NavList:

Hi Doug.

Thank you so much for filling us in on your story. Welcome aboard (again)! 

You wrote:
"When the Patrick Obrian books became popular, of course there was an email discussion list, and someone on that list arranged for us to go sailing for a couple of weeks on "HMS" ROSE, a sorta replica of a British frigate from the US Revolutionary War era, that also happened to match pretty well the description of HMS SURPRISE in the books."

And of course the former "HMS Rose" eventually became "HMS Surprise" especially for the film (sorry, I can't bring myself to capitalize vessel names). There are details on the transition on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Surprise_(replica_ship). When you mentioned that "email discussion list", I thought I might have to "ping" Don Seltzer to get him in on this, but I see he's still reading NavList messages, and he has already replied. Like you, I found the amazingly active Patrick Obrian discussion group many years ago. And by "many" I mean back in 2003 or so, just before I found the NavList community. 

You mentioned you got to Clipperton by chartered fishing boat from San Diego. How long did that take? I'm guessing something like six days? I understand there's no viable "port" at Clipperton, so did your charter boat anchor off-shore and wait for you to finish? Or did they go fishing and come back?! How long were you on the island? And I have to ask, do the crabs bite? In one set of photos from the island, there is an encampment with what appears to be foot-tall "tin" walls around it. Did you have to set up barriers to keep them out??

Thank you for telling the story of Bounty. That happened just a few month after I moved here to Conanicut Island, and of course the sinking was a topic of great discussion locally and in the Navlist community. I knew you were aboard, but I didn't want to ask you explicitly because of the tragedy of the incident. 

Glad to see you're enthusiastic about celestial navigation. The USCG exams are beastly things, frozen in 1980, but of course that's typical of licensing exams in many fields. :/ Perhaps we can get folkks talking about various celestial licensing exams here. I'll start a new thread on that. Feel free to jump in.

Thanks again,
Frank Reed
Clockwork Mapping / ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA