en route to the Maritime Museum
where the star for us was tiny little "Happy II"
one of the smallest boats to sail across the Pacific Ocean. At 13ft long, she was the second attempt by owner, Howard Wayne Smith, to circumnavigate the world. He left the East US coast on Happy I, went through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific until he was wrecked on a reef off New Caledonia. Undeterred, Smith picked up the pieces of Happy I to build Happy II and continued on his circumnavigation; eventually he made landfall in Queensland but he wasn't greeted with open arms as he didn't have a visa and Australian Customs even imposed a $2k bond on the boat to cover import duties! Smith was given a short tourist visa but had no money to pay the bond, and eventually was deported, forfeiting Happy II, which he donated to the Museum.
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