Hilton Head Island: a thousand years ago; quiet; bit part

The beautiful image of a stained glass window above was used today to illustrate an article reporting that scientists have now established that Vikings were in Newfoundland exactly a thousand years ago in 1021.  It has long been known that they were here hundreds of years before Columbus, but until recently a precise date could not be established,

Of course neither Vikings nor Columbus ‘discovered’ America.  It was already populated by others who had been here for thousands of years.  And all of us, no matter when we arrived, are immigrants from Africa.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/vikings-north-america-date-newfoundland

Most of you do not have the same existential interest in the hurricane season as I do and so may not have noticed that the hurricane season came to an abrupt halt and I hope end at the beginning of this month.  Nothing has happened.  Nothing is happening.  Nothing has spun off Africa.  The flow of trade winds has been smooth and uninterrupted.

In the past one could reasonably conclude the season is over.  Today I am not sure.

From THE ASSASSIN’S CLOAK an entry from October 15.

Hilton Head Island: the freedom to die

I do not write about politics because I don’t want to be caught up in that feeding frenzy of fools.  However, this entry will be seen as political by some.  They are wrong.  It is about public health and numbers.  That these have become politicized by some to advance their careers and/or because of stupidity is not my fault.  I have considered whether I should write this and decided that silence would be complicity with those who have made science political.  I do not want to start a debate and will not participate in one.

I was sent a link to an opinion piece by an American woman who might be quite famous but of whom I had never heard.  I rarely read opinion pieces.  I seek facts and numbers on which I can form my own opinion.  She was complaining about the restrictions put on Australians by their government as measures to combat the COVID epidemic.  From her comments I expect she has never been in Australia.  A side comment of hers that the Afghan War was started by the US to spread democracy is manifestly untrue.

So I googled and did the math.  As of this afternoon Australia had 1,448 COVID deaths  out of a population of 25,671,900.  The US has a population of about 330,000,000 or about 12. 6 times that of Australia.  So multiply 1,448 by 12.6 and you get 18,244.8 which would be the number of COVID deaths in the US if we had the same death rate as Australia.  The present number of COVID deaths in the US is 727,000.

The freedom that Australians are being denied by their government is the freedom to die of COVID which some fools in the United States consider their inalienable right.

Hilton Head Island: sailed and provisioned

 

I went sailing Wednesday and Thursday.  Well, sort of.  At least I left the dock.

The weather was just as forecast:  sunny and very light wind.  I pushed GANNET out of her slip at about 9:30 and it took me an hour and a half powering with the mainsail up but not assisting much and 50% of the battery against an incoming tide to cover the 1.8 miles to the mouth of Skull Creek.  Once on Port Royal Sound I set the jib as well and sailed slowly down the sound and then half way back and anchored in the middle a mile from either shore.  The best part was sitting in the cockpit at 5 sipping some tequila that was on board and listening to music.  I also ate my freeze dry beef stew on deck and some cookies I brought with me.

The sound was completely flat that night and I slept well.

I waited Thursday morning for wind and some came up about 11.  I raised anchor and sails and made it to about a half mile outside the mouth of the creek when what was only very light wind at best, died completely and the water went glassy, so I powered the rest of the way.  This time with the tide with me making more than three knots and using only 30% of the battery although I powered father than on my way out.

I am beginning to understand these waters and while the currents here are nothing like those of Northern Australia with its eight meter/26’ tides and other places, they must be taken into consideration.

I had to adjust to the current when docking as well, feeling it trying to push GANNET sideways.

It was good to be on the boat and the water, even if the sailing was not great.  The condo is seductive.  My eye and mind are repeatedly drawn to the changing beauty outside. Skull Creek rising and falling, covering and uncovering spartina.  The light reflecting off it differently as the sun moves across the sky.  The live oaks and Spanish moss hanging still or moving in the wind.  The birds and squirrels and occasional raccoon and even more occasional alligator.  I like living with the minimum membrane between myself and the natural world and for a land dwelling this condo is that.  I can be outside on the deck or on the screened porch in a few steps and seconds.  But looking at the water, however beautiful, is not the same as being on and surrounded by it and being the only boat anchored on Port Royal Sound.  That there is so much room on the water here and that you can anchor almost anywhere are great virtues.

That is the longest the boat has had hatches open for months.  GANNET feels the heat, too, and needs to breath.  The summers are too hot, but the next eight months should be good.  I need to do this more often.

I have written that you never really know a boat until you live on board her for an extended time.  Even in my two days on board, my to do list has increased.

The new main halyard did not solve the problem of clutch slippage.  It has a softer cover than the old halyard which I thought the clutch might grip better.  It didn’t.  There are solutions, but none that I yet consider acceptable.  I will give it more thought.

I biked down to GANNET this morning to put her in order.  After docking I had removed the Torqeedo from the transom, but left it on the cabin sole and I had left the anchor and rode bag on the v-berth.  I brought the Torqeedo battery up to the condo to charge overnight.  I had also refueled at anchor, taking the battery down below to charge.  GANNET is her own fuel dock.

I have been wanting to turn GANNET in her slip so I can scrub the starboard side of the bottom with the extension broom and when I got to the little boat at about 10:30 this morning I realized the conditions were perfect.  Near low tide slack water and no wind, so I did it, tying a long line around a stern cleat, pushing her out into the fairway, then turning and pulling her back in with the stern cleated line.  Why not just have backed her in when I returned?  Two reasons.  One, I don’t like to use reverse under power and second my flawed depth perception makes it difficult for me to judge close distances well.  So I keep it simple and go in bow first.  GANNET is so light that it is easy to push her out and around.

While sailing I saw several dark spots on the mainsail and some black crumbly clumps of dirt on the deck.  I don’t know where they came from.  You may recall that wasps started to build a hive in my dock box.  Perhaps they or a bird tried to build a nest in the furled mainsail.  In any event, I raised the mainsail and scrubbed the spots which mostly disappeared.  I expect exposure to sunlight under sail will do the rest.

I properly stowed the Torqeedo and battery and anchor and rode and then scrubbed the deck.

The temperature was only a maximum of 81F/27C, but I was pouring with sweat by the time I was finished and biked with relief to the air conditioned condo.

While I was away my order of freeze dry food was delivered, as was the replacement Pelican flashlight and Capt. Tully’s Creeping Crack Cure which Jim recommended as a possible fix for the leak around the compass.  Porch pirates are not a problem inside this gated community.

Those packs in the photo represent over 100 meals.  I will sort them into three bags of about 35 meals each.  This will be a bit more complicated than usual because many of these packs are two meals rather than one.  I expect that my aged brain will figure it out. 

Hilton Head Island: .500

Batting .500 in baseball even for a short stretch is outstanding and no has batted even .400 for an entire season since Ted Williams did it the year I was born.  However .500 for tiller pilots is not so good.

I biked to GANNET this morning.  During her circumnavigation and even when in the marina in San Diego GANNET was complete, but since trucking her here a year ago I have moved much off her to store in the dock box or at the condo, so I wanted to find out if I still had essentials on board.  With the exception of a bottle of Laphroaig, which some might not consider actually to be essential and I can live without for a brief period, they are.  

I filled one 5 gallon jerry can and my four smaller day bottles with water.

I fit the Torqeedo on the stern.  It started as this one always has.  Good Torqeedo.

I brought up a tiller pilot and plugged it in.  Instead of the usual beep when it first comes on, it made a constant shrill sound and none of the controls worked.  I went down below and brought up another tiller pilot.  Plugged it in.  Same constant sound; same dysfunction.  This caused me to wonder if something had gone wrong with the wiring.  I went below, cleared bags, foul weather gear, and Avon off the starboard pipe berth, slithered aft with a headlamp.  The wires were properly attached.

I slithered back to the Great Cabin, crawled onto the v-berth and took the remaining two tiller pilots on deck.  Plugged one in.  Single beep and it worked.  Plugged the other in.  Single beep and it worked.

Of the tiller pilots, the two that don’t work date from 2019, the two that do work date from 2019 and 2015.  The one from 2015 should go in the Raymarine tiller pilot hall of fame.  The two that don’t work are still under warranty.  I have brought them up to the condo to send to Raymarine.  We should arrange a regular courier service.

After this charming exercise, I went down below and applied another coat of oil to the companionway bulkhead and the floorboards.  Closed up and biked home.

Tomorrow I go for a sail.  Although our fine weather is not accompanied by much wind—I see nothing more than eight knots for several days—it will be good to be on the water and watch the sunset at anchor somewhere.

Hilton Head Island: comfort

A lovely day. The low that has been sitting a hundred miles offshore and causing our rain has eased north.  70F/21C when I biked down to GANNET at 9 this morning with a slight breeze from the NE. This was the first day I have been able to work in comfort on GANNET for months.

I scrubbed the overhead with mold spray, removed the floorboards and sanded them on the dock, cleaned the bilge in their absence and chipped away flaking paint, put them back in place and oiled them and put another coat of oil on the companionway bulkhead, after which I had to get off the boat while the oil dries.  I notice that there were no signs of water dripping from the compass and we have had significant rain since my last attempt at sealing it.  Maybe I was successful.  I live in hope, however unrealistically.

I also found that the cover on the battery compartment of my waterproof Pelican flashlight has broken off.  I like this flashlight which is small and has a luminescent body and is easy to find at night, so I’ve ordered a replacement.  

The forecast for the coming week is perfect, so I may do something radical and go sailing and anchor overnight somewhere not far away.  This perfection does not include much wind.

Hilton Head Island: a log: THE PEARL; reader

 

Another day of steady rain.  Above is the current radar.  Rain is to be expected when you live in a swamp, even a very nice swamp.

I am sitting on the screened porch, enjoying the sound of the rain on the roof, deck, trees and Skull Creek, as I have enjoyed the sound of rain on the deck from inside the cabin of boats, assuming none of it was leaking on me.  I am curious what I will find below the compass when I am next on GANNET.

This morning I read John Steinbeck’s novella, THE PEARL.  I last read it more than fifty years ago and while I remembered the trajectory, I had forgotten the details, so it was like reading a novel I had not ever read before, but knew the ending.  A good story.  I think you would enjoy it.

I also read in today’s entries of THE ASSASSIN’S CLOAK a discussion by the Scottish poet, Alasdair MacClean, of the differences between diaries and journals.  He died in 1994 and so was fortunate enough probably never to have heard the abomination, ‘blog’.  The last paragraph came as a flash of insight.

This is not a journal or a diary, it is a log.  That’s what I write.  Land logs and passage logs.

If you are, as I and others believe, what you actually do rather than what you say you do or would like to do, I found myself wondering what I have actually done most in my life, not including sleep, which is probably what we all do more than any other single activity.  

I suppose that for most people what they have done most is work at whatever their jobs have been.  That might even be true of me who hasn’t worked for anyone else since 1974.  My job may not have been to have a job.

I am not sure how much time I have spent making ocean passages.  It is certainly more than eight years, maybe ten or more.

My first thought was that what I have done most is write.  I have been writing steadily, almost daily for more than sixty-five years.  But then I realized that I read more than I write.  So that’s it. The activity I have spent more of my life performing than any other.  I would not like it to be the single word to define me.  I much prefer the triad:  writer, sailor, lover.  But I can’t deny:  Webb Chiles, reader.

Hilton Head Island: 1ºC; peril; four poems

Finally some sunshine this morning after days of cloud and rain.  I biked down to GANNET and reeved the new main halyard and got a coat of oil on the interior wood.  Actually two coats on some areas.  I also tried to fix an intractable leak around where the cockpit compass passes through the companionway bulkhead.  I could see clearly where water had run down over the newly sanded wood.  I have applied sealant to the compass many times before and applied some more. But I am beginning to consider removing it and sealing the hole with a piece of plastic.  I seldom use it.  I have the Velocitek and both my phone and my Apple watch have accurate compasses.  I am giving it warning.

On the rainy days I did housework.  In fact I did all the housework and had none left to do after mopping and polishing the hardwood floors.

I also watched some sports on television and a Netflix documentary about climate change titled BREAKING BOUNDARIES.  In it I was told that during the Holocene, the current or perhaps just ended geological epoch, the temperature of the planet has been constant, varying by only one degree centigrade.  For my American friends that is 1.8ºF.  If the Holocene has ended it is because we have ended it, increasing the planet’s temperature more than that since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

I also read a book, PERIL, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, about the end of the Trump presidency and the beginning of Biden’s.  I don’t read much about current politics—it is too depressing—but saw in Apple News an interview with Woodward and Costa that interested me.  I am not going to make a comment on the book other than that if there is a good guy in it, he is not a politician, but a soldier.

In STAYING ALIVE, the anthology of modern Western poetry a few pages of which I read each afternoon, I am in a section about death and dying.  Here are four poems on that subject.  Two from the book.  Two by me.

I went to the poetry page of the main site and find there only twenty-four poems left.  

https://www.inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/poems.html

I have been paring away for decades.  Of the twenty-four death is mentioned in eight.

The next was written by Ruth Stone.

                                        Iphidamas

                                           no one who has ever read the Iliad

                                           has remembered you

                                           until me

    

                                        raised by a loving family

                                        your father a king

                                        you married

                                        but left for the glorious war

                                        before you had lain with your bride

                                        and in your first combat

                                        Agamemnon killed you

                                        that is all

                                        Homer gave you perhaps twenty lines

                                        blew life into you

                                        marched you into battle

                                        had you slain

                                        meat butchered by heroes

                                        the first time I read the Iliad

                                        even I did not notice you

                                        but the second

                                        during my “honeymoon”

                                        absurd word

                                        in Chicago in 1962

                                        with a woman from whom I am long divorced

                                        your brief life made me wonder

                                        what happened to your virgin bride   

                                        how soon did she forget

                                        and you

                                            did you have time for regret before you died

                                            or was the thrusting sword too quick

                                        you could not know

                                        that Homer would sing of you

                                            however briefly

                                        and that in 3000 years

                                        I at last would be touched by your death

                                        but if you had known

                                        I wonder

                                        if that would have been enough

                                                                    1975

Hilton Head Island: 36 years and a good joke

I am back in the air conditioned condo after biking to GANNET and getting a little work done this morning.  I scrubbed the half of the bottom facing the dock with an extension broom which works quite well, and I filled some gouges and sanded the companionway bulkhead.  This was the first time I’ve used my DeWalt battery operated sander.  I like it.  The temperature now is 86F/30C, but I think the maximum while I was on board was 80F/26.6C.  I have a hand size fan that runs on the ship’s DC which significantly improves cabin comfort.  Relative comfort.  Rain is in our forecast, so progress may be slow.  I have more wood to sand and then to oil it all.  On GANNET I have to move stuff to clear work space and then move it back to clear different space.

I was recently asked to provide some photos of CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE and of GANNET.  Among them are the above two which were taken from the same vantage point on a bridge in San Diego’s Mission Bay thirty-six years apart.  The one of CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE by Suzanne in 1978 shortly before I began the open boat voyage.  The one of GANNET by Steve Earley in 2014 shortly before I began GANNET’s circumnavigation.

In yesterday’s entries in THE ASSASSIN’S CLOAK I came across a joke that causes me to chuckle every time I think of it.  Be warned that it contains a vulgar word, so don’t read on if you are likely to be offended.

Hilton Head Island: medical bulletin; remiss; service interruption

 I know the world is anxiously awaiting the report on my aged body’s reaction to being shot twice yesterday.  In a word:  none.  Now on to more important things.

I have been remiss in not mentioning that Steve Earley is a week into his fall cruise.  He has been in St. Michaels, Maryland, for the small boat festival and is again underway this morning.  Here is his tracking page:

https://maps.findmespot.com/s/RXGF#history/assets

And here is a link to his site where he has been posting photos along the way.

http://logofspartina.blogspot.com/

I might also mention that the current October issue of CRUISING WORLD contains my article, “My Seventh Circumnavigation”, which includes a lovely photo of Skull Creek.  The Chamber of Commerce should put me on retainer.

MacHighway which is the webhost for my main site advises that they are migrating to new servers a week from today, October 9, and service will be interrupted for eight or ten hours.  I know this will leave a huge gap in your day.  You may just have to reread old journal entries instead.  Personally I am going to watch soccer on television.

Hilton Head Island: double shot; two women singing; into a hurricane

I received my second Pfizer COVID shot six months ago yesterday, so today i biked to Walmart where I was shot twice.  COVID booster in my left arm.  Flu in my right.  I had no reaction to my first two Pfizer shots and I have never had a reaction to flu shots other than the slight soreness that comes with any shot.  We will see what my body thinks of this.

I have recently come across videos of two women singing that I enjoy greatly,  Both have recorded extensively and are well known, but not until this week by me.

I thank Andy for the link to Joan Armatrading.  His favorite of her songs is ‘I’m Lucky’ which I like, too, but my favorite is ‘Already There’.  You of course already know that under the heading ‘I love’ on the lists page of the main site is, among others, “the athletic grace of the young’. 

https://www.inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/lists.html

 The dancers in the background of this video have amazing grace and beauty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChMcN0ke1eA

The other is a Bach aria sung by Magdalena Kozena which I came across by happy chance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQUYZHKnn58

I am going to watch them both again as soon as I post this entry.

I thank Larry for a link to a video taken by a nautical drone that was steered into Hurricane Sam. This is a very good use for such a drone.  I have been in 91 mph/79 knot winds several times.  I don’t know if I have been in 40’ waves.  I don’t recall if I ever claimed I’ve been in more than 30’ waves, but I have learned that I tend to underestimate.  I expected the conditions to look worse than they do, but then cameras flatten waves.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/drone-mission-to-the-eye-of-hurricane-sam/1026104