat and cranberry bars, which I think I learned of from Steve Earley.  I have not tasted these, but they seem promising.

        Along with the replacement halyard shackle, needed because the headboard on GANNET’s new mainsail is thicker than that on the old sail, and replacement cockpit sheet bags, everything is marked off my list, except possibly another Raymarine tiller pilot.

        The commonality is replacement.  GANNET has long been set up properly.  I am not adding anything new. 

        There are of course breakfast and lunch provisions still to buy, which will come from local supermarkets in Hilton Head.

        We fly tomorrow.  GANNET is scheduled to be hauled on Wednesday, but the forecast is for considerable rain in Hilton Head this coming week, so even if she comes out, her anti-fouling will probably be delayed.

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        I am surprised to find that I worked out 81 times this year.  Less than the 100 I aim for, but relatively high since I began GANNET’s voyage.  That makes at least 12,636 push-ups and crunches.  The true number is higher because for several months I have done 80 push-ups in the first set rather than my age of 76 and 77 during the year.

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        In the past week I have received links to three articles about China.  One about China possibly taking over the port of Mombasa, Kenya.  Another about Ecuador owing China billions for a dam built near a volcano.  A third about China building a space base in Argentina, ostensibly as part of a Chinese program to send a rocket to the far side of the moon, but with other information gathering potential.

        There is no reason to be alarmed.

         Imagine two countries.  One has a calculating, disciplined leadership with a long range plan for world domination.  The other has Donald Trump.  Which would you bet on?

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        I was mistaken in the last post when I wrote that the Scandinavian has finally sailed for New Zealand.  He hasn’t.  He is still talking and building, as he has been now for more than six years. 

Evanston: peers and peerless

        A rare second post on the same day.

        9:30 PM.  Carol has gone to bed.
        I am sitting before the fireplace.  The small Christmas tree is alight.  An angled glass of Calvados is at hand, my left where I can see it.  I like glasses and have more than I need.  At my request Carol even gave me two more, heavy crystal, for Christmas.

        I reference a foolish article from five years ago, ‘Membership is Booming in the Old Men’s Circumnavigator Society.’

        One of the problems facing our species is that there are too few with intelligence to perform work that requires it, including journalism.

        The article writes about three men.  One rich, one Scandinavian, and me.

        Let us consider what has happened since.

        The rich man started a couple of times and quit.

        The Scandinavian, who first claimed he was going to circumnavigate in the Southern Ocean on what would be a 30,000 mile delusory voyage that was then reported in the WALL STREET JOURNAL, among others, proving again how unintelligent journalists are, has only now set sail from Europe perhaps for New Zealand.  How long does it take to build a 9' boat?  As I noted in the past, a circumnavigation of Antartica from an Australian port could not be longer than 15,000 miles.  Most journalist and people are fools.

        And I have sailed 25,000 miles.

        I will next year complete this voyage, unless time and chance destroy me, or humans present obstacles that prevent me crossing Panama.

        To compare me to the other two is a failure of intelligence and an insult.

        I expect that some of you are aware that through the Internet you are having an experience previously unknown in history:  You are seeing in almost real time an original  working his way into the unknown.

        ‘An Old Men’s Circumnavigator Society’?  Nonsense. The 'society' actually has a membership of one. The other two are posers playing to the mob.  I do not respect or care for the opinion of the mob.

         I have thought about people’s response to the wolves of Yellowstone.

         I am as real as the wolves.  You sense that.  That is why you are here.

         I have peers.  Not many.  Particularly among sailors.  The voyages.  The words.  The women.  And to use a word with which I am not entirely comfortable and will write more in the future, the soul.  
        I  don't know who the last Webb Chiles was.  Certainly the two mentioned in the article are not.

        I finish my Calvados.  I turn off the fireplace.  I go to bed.

        And in a few weeks I sail.

Evanston: incredibly good; incredibly expensive; incredibly pervasive

        As you would expect, I am not a Bruce Springsteen fan.  Or I wasn’t until viewing the Netflix film of BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ON BROADWAY with Carol a few evenings ago.  It and he are incredibly better than I expected, both as a performer and a writer.  I checked and he is credited with being the writer of the show.  The words are very, very good, and he delivers them, as well as sings them, extraordinarily well.

        If you google you will find all kinds of rave reviews.  They are deserved.

        Here are links to the Wikipedia entry about the show and the NY TIMES review.

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        I thank Ron for a link to whisky costing $200,000 a bottle.

        Because the link is Australian, I wondered if that was $200,00 Australian or US.  In goggling I found it is US and that on other sites Tribute to Honor is said to cost even more:  $250,000 a bottle.  But if you have that kind of money, what is a mere $50,000?

        Assuming 16 drinks to the bottle, at the low price of $200,000, each drink will cost $12,500.

        I leave it to you to draw whatever conclusions you may.

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       That Jeff Bezos has taken over the world is obvious.  Unnecessary further proof came as I refined my shopping for GANNET.

        In the past when in the US I have bought all my freeze dry food from CampMor, but as I have mentioned here before they no long stock Mountain House, so as I made my list, I thought at first that I was going to have to order some from CampMor, some from REI, and some from Mountain House.  Then I found I can buy everything from Amazon.

        I was going to order today, but in this instance Amazon is too efficient.  Delivery would be made on Sunday.  We don’t fly to Hilton Head until Monday, so I will wait until tomorrow.

        I did this morning order a new halyard shackle and replacement Blue Performance sheet bags from Defender.

Evanston: resemblance; wolves of Yellowstone; no more bread and water

        I am running the above photo again, not in ego, but for your convenience so you don't have to click back to the earlier entry.

        Upon seeing it David immediately saw a resemblance to one of the most famous men of the Twentieth Century.  I had never remotely thought of this, but when I looked at the photo again, I saw it, as did Carol when I told her what I have just told you.

        Pause for a moment and look.

        I’ll tell you the name at the end of this post.

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        60 Minutes ran a piece about the wolves of Yellowstone, who were reintroduced into the park in the 1990s.  As top predators they have had a beneficial effect on the park.  I believe that Aldo Leopold was one of the first to argue for the importance of top predators.

        Unexpectedly the wolves have also become a winter tourist attraction.

        At the end of the segment, Doug Smith said, “You know, we live in an artificial world. It's stores, and cars, and roads, and buildings. Wolves are real. And people crave it. They love it. We almost have this thirst for something real now.”

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        Starting January 1, US Navy captains will no longer be able to punish sailors by putting them in the brig on bread and water.  Not only was this relic still possible, it was still being practiced.

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        Do you see the resemblance to Mahatma Gandhi?

        David went on to say that Mahatma means great soul and Gandhi, seller of perfume.

        I don’t qualify on either count.

        Perhaps all old, bald guys with glasses and mustaches look alike.

        However, Gandhi was only 5’5”.  I am therefore super-sized at 6’1”.

        There are a few other differences as well.

Evanston: sea beagle and season's greetings

        You may recognize Baby, Tom’s sea beagle, from her appearance in photos I have run earlier.  As always she is on watch, now in Tom’s kayak, in which he plans to paddle in next year’s Everglades Challenge, having completed the challenge this year in his beautifully built Welsford Pathfinder, FIRST LIGHT.  I forgot to ask if Tom built the kayak as well. Looking at the fine workmanship of the bow, I expect he did.

        Photos at Steve Earley’s site prove that Baby, who may have done more miles this year than I did, is permitted to sit and even lie down when off watch.  Scroll down to ‘FIRST LIGHT’.

        In doing so you will pass the cover of The Ash Breeze, which shows a story about Circumnavigating in a Small Traditional Craft.  How absurd.

        Tom writes that at the Everglades Challenge third checkpoint you make the decision whether to go outside into the Gulf or inside on the Wilderness Waterway.  If you go outside, you get a shark tooth.  Inside a gator tooth.  He plans to go inside next year.

        I wish Tom his gator tooth, Baby the continued joy of the wind in her ears, and all of you a happy holiday season and a splendid new year.

Evanston: grotesque

         I am grotesque.

        (I hear the murmurs.  ‘Ah. Insight at last.’)

        I went to see the beautiful sorceress.  She is still beautiful.  She sliced a couple of slivers off me to be biopsied and she sprayed me with liquid nitrogen, as sorceresses do.

        Most places don’t show when I am clothed, but the top of my bald pate has several brown patches that look like continents floating in a sea of white skin.  I wear hats when I go outside and so don’t frighten people more than usual, but we are having dinner with other couples Saturday and I don’t think I can wear a hat in the restaurant.  Maybe I’ll buy a wig.

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        The response to the 2019 entry, both from those who read it here and at Sailing Anarchy, has been quite positive.

        My second thoughts were that part of it might be too egotistical.  Apparently others did not think so.

        Roger wrote:  Webb Chiles ‘watered down’ is not Webb Chiles.

        I thank him.

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        I thank Gary for a quote from Joseph Conrad’s THE MIRROR OF THE SEA.

        The sea—this truth must be confessed—has no generosity.  No display of manly qualities—courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness—has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power.

        More than thirty years ago while sailing CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE, I wrote:

        The terrible thing about the sea is that it is not alive.  All our pathetic adjectives are false.  The sea is not cruel or angry or kind.  The sea is insensate, a blind fragment of the universe, and kills us not in rage, but with indifference, as casual byproducts of its own unknowable harmony.  Rage would be easier to understand and to accept.

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        John saw the following on a Sailing Anarchy Forum, posted by someone who was in the audience when I spoke at the Small Boat Festival.   I thank him.

        The weekend was more or less wrapped up with Webb Chiles' presentation.  He was not at all what I expected. I thought he would be a bit crazy, long haired and somewhat feral. Instead, he was cool, articulate and well kept...and a bit mad.  

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        Under ‘the world taking a decade to catch up’, among this morning’s BookBub offerings is a novel by Amy Tan, SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING,which was published in 2005.

        Those of you who have read SHADOWS—and if you haven’t, why not?—know that I used those words and idea.  I don’t recall when I wrote SHADOWS, but it was at least a decade before 2005.

 

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        Shaun Steingold, the General Manager of iNavX, learned of my recent comments about chartplotting apps from a sailing friend of his who reads this journal and sent me an email introducing himself and welcoming any comments, suggestions or recommendations I might make.

        I wrote back at some length and he responded reasonably and positively.

        I appreciate this outreach which is hardly typical of most companies.  Shaun has certainly made be believe that iNavX seeks to produce a good product and do their best by their customers.

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        I just placed my first order to be delivered to Hilton Head.