On 2020-09-13 14:23, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:> On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 12:38:33 -0400, Phil Hobbs > <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote: > >> On 2020-09-12 22:20, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: >>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 18:53:34 -0700 (PDT), George Herold >>> <ggherold@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 7:35:14 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: >>>>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:27:18 -0700 (PDT), George Herold >>>>> <ggherold@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 12:27:00 PM UTC-4, dagmarg...@yahoo.com wrote: >>>>>>> On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 1:59:25 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>>>>>>> On 2020-09-10 11:21, George Herold wrote: >>>>>>>>> On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1:59:46 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: >>>>>>>>>> Up here in the country, I see a lot of motor boats parked in >>>>>>>>>> driveways. I suspect that most are seldom or never used. >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> I got curious about cost. Seems like a dinky outboard motor costs >>>>>>>>>> $1000, and some are $8K or $25K or even $45K. And a serious speed >>>>>>>>>> freak will hang three on the stern. >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> I can envision some domestic discord. >>>>>>>>> My brother bought a used 15' motor boat for ~$2.5k >>>>>>>>> Used for fishing andd beer drinking with the boys. >>>>>>>>> (no girls allowed. :^) >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Yeah, with a fibreglass boat you can keep it looking nice for decades. >>>>>>>> My Hobie 16 was 20 years old when I bought it for $1200 and 29 when I >>>>>>>> sold it on eBay for $1k. (I did buy a swoopy new trailer for $750 and a >>>>>>>> new trampoline for $150, so my TCO was about $120 per year not counting >>>>>>>> boatyard space.) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I'm from a family of planing dinghy sailors, but I once cartwheeled a >>>>>>> Hobie-16 in the Gulf of Mexico. :) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> We were screaming along on in a lively breeze, heeled dangerously hard, >>>>>>> 155# sea salt me in trapeze and 200# noob owner on the trampoline astern at >>>>>>> the helm. I 'bout lost my vocal chords 'requesting' he slack off the >>>>>>> main or luff up a bit, when a wee bitty puff heeled us a mite harder, we buried >>>>>>> the lee bow, the boat stopped instantaneously, and the wire catapulted >>>>>>> me skyward...jolly good fun! >>>>>>> >>>>>>> It looked a bit like this: >>>>>>> https://southern-born-and-bred.blogspot.com/2011/06/wipeout-crew-sent-flying-as-new.html >>>>>> Yikes, fun as long as you don't get banged by the boom. >>>>>> The only ~sunfish* mishap I recall vividly is when we planted >>>>>> the front half in a wave... boat on a broad reach. For a moment >>>>>> I thought the boat was going to pop up backwards, but after coming >>>>>> to a dead stop it mangled to shrug off the wave and continue on. >>>>>> (slightly different tack afterwards :^) >>>>>> >>>>>> George H. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> *it was a bit bigger than a sunfish and no cockpit. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Righting the beast in the blow and chop was a bear and we had to do it >>>>>>> over and over, as we'd no sooner get righted than knocked down again >>>>>>> (it took the skipper several tries to grok pointing into the weather >>>>>>> long enough for us to re-board). >>>>>>> >>>>>>> (Also, there was that first delay during the time I needed to stop laughing >>>>>>> hysterically, then convince the first-outing skipper that we weren't actually >>>>>>> going to die.) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> In the end we got the boat up and had a great deal more fun that day before >>>>>>> sailing in, sunburned and smiling. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Good times! >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Cheers, >>>>>>> James Arthur >>>>> >>>>> In Lake Pontchartrain, if you flip a sunfish mid-lake, you can stick >>>>> the mast in the bottom. Makes it hard to flip it back over. Then you >>>>> have to clean the mud out of the rigging. >>>>> >>>>> As they say, the lake is bottomless; it just gets thicker as you go >>>>> down. >>>>> >>>>> And as they say, it's a good place to be from. >>>> Grin, Well 'round here if you can swim down and touch the plants >>>> or mud on the bottom we call it a pond, or wet lands if it drys >>>> out in the summer. :^) >>>> >>>> Did the shallow bottom lead to big waves? >>> >>> No, Lake P was pretty placid, a huge 12-foot-deep saucer. The real >>> danger was a thunderstorm sneaking up on drunken sailors. Guy I know >>> killed a girl when a storm snuck up while they were swimming. His >>> anchor line was too short, it pulled out, and the boat took off and >>> left the swimmers behind. >>> >>> >>> >> Yikes, they left the sails up? >> >> Cheers >> >> Phil Hobbs > > Knowing Bill, probably so. He managed to catch onto the anchor line > and eventually pulled himself into the boat, got control, and motored > back. Too late for one girl. > > We used to sit on the lake levee and watch thunderstorms sweep in, a > vertical wall of water and lightning. Then sit in the refreshing warm > rain. I miss thunderstorms; we don't get them here. But the skiing is > better, and a blizzard can be interesting too. > > SF is cold and very foggy today. It doesn't smell smokey. Maybe a > little smoke makes nucleation centers for the fog. > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/ehra0oalj1jmgv1/Fog_9_13_2020.JPG?raw=1 > > Real smelly smoke on I80 yesterday: > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/8veqz9biaajn4r3/Smoke_Lincoin.jpg?raw=1 > > It was like that all the way from the mountains to the coast. > Interesting times. > > Today's New York Times has a bunch of stuff about the west coast fires > and forest (mis)management. People are beginning to admit some things.Deflects attention from the systematic arson. BTW my Vancouver relatives are really suffering from the smoke from Washington and Oregon. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
pretty OT: boats
Started by ●September 9, 2020
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:32:33 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote:> On 2020-09-11 12:26, dagmarg...@yahoo.com wrote: > > On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 1:59:25 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: > >> On 2020-09-10 11:21, George Herold wrote: > >>> On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1:59:46 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: > >>>> Up here in the country, I see a lot of motor boats parked in > >>>> driveways. I suspect that most are seldom or never used. > >>>> > >>>> I got curious about cost. Seems like a dinky outboard motor costs > >>>> $1000, and some are $8K or $25K or even $45K. And a serious speed > >>>> freak will hang three on the stern. > >>>> > >>>> I can envision some domestic discord. > >>> My brother bought a used 15' motor boat for ~$2.5k > >>> Used for fishing andd beer drinking with the boys. > >>> (no girls allowed. :^) > >>> > >> Yeah, with a fibreglass boat you can keep it looking nice for decades. > >> My Hobie 16 was 20 years old when I bought it for $1200 and 29 when I > >> sold it on eBay for $1k. (I did buy a swoopy new trailer for $750 and a > >> new trampoline for $150, so my TCO was about $120 per year not counting > >> boatyard space.) > > > > I'm from a family of planing dinghy sailors, but I once cartwheeled a > > Hobie-16 in the Gulf of Mexico. :) > > > > We were screaming along on in a lively breeze, heeled dangerously hard, > > 155# sea salt me in trapeze and 200# noob owner on the trampoline astern at > > the helm. I 'bout lost my vocal chords 'requesting' he slack off the > > main or luff up a bit, when a wee bitty puff heeled us a mite harder, we buried > > the lee bow, the boat stopped instantaneously, and the wire catapulted > > me skyward...jolly good fun! > > > > It looked a bit like this: > > https://southern-born-and-bred.blogspot.com/2011/06/wipeout-crew-sent-flying-as-new.html > > > > Righting the beast in the blow and chop was a bear and we had to do it > > over and over, as we'd no sooner get righted than knocked down again > > (it took the skipper several tries to grok pointing into the weather > > long enough for us to re-board). > > > > (Also, there was that first delay during the time I needed to stop laughing > > hysterically, then convince the first-outing skipper that we weren't actually > > going to die.) > > > > In the end we got the boat up and had a great deal more fun that day before > > sailing in, sunburned and smiling. > > > > Good times! > > > > Cheers, > > James Arthur > > > I bet that was a good few moons ago. ;)Indeed, I believe t'was about the year George Orwell made famous.> My guys never got the bug--in retrospect I should have got a Laser or a > Sunfish or even a Flying Junior to start them off on.Those are fun boats. Dad sailed 505's and Aussie 18's; big brother and I sailed the 470, 420, and the Moth (a single-hander mini Aussie 18). Moths came to the U.S. about contemporaneously with the Laser, but neither was well-known or popular at the time time Dad ponied up for ours. In the Aussie 18 tradition, the Moth class has shallow draft, unlimited sail, and it's unstable--it'll fall over at the dock unless there's someone in it. And it screams. We also chartered big sailboats on rare occasion, to sail to Catalina for family vacations.> Pivoted > centreboards are pretty bulletproof, and they're not hard to repair even > if you really screw them up, as long as you don't crack the case. > _That_ can be a bear to fix. > > The lower Hudson is really good for sailing--it's wide, there's always > wind, and in the summer it's as warm as bath water.That sounds like *great* fun. As I kid I was single-handing the Moth in salt water a few miles off the San Pedro shore. Dodging cargo and big wake in the shipping lane--and bobbing up and down in the sea swells--was, honestly, a bit intense. Flat water and a brisk breeze--that's what fun is made of.> I also really liked sailing in Indian Lake in the Adirondacks, where we > used to camp on a small island all by ourselves. (The kids missed car > camping, where they could always find other kids to play with, but we > occasionally brought some of their friends with us.) > Cheers > > Phil HobbsSounds like heaven. Thanks! Cheers, James Arthur
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
On 2020-09-13 14:33, dagmargoodboat@yahoo.com wrote:> On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:32:33 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs > wrote: >> On 2020-09-11 12:26, dagmarg...@yahoo.com wrote: >>> On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 1:59:25 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs >>> wrote: >>>> On 2020-09-10 11:21, George Herold wrote: >>>>> On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1:59:46 PM UTC-4, John >>>>> Larkin wrote: >>>>>> Up here in the country, I see a lot of motor boats parked >>>>>> in driveways. I suspect that most are seldom or never >>>>>> used. >>>>>> >>>>>> I got curious about cost. Seems like a dinky outboard motor >>>>>> costs $1000, and some are $8K or $25K or even $45K. And a >>>>>> serious speed freak will hang three on the stern. >>>>>> >>>>>> I can envision some domestic discord. >>>>> My brother bought a used 15' motor boat for ~$2.5k Used for >>>>> fishing andd beer drinking with the boys. (no girls allowed. >>>>> :^) >>>>> >>>> Yeah, with a fibreglass boat you can keep it looking nice for >>>> decades. My Hobie 16 was 20 years old when I bought it for >>>> $1200 and 29 when I sold it on eBay for $1k. (I did buy a >>>> swoopy new trailer for $750 and a new trampoline for $150, so >>>> my TCO was about $120 per year not counting boatyard space.) >>> >>> I'm from a family of planing dinghy sailors, but I once >>> cartwheeled a Hobie-16 in the Gulf of Mexico. :) >>> >>> We were screaming along on in a lively breeze, heeled dangerously >>> hard, 155# sea salt me in trapeze and 200# noob owner on the >>> trampoline astern at the helm. I 'bout lost my vocal chords >>> 'requesting' he slack off the main or luff up a bit, when a wee >>> bitty puff heeled us a mite harder, we buried the lee bow, the >>> boat stopped instantaneously, and the wire catapulted me >>> skyward...jolly good fun! >>> >>> It looked a bit like this: >>> https://southern-born-and-bred.blogspot.com/2011/06/wipeout-crew-sent-flying-as-new.html >>> >>> >>>Righting the beast in the blow and chop was a bear and we had to do it>>> over and over, as we'd no sooner get righted than knocked down >>> again (it took the skipper several tries to grok pointing into >>> the weather long enough for us to re-board). >>> >>> (Also, there was that first delay during the time I needed to >>> stop laughing hysterically, then convince the first-outing >>> skipper that we weren't actually going to die.) >>> >>> In the end we got the boat up and had a great deal more fun that >>> day before sailing in, sunburned and smiling. >>> >>> Good times! >>> >>> Cheers, James Arthur >>> >> I bet that was a good few moons ago. ;) > > Indeed, I believe t'was about the year George Orwell made famous. > >> My guys never got the bug--in retrospect I should have got a Laser >> or a Sunfish or even a Flying Junior to start them off on. > > Those are fun boats. > > Dad sailed 505's and Aussie 18's; big brother and I sailed the 470, > 420, and the Moth (a single-hander mini Aussie 18). Moths came to the > U.S. about contemporaneously with the Laser, but neither was > well-known or popular at the time time Dad ponied up for ours. > > In the Aussie 18 tradition, the Moth class has shallow draft, > unlimited sail, and it's unstable--it'll fall over at the dock unless > there's someone in it. And it screams. > > We also chartered big sailboats on rare occasion, to sail to Catalina > for family vacations.The 470 is a nice boat--we had a one-class regatta series in Vancouver when I was a teenager, so there were a good 25 of them at the club. I don't know the others.>> Pivoted centreboards are pretty bulletproof, and they're not hard >> to repair even if you really screw them up, as long as you don't >> crack the case. _That_ can be a bear to fix. >> >> The lower Hudson is really good for sailing--it's wide, there's >> always wind, and in the summer it's as warm as bath water. > > That sounds like *great* fun. As I kid I was single-handing the Moth > in salt water a few miles off the San Pedro shore. Dodging cargo and > big wake in the shipping lane--and bobbing up and down in the sea > swells--was, honestly, a bit intense.There's shipping in the Hudson as well, but it's super hard to get into trouble.> > Flat water and a brisk breeze--that's what fun is made of.Particularly since the wind blows down the valley, so you can be on a wide point of sail most of the time. A Hobie on a broad reach in a stiff wind is an even better stupid-grin generator than a Mustang convertible. ;) It's even better with a pretty girl in the trapeze. When I was a youngster in Vancouver, I used to tease girls by letting out the main sheet on my Fireball and dunking their tushes in the drink. (Fun, but don't do it when you're married.)>> I also really liked sailing in Indian Lake in the Adirondacks, >> where we used to camp on a small island all by ourselves. (The kids >> missed car camping, where they could always find other kids to play >> with, but we occasionally brought some of their friends with us.) >> Cheers> Sounds like heaven. Thanks!Yeah, one of my favourite vacations. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 2:23:29 PM UTC-4, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:> On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 12:38:33 -0400, Phil Hobbs > <pcdhSpamM...@electrooptical.net> wrote: > > >On 2020-09-12 22:20, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: > >> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 18:53:34 -0700 (PDT), George Herold > >> <gghe...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 7:35:14 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: > >>>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:27:18 -0700 (PDT), George Herold > >>>> <gghe...@gmail.com> wrote: > >>>> > >>>>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 12:27:00 PM UTC-4, dagmarg...@yahoo.com wrote: > >>>>>> On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 1:59:25 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: > >>>>>>> On 2020-09-10 11:21, George Herold wrote: > >>>>>>>> On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1:59:46 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: > >>>>>>>>> Up here in the country, I see a lot of motor boats parked in > >>>>>>>>> driveways. I suspect that most are seldom or never used. > >>>>>>>>> > >>>>>>>>> I got curious about cost. Seems like a dinky outboard motor costs > >>>>>>>>> $1000, and some are $8K or $25K or even $45K. And a serious speed > >>>>>>>>> freak will hang three on the stern. > >>>>>>>>> > >>>>>>>>> I can envision some domestic discord. > >>>>>>>> My brother bought a used 15' motor boat for ~$2.5k > >>>>>>>> Used for fishing andd beer drinking with the boys. > >>>>>>>> (no girls allowed. :^) > >>>>>>>> > >>>>>>> Yeah, with a fibreglass boat you can keep it looking nice for decades. > >>>>>>> My Hobie 16 was 20 years old when I bought it for $1200 and 29 when I > >>>>>>> sold it on eBay for $1k. (I did buy a swoopy new trailer for $750 and a > >>>>>>> new trampoline for $150, so my TCO was about $120 per year not counting > >>>>>>> boatyard space.) > >>>>>> > >>>>>> I'm from a family of planing dinghy sailors, but I once cartwheeled a > >>>>>> Hobie-16 in the Gulf of Mexico. :) > >>>>>> > >>>>>> We were screaming along on in a lively breeze, heeled dangerously hard, > >>>>>> 155# sea salt me in trapeze and 200# noob owner on the trampoline astern at > >>>>>> the helm. I 'bout lost my vocal chords 'requesting' he slack off the > >>>>>> main or luff up a bit, when a wee bitty puff heeled us a mite harder, we buried > >>>>>> the lee bow, the boat stopped instantaneously, and the wire catapulted > >>>>>> me skyward...jolly good fun! > >>>>>> > >>>>>> It looked a bit like this: > >>>>>> https://southern-born-and-bred.blogspot.com/2011/06/wipeout-crew-sent-flying-as-new.html > >>>>> Yikes, fun as long as you don't get banged by the boom. > >>>>> The only ~sunfish* mishap I recall vividly is when we planted > >>>>> the front half in a wave... boat on a broad reach. For a moment > >>>>> I thought the boat was going to pop up backwards, but after coming > >>>>> to a dead stop it mangled to shrug off the wave and continue on. > >>>>> (slightly different tack afterwards :^) > >>>>> > >>>>> George H. > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>> *it was a bit bigger than a sunfish and no cockpit. > >>>>>> > >>>>>> Righting the beast in the blow and chop was a bear and we had to do it > >>>>>> over and over, as we'd no sooner get righted than knocked down again > >>>>>> (it took the skipper several tries to grok pointing into the weather > >>>>>> long enough for us to re-board). > >>>>>> > >>>>>> (Also, there was that first delay during the time I needed to stop laughing > >>>>>> hysterically, then convince the first-outing skipper that we weren't actually > >>>>>> going to die.) > >>>>>> > >>>>>> In the end we got the boat up and had a great deal more fun that day before > >>>>>> sailing in, sunburned and smiling. > >>>>>> > >>>>>> Good times! > >>>>>> > >>>>>> Cheers, > >>>>>> James Arthur > >>>> > >>>> In Lake Pontchartrain, if you flip a sunfish mid-lake, you can stick > >>>> the mast in the bottom. Makes it hard to flip it back over. Then you > >>>> have to clean the mud out of the rigging. > >>>> > >>>> As they say, the lake is bottomless; it just gets thicker as you go > >>>> down. > >>>> > >>>> And as they say, it's a good place to be from. > >>> Grin, Well 'round here if you can swim down and touch the plants > >>> or mud on the bottom we call it a pond, or wet lands if it drys > >>> out in the summer. :^) > >>> > >>> Did the shallow bottom lead to big waves? > >> > >> No, Lake P was pretty placid, a huge 12-foot-deep saucer. The real > >> danger was a thunderstorm sneaking up on drunken sailors. Guy I know > >> killed a girl when a storm snuck up while they were swimming. His > >> anchor line was too short, it pulled out, and the boat took off and > >> left the swimmers behind. > >> > >> > >> > >Yikes, they left the sails up? > > > >Cheers > > > >Phil Hobbs > Knowing Bill, probably so. He managed to catch onto the anchor line > and eventually pulled himself into the boat, got control, and motored > back. Too late for one girl. > > We used to sit on the lake levee and watch thunderstorms sweep in, a > vertical wall of water and lightning. Then sit in the refreshing warm > rain. I miss thunderstorms; we don't get them here. But the skiing is > better, and a blizzard can be interesting too.I've sailed in open seas and for a while I raced (crewed) in a wooden boat on Lake Ponchartrain. Silly as it sounds, you can get in big trouble pretty easily out in the middle of a 26-mile lake that's only 16 feet deep. We were in a thunderstorm once, close-hauled, racing to the windward mark, when the boat started riding lower and lower, and then taking on water. That was fun(*), and *very* exciting. Organizing an unsustainably furious bailing bucket-brigade to keep us afloat, we barely managed to tack around, limped back home awash to the gunwales, every man and woman in his life jacket--every single one. (*) YTLMV (Your terror level may vary) I've seen tornadoes (waterspouts), lightning striking, and sudden squalls. Talk about money pits!--wooden boats leak. They require constant maintenance. I jogged down the 17th Street Canal levee to the marina one day and found the boat almost fully submerged--the electric bilge pump had given up the ghost--so I ran back and called owner Charlie pronto to report it.> SF is cold and very foggy today. It doesn't smell smokey. Maybe a > little smoke makes nucleation centers for the fog. > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/ehra0oalj1jmgv1/Fog_9_13_2020.JPG?raw=1 > > Real smelly smoke on I80 yesterday: > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/8veqz9biaajn4r3/Smoke_Lincoin.jpg?raw=1 > > It was like that all the way from the mountains to the coast. > Interesting times. > > Today's New York Times has a bunch of stuff about the west coast fires > and forest (mis)management. People are beginning to admit some things. > -- > > John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc > > Science teaches us to doubt. > > Claude BernardCheers, James
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 2:23:29 PM UTC-4, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:> > Today's New York Times has a bunch of stuff about the west coast fires > and forest (mis)management. People are beginning to admit some things.Beginning? I recall learning of changes to the policy of fighting every forest fire when I was in school over 40 years ago. I think the issue has been common knowledge for decades. The problem is implementing it in a way that doesn't burn down homes and towns. It is easy to see the problem. Not so easy to figure out what to do about it. -- Rick C. +-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging +-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 7:27:24 PM UTC-4, George Herold wrote:> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 12:27:00 PM UTC-4, dagmarg...@yahoo.com wrote: > > On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 1:59:25 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: > > > On 2020-09-10 11:21, George Herold wrote: > > > > On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1:59:46 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: > > > >> Up here in the country, I see a lot of motor boats parked in > > > >> driveways. I suspect that most are seldom or never used. > > > >> > > > >> I got curious about cost. Seems like a dinky outboard motor costs > > > >> $1000, and some are $8K or $25K or even $45K. And a serious speed > > > >> freak will hang three on the stern. > > > >> > > > >> I can envision some domestic discord. > > > > My brother bought a used 15' motor boat for ~$2.5k > > > > Used for fishing andd beer drinking with the boys. > > > > (no girls allowed. :^) > > > > > > > Yeah, with a fibreglass boat you can keep it looking nice for decades. > > > My Hobie 16 was 20 years old when I bought it for $1200 and 29 when I > > > sold it on eBay for $1k. (I did buy a swoopy new trailer for $750 and a > > > new trampoline for $150, so my TCO was about $120 per year not counting > > > boatyard space.) > > > > I'm from a family of planing dinghy sailors, but I once cartwheeled a > > Hobie-16 in the Gulf of Mexico. :) > > > > We were screaming along on in a lively breeze, heeled dangerously hard, > > 155# sea salt me in trapeze and 200# noob owner on the trampoline astern at > > the helm. I 'bout lost my vocal chords 'requesting' he slack off the > > main or luff up a bit, when a wee bitty puff heeled us a mite harder, we buried > > the lee bow, the boat stopped instantaneously, and the wire catapulted > > me skyward...jolly good fun! > > > > It looked a bit like this: > > https://southern-born-and-bred.blogspot.com/2011/06/wipeout-crew-sent-flying-as-new.html > Yikes, fun as long as you don't get banged by the boom.I had the good sense to be launched well over the boom and land in the middle of the mainsail. :) It would've been incredibly easy to get badly hurt but no one did, and it was all good fun after that.> The only ~sunfish* mishap I recall vividly is when we planted > the front half in a wave... boat on a broad reach. For a moment > I thought the boat was going to pop up backwards, but after coming > to a dead stop it mangled to shrug off the wave and continue on. > (slightly different tack afterwards :^) > > George H. > > > *it was a bit bigger than a sunfish and no cockpit.Yep, that's the idea. (cats are a lot faster than the monohulls, so the 'contrast' (aka deceleration, aka d(1/2mv^2)/dt) was a bit more pronounced.) It's amazing, humbling, & awe-inspiring how Nature, with a careless flick or a sneeze, can upset all the grandiosely tiny plans of man. Cheers, James
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
On 2020-09-13 14:23, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:> On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 12:38:33 -0400, Phil Hobbs > <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote: > >> On 2020-09-12 22:20, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: >>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 18:53:34 -0700 (PDT), George Herold >>> <ggherold@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 7:35:14 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: >>>>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:27:18 -0700 (PDT), George Herold >>>>> <ggherold@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 12:27:00 PM UTC-4, dagmarg...@yahoo.com wrote: >>>>>>> On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 1:59:25 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>>>>>>> On 2020-09-10 11:21, George Herold wrote: >>>>>>>>> On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1:59:46 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: >>>>>>>>>> Up here in the country, I see a lot of motor boats parked in >>>>>>>>>> driveways. I suspect that most are seldom or never used. >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> I got curious about cost. Seems like a dinky outboard motor costs >>>>>>>>>> $1000, and some are $8K or $25K or even $45K. And a serious speed >>>>>>>>>> freak will hang three on the stern. >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> I can envision some domestic discord. >>>>>>>>> My brother bought a used 15' motor boat for ~$2.5k >>>>>>>>> Used for fishing andd beer drinking with the boys. >>>>>>>>> (no girls allowed. :^) >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Yeah, with a fibreglass boat you can keep it looking nice for decades. >>>>>>>> My Hobie 16 was 20 years old when I bought it for $1200 and 29 when I >>>>>>>> sold it on eBay for $1k. (I did buy a swoopy new trailer for $750 and a >>>>>>>> new trampoline for $150, so my TCO was about $120 per year not counting >>>>>>>> boatyard space.) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I'm from a family of planing dinghy sailors, but I once cartwheeled a >>>>>>> Hobie-16 in the Gulf of Mexico. :) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> We were screaming along on in a lively breeze, heeled dangerously hard, >>>>>>> 155# sea salt me in trapeze and 200# noob owner on the trampoline astern at >>>>>>> the helm. I 'bout lost my vocal chords 'requesting' he slack off the >>>>>>> main or luff up a bit, when a wee bitty puff heeled us a mite harder, we buried >>>>>>> the lee bow, the boat stopped instantaneously, and the wire catapulted >>>>>>> me skyward...jolly good fun! >>>>>>> >>>>>>> It looked a bit like this: >>>>>>> https://southern-born-and-bred.blogspot.com/2011/06/wipeout-crew-sent-flying-as-new.html >>>>>> Yikes, fun as long as you don't get banged by the boom. >>>>>> The only ~sunfish* mishap I recall vividly is when we planted >>>>>> the front half in a wave... boat on a broad reach. For a moment >>>>>> I thought the boat was going to pop up backwards, but after coming >>>>>> to a dead stop it mangled to shrug off the wave and continue on. >>>>>> (slightly different tack afterwards :^) >>>>>> >>>>>> George H. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> *it was a bit bigger than a sunfish and no cockpit. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Righting the beast in the blow and chop was a bear and we had to do it >>>>>>> over and over, as we'd no sooner get righted than knocked down again >>>>>>> (it took the skipper several tries to grok pointing into the weather >>>>>>> long enough for us to re-board). >>>>>>> >>>>>>> (Also, there was that first delay during the time I needed to stop laughing >>>>>>> hysterically, then convince the first-outing skipper that we weren't actually >>>>>>> going to die.) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> In the end we got the boat up and had a great deal more fun that day before >>>>>>> sailing in, sunburned and smiling. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Good times! >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Cheers, >>>>>>> James Arthur >>>>> >>>>> In Lake Pontchartrain, if you flip a sunfish mid-lake, you can stick >>>>> the mast in the bottom. Makes it hard to flip it back over. Then you >>>>> have to clean the mud out of the rigging. >>>>> >>>>> As they say, the lake is bottomless; it just gets thicker as you go >>>>> down. >>>>> >>>>> And as they say, it's a good place to be from. >>>> Grin, Well 'round here if you can swim down and touch the plants >>>> or mud on the bottom we call it a pond, or wet lands if it drys >>>> out in the summer. :^) >>>> >>>> Did the shallow bottom lead to big waves? >>> >>> No, Lake P was pretty placid, a huge 12-foot-deep saucer. The real >>> danger was a thunderstorm sneaking up on drunken sailors. Guy I know >>> killed a girl when a storm snuck up while they were swimming. His >>> anchor line was too short, it pulled out, and the boat took off and >>> left the swimmers behind. >>> >>> >>> >> Yikes, they left the sails up? >> >> Cheers >> >> Phil Hobbs > > Knowing Bill, probably so. He managed to catch onto the anchor line > and eventually pulled himself into the boat, got control, and motored > back. Too late for one girl. > > We used to sit on the lake levee and watch thunderstorms sweep in, a > vertical wall of water and lightning. Then sit in the refreshing warm > rain. I miss thunderstorms; we don't get them here.I lived in San Mateo during the autumn of 1984, on account of a shortage of married-student housing at the U. (We got back into student housing at Christmas.) In September that year, a really remarkable squall line came through--the sky was full of lightning all night, on both sides of the building. (We were on the north side, and had views east and west.) Mo and I stayed up most of the night to watch it. One of the two most impressive thunderstorm displays I've ever seen. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
On 2020-09-13 15:13, dagmargoodboat@yahoo.com wrote:> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 7:27:24 PM UTC-4, George Herold wrote: >> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 12:27:00 PM UTC-4, dagmarg...@yahoo.com wrote: >>> On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 1:59:25 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>>> On 2020-09-10 11:21, George Herold wrote: >>>>> On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1:59:46 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: >>>>>> Up here in the country, I see a lot of motor boats parked in >>>>>> driveways. I suspect that most are seldom or never used. >>>>>> >>>>>> I got curious about cost. Seems like a dinky outboard motor costs >>>>>> $1000, and some are $8K or $25K or even $45K. And a serious speed >>>>>> freak will hang three on the stern. >>>>>> >>>>>> I can envision some domestic discord. >>>>> My brother bought a used 15' motor boat for ~$2.5k >>>>> Used for fishing andd beer drinking with the boys. >>>>> (no girls allowed. :^) >>>>> >>>> Yeah, with a fibreglass boat you can keep it looking nice for decades. >>>> My Hobie 16 was 20 years old when I bought it for $1200 and 29 when I >>>> sold it on eBay for $1k. (I did buy a swoopy new trailer for $750 and a >>>> new trampoline for $150, so my TCO was about $120 per year not counting >>>> boatyard space.) >>> >>> I'm from a family of planing dinghy sailors, but I once cartwheeled a >>> Hobie-16 in the Gulf of Mexico. :) >>> >>> We were screaming along on in a lively breeze, heeled dangerously hard, >>> 155# sea salt me in trapeze and 200# noob owner on the trampoline astern at >>> the helm. I 'bout lost my vocal chords 'requesting' he slack off the >>> main or luff up a bit, when a wee bitty puff heeled us a mite harder, we buried >>> the lee bow, the boat stopped instantaneously, and the wire catapulted >>> me skyward...jolly good fun! >>> >>> It looked a bit like this: >>> https://southern-born-and-bred.blogspot.com/2011/06/wipeout-crew-sent-flying-as-new.html >> Yikes, fun as long as you don't get banged by the boom. > > I had the good sense to be launched well over the boom and land in the > middle of the mainsail. :) > > It would've been incredibly easy to get badly hurt but no one did, and it was all > good fun after that. > >> The only ~sunfish* mishap I recall vividly is when we planted >> the front half in a wave... boat on a broad reach. For a moment >> I thought the boat was going to pop up backwards, but after coming >> to a dead stop it mangled to shrug off the wave and continue on. >> (slightly different tack afterwards :^) >> >> George H. >> >> >> *it was a bit bigger than a sunfish and no cockpit. > > Yep, that's the idea. (cats are a lot faster than the monohulls, so the > 'contrast' (aka deceleration, aka d(1/2mv^2)/dt) was a bit more pronounced.) > > It's amazing, humbling, & awe-inspiring how Nature, with a careless flick > or a sneeze, can upset all the grandiosely tiny plans of man.As the old saying goes, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." Cheers Phil Hobbs (who has doubtless made God laugh quite often. Good times though--He doesn't mind at all.) -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 12:04:56 -0700 (PDT), "dagmargoodboat@yahoo.com" <dagmargoodboat@yahoo.com> wrote:>On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 2:23:29 PM UTC-4, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: >> On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 12:38:33 -0400, Phil Hobbs >> <pcdhSpamM...@electrooptical.net> wrote: >> >> >On 2020-09-12 22:20, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: >> >> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 18:53:34 -0700 (PDT), George Herold >> >> <gghe...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> >> >>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 7:35:14 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: >> >>>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:27:18 -0700 (PDT), George Herold >> >>>> <gghe...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>>> >> >>>>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 12:27:00 PM UTC-4, dagmarg...@yahoo.com wrote: >> >>>>>> On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 1:59:25 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >> >>>>>>> On 2020-09-10 11:21, George Herold wrote: >> >>>>>>>> On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1:59:46 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: >> >>>>>>>>> Up here in the country, I see a lot of motor boats parked in >> >>>>>>>>> driveways. I suspect that most are seldom or never used. >> >>>>>>>>> >> >>>>>>>>> I got curious about cost. Seems like a dinky outboard motor costs >> >>>>>>>>> $1000, and some are $8K or $25K or even $45K. And a serious speed >> >>>>>>>>> freak will hang three on the stern. >> >>>>>>>>> >> >>>>>>>>> I can envision some domestic discord. >> >>>>>>>> My brother bought a used 15' motor boat for ~$2.5k >> >>>>>>>> Used for fishing andd beer drinking with the boys. >> >>>>>>>> (no girls allowed. :^) >> >>>>>>>> >> >>>>>>> Yeah, with a fibreglass boat you can keep it looking nice for decades. >> >>>>>>> My Hobie 16 was 20 years old when I bought it for $1200 and 29 when I >> >>>>>>> sold it on eBay for $1k. (I did buy a swoopy new trailer for $750 and a >> >>>>>>> new trampoline for $150, so my TCO was about $120 per year not counting >> >>>>>>> boatyard space.) >> >>>>>> >> >>>>>> I'm from a family of planing dinghy sailors, but I once cartwheeled a >> >>>>>> Hobie-16 in the Gulf of Mexico. :) >> >>>>>> >> >>>>>> We were screaming along on in a lively breeze, heeled dangerously hard, >> >>>>>> 155# sea salt me in trapeze and 200# noob owner on the trampoline astern at >> >>>>>> the helm. I 'bout lost my vocal chords 'requesting' he slack off the >> >>>>>> main or luff up a bit, when a wee bitty puff heeled us a mite harder, we buried >> >>>>>> the lee bow, the boat stopped instantaneously, and the wire catapulted >> >>>>>> me skyward...jolly good fun! >> >>>>>> >> >>>>>> It looked a bit like this: >> >>>>>> https://southern-born-and-bred.blogspot.com/2011/06/wipeout-crew-sent-flying-as-new.html >> >>>>> Yikes, fun as long as you don't get banged by the boom. >> >>>>> The only ~sunfish* mishap I recall vividly is when we planted >> >>>>> the front half in a wave... boat on a broad reach. For a moment >> >>>>> I thought the boat was going to pop up backwards, but after coming >> >>>>> to a dead stop it mangled to shrug off the wave and continue on. >> >>>>> (slightly different tack afterwards :^) >> >>>>> >> >>>>> George H. >> >>>>> >> >>>>> >> >>>>> *it was a bit bigger than a sunfish and no cockpit. >> >>>>>> >> >>>>>> Righting the beast in the blow and chop was a bear and we had to do it >> >>>>>> over and over, as we'd no sooner get righted than knocked down again >> >>>>>> (it took the skipper several tries to grok pointing into the weather >> >>>>>> long enough for us to re-board). >> >>>>>> >> >>>>>> (Also, there was that first delay during the time I needed to stop laughing >> >>>>>> hysterically, then convince the first-outing skipper that we weren't actually >> >>>>>> going to die.) >> >>>>>> >> >>>>>> In the end we got the boat up and had a great deal more fun that day before >> >>>>>> sailing in, sunburned and smiling. >> >>>>>> >> >>>>>> Good times! >> >>>>>> >> >>>>>> Cheers, >> >>>>>> James Arthur >> >>>> >> >>>> In Lake Pontchartrain, if you flip a sunfish mid-lake, you can stick >> >>>> the mast in the bottom. Makes it hard to flip it back over. Then you >> >>>> have to clean the mud out of the rigging. >> >>>> >> >>>> As they say, the lake is bottomless; it just gets thicker as you go >> >>>> down. >> >>>> >> >>>> And as they say, it's a good place to be from. >> >>> Grin, Well 'round here if you can swim down and touch the plants >> >>> or mud on the bottom we call it a pond, or wet lands if it drys >> >>> out in the summer. :^) >> >>> >> >>> Did the shallow bottom lead to big waves? >> >> >> >> No, Lake P was pretty placid, a huge 12-foot-deep saucer. The real >> >> danger was a thunderstorm sneaking up on drunken sailors. Guy I know >> >> killed a girl when a storm snuck up while they were swimming. His >> >> anchor line was too short, it pulled out, and the boat took off and >> >> left the swimmers behind. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >Yikes, they left the sails up? >> > >> >Cheers >> > >> >Phil Hobbs >> Knowing Bill, probably so. He managed to catch onto the anchor line >> and eventually pulled himself into the boat, got control, and motored >> back. Too late for one girl. >> >> We used to sit on the lake levee and watch thunderstorms sweep in, a >> vertical wall of water and lightning. Then sit in the refreshing warm >> rain. I miss thunderstorms; we don't get them here. But the skiing is >> better, and a blizzard can be interesting too. > >I've sailed in open seas and for a while I raced (crewed) in a wooden boat on >Lake Ponchartrain. Silly as it sounds, you can get in big trouble pretty easily >out in the middle of a 26-mile lake that's only 16 feet deep. > >We were in a thunderstorm once, close-hauled, racing to the windward mark, when >the boat started riding lower and lower, and then taking on water. That was fun(*), >and *very* exciting. Organizing an unsustainably furious bailing bucket-brigade >to keep us afloat, we barely managed to tack around, limped back home awash >to the gunwales, every man and woman in his life jacket--every single one. > >(*) YTLMV (Your terror level may vary) > >I've seen tornadoes (waterspouts), lightning striking, and sudden squalls. > >Talk about money pits!--wooden boats leak. They require constant maintenance. >I jogged down the 17th Street Canal levee to the marina one day and found >the boat almost fully submerged--the electric bilge pump had given up the >ghost--so I ran back and called owner Charlie pronto to report it.The 17th Street Canal was one of the two man-made spears aimed at the heart of New Orleans, the other being the Intracoastal waterway. They both broke their pitiful levees in Katrina. Blame Climate Change. I solved my wooden boat expense problem when Bill (that same Bill) smashed it into the seawall in the lake. -- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc Science teaches us to doubt. Claude Bernard
Reply by ●September 13, 20202020-09-13
On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 15:28:58 -0400, Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:>On 2020-09-13 14:23, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: >> On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 12:38:33 -0400, Phil Hobbs >> <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote: >> >>> On 2020-09-12 22:20, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote: >>>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 18:53:34 -0700 (PDT), George Herold >>>> <ggherold@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 7:35:14 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: >>>>>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2020 16:27:18 -0700 (PDT), George Herold >>>>>> <ggherold@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 12:27:00 PM UTC-4, dagmarg...@yahoo.com wrote: >>>>>>>> On Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 1:59:25 PM UTC-4, Phil Hobbs wrote: >>>>>>>>> On 2020-09-10 11:21, George Herold wrote: >>>>>>>>>> On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 1:59:46 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote: >>>>>>>>>>> Up here in the country, I see a lot of motor boats parked in >>>>>>>>>>> driveways. I suspect that most are seldom or never used. >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> I got curious about cost. Seems like a dinky outboard motor costs >>>>>>>>>>> $1000, and some are $8K or $25K or even $45K. And a serious speed >>>>>>>>>>> freak will hang three on the stern. >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> I can envision some domestic discord. >>>>>>>>>> My brother bought a used 15' motor boat for ~$2.5k >>>>>>>>>> Used for fishing andd beer drinking with the boys. >>>>>>>>>> (no girls allowed. :^) >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Yeah, with a fibreglass boat you can keep it looking nice for decades. >>>>>>>>> My Hobie 16 was 20 years old when I bought it for $1200 and 29 when I >>>>>>>>> sold it on eBay for $1k. (I did buy a swoopy new trailer for $750 and a >>>>>>>>> new trampoline for $150, so my TCO was about $120 per year not counting >>>>>>>>> boatyard space.) >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> I'm from a family of planing dinghy sailors, but I once cartwheeled a >>>>>>>> Hobie-16 in the Gulf of Mexico. :) >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> We were screaming along on in a lively breeze, heeled dangerously hard, >>>>>>>> 155# sea salt me in trapeze and 200# noob owner on the trampoline astern at >>>>>>>> the helm. I 'bout lost my vocal chords 'requesting' he slack off the >>>>>>>> main or luff up a bit, when a wee bitty puff heeled us a mite harder, we buried >>>>>>>> the lee bow, the boat stopped instantaneously, and the wire catapulted >>>>>>>> me skyward...jolly good fun! >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> It looked a bit like this: >>>>>>>> https://southern-born-and-bred.blogspot.com/2011/06/wipeout-crew-sent-flying-as-new.html >>>>>>> Yikes, fun as long as you don't get banged by the boom. >>>>>>> The only ~sunfish* mishap I recall vividly is when we planted >>>>>>> the front half in a wave... boat on a broad reach. For a moment >>>>>>> I thought the boat was going to pop up backwards, but after coming >>>>>>> to a dead stop it mangled to shrug off the wave and continue on. >>>>>>> (slightly different tack afterwards :^) >>>>>>> >>>>>>> George H. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> *it was a bit bigger than a sunfish and no cockpit. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Righting the beast in the blow and chop was a bear and we had to do it >>>>>>>> over and over, as we'd no sooner get righted than knocked down again >>>>>>>> (it took the skipper several tries to grok pointing into the weather >>>>>>>> long enough for us to re-board). >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> (Also, there was that first delay during the time I needed to stop laughing >>>>>>>> hysterically, then convince the first-outing skipper that we weren't actually >>>>>>>> going to die.) >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> In the end we got the boat up and had a great deal more fun that day before >>>>>>>> sailing in, sunburned and smiling. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Good times! >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Cheers, >>>>>>>> James Arthur >>>>>> >>>>>> In Lake Pontchartrain, if you flip a sunfish mid-lake, you can stick >>>>>> the mast in the bottom. Makes it hard to flip it back over. Then you >>>>>> have to clean the mud out of the rigging. >>>>>> >>>>>> As they say, the lake is bottomless; it just gets thicker as you go >>>>>> down. >>>>>> >>>>>> And as they say, it's a good place to be from. >>>>> Grin, Well 'round here if you can swim down and touch the plants >>>>> or mud on the bottom we call it a pond, or wet lands if it drys >>>>> out in the summer. :^) >>>>> >>>>> Did the shallow bottom lead to big waves? >>>> >>>> No, Lake P was pretty placid, a huge 12-foot-deep saucer. The real >>>> danger was a thunderstorm sneaking up on drunken sailors. Guy I know >>>> killed a girl when a storm snuck up while they were swimming. His >>>> anchor line was too short, it pulled out, and the boat took off and >>>> left the swimmers behind. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> Yikes, they left the sails up? >>> >>> Cheers >>> >>> Phil Hobbs >> >> Knowing Bill, probably so. He managed to catch onto the anchor line >> and eventually pulled himself into the boat, got control, and motored >> back. Too late for one girl. >> >> We used to sit on the lake levee and watch thunderstorms sweep in, a >> vertical wall of water and lightning. Then sit in the refreshing warm >> rain. I miss thunderstorms; we don't get them here. > >I lived in San Mateo during the autumn of 1984, on account of a shortage >of married-student housing at the U. (We got back into student housing >at Christmas.) > >In September that year, a really remarkable squall line came >through--the sky was full of lightning all night, on both sides of the >building. (We were on the north side, and had views east and west.) Mo >and I stayed up most of the night to watch it. > >One of the two most impressive thunderstorm displays I've ever seen. > >Cheers > >Phil HobbsA few weeks ago, we were awakened by a gigantic light show in the southern sky. That cluster was reported as 12,000 ground strikes. That was the start of the current mess. We go for years here without seeing lightning. -- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc Science teaches us to doubt. Claude Bernard
