Posts mit dem Label Day werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Posts mit dem Label Day werden angezeigt. Alle Posts anzeigen
Samstag, 18. März 2017
Hout Bays yacht club summer for a day brings a pot luck fest!
I say summer, well that was yesterday and we now have five days with rain predicted, some places inland last night saw temperatures drop to minus seven degrees!
Anna did a cook up of some black mussels, if you walked past you were invited to try them.
Anna did a cook up of some black mussels, if you walked past you were invited to try them.
As you can see, it was just like summer in Hout Bay yesterday but today we have the start of a week of rain and the clouds have filled in that nice blue sky of yesterday.
Its moving day no its not we are just marking time
The rusty meat cleaver repeatedly strikes the bundle of wires until they are completely severed. The tangled mess is then shoved into some fiberglass crevasse. Job done thinks the wire butcher, now what needs my finesse?
When boats ship by truck, they have to be lower than 13' 6" on the trailer to meet most height restrictions. So in this case, a Viking 53" Sport Cruiser was shipping out of Sarasota. Everything had to be removed off of the hardtop, packed, and stowed somewhere on the vessel. On this boat, as you can see below, Jeremy has already removed the Furuno radar, and is starting to pull the bolts for the stainless steel structure. I'm down below, getting ready to catch the stainless steel tower as it tips back, taking some pictures, talking on the phone, and doing other less than important things. There is also a Stratus TV antenna (serving no purpose in life now), Furuno GPS receiver, a pair of electric horns, a Digital Antenna VHF, and a Digital Antenna FM antenna. This is a pretty basic set of gear on this boat. You can also encounter satellite domes of various types and functions, and many other types of antennas, and flag poles.
So here is what important to me, having been on the receiving end of many boats that have been shipped, is how much care did the other guy put into the disassembly? Did he leave me notes behind, saying where things were stowed? Was care taken in labeling the wiring, so I don't have to guess what was connected to what? Or did he just have his pet beaver chew the wires apart, and shove them unlabeled into the hole. In the case of this boat, there are two four foot antennas, that appear to be identical. One is the VHF antenna, and the other is an FM antenna, although from their appearance, you can't tell the difference. What ever nomenclature was originally on these antennas, is long gone. So out comes the labels, and in a minute or two, the problem is solved for the next guy. In the picture below, everything has been removed, a clear piece of plastic was used to close the radar mount hole, and the other penetrations have been sealed.
I carry this little Brother label maker with me in the truck. It is inexpensive, doesn't take up much room, and is indispensable. Like printer companies who almost give the hardware away, just so they can sell you the ink, the label maker companies, are really in the business of selling you the labels. Regardless of this, a label costs pennies to make, and can save hours of effort when you are reassembling a tangled wad of wiring. I also use this little machine to label anything on a boat, that I have struggled to identify, so the next time I visit, I won't have to do it again. I love adding something new to a boat years later, and finding that pull string, or label I left in place is still there. I think to myself, "What a good boy I was", at least on that day.
So our job was done for the day. While we were removing the electronics, some colleagues of mine, using wrenches, and socket sets that take two hands to carry, were pulling the props, and stowing them in the engine compartment. The truck pulls up the next day, but there is a problem, the boat is still to high. A new trailer is needed, and the shafts, rudders, and struts have to be removed. Seven hours later, minus lots of difficult to remove running gear, the boat is set on the new trailer, and the tape measure still says it is too high. Gods from afar consult, and command the boat is to be reassembled, and a captain will transport it to its destination. My phone rings, and would we please reassemble the electronics. It took a little over 5 five hours to remove the stuff, and stow it. It took three and a half hours to reassemble, and test the gear. Good thing we labeled all of that colorful spaghetti! I'm not surprised, it's a boat
Samstag, 18. Februar 2017
Hunting Day
From the canoe -I'm preparing for a slide lecture on my artwork that I will give next month. My prep for these things, being that they are never the same and I don't like to prepare exactly,(I can't read the rest of the sentence, ha). I've been thinking a lot about my path as an artist. That path has no known destination, nor does it have clear direction. It has dead ends that branch off, it has distractions, and it has chance encounters with people that think that you are on the same path as they are, but you are not, or maybe you are but only for a moment. At times the path disappears and some amount of searching or sitting and thinking about where you are has to occur before finding your way again. One thing is for sure, when I am centered on the path I can feel it.
It is gray and drizzling at times today. The temperature is about 40F. It is not a pleasant day, but in the words of Elwood P. Dowd, "it is a fine day, they always are." Which brings to mind two movies that you should see when you are out of sorts. 'Harvey', with Jimmy Stewart, and 'Pollyanna', with Haley Mills and Karl Malden. Don't underestimate Pollyanna just because it is a g-rated Disney movie.
I paddle out to the dirtberg, which is slowly sinking. It is in the same spot as before. I dig a chunk of the surface out (see photo) to see what it is made of, which is (surprise) swamp muck. Lots of rotting vegetation in a matrix of dense muddy poop. I guess that it is dense enough to trap swamp gas underneath, which is what I think causes these floating islands. On the north shore, I spot a few very beautiful green winged teal. I also find a mating pair of ring-necked ducks. Moving east, ducks out on the lake begin to scatter and I see a Bald Eagle skimming the surface aiming for a flock of coots. The eagle has come from nearly a half mile to go after that particular flock. The flock refuses to take wing, skittering across the water as one instead. The eagle circles, hovers and circles. It's white tail is toward me and spread wide in a fan. After a couple of minutes, it finally drops and catches the coot, immediately setting off east towards the NE lagoon instead of the lunch counter. Drifting with the wind into the lagoon, I can see the eagle has the coot draped over a branch, holding it in place with it's left foot and eating it at a fast pace. Leaving the lagoon, a Canada goose takes a defensive posture towards me. 20 feet further I spot its mate sitting firm on a brand new nest, the first that I've seen this spring. I head into the wind to cross the bay and return via the east channel of the burial island.
I also saw a kingfisher, two northern flickers, a sharp shinned hawk and more common mergansers than usual.
Montag, 23. Januar 2017
Limberlost Reserve Day Trip
Had an early Father's Day present last Thursday, a full solo day of paddling in an area I haven't explored before. The Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve is a neat little pocket of wilderness tucked just outside the West Gate of Algonquin Provincial Park. Limberlost is bypassed by the hordes of tourists who descend into Algonquin thinking that the park is pristine, "untouched" wilderness when really it is a well disguised multi-use logging centre. Limberlost itself originally operated as a resort in the early 1900s complete with lodges and a ski area in the winter until financial troubles closed it down in the 60s. The current owners re-envisioned the land as a premier eco-tourism centre and have attempted to keep the property as natural as possible while allowing for minimal impact enjoyment. It features 70 km of sustainably created wilderness trails that zig zag around multiple quartz outcrops, interesting rock cliffs and dozens of lakes. No hunting, overnight camping, or logging have kept the property as a real jewel of wildlife and remarkably day use of any of their trails or lakes is free to the public!
Anyway, one of their online trail guides (PDF format) mentioned a canoe day trip through a chain of lakes, the highlight of which is the largest waterfall tucked away on their property. This water-access only route means virtually no visitors to this little hideaway. It seemed like the perfect chance to escape for the day.
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| Map of the Crystal Falls Canoe Route |
After signing in at the self check in booth and grabbing a display pass for the car, I drove into the Buck Lake Landing put-in. Right by the shore line were the remains of one of the property's old wood canvas canoes. Apparently over 10 wood canvas canoes dating all the way back to the 1930s were discovered in the bushes while owner were clearing portage trails. In the background of the pic below you can just make out the slat style seats which were very commonly found on hardworking Chestnut Prospector canoes.
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| Old Wood Canvas Canoe at Put-In |
I know one day my organic wood canvas canoe will also collapse back to nature but I'm hoping to get generations of use out of it yet.
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| Getting ready to launch |
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| Calm waters of Buck Lake |
The 70 km of trails on the property encircle most of the lakes. They are well maintained an feature boardwalks over streams or other unstable terrain. Sure makes portaging the canoe a lot easier.
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| Convenient portage boardwalk over stream |
Each of the lakes are connected with very shallow gravel or beaver dams necessitating getting out of the canoe and doing some basic liftovers...a minor inconvenience to get out into this pocket of wildlife. The little grassy islet in the pic below is a loon nesting site.
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| Shallow lift-overs from lake to lake |
Camping along the shoreline isn't permitted on the property and isn't really practical either. Most lakes along the route feature extreme cliffs and thickly forested walls. Difficult to perceive the scale of the pic below but the boulders at the bottom of this rockslide were huge and a giant white pine is thriving in the rocky soil.
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| Steep cliffs mean frequent rock slides |
An abandoned colonization road north, the Bobcaygeon Way, goes through the property and is now part of a hiking trail. To maintain this crossing point, a steel culvert was installed. It is just wide enough with suffiencient water levels to float through.
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| Steel culvert under old logging road |
Wetlands separating Little Twin Lake from Long Lake are covered in beaver dams to maintain water levels...there were about 5 beaver dams to lift over in this area which is apparently a major fish spawning area for the chain of lakes.
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| Multple beaver dams in wetland area |
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| More wetland streams |
At the end of the Long Lake, the water flows down through another small gorge over Crystal falls. Since this area gets next to no visitors, and is pretty much the end of the property there is is no maintained trail network. One has to scramble over mossy rock along the creek shore to reach the falls. But tucked away is pretty little cascade, Because of the topography, my camera could only capture the entire waterfall in thirds.
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| Upper third of Crystal Falls |
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| Middle cascade of Crystal Falls |
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| Final Drop of falls over rockface |
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| Paddles lashed in for portage |
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| Calm Waters and thick forests |
Also did a small detour and visited one of the areas known Osprey nest sites, located on a small island appropriately named after this wonderful bird. A lightning strike knocked off the canopy of a huge white pine which has since served as nesting site for the mating pair. They return every year which is a great ecological indicator of abundance of fish and overall health of the watershed in this region.
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| Osprey nest on broken white pine trunk |
Montag, 9. Januar 2017
Killarney Circuit day at the races
Killarney race circuit is just outside of Cape Town City and on the Potsdam road.
Not just any day but the International Invitation Event, now named Passion for Speed, which brings back memories of the Springbok Series in the mid sixties and seventies when I was racing a Hillman Imp some forty three years ago and at the same circuit.
The entry fee was R90 each, the program cost R15 so for R115 you were set to go for an entire day, this includes free access to the pits on both sides of the circuit, so very good value.
I was very keen to see Jody Sheckters race winning Tyrrell F1 car with its Ford Costworth 3 ltr V8 engine.
Not just any day but the International Invitation Event, now named Passion for Speed, which brings back memories of the Springbok Series in the mid sixties and seventies when I was racing a Hillman Imp some forty three years ago and at the same circuit.
I was very keen to see Jody Sheckters race winning Tyrrell F1 car with its Ford Costworth 3 ltr V8 engine.
It was recently restored by Dickon Daggit of Hout Bay and to a very high standard.
On the day Ian Shecketer drove five demonstration laps so that we could see and hear this car running.
These cars are smaller than I had imagined!
Tyrrell in 1974 gave him his first full-time drive in F1. Jody rewarded them with a third-place finish in the drivers' championship and a pair of wins in Sweden and Britain. During the year, he scored points in eight consecutive races, one of the longer scoring streaks of the time. A slight off-year followed, although he did become the only South African to win the South African Grand Prix, but his third year with the team in 1976 gave him another third place finish in the drivers' championship. In that season, Tyrrell introduced the most radical car in F1 history, the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34. Scheckter gave the six-wheeler its only win on Sweden's Anderstorp circuit and in his twelve races with the car, he scored points ten times. This included a thrilling race-long battle for the lead in the American Grand Prix between himself and his great friend James Hunt
My thanks to Wikipedia for the info above.
Roy
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