I’m looking forward to picking a name out of the virtual hat (OK, so actually, it’s randomized event executed with a mouse click…), and going through pictures of flags. If you haven’t entered to win yet, you’ve got two days left- that’s two more chances to enter! Well, as long as you have a US or Canadian mailing address. I think the world needs more smiles in it: so please, share this with your friends!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
How much do I love flags?
Here’s Totem, anchored in Sydney Harbour for New Years Eve a few year back, we made a string of all the courtesy flags we had on board. Our usual, 12×18″ courtesy flag was swapped for a stunner of an Aussie ensign, a big flag that was the thoughtful parting gift from the company I worked for in Australia. many boats in the harbor had their celebratory best colors out, and it was beautiful to see. Our string of courtesy flags are a kind of “poor cruisers” version of dress flags, but we loved the memories that came with putting each one of those flags together… in the order that we visited the countries, or course.
Flags are memories of good times. Australia day, in January, we bobbed around the harbor (again teeming with boats)- flags of all sizes, but large ones in particular. Our host for the day in 2011 was the trawler Furthur, another vessel from the Salish Sea. With a boat full of Americans and a US hailing port, the natural thing to do was string up all the flags and then make a big banner of our own to get in the fun.
In Thailand, we noticed a lot of local boats flying yellow and blue flags. It seems like a strange thing to do (clearly, they didn’t need Quarantine yellow) until I realized they contained complex emblems: it turns out these are special flags celebrating the Thai king (yellow) and queen (blue). When in Rome, right?
It’s actually not quite proper etiquette to string them like this. Typically, stringing one national flag over another means the higher flag has declared war on the lower one. We went with it since that was the modus operandi on local vessels. On the other hand, it also reflected the anti-royalist tension in much of Thailand at the time…although the last thing we were aiming for was a political statement. I’m pretty sure that’s not what the fishing and tourist boats in Phuket had in mind, either.
While there are a lot of rules around flags, they’re often easily bent. Where we draw the line is where it may offend anyone- especially our host country- or where it may cause harmful misunderstanding (e.g., indicating distress when there is none). But I have to admit, when we see an obvious miss on flag etiquette, we notice. Like the boat that thought it was cute to fly their Scottish flag over the local courtesy flag. They probably have no idea that they’re being rude, but they are. We didn’t have the opportunity to tell them, but it was a chance to show our kids what not to do, and why.
Otherwise, we literally just let our flags fly. Have extras, or the materials to make them! Without flags to spare, we hand-made one to leave at Suwarrow. Check out the wealth of great flags hung up there with messages and remembrances from cruisers in years gone by.
A big thanks to Gettysburg Flag Works, who is making this giveaway possible! More information on Gettysburg, their great flags for boaters, and the story behind the giveaway in this earlier post.
Flag-flying fans know we love it when you read this on the Sailfeed website.