A Dewy Morning
Courtesy requires visiting yachts to fly the host country's flag. As with all things nautical there are a million rules. For Nellie it's simple, the courtesy flag goes on the starboard flag halyard.
The Canadian Courtesy Flag on Nellie's Starboard Halyard and the LNVT Burgee on Her Port Halyard
We knew we had a Canadian courtesy flag aboard but look as we may we couldn't find it. Three days before entering Canada we gave up and bought another one. Two days after arriving in country we found not one, but two stowed Canadian courtesy flags. So, Nellie now has three flags.
I know you're asking, how in the world could you have three? Well, we bought the first in 2006 when Nellie visited Vancouver Island. It was stowed in 2007 while we were in Alaska. Unable to find it, we bought a second Canadian courtesy flag for the trip back from Alaska. Apparently, sometime thereafter, we found the missing flag because the two were stowed together. Are you starting to see a pattern here?
There's only one way to break this cycle. In six weeks, when Nellie goes on the hard in Ontario, we'll give all three Canadian courtesy flags away. Why? Because if we don't: in the Spring we won't be able to find them; knowing they're onboard will make buying yet another flag exasperatingly irritating; and, when the three flags do show up we'll be mad at ourselves yet again. Yup, give the flags away. When the time comes buy a new one. Never before will $8.40 have saved so much.
1761 English Map of the North Channel
The red arrow above shows where Nellie is this evening. It's interesting that on this antique map the North Channel is labeled, 'very little known'. That's us, going where few 18th century adventurers dared go ;-) No miles on Nellie today. Holding at 1472 miles for the journey. DBH
