Tholepin April/09
Volume 14, Number 2 April 2009
President’s Message: Dear Rowers, Thanks to an incredibly supportive community the 2009 Pacific Challenge will take place May 29-31 at Seafarers Memorial Park. OARS is hosting the event. As we get closer the volunteer opportunities rise exponentially. Michele Pope was gracious enough to provide the following list of volunteer needs. If you have the time and want to volunteer, please contact myself or Michele. David Jackson Saturday BREAKFAST SET UP: 5:45AM NEED 3 - 4 Popes COFFEE POTS: PORT SHIRLEY BOWLIN CROCKPOTS WITH COOKED OATMEAL ARRIVE AT 6:30 AM: NEED 14 1. SHIRLEY X 2 2. POPES X 2 3. ANNICE 4. TORGY 5. MAYO X 2 cont… LUNCH PROPANE CRAB COOKERS X 5 1. POPES 2. MCGAW 3. FRANK ORR GROUPS TO COOK CHILI TO BE TRANSPORTED TO SADDLE BAG (BY MICHELE & LIN) 1. popes 2. Nick 3. Ian 4. Micky Field COOKIE/BROWNIE MAKERS Need lots! 1. Martha McGough 2. crew kids 3. Pope SUNDAY BREAKFAST -- Repeat of Sunday 7am COOLERS COOLERS WITH SPIGOTS FOR DRINKING WATER OARS WEB SITE...............HOW TO USE AND ENJOY IT! This is to give you a heads up on our new web site for “Old Anacortes Rowing and Sailing Society." We are using a local server called Octopia which is meant to be a community based web site. When you log on using the following address, www.oarss.org, our site will come up. Most of the information was transferred from the previous web site that Wayne Weideman set up for the club. I am indebted to Wayne for all the work he did and allowing the information to be transferred. The reason for going to another site was to allow other members of the club to add and edit information and photos on the web site. All the additions and updates will still be approved by the webmaster before it is posted but the work load for the webmaster will be less. It's important to note that you DO NOT have to sign in to view everything on the site. The signing in is only for those persons in the club (officers, trustees, and certain members) who will be entering information on the site. If you have pictures to put on the web site or information about an event or meeting, contact me (Bill Testerman at wttest@comcast) or any of the officers. Phil Eley (phil.jan2@comcast.net) has volunteered to post photos that people would like to have on the site. See the web site for e-mails of the officers and trustees. They are listed under "contacts" on the right hand side of the page. If you don't see what you are looking for on the opening page or on the page menu, click on "search" at the top and type in a key word (example....membership or Friday minutes.....) That should bring up the subject. The "useful information for boaters" on the right side of the page has tide/current tables and other boating links as well as a membership roster. One more thing about the site, it is a work in progress. Let us know what else we can do to make it more useful and helpful to you as a member of OARS. Bill Testerman, Webster Master POEM Sometimes on those cold, rainy, winter days, it's important to remember why we craw out of bed to row in the grey, misty dawn. John Masefield, English poet, penned words that described it best for us in Sea Fever, one of his most memorable poems. John spent his early years on a sailing ship where he thought the hard work at sea would break his habit of reading, which his aunt thought was a waste of time. Instead he found more time to read and write and decided to devote his life to being a writer and story teller. He was a voracious reader sometime devouring as many as 20 books in a week. Words from "Sea Fever" have been quoted in many popular culture events including Star Treck V: The Final Frontier and in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory before Willy takes the psychedelic boat trip down the chocolate river. Bill Testerman Sea Fever I must down to the seas again, to the lonely seas and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking. I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying. I must down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life, To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife; And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover, And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over. John Masefield 1878-1867 “Hmmmm! There’s a big power vessel bearing down on us in our gig!” n a special Fidalgo Bay buoy problem – n by Torgy Torgersen Here’s a hypothetical problem for your consideration and entertainment. The gig in which you are cox is heading East out of Cap Sante Marina. You have just cleared the channel-markers at the end of Cap Sante bluff. You intend to continue heading eastward, but several hundred yards off to port there is a large, fast power cruiser heading southward, roughly toward you and your course. As both the gig and the cruiser continue to close, you note that you are near the red and green buoy with the light on it. You know…the one that marks the channel for vessels going to, or coming from the marinas on the south west side of Fidalgo Bay! Based on the cruiser’s general course and speed, you anticipate that it is heading for one of those marinas. Just then your #4 rower notices that there is also a vessel outbound from one of those distant marinas. You want to place the gig in a safe position relative to both of those cruisers, just in case they don’t see you. Based on the many times you have passed that red- and green-banded buoy, you know that it is red at the top. So, what does that mean to you in terms of where each of the cruisers will head? Could they pass on either side of the buoy, e.g. inbound vessel to the East of the buoy and outbound vessel to the West of it, close to you? Will both vessels pass East of the buoy, so maybe you are in the clear? Will your Master know what to do? Uhhhhh, Master, which way should we go? Tell me now, Master!! Think about how you might react to this hypothetical dilemma before going to the information at the end of this issue of The Tholepin. ------------------------------------------------------- By Torgy Torgersen Just as the “Pony Express” is a part of the history of the American West, the “Rowboat Express” is part of the history of Norway. The story of the Rowboat Express was told by the scribes of King Alfred the Great, of Wessex, England. King Alfred was visited in Wessex by a Norwegian whom he called “Ohthere of the way north.” Historians now know that name refers to Ottar of Hålogaland (“Land of the Aurora”), a rich and powerful merchant in Norway. King Alfred’s scribes wrote in his life-accounts that this Ottar had bragged about how he had a system of getting his mail, messages, and news carried back and forth from far northern Norway all the way to the head of the Oslo Fjord in southern Norway, a distance of nearly 1100 nautical miles on the water, in only 30 days. “Impossible!” King Alfred might have said in his Wessex-English accent. “How do you do it? Eleven hundred miles, in 30 days, eh! Me-thinks it can’t be done! Not even overland! Not even with the best horses!” Ottar might have replied, “Vell, it’s not so diffikult. Not for a Norvegian vid a gud boat and some oars. Meybe I kud tell yew about it iff I hadt some mead or beer” So, ... having the ear of the King, albeit a mere Englishman, Ottar went on with the description of his mail system. He said his people have these wonderful rowboats that are about 11 aunes long, .... “Hold it!” said the King. “What’s an aune?” “Oh, yew know vaht dat iss. It’s like yur English ell.” said Ottar. “Ahhh, yes.” said the King. “About the length from my fingertips to my elbow.” (11 aunes would someday be about 19 feet) Ottar went on to say that they called the boats faerings, which are four-oared boats with two rowers. The rowers were expected to make a rowing-passage of about 36 miles in a day.....”if dey kept at it, and didn’t fool arount!” The boats were rowed at 3 to 4 knots, depending upon wind and weather conditions. Ottar told how he had established boat-stations at about 36-mile distances all the way down the coast, and a new, fresh crew would carry on from each boat-station on each consecutive day, leap-frogging the mail down the coast. It took 30 days to row the mail the 1100 miles to get from Ottar’s town of Tromsø to the big city of Oslo is southern Norway. “That’s amazing!”, said Alfred. “How often do you do you send letters anyway?”, he asked. “Oh, I dun’t dew itt effery dey. Only venn I haff express mail!” replied Ottar. The king said, “When did you establish this rowboat express?” Ottar thought for a moment and said, “Oh, meybe a kupul uff yeers ago. I tink it vuss meybe in 875, Al.”, for drinks and stories had made them good friends. Citation: Solvang, Kjell Tore, and Svein Egil Solvang. 2007. To Brødre og en Roferd. – Norge på langs – fra Knordkapp til Lindesnes. Bodoni Forlag, Bergen, Norway. 140 pp. ISBN 978-82-7128-464-0. Also: Google “King Alfred Ottar” Our annual meeting with election of officers and potluck was held at Seafarers on 24 October. Membership and rowing fees were restructured. A letter was later sent to members. Single-seat rowing program was given another trial year. Ivar Dolph showed pictures of Galapagos Islands. Our officers: David Jackson, president; Bill Testerman, vice-president (again); Lexie Lamborn, treasurer, and Karen Eichler, secretary. OARS will host Pacific Challenge and donate $500 to Crew 81. The Small Boat Center was kept alive and carried forward mostly be key OARS members and visible advocates were designated: Beth Bell, John and Michelle Pope. Bill Testerman replaced Wayne Leiterman as webmaster. New website and $200 for new software were approved. A new gig is to be designed by 2013. Masters were recertified. A ladder was installed in the boat shelter. Tommy Thompson Car House, a 20 x 40’ building near the Depot, has been acquired by the W.T. Preston Museum and an agreement has been reached for OARS to temporarily use 1/4 of it. Several OARS members were pictured in the Bonaventure for the Senior Guidebook. A “Santa Row” picture using the Erica gig, will be published in a future Anacortes American. Financials: 24 OCT 08 13 MAR 09 Checking $4549 $7216 Boat Building Fund 2875 2887 Contingency Fund 10148 10214 What Do Red-and-Green Banded Buoys Denote? The U.S. Aids to Navigation System contains markers that are part of the Lateral System. There are red markers, and green markers, and red and green markers. Any of these markers may be buoys (lighted or unlighted), cans, nuns, or daybeacons. There seems to be little confusion about the role of red buoys and green buoys as they pertain to a vessel’s course relative to them. Remember “Red Right Returning”? But what about markers that are banded with both red and green? In the Lateral System these are referred to as Preferred Channel markers. Of critical importance on any Preferred Channel marker is the top-most color – is it red, or is it green at the top? The actual Preferred Channel marker in the hypothetical problem posed earlier in this issue of The Tholepin is red at the top. The rule for Preferred Channel markers with red at the top is that vessels entering from seaward pass on the port side of the buoy, i.e. leave them on the vessels starboard side (just like “Red Right Returning”). Conversely, vessels going seaward leave the buoy on their port side. In the hypothetical problem, the marker in question indicates that the Preferred Channel is to port of the buoy, as seen from seaward. Thus, both the outward-bound and inward-bound vessels would be expected to pass to the East of the buoy. So, the best place for the gig to be would be somewhere West of the buoy, i.e. out of the channel. Of course, one must remember that some boaters may not be familiar with these Navigation Aids. Be alert to the actions of boats in proximity, and be prepared to take any needed evasive action. Note: Following is the description from the USCG website: “Preferred Channel Marks are found at junctions of navigable channels and often mark wrecks or obstructions. A vessel may normally pass this aid on either side, but the top color band indicates the preferred channel. If the top band of the aid is red, it is treated as a red mark and kept to starboard as the vessel passes it while returning from sea. Caution: It may not always be possible to pass on either side of preferred channel aids to navigation. The appropriate nautical chart should always be consulted.”
SUPPLIES:The “Rowboat Express” of Norway
Seconds from the Minutes