Drilling Oil Well animation

This is an interesting animation I came across while visiting the Pickens Plan site.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRDeWhJGn-4&feature=player_embedded

Fathers Day Smooth Sailing

[singlepic id=174 w=240 h=320 float=left]The weather machine blessed us with a great days sail & a lake full of boats of all types.  I think this is the official summer kick off weekend.  First we had a beautiful day Saturday that was capped off by the yacht club Summer Solstice party.  Then today we had wonderful sailing and calls from the kids.

I took a bunch of pictures of S/V Ringle today and some might make it into this blog article.  But first I have to load them.

I also was the unofficial party photographer last night.  I might put one of those here also.  So all, I bid thee good night.  However, after careful review of the party pictures and given the space alotted in this article I think I will pass on adding two pictures.  All you get to see is our friends Ringle – a 23′ Seward – in full colors.

Beautiful Day

Today we are at rest in our slip in perfect temperatures and winds.  This would be a nice day to be at sea but First Mate decided to go to the art show in Saugatuck.  There is no justice for the Captain.  Ah well, it was a good day for a nap anyway.

I spent the moring with a running email communication with the former Managing Director of Tokheim Europe.  It was nice to renew old ties.  I invited to come out on the boat if ever he gets over here.  In the course of the emails he said that Bruce Rankin had died sometime ago and this saddened me but then it is all our fate to acheive this same status.

Just got back from talking with Dan and Kathy about sailor stuff.  Tonight is the Summer Solstice party at the yacht club.  So got to go and prepare.

High Times

Well, not so high times. I have settled into the summertime lazies. Somehow I cannot be bothered by blogs, website, web development or almost any other thing regarding our current state of technology. BTW-my computer crashed big time and all data since I have been on the boat is lost forever.

Now is the time to view life anew. I ordered recovery software and a new 80 GB HD (Hitachi HTS548080M9AT00) and am hoping all is well with the install to come next week.

I am ready to Chuck the whole thing but what does an Engineer-For-Life do when technology fails?

New Power!

I spent most of today lugging 4 each of 60# deep cycle batteries out to the boat and then taking the 4 used ones back to land to be recycled.  To those of you that think this sounds like a small task I say YOU TRY IT.  My heart rate was way beyond the target level.  Here is the deal.

I first loaded the batteries in a hand cart and pulled them the 200 yards out to the boat slip.  Then laded them on to the boat deck.  From there it was to transport them to the cockpit and from there down to the aft quarterberth.  That is a lot of handling.  From there I had to repeat the steps to take the old batteries out to be recycled.

The Weather

The weather has been annoying for the past few days. Yester iafternoon it started raining and it rained until about midnight and then the wind came up to about 35 knots and then the temperature plunged. That is where we are now – 60 degrees , overcast and windy.

We have been reading a lot the past few days – I am reading “The Divide” right now and SAM is doing internet searches on the perfect diet.

Apathy

spilleautomatene er av overste klasse med fantastiske jackpotter man kan vinne, men du kommer ikke til a bli skuffet om du foretrekker et klassisk bordspill som blackjack eller roulette.

Pickens Plan & Gale Winds

[singlepic id=172 w=420 h=315 float=right]I just got off a telecom meeting with the regional Pickens Plan leader Mike.  We had a very good meeting today.  with this in mind I shall segue off to the gale force winds that are tossing our little sailboat around with impunity.

The winds and rain started very early this morning.  The boat was rocking sufficiently to toss me out of the bunk onto the cabin sole – with a little help from the slippery sleeping bag.  As I write, the wind and rain, continue unabated and the barometer is continuing to fall.  The weather radar shows a large area of ugly red, yellow and green covering our Michigan area.  The east winds have our docklines stretched so far that it is hazardous to jump the 5′ gap to the dock so we are trapped on the boat just like on a mooring.

Back to the Pickens Plan.  The map above shows all the natural gas we are blessed with in the USA.  This has the potential to make the USA energy independent.  The know reserves will supply all our energy needs for the next 100 years if only we exploit the resources.  It boils down to the question – Do we want to remain the supreme super power or do we voluntarily become a second rate power?  It is all $ and ¢ – we are slowly going bankrupt – so we can either curb spending or let inflation take its toll.  If we do either we become a has been in the race.  We need to exploit the NG to pay our debts and avoid the above two options.

Mothers Day 2010

Today is Mothers Day so happy mothers day to all you mothers(:-) out there.  Today I am on the boat in full sun, cool & calm waters and light NW winds.  I am having time to reflect on my mother – Kathryn.  I have great memories of my mother and the whole family too.  I also had a wonderful time growing up in my small town – what a place for a kid to develop life’s skills.  Anyway – thanks Mom for all you did for me.

Luxury boat life

[singlepic id=170 w=300 h=225 float=left]Here we are watching in the lap of luxury. Last night I watched two episodes each of Fringe and V on Hulu.  The new internet connection kept up with no buffering issues.  The first mate was streaming youtube videos at the same time.  This morning we watched two episodes of Glee – episode 16 really was bad forcing promiscuity and other immoral activities but episode 17 was back to original form of modern entertainment.  I voted 5 stars for 17 and 1 star for 16.

[singlepic id=171 w=320 h=215 float=right]The skies are blue overhead and to the west the mares tails are showing and the barometer is rapidly rising.  Normally a rising barometer is a good thing but the mares tails portend of bad things to come.  I expect bad weather by late Friday or early Saturday.

Today we went up to the marina office to eat lunch with the crews.  The DNR had delivered 100# of lake trout so the staff decided to have a community lunch.  We ate our fill of lake trout that was beer battered, strawberries and turtle brownies.  Mumm…