Hilton Head Island: you are what you do; the eighth continent; painted; THE ODYSSEY: A Modern Sequel

 The heading of an opinion piece in yesterday’s NEW YORK TIMES:  Remember:  What You Do Is Not Who You Are.  I could not disagree more.

As you undoubtedly know on the lines page of the main site can be found:  What matters is action.  Not to think about writing, but to write.  Not to think about sailing, but to sail.  Not to think about loving, but to love.

http://inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/lines.html

You are exactly what you do,  No more.  No less.  No excuses.

Some of you may already know that scientists have decided that there is an eighth continent which they have named Zealandia after New Zealand which is almost the only part still above water.  I only learned this recently from an article on the BBC site.  I am oddly pleased to think of New Zealand as a continent.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210205-the-last-secrets-of-the-worlds-lost-continent

I hear rain falling on the roof.  I see it splashing on the deck and on Skull Creek.  Rain is forecast for the next week.  I suppose that goes with living in a swamp.

Yesterday was sunny and I went down to GANNET and touched up the paint on the port side of the hull.  I have no idea when I will be able to wax and polish it.

The other side of A Dock is used mostly by transient catamarans on side-ties.  There have been four or five there for months.  Around February 1 they all disappeared.  I asked one of the dock masters about this and he said it was just chance.  They all decided to move on at the same time.  With Arctic cold covering much of this country to the north, I did not ask which direction they took.  Only the derelict ferry boat remains on that side of the dock.  I received some slight good news in that it may be being sold and moved.  Why anyone would buy it except for scrap I do not know, but I hope they do.

I started to reread Nikos Kazantzakis’s THE ODYSSEY:  A Modern Sequel, one of the most influential books of my youth.  I read it first when it was translated into English in 1958.  I was still in high school then.  And I read it again in college a few years later when I wrote an English Literature paper on it.  At both readings I had no experience of sailing oceans and little of women and of life beyond an unpleasant childhood.  

Certainly the poem is epic.  At 33,333 lines for whatever mystical reason it is three times longer than Homer’s ODYSSEY and that is part of the problem.  It would be better if Kazantzakis had stuck to Homer’s length.

I struggled through the first third of the poem in which Kazantzakis’s Ulysses leaves Ithaca with five followers, sails to Sparta where he lures Helen away from Menalaus—the poor man just couldn’t hang onto that woman—continues to Crete where he overthrows the King and then moves on to Africa.  There I had had enough.  To me now the poem is over wrought and repetitive and simplistic. And while it may be the translation, I do not find the poetry the equal of other epics.  

It might also be that I have learned a bit in the past sixty years in light of which what appealed to me at seventeen no longer does at seventy-nine.

I started Sinclair Lewis’s prescient 1935 novel, IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, instead.

Hilton Head Island: ensnared

 I downloaded a GRIB a few afternoons ago covering Hilton Head to Bermuda for a week and saw that indeed there is no prevailing wind in these waters.  It was forecast to come from every direction and flip 180º almost daily.  This was verified by Windfinder Pro and Windy.  Interesting, at least to me, is that the wind at Islay and Reykjavik was forecast to be constantly from the east all week, and in both places rising to gale force.  The temperature is already pleasant in Bermuda:  lows 70sF/low 20sC.

I have an appointment for my first COVID shot on March 10.  The new pipe berths and v-berth cushions are scheduled to be made at about the same time.  It was my plan to sail around Bermuda after my second vaccine shot which should come three or four weeks after the first.  But then my phone rang.  It was the dermatologist’s office.  The biopsy of the lump that had been removed a week earlier shows it to be another squamous cell cancer and the doctor needs to chop me again.  With resignation I asked, “When?”  After a long pause while she checked the schedule, she said, “March 30.”  I have become used to this in HIlton Head.  Work can never be done for months.  GANNET’s canvas was ordered last October.  I waited for the bumbling rigger for almost three months.  Shelves in the closets three months.  Replacing screens on the porch two months.  I expect that the tourist sector of Hilton Head’s economy is hurting, but those serving the permanent residents are in a golden age.

I managed to negotiate the surgery to March 25.  An improvement, if only a slight one.

I cannot go to sea immediately after the next chopping.  There will be follow up and probably stitches to be removed.  And I cannot go to sea where my hygiene is less than optimal with an open wound.

I tell you this to explain why I may not do what I said I would when I said I would.  I might still be able to sail in April or May or even June, though that is the start of the hurricane season.  But I am suffering from a severe attack of captiaterraphobia, which long time readers may remember is fear of being trapped by land.  At least I am not surrounded by it.  I am on the edge, but I am ensnared.

I very much need to sail into the monastery of the sea.

Hilton Head Island: Hits; coffee; an old friend

I thank Carlos for a link to an amusing site that shows the number one hit song in the US on your date of birth, assuming you are not much older than I, which amazingly a few of you are.  It only goes back to 1941.

On my birthday the song was ‘Piano Concerto in B Flat’, a big band version of Tchaikovsky.  I never would have expected that.

On Carol’s it was ‘Twilight Time’ by The Platters.  I do remember that.

If you want to find your own:

https://www.birthdayjams.com/

I am smiling this morning, not just becaue of the above view from where I am sitting by our bedroom windows in which I take constant pleasure, but in a quote from astronaut, Jessica Meir, about a tank on a new space station toilet that recycles urine into potable water:  “Today’s coffee is tomorrow’s coffee.”  And for a comment made about Monday’s journal post.  In the likely event you have not read it, I repeat it here.

Dabbler wrote: "I’d rather be around skeptics. Skeptics hardly ever kill those who disagree with them."

I've read and enjoyed your blog for some time now but never felt the urge to comment. If you don't mind, I'd like to have that put on a mug, with attribution of course.

‘A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind’ already graces coffee cups.  

With this addition I will haunt breakfast tables long after I am dead.

Can a poem be a friend?  I think so and from time to time I come across one that I have liked for a long time and sometimes quoted in my writing.  That happened last evening when in the SEASHELL ANTHOLOGY OF GREAT POETRY I came across ‘Western Wind’ which I remembered quoting in one of my books when writing about a storm at sea.  I thought it was STORM PASSAGE.  I was two books off.  It was in THE OCEAN WAITS when CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE and I were  in a gale being blown backwards up the Red Sea. 

 After forcing down another dinner of uncooked freeze-dried food, I settled in to wait out the miserable night. I was wet, and colder than I had been at sea for several years. I recalled hearing over the radio a week or so earlier of 50º temperatures in the Persian Gulf. Somehow I had never thought of cold as being a problem in the Red Sea, although I have lived close enough to deserts to know that they cool off at night. My arms and shoulders and neck were stiff from steering all afternoon. It was, of course, far too wet to take out the radio. I watched the running lights of the ships a few miles away and thought of an old sailor's poem:

 

Western wind, when wilt thou blow,

That the small rain down can rain?

Oh, that my love were in my arms

And I in my bed again.

 

I didn't want a west wind, but the love and bed would have been most welcome.

Hilton Head Island: ENDANGERED SPECIES; the self-righteous; weather; big money

 

No. This is not my new boat, but she is a boat I have long admired and by chance I have come through email to know her current owner, Todd.

Many of you know of John Guzzwell, an Englishman born in 1930 who relocated to British Columbia as a young man.  Trained as a carpenter he built a 20’ boat, TREKKA, and sailed her alone around the world, meeting along the way Miles and Beryl Smeeton, whom he accompanied on their 46’ ketch, TZU HANG, on their attempt to round Cape Horn, during which TZU HANG was capsized and dismasted.

Of small boats I like TREKKA which was an advanced design for her time.

In I believe the 1990s John built the above 30’ cold molded sloop, ENDANGERED SPECIES, for himself and sailed and raced her.  I remember seeing photos of her back then and thought that she was what I would have built for myself if I were a boat builder, which I most decidedly am not.

She is something of a scaled down Ocean 60 racer with a 10’ beam, 7’ foil keel, displacing 5,000 pounds.

A few weeks ago I received an email from Todd about solo sailing in which he mentioned that he now owns ENDANGERED SPECIES, so I asked him for photos and permission to post them.  I thank him.

Todd says that the name is not about homo sapiens, though I think it apt, but about boat building in wood that John Guzzwell thinks is a craft that is endangered.  I agree.  I have only owned plastic boats because I want to sail them more than I want to maintain them, but wood is the only boat building material with soul and wood hulls finished bright have unequalled beauty.

I asked Todd if he does his own varnishing.  He does.  The job needs doing every two or three years.  But he also relates that he has a custom cover that cost more than I paid for GANNET.

Todd intends to sail ENDANGERED SPECIES in the Solo TransPac this summer, assuming the pandemic has eased and the race is run.  I hope it is and I wish him well.

Permit me to direct your attention again to the lines page of the main site where you will find:

The self-righteous are always willing that others suffer for their beliefs.

http://inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/lines.html

Unfortunately the self-righteous are increasingly active.  A few days ago those who are against the COVID vaccine blocked traffic and shut down for a while the vaccination center at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles imposing their will on those who wanted to be vaccinated and preventing them from being so.

Now I don’t actually care what anyone believes so long as they do not seek by force to impose their beliefs on others and do not persecute or kill those who do not share their beliefs.  But many of the self-righteous do persecute and kill and have throughout history and the world.

I do not know what is going on with life beyond that DNA seems to ‘want’ to project itself into the future in an endless passing of the buck.

A great many others are certain they know ‘the truth’.

I’d rather be around skeptics.  Skeptics hardly ever kill those who disagree with them.

I have added places I might sail to in the next two years to my weather app, Dark Sky, and to Windfinder Pro.

Today Hilton Head is overcast, intermittently rainy and 48F.  Wind 16 knots WNW.  I look out and see a few rare white caps on Skull Creek, though only 4” wavelets.

Bermuda:  some rain, 61F, wind 18 SSW.

Freeport, Bahamas:  70F, broken cloud cover, wind 12 knots W.

Reykjavik, Iceland:  28F, sunny, wind 11 knots NE.

Port Ellen, Islay, Scotland:  39F, cloudy, wind 12 knots E.

I’ll be keeping track from now on.

Those who follow U.S. football will be aware of the ten year $503,000,000 contract the young Kansas City Chief’s quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, recently signed.  A lot of money indeed, but not even close to the contract just revealed of the Argentine born soccer player, Lionel Messi, with the Spanish club, Barcelona, which is for $672,480,000.  For four years.  

Messi is in the conversation for the greatest soccer player of all time.  Personally I don’t agree with any GOAT.  No one except perhaps Shakespeare and Bach is clearly the greatest.  It is enough to say of anyone that in his field of endeavor no one is greater.  

Messi has had great success over a long career.  Patrick Mahomes success in a short one and may end up being considered one of the all time greats.

Are they worth such extraordinary money?  Is anyone?  I do not know.

Hilton Head Island: talk video uploaded; a question

 Joe Balderrama kindly sent me a link to a copy of the recording of last Saturday night’s Zoom talk.  I thank him.  With unexpected ease and speed I have uploaded it to my YouTube channel.  Several readers have asked if it would be available and now it is.  I am about to watch it myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBXawsyjqLs&t=629s

Art asked a question that did not get presented during the talk.

“How much baby skin do you have left?”

For those of you who inexplicably deprive yourself of the pleasure of reading the ‘lines’ page on my main site—-http://inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/lines.htm—-this refers to:  life is the process of turning baby smooth skin into scar tissue.

The answer is none.  Zero.  Not a millimeter.  Not all is scar tissue, though I have a lovely new one forming where my left leg has become infected after the recent skin cancer removal.  This is not serious and should be resolved within a week by antibiotics, but it is leaving a nice scar.  What is not scarred is most decidedly not baby smooth and hasn’t been for a very long time.

Hilton Head Island: questions, answers, an opinion, a galloping horse, and a poem

 A rainy day in the Low Country.  Solid overcast with intermittent downpours and gusts.  A small craft advisory is posted for coastal waters, which happens here much more frequently than I expected.  So I have a day in the condo.  After writing this, a little housework.  Reading EXTRAORDINARY LIVES:  The Art and Craft of American Biography.  Listening to music.  Weight workout.  Watching some soccer and the wind in the live oaks and the rain on Skull Creek.  

After Saturday’s talk Joe forwarded a few questions to me that had not been asked at the time.  Thinking they might be of interest to others I post them and my responses.

From Matt:

Do you enjoy sailing out of Safe Harbor on the Atlantic for fun? 

 

How does the sailing on the East coast compare with sailing in the Bay Area?

Generally I don’t daysail much.  I don’t like to go out and have to turn around and come back and I find that it is almost as much effort to go for a daysail as to start an ocean passage.   However, having said that Hilton Head is decidedly different from sailing in San Diego, mainly because there are many places to anchor here and few regulations, so I can sail for an afternoon and then anchor overnight.  My last video was shot at anchor on Election Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjI6vLEJJPo

They call this the Low Country and another significant difference from California is that a lot of the water is shallow and shoals extend far offshore.  To get completely clear of them I have to sail several miles beyond the shoreline.

In Skull Creek itself, the Intracoastal channel has buoys and is 20+’ deep, but outside that you can quickly run aground, even in GANNET.  I have yet to do so and hope to keep that record.

Another difference is that there is no prevailing wind here as there is from NW along the California coast.  The wind can come from any direction.  And the water temperature varies considerably, from above 80 in the summer—good for hurricanes—to around 50 in winter.

From Scott:

What was the most challenging aspect of sailing a Moore 24 around the world? What was the best aspect of the boat?

In your books you have commented that your prefer boats without lifelines? Why?  What safety gear did you have on Gannett and how often did you wear a life harness?  Did you ever fall or get washed overboard?

The most challenging aspect of sailing GANNET around the world was dealing with the water that made its way below deck even with the hatches closed.  GANNET was of course not as wet as CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE, my open boat, but everything in her is subject to getting wet, including me, and if it can be damaged by water has to be in watertight cases.  It wasn’t until I reached Durban, South Africa, that I came up with a spray hood around the companionway that partially solved the problem of the water coming in there. Actually I did not solve it, a reader who sails a small boat out of the Netherlands sent me photos of a simple spray hood he devised for his boat.  On GANNET it is necessary that any such hood be easily and quickly raised and lowered because I often sail the boat standing in the companionway.

The best thing about GANNET is her sailing performance.  She is so responsive, so quickly accelerates catching a wave or a bit more wind, runs so true.  She is a joy.

Of lifelines, I only didn’t have them on EGREGIOUS and CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE.  CHIDIOCK was an open boat and lifelines were never intended. I have had them on all subsequent boats and am very glad to on GANNET.  Generally I felt that lifelines don’t really keep you on a boat and they cause a lot of holes to be drilled in the deck which can and often do leak.  On EGREGIOUS I wore a safety harness whenever I left the cockpit.  I had a long line attached to an eyebolt inside the cabin so I could put it on before going on deck and a shorter line to clip into the toe rail when I was at the bow.  EGREGIOUS did not have jib furling gear, which back then was new and untested.

I have never fallen overboard.  If I had I would not be writing to you today.  Sailing a boat alone across an ocean there are simple mistakes that you can’t make even once.

From Topher:

You mentioned, that while adrift, your “great pleasure” was having a bit of jam.   While sailing Gannet, I wonder, what is your greatest pleasure?

Standing in the companionway or sitting on deck listening to music, sipping something, while GANNET sails perfectly balanced toward the setting sun.

From Eric comes an opinion about my legacy, assuming I have one.  I thank him for taking the time to express it.

I understood at one point that you were wondering what legacy Webb Chiles would leave behind, I think that beyond the shadow of a doubt Webb Chiles will have definitively proved that it is not necessary in order to cross the oceans to own or build sailboats with battle tank architecture as popular culture or some offshore sailors have always claimed, but as you have often proven a light and fast sailboat well built weighing only half or a third of the weight of the old sailboats can not only be safe but more affordable and available to many. Your contribution to the world of sailing has been not only to change the perception of what is, but also of what must be.  In addition to democratizing an activity that is no longer reserved for the richest or the most do-it-yourselfers of this world.

You change an archaic conception of oceanic sailing to become a modern reality by changing paradigms largely outdated.

Last evening my shoulders ached.  I waxed GANNET’s starboard topsides and was glad that she is not bigger.  I calculate her topsides are less than half the area of THE HAWKE OF TUONELA’s, another reason to like small boats.

I had previously done the transom.

Although while I was working, the line between what I had waxed and had not was clear and GANNET definitely looks better than she did, I am uncertain if waxing will be enough.  As I walked away her starboard side seemed to pass the ‘viewed at a boat length distance test’, but that may be easy for one half blind.  So I have emailed Audrey of the Armada to get on her horse and ride up here and gallop by to give the definitive decision.  Audrey lives near Pensacola, Florida, five hundred miles away.  I don’t know how long it will take her to get here and am a little concerned about a horse galloping down the dock, but I will let you know the results.

I was going to turn GANNET around today so I can do the port side and even considered going sailing.  The rain has intervened.

William Butler Yeats:

Hilton Head Island: zoom correction; Milky Way Ring; Ryan has left

First, a correction.  The information posted Wednesday about how to join tomorrow’s webinar is wrong.

If you want to join you need to click on the following link to register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0LrYWr8GTZGgviq31lQ-tA

The time remains the same.  5:00 PM Eastern Time.  2200 UCT.

The above photo of the plane of our galaxy is NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day and was two years in the making.  I quote from the site:

Explanation: An expanse of cosmic dust, stars and nebulae along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy form a beautiful ring in this projected all-sky view. The creative panorama covers the entire galaxy visible from planet Earth, an ambitious 360 degree mosaic that took two years to complete. Northern hemisphere sites in western China and southern hemisphere sites in New Zealand were used to collect the image data. Like a glowing jewel set in the milky ring, the bulge of the galactic center, is at the very top. Bright planet Jupiter is the beacon just above the central bulge and left of red giant star Antares. Along the plane and almost 180 degrees from the galactic center, at the bottom of the ring is the area around Orion, denizen of the northern hemisphere's evening winter skies. In this projection the ring of the Milky Way encompasses two notable galaxies in southern skies, the large and small Magellanic clouds.

Ryan Finn is underway.  He left Brooklyn yesterday afternoon and is sailing fast.  When I last checked he was making 17 knots.  I again wish him fulfillment of his vision.

His tracking page is:

https://share.garmin.com/82X63?fbclid=IwAR2xO6vdkRoPpOcCumASc_Ya5AtTMwi9TA05NKMO5xoQBoURZxXeQFDVUU0

Hilton Head Island: at long last; an invitation

This has been a great week to work on GANNET.  Sunny.  Low’s in the high 30sF and highs in the 50s for a few days, now lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s.  But I haven’t been working.  I have been in the condo waiting for workmen and delivery men.  On Monday stonemasons to fit granite around the fireplace.  Yesterday men delivering our months ago ordered bed.  Today men from a cable company who need access to the attic which in this building comes through our utility room and workmen to replace the baseboards around the fireplace.  This has all been worthwhile and today is momentous not only for the inauguration of a new President, but that the long running renovation from Hell is completed.  This is Carol’s triumph.  There are still more details to be taken care of, but they are add ons.  The place is not fully furnished and may not be for quite some time.  But the renovation really is over.  I can’t yet believe it, but we will go out and buy a bottle of champagne to celebrate this evening.  

San Francisco’s Singlehanded Sailing Society asked me to speak to them via zoom in what is called a ‘webinar’.  I really should have copyrighted my name.  I will talk for maybe twenty or thirty minutes and then take questions.  Unlike many of you I am unfamiliar with zoom and don’t know how this will go, but if you wish to view I am told you can.  It will begin at 5 PM Eastern time/2200 UTC this Saturday, January 23.

Here is a copy of the link I have been given.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar. Date Time: Jan 23, 2021 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)  Topic: Webb Chiles, January Guest Speaker  To join: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0LrYWr8GTZGgviq31lQ-tA

Hilton Head Island: waiting for the delivery man

 

A lovely week here.  Clear skies.  Spectacular sunsets.  Lows in the high 30sF.  Highs around 60.  A great week to be working on GANNET.  But I’m not.  I am presently waiting for delivery of our long ago ordered bed.  Yesterday I had to be here while stone masons fit granite around the fireplace.  Tomorrow other workmen are to replace the baseboards beside the fireplace.  All worthwhile, but confining.  So while waiting, let me catch up on some unrelated odds and ends.

Above you have a painting of the clipper ship, STARLIGHT, in Boston Harbor not long after her launching in 1854.  I run it because it is pretty and thank Tim for the photograph he sent me taken at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

From Dana come this photo taken by a friend of his in I believe the U.S. Virgin Islands with the caption ‘envy’.  I thank them both and quote:

You go through life thinking you’re king of the hill.  Buy yourself a 200-foot yacht, drop anchor in front of the Dupars, the St. Thomas Dupars.  “Apogee” on the right.

 

Then the 240 foot “Lunasea” drops anchor next to you (left), and you can hear “Mine is bigger than yours!” piped over the PA system.  Spend the night making fun of the “little guy next door.”

 

Then the 320 foot “Faith” steams into the harbor Saturday morning, and you realize you’re nothing but a testicle!  Made in Italy, ooooozes sex appeal as she slides into port.  Canadian billionaire  Lawrence Strol.  Life is good.

To which Dana replied:

Then I wander in on my 45 year old 30' sailboat and they all envy me for the simplicity and not having to worry if someone is going to scratch the paint or try to steal my stuff as there isn't anything worth stealing.  Ah life.

As you may have observed I am not a crowd person, but sometimes, occasionally, groups are good.  I thank Alan for this link to an enjoyable and heartening video of a zoom rendition of the sea shanty “Leave Her Johnny.”  Some of the comments are puerile.  Others point out that the song is not from a sailor to a woman, but sailors to their ship at voyage’s end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fow61Zsn2s

A frank defining of oneself in six words has come:

Father, artist, sailor, pilot, programmer, drunk.

An added note mentions trying to save jobs and pain.

I don’t put names on these to preserve privacy.

My friend, Carlos, asked in an email for a list of my ‘ten best reads’.

I have given it thought and I have reviewed my list of books read which goes back to June 2009 and have come up with the following in no particular order:

TYPHOON   Joseph Conrad

DEBACLE   Emile Zola

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE   Thomas Hardy

ANNA KARININA   Leo Tolstoy

NIGHT FLIGHT   Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC   Aldo Leopard

BALTASAR AND BLIMUNDA   Jose Saramago

LIFE AND FATE   Vastly Grossman

VOSS   Patrick White

SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD   Joshua Slocum

I am quite certain that if I were to make such a list tomorrow it would vary and I have excluded the epic poems that are among my most favorite books.

I could easily have chosen other works by several of the authors.  Conrad:  THE NIGGER OF THE NARCISSIS;  HEART OF DARKNESS; and others.  Zola:  THE BEAST IN MAN; and others.  Hardy:  TESS OF THE d’UBERVILLES; FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD; JUDE THE OBSCURE; RETURN OF THE NATIVE.  Saramago:  THE DEATH OF RICARDO REIS.  Patrick White:  THE VIVISECTOR.

Of sailing books:  TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST   Richard Henry Dana; and although I have not read it for several decades, ALONE IN THE ROARING FORTIES by Vito Dumas.

Had I made such a list a few years ago I would have included HUCKLEBERRY FINN, but when I last reread it, I liked the parts about Huck and Jim, but found the those about Tom Sawyer too childish.

Likewise I would have included MOBY DICK if about a hundred dull pages were eliminated.

Hilton Head Island: audacious: vaccine; changeless

 I have been reading about proas and watching videos of the 36’ JZERRO sailing effortlessly at 18 knots.  Proas have two hulls, one shorter than the other and are sailed with the shorter hull to windward.  I did not understand why they don’t capsize.  Now I sort of do.  No.  I am not planning on buying one, but a sailor with whom I have been in communication for a few years, Ryan Finn, is about to try to sail JZERRO single-handed from New York to San Francisco.

JZERRO has been sailed from the US to New Zealand and back by her builder, Russell Brown, from whom Ryan bought the boat.  

JZERRO is very fast.  I followed Ryan’s track a few years ago when he sailed from San Diego to New Orleans via Panama and observed many 200+ mile days.  Whether she is up to this voyage, including an east to west rounding of Cape Horn, I do not know.  This is truly a sailing edge voyage and Ryan has displayed perseverance and nerve, which you may recall I define as the willingness once one has prepared to the extent of his resources to embark on an endeavor whose outcome is uncertain and may be fatal.

You can read more at a piece in Sailing Anarchy and its links.

https://sailinganarchy.com/2021/01/11/why-7/

Ryan intends to set off soon.  His tracking page is:

https://share.garmin.com/82X63?fbclid=IwAR2xO6vdkRoPpOcCumASc_Ya5AtTMwi9TA05NKMO5xoQBoURZxXeQFDVUU0

I will be following him and wish him fulfillment of his vision.

I read of chaos in the COVID vaccine program.  That has not been my experience.  Being really old, I received unsolicited an email from the Hilton Head Hospital advising me to register with the CDC. It provided the link.  I did and then clicked on a calendar for an appointment.  I received ‘no appointments available for this date’ until March 10 when there were several at ten minute intervals.  I clicked on 12:20 and received a confirmation email.  March 10 is a year from when we first became aware of the pandemic.  That there are vaccines in such a short time is remarkable.  That people are complaining about the vaccination process is expected.

From one of my few friends from before age fifty, Sandy, an American living in Australia, came this photo with her caption: you haven’t changed at all!  Right.

I can’t place the photo or when it was taken.  I note that long before I owned GANNET I was wearing a gannet tee-shirt.