I understand, but I want you to be aware that some of us live on our boats
and try to manage our affairs via the Internet. Connectivity is essential
and a great research tool to which I have become addicted. As I travel, the
Internet is my phonebook, etc. So it is of considerable interest to me how
others connect and where they connect, just as I had learned that Verizon
offered me the best bet for transiting the East Coast.
Ron Rogers

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Davies" taidsinn@rogers.com

| Gentlemen, could we please get back to boating subjects?  I own a boat
that
| was built before colour TV was in every room of the house, and when the
| Eniac and Univac machines were state of the art.
|
| I head out on my boat to get away from work, my e-mail, and the internet.
|
| After this thread, I think I'll head out tomorrow.  Oh darn, I can't.  The
| boat's still sitting on tree trunks in her slip.
|
| There must be something vaguely related to boating we can discuss.

Those of you that only boat in soft water and follow the butterworth
rule for cruising (head north if the butter starts to melt and south if
the butter turns too hard) don't know what you are missing. <grin>

Now cruising on hard water is definitely a different experience.
You have a choice, sail, or various power propulsion methods.

In the sail category you have the DN ice boats. In the rights conditions
of a good wind and flat ice you can reach speeds of 60 mph, sometimes
more.
Essentially it's a plank with a cross piece at the front.
Each corner has a skate blade attached. The rear corner has the skate
fastened to a pivoting shaft and tiller arm. Its much like a racing
dinghy.
You ride this plank contraption in a nearly prone position.

Another form of winter masochism is the frost biters dinghy club.
To a near frozen lake you add one thermal power generating station with
a warm water outflow. Sprinkled over top of this not quite frozen mix is
a fleet of small sailboats, the kind that usually dumps the helms person
at every shift of wind. This ungodly mix is presided over by a flock of
masochists that are determined to pretend its still summer.

( who says sailors are sane. From direct observation a bystander could
well conclude that sailors are clinically ill with some sort of mental
aberration.

For the power crowd you can race (on snow mobiles) or cruise in comfort
(inside a warm car) while bar hopping from marina to marina and town to
town. Evidently the unwritten rule is last one standing sober is the
loser.
The rest all think they are winners. <VBG>

One winter day with bright sunshine and blue skies, a friend stopped by
asking me to come along to help test a magnetometer. We brought along my
daughters bright red plastic sled.

Just off the shore of one of the islands we knew there was as sunken car
and we wanted to see if the magnetometer could pick it up.

We set up a search pattern - a creeping line of advance -  while
monitoring the magnetometer readings and our position with a GPS.

The ice fishermen kept looking at us dragging this bright red sled and
the bright yellow "fish" magnetometer behind the van.
As we got closer and closer to one ice hut one guy stepped outside the
hut and stared at us. I said to my friend.  Stop the van!
Then I got out and yelled a the guy using my best Newfoundlander accent;
"hey by, whatcha be using fer bait?  We've been trolling fo' ner half an
hour and never got a nibble!  Seeing its so bright sunshine I figgered
this "shiner would attract some good white fish".

The fisherman's eyes nearly popped, then he shook his head and went back
inside his hut and slammed the door. << VBG>>

Later when we did find the sunken car, we marked the spot with red paint
on the ice. Nearby fishermen asked what we thought we were doing.
I replied with a straight face. "We be looking fer my sunken car and we
is gonna dive for it later on".  One kibitzer jeered. " you dumb Newfie;
when the ice melts your X mark wil wash away"
" No I replied. Its gonna stay thar cuz it's waterproof paint. < even
bigger grin>

What the bystander's didn't know; my friend was the President of the
local PADI divers club and they were going to perform a qualification
ice dive the next day. Hence the big red X on the ice.

So that's some of the joys of hard water boating and cruising.

But you know, some of them snowmobilers are crazy. They don't quit when
the ice goes away. They just keep a running! Last record I heard of, one
guy ran for half a mile over open water before the machine sank.

And to think I left all that for the west coast.

Arild

Bob wrote:
After this thread, I think I'll head out tomorrow.  Oh darn, I can't.
The
boat's still sitting on tree trunks in her slip.

There must be something vaguely related to boating we can discuss.

REPLY
How about tree trunks and ice floes?  <VBG>
That would pretty much bring us full circle back to Neolithic boating.

Seriously, out here in PNW every real cruising boat has logging hooks or
log eyes that you hammer into the log booms to tie up over night.

One public service activity performed by boaters is the marking of
floating dead heads using meter long metal rods with a fluorescent flag.

One thing to look out for is the log that floats end on but awash.
If you try and spike such logs they are apt to dive. If that happens -
GET AWAY FROM THERE PRONTO!!!
The log will dive straight down until it reaches a point of buoyancy and
then come racing back up to the surface. With a mass of half a ton or
more these wooden behemoths carry the momentum of a battering ram and
will punch a hole in any vessel.

Early boating in the central region where Bob boats has its own hazards
consisting of ice floes. Lake St. Clair is even worse because ice floes
com downstream from upper Lake Huron and jam up the river so much even
iron ships can't get through.
One spring in April my daughter and I happened to drive along the lake
shore not far from where Bob keeps his boa. A crowd was gathering so we
stopped for a look.  Some guy was testing an air boat. My daughter  aged
8 a the time wanted a ride and boldly asked if she could. Sure the guy
said!

Next thing I knew both of us were strapped in wearing bulky life jackets
and roaring out over an ice filled bay with patches of open water.
Now; I have driven Donzi race boats at full speed, and driven the TV
film boats with less than 5 feet between us and the subject boat being
filmed, and even driven a one man hover craft. But that air boat had to
be about the scariest boat ride I have even had. At full speed which I
estimated to be about 30 - 35 knots the pounding and rattle as we
alternately crossed open water and then hit and skimmed over solid ice
floes was pretty unnerving to a boater more used to boating is soft
water only.

The only thing even nuttier I have even witnessed was a couple of guys
determined to get in one more day of ice fishing in the last week of
March.
The ice was so rotten and soft it had the color of grey mush with about
three to six inches of slush on top.

These two "Keswickians" drove their truck out over the ice for a
distance of five miles up as far as Roches Point, zig zagging around the
numerous pot holes from the ice huts fishing spots.

Cheers

Arild

Bob and Arild, thank you for bringing us all back to our senses. Out on the
water the last few years,  I certainly have spent 100,000 times the time
worrying about dead heads than about my cellular connection, and an
infinite amount more time than being concerned about wi fi.  I did bring up
semaphores as possible wireless option!
George.

Sent with SnapperMail
www.snappermail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Phelps
Interesting thought. I would have imagined that the energy returned by
a rising neutral buoyancy log would be roughly equivalent to the energy
imparted by the blow that pushed it under in the first place.

REPLY
Gravity also helps.
A tree trunk that is totally water logged will get pulled a long way
down by the combination of hammer blow and gravity.

In deep water, the log may dive to a depth of fifty feet. It will not
stop until it acquires sufficient positive buoyancy relative to the
water at some unspecified depth.

As these forces propel the log upwards it gathers momentum.
Consider a huge pendulum.  You may be able to push it over to one side.
When you release it the pendulum weight swings the other way bit doesn't
stop at the rest point. It continues its swing a long way past.
If you were to remain at the center rest point the blow you receive is a
lot harder than the push you gave the pendulum to begin with.

Arild