Unashamed Boasting

[Kirbstone]

Boatshoving going backwards is my enduring passion & potion.

We mounted a raid on the Brit. Masters' Rowing C'ships at Nottingham last Sunday 20th. One or two flew in, most of us drove. I got a lift in the boat trailer towcar.
We had a very successful day with medals won for five crew events: 1 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. My lot, a 55-year old average Eight managed Silver and our two powerhouses went out in their coxless pair and won gold as well! This 70-year-old fossil up the bow of the eight enjoyed the ride. Our entire squad were in the 50-60 year-old bracket, except me!

Rs.O.C. 'E' VIII in training Islandbridge Dublin May 2012.jpg

We folded up our act, high-tailed it for the Holyhead ferry and were back home shortly after 2 AM Monday morning, determined to do it again!

Tom K.

[crfriend]

You, sir, ROCK. Even if ye be a "fossil".



Good grace is a shinin' on this whippersnapper. My pal who rents 35-footers is back on again this year, is going to get me and another faithful crewmember out for a practise sometime before the first weekend of July, and then it's a short passage across Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay from Boston to Provincetown where I'm signed on as navigator -- and planning on doing it "Old School" (with GPS as a backup, of course). This is going to be fun! (And I'll get to see where I'm going. )

[Since1982]

You're gonna get creaky one of these days too, Carl, and you ain't gonna like people calling you a fossil either. I'm sure he may SAY he don't mind, but that's a lie. He minds, just as I do...Then again, Carl, you say too many things like that, the GOD of GEEZERS might not LET you reach fossil-like age and THEN you'll wish you'd not been so flippant about old age...

[Kirbstone]

Glad you're signed up to brave the Briny again, Carl. Don't forget your Octant!.......you DID say 'Old School'. From your itinery it doesn't look as though you plan to sail over that edge I keep prattling on about.
Doing a Nav. exercise and vectoring in currents &c is very satisfactory if at the end of a calculation the GPS agrees with you!

My piratical old sailing partner & friend has arranged for us to be away that week end as well. We're doing a Mon 25th June to Wed. 4th July junket to very warm blue water off S. Turkey, where navigation is strictly 'plain sailing', i.e. aim for that next headland and steer between those two islands and watch the depth here & let's pull in over there and suss out that little restaurant by the jetty &c &c.
I get invited along for the chat, the music and perhaps the odd tug at the wheel or a gibsheet or whatever. I accept for the heat, the swimming/snorkelling, the gins-'n-its and the company.

T.

[crfriend]

You're gonna get creaky one of these days too, Carl, and you ain't gonna like people calling you a fossil either. I'm sure he may SAY he don't mind, but that's a lie. He minds, just as I do...

I believe it's a matter of degree. I am keenly aware that I am no longer as young as I used to be, but that's the natural progression of things. I am, at this point, pretty much completely at peace; I have made my mark on the world -- several of them, in fact -- and that's all that one can hope to do aside from hoping that he is fondly remembered.

I used the term "fossil" (Tom's call, actually) as a mode of respect and admiration. Bluntly put, I hope to get to his age, with similar faculties as his; genetics and family history, however, conspire against it. My fondest hope is that my "event", whatever it is, is fast and fatal. I do not want to linger on the way my father did.

[crfriend]

Glad you're signed up to brave the Briny again, Carl. Don't forget your Octant!

I have a sextant. Airship pilots typically carried octants.

That said, I am still working on calibrating it (the mirrors have gotten deranged over the years) and should have it done by the time we set sail in July. I'll not be using it to take celestial sights, but rather as an angle-measurer to fix the point of departure by triangulation. (Sextants, held horizontally, are good for this, although in film one always sees them held vertically as if sighting the sun or stars.)

From your itinery it doesn't look as though you plan to sail over that edge I keep prattling on about.

If we go over the edge, I rather suspect that nobody save the survivors will care. It's a short trip, but there will be a stretch where land will not be visible.

Doing a Nav. exercise and vectoring in currents &c is very satisfactory if at the end of a calculation the GPS agrees with you!

Indeed, and that's all taken into account; as we'll be sailing for the duration there's also the vector due to wind direction to contemplate. I am looking forward to this, and it will prove -- once and for all -- whether my father was a complete prat or not.

My piratical old sailing partner & friend has arranged for us to be away that week end as well. We're doing a Mon 25th June to Wed. 4th July junket to very warm blue water off S. Turkey [...]

Swine. I wish I was so lucky.

[Kirbstone]

......and that's one type of meat you won't get served in Turkey. They're all good Muslims and it'll be veggie, eggs, fish or lamb (mutton) at best. Their supermarkets have positively vast areas devoted to the display & sale of soft drinks and you have to ask where to go to find Gin. When you do find the latter they conveniently stack the tonics & bitter lemons right beside it. They know full well what we Western yachties like to drink. They sell ice in big bags., so..

'Vittling the ship' is always fun on the morning of Day One, and getting rid of the residual booze on board is a pleasant chore at the end of the last day, too!

By the way, I never heard of a sextant being used horizontally......Sounds like what one might do with far too much Gin on board! I had my first exposure to a fine old brass one within sight of Helgoland, off N. Germany where under instruction I first successfully brought the Sun down to the horizon just before, at and just after the Meridian, which occurred some 28 mins. after midday, local time (GMT plus 1 hour). That put us some 8 degrees E. of Greenwich........& now you claim that the wind direction has some bearing on where you sail to. I wonder what heresy will you suggest next!

T.

P.S. On the longevity thing, (Not Longitude!) It's always advantageous to choose long-lived parents, but that needs to be done quite early on.

[crfriend]

By the way, I never heard of a sextant being used horizontally.

All a sextant is is a device that measures angles. Traditionally they're used to measure the angle between the horizon and a celestial object, but they can also be used to measure the angle between two objects on (or near) the horizon by rotating the thing to horizontal and lining the two objects in question up. If you have a pelorus on-board, that's the tool to use (as you get compass-bearing as well), but a sextant can be used in a pinch.

For those who have never seen one, and are curious, The American Practical Navigator, Chapter 16 will fill you in. The link is to the newest revision of the work; my 1938 edition goes into vastly more detail on taking sights and whatnot as radionavigation was in its barest infancy at the time and artificial satellites had not been launched save for in science fiction.

I had my first exposure to a fine old brass one within sight of Helgoland, off N. Germany where under instruction I first successfully brought the Sun down to the horizon just before, at and just after the Meridian, which occurred some 28 mins. after midday, local time (GMT plus 1 hour). That put us some 8 degrees E. of Greenwich.

A nice summation, sir. There's a bit more to it than that, but one gets the general gist of it.

P.S. On the longevity thing, (Not Longitude!) It's always advantageous to choose long-lived parents, but that needs to be done quite early on.

I lost the lottery on that one. My grandparents lived until into their 90s; my father, on the other hand, had a crippling stroke at about 62 and it took him five years to die from it.