TWL: RE: Voluntary Loss of disgusted TWL member
From: owner-trawler-world-list@samurai.com
[mailto:owner-trawler-world-list@samurai.com]On Behalf Of David A. Stahl
We plan to snorkel as much as possible, starting at Bucks Island
National Park
in St Croix.
Are you familiar with a "dive plane"? It's a poor-man's equivalent of one of
those torpedo-like personal U/W scooters. Here's what you do:
Fashion a 2' X 1' square of 1/2" plywood (approx.).
Attach two large bolts, suitable for gripping.
Wrap the bolt with gaffer's tape.
(If you have an old pair of snow ski poles,
cutting off their handles with about an inch
of pole is perfect).
Make a bridle between the bottoms of the handles of about 2' of 3/8" line
Attach a ski or wakeboard tow rope (or about 75') to the bridle and the
transom of the tow boat.
Don your mask, fins and snorkel, and have a blast "flying" along the bottom,
scaring the hell out of fish as you zoom up on them!
Have the driver pull you very slowly! The boat really shouldn't even make
a wake, which is why I thought of trawlering. If it gets weird, or you see
something cool, just let go. You'll be back on the surface with time to
spare before the boat gets back.
With a bit of practice, you can dive as fast as you can clear your ears;
being able to hit 30' in a few seconds is no problem. It's sort of a
full-body, shoulder-hunching kind of move to start the dive. Because of the
bridle, you can operate the dive plane one-handed, to facilitate
ear-clearing. If you like to spearfish, you can put the loop of a pole spear
around your shoulder, and tow it behind you. If you see some game, just let
go and take the shot. I don't think that I'd try it with a loaded speargun,
however YMMV.
Warning! Under no circumstances should you use the dive plane with a SCUBA
tank! Rapid ascents could embolize you, or get you seriously bent! Death
could result, so don't send your heirs crying to me!
If you need more detailed instructions, I can put a diagram up on the Web
for you. It's not really an exact thing, so use what you have laying around.
Have fun, and watch out for sharks!
BTW: Here's a pair of books on freediving, written by world-record
spearfisherman Terry Maas (398 pound bluefin tuna! The picture on the cover
is unbelievable!) that really helped my technique: "Bluewater Hunting and
Freediving" and "Freedive!".
Doug Barnard
rebuilding a 20' Skipjack
"Fiesta Bimbo"
trawler-crawler wannabe
There have been at least 12 emails asking Marty to reconsider, meanwhile, I
have gotten those and approx. 25 about learn to use email another 25
reprimanding listees for being so harsh, etc. Everyone wants to get their 2
cents in and it is getting ridiculous. Can we please move on, and as
someone else said talk Trawlers.
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Rich Gano [mailto:rgano@mantech-pc.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 6:37 PM
To: Paul Koch
Subject: RE: Voluntary Loss of disgusted TWL member
Promoting civil discourse in an effort to get a valuable member to
reconsider (and gently reminding all of us know we can be a bit more
considerate) is not, IMHO, non-productive. And why did you put this
"non-productive" tid-bit on the TWL instead of sending it to me directly?
-snip-
Dear Listees, This may be boring but but at least its on topic.
The admiral and I and two other couples are starting our the second trip
ever in the new/old Hatteras 42 LRC, Skooch.
Since the maiden cruise we have (hey Joe, see I listen to ya) added a
Raytheon 530 color Chart plotter to supplement the 24 mile open antenna
Furuno radar. For those scarred of a power failure, we also have paper charts.
As I only know how to use the paper charts they will most likely be
close at hand and the blinky light boxes an interesting, may be even
fascinating
display. We've also added a 9db cell antenna and a 1500 watt inverter to keep
the refer going and so I can make coffee in the morning, quietly.
With no fuel polishing system and 750 gallon of old diesel, I bought a case
of racor filters and a case of rum for the maiden voyage. But I have all
the racor
filters still and only half the rum going into this trip. Capt. Mike agrees
that I
should be afraid of this fuel and keep a eye on the racors and keep the spares
handy, but I'll need more rum for sure. Also note that the diesel is made in
St Croix and at least was very fresh a year ago and the tanks are kept full.
We plan to snorkel as much as possible, starting at Bucks Island National Park
in St Croix. Next (way point?) its on to St Thomas were we need to get our
life raft
inspected. One of the listees would estimate the cost of this as one boat
unit.
Once we locate Bennett Bay on the blinky box and get the life raft checked its
on to a friends house nestled on the beach near the Frenchman's reef
resort for
dinner.
Then its off to the BVIs for snorkel and diving. I usually start BVI trips by
checking in customs at Dorsey's on Yost VanDyke. Actually customs is
first. Dorsey's is a bar on the opposite side of the beach from the
world famous Foxy's.I wonder if a private boat has to pay the British a
charter cruising tax. They probably have a different name for it.
I will report the technicals to the list when we return. How the new antenna
works with the Cingular data phone. How the 1500 watt inverter ran the refer
and made coffee on the two 8D house batteries. How the Chart plotter worked
vs the radar and paper charts. How many boat units the life raft cost to
rejuvenate.
Signing off for eleven days or if I can get the singular phone to work with my
e-mail. Hope ya'all move on to trawler related topics.
Skooch
David Stahl
Kennett Internet Services, 112 S. Union Street, Kennett Square, PA 19348
610-444-9008 Visit our web site at http://www.kennett.net
Also a good way to troll for large pelagic. (Shark).
Just couldn't resist the fun...
I pull Wendy around on the surface behind the dinghy in the Bhams looking
for conch beds.
They actually do follow her around a few feet behind the flippers.
Mostly nurse and small reefs.
(We're quite used to them though. The ones that get us out of the water are
the ones that are larger than us. Except for the nursesharks. They're always
huge but harmless.)
Large cudas will follow you also while in their claimed territorial waters.
But you don't see them...
Capt. Joe
www.marinesupportonline.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Barnard dbarnard@virtualacreage.com
To: David A. Stahl david@kennett.net; trawler-world-list@samurai.com
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 6:00 AM
Subject: TWL: snorkeling fun (was Skooch's 2nd trip)
Have the driver pull you very slowly! The boat really shouldn't even
make
a wake, which is why I thought of trawlering. If it gets weird, or you ...