Old skills

[sastanley]

Nice rant, BP.

As soon as the it became cheaper to ship a container of Chinese screwdrivers/planes/drills/insert-tool-of-choice-here over than to pay Americans to make them, we were all instantly doomed.

[BunnyPlanet169]

Nice rant, BP.

As soon as the it became cheaper to ship a container of Chinese screwdrivers/planes/drills/insert-tool-of-choice-here over than to pay Americans to make them, we were all instantly doomed.

I'm not a big protectionist or nationalist - the American consumer shoulders some responsibility for choice.

That said, this was the date: "China's MFN status was made permanent on December 27, 2001" You can trace the drop in domestic manufacturing employment to this date. China was open before, but without permanent MFN status, capital investment was risky. With permanent MFN, companies poured money into Chinese manufacturing.

You can bet Walmart chicken is processed in China. You gets what you're willing to pay for.

**MFN is 'most favored nation' - a fully normalized trade relationship

[joe_db]

An old Sears sander I have been doing the bottom with since I was 12 died a few years ago. It lasted a very long time, so I drove to Sears to get another one. That one did most of the rest of bottom and then died

[Boat]

I still remember and can use TVMDC. But I don't ever do it since GPS came along.

True
Variation
Magnetic
Deviation
Compass

The mnemonic: True Virgins Make Dull Company.

TRUE GRIT

Don't forget add whiskey! or add west

for the reverse,

Dead
Men
Cant
vote
twice

at elections, or add east

[ndutton]

When I started this thread I never expected it would have the legs it did. Cool stuff.

As described by others, even close to home coastal cruising can be a challenge. I was a guest aboard a Hunter 31 headed out of Shoreline (Long Beach) to Isthmus Cove, Catalina. We left the dock under clear skies around 2:00 A.M. expecting to arrive at the cove about an hour after dawn. Under power we maybe got 200 yards outside Queens Gate, the harbor entrance through the breakwater, and were completely blanketed in pea soup fog.

We foolishly carried on hoping to punch out the other side for about a half hour. I finally voiced my opinion, "I can no longer support this strategy. We are outside one of the busiest shipping harbors in the world in zero visibility and no radar." The boat owners agreed so we reversed course to head back home. Now we needed to find a small opening in a rocky breakwater 2 ~ 3 miles distant and still in zero visibility. As stated, we had no radar and no GPS. We had a compass and knotmeter, that was about it.

Approaching the half hour mark on our return we noticed the ground swells indicating we were getting close and could hear the waves crashing on the breakwater over the noisy diesel engine but still zero visibility. We all agreed to change course to parallel the breakwater (the chart was our friend) and hope our vision would return at some point.

I went up to the bow to get away from the diesel noise and hear the crashing waves more clearly. The owners said I almost disappeared 30 feet away in the fog, they said I looked like ghostly apparition. I could hear the waves better up there and then I couldn't. And then I heard them again. Hmm, that was odd. I went back to the cockpit so the owners and I could hear each other over the diesel. We reversed course still paralleling the breakwater but the opposite direction. The same thing happened, the sound of crashing waves, then none, then waves again. This time we timed the null. We reversed course once again and listened to the waves. When the null started we continued for half the time we measured previously. At the halfway point we made a hard 90° turn and headed for the center of the null.

After a nerve wracking couple of minutes the fog cleared and we could see Queens Gate behind us. We'd made it through completely blind.

[JOHN COOKSON]

Don't Know If It's True.........

I remember reading one of the ways the Polynesians navigated was to feel the swell pattern. As they approached an island the reflected wave train coming off the island would change the regular ocean swell pattern even before they could see the island. This was accomplished by sitting on the boat in their loin clothes with their bare testicles on the bench. Knowing my luck I'd get the bench with slivers on it. <OUCH>

TRUE GRIT

[lat 64]

I remember reading one of the ways the Polynesians navigated was to feel the swell pattern. As they approached an island the reflected wave train coming off the island would change the regular ocean swell pattern even before they could see the island. This was accomplished by sitting on the boat in their loin clothes with their bare testicles on the bench. Knowing my luck I'd get the bench with slivers on it. <OUCH>

TRUE GRIT

Also an old theory has it that many warring peoples were driven to it by wearing underwear made from tree bark.

It's winter Neil, what else is doin'?⛄

[edwardc]

Hang in there Russ! In two more days, the days will start getting longer!

[roadnsky]

Also an old theory has it that many warring peoples were driven to it by wearing underwear made from tree bark...

You guys are nuts!
I'm going sailing...

[Bingy]

Wish I could

[67c&ccorv]

Don't forget add whiskey! or add west

for the reverse,

Dead
Men
Cant
vote
twice

at elections, or add east

"East is least and West is best!"

[Boat]

"East is least and West is best!"

Ha Ha! Yes, that's it too.... this has been a great post. lots of things clearing out of the fog from taking the unlimited masters tests over 20 years ago

[67c&ccorv]

Ever navigate in a sand sea?

Long Range Desert Group of WW2 navigated the 72,000 sq/km's of the Great Sand Sea in North Africa using sextant and compass - no electronic nav aids for them!

They were the guys who gave the British SAS their legs when the first parachuting attempts in the desert met with disaster - more than 1/3 of the SAS men were killed or captured in the first parachute attack in North Africa in 1941.

Without the LRDG and their skill at long range navigation the SAS under their founder Major David Stirling would never have had the success they had against the Germans and Axis armies in the desert of North Africa.