Monday, July 4, 2011

Flare up?

We used last nights fireworks as an excuse to fire some off our old flares. A few of us got our pistols out to test them, and get the experience of firing them. We had clear open water in front of us. I had two shells, that fired nicely, but burned well short of the indicated time, and really did not go that high. Very disappointed in the results. Another guy fired a shell, and his gun barrel cracked in half! The shell plopped into the water in about 6 feet, and a smoking hot gun barrel, metal, was dropped from his hands. Another sailor could not get his barrel to open! These were all Orion, of various ages. Sad that you may have to rely on these things some time in the future.


There were some of those flares, where you pull the string while holding the plastic tube above your head. On both of these the string broke, and they never fired. They were also Orion.


There was one guy who sent off a parachute flare that was spectacular. Good height, and almost a minute of burn time. These were in large tubes, with a pull ring, and I think they were Hansson.

 I was impressed, and will spend the extra cash on these babies. Keep in mind that these were all expired flares, and some were at least five years old. The small gauge plastic guns never worked, and a larger gauge barrel cracked in half. I had the only gun that worked, and it had a plastic barrel with a metal sleeve.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Expensive weekend

No, it's not expensive because I did something stupid in boat handling. Sorry to disappoint. It's because I bought some anchor chain, and had it delivered. Did not know that you can not get chain delivered to your residence. I really have no residence, but I was going to have it delivered to a friend nearby, so that they can stare at it for a week, while I figure out how to get it to the boat. I was told that the drop-off has to have a fork truck. Franks tractor was not good enough, so I had to have it delivered to the marina, where I will pay (at $75.00/hr) to have a guy remove it from the truck, and deposit it to the front of the boat. I'm assuming the delivery will be late in the day, and I will pay overtime, and the chain will be left at least a hundred yards from the boat.

We had a glorious sail yesterday, with my daughter Kelly, and Eric. They brought along some friends, Sarah and Zach. Good people, and all had a great time. We caught some wind, around 15 knots at times, and it was sunny and 90 degrees, and wind out of the south, which means flat water! Eight knots on a reach for 23 miles. Sweet.
The only weird part of the day was when we were docking. I usually come in a tad fast, as the nose is light, and any gust pushes me around a bit, so I maintain steerage. Well, our friend Ed had a dinghy close to our path, and I yelled "get that stinkin dinghy out of our way!" Ed replied, "Oh Christ it's Paul, get the hell out of the way everybody, he's probably doing 8 knots!". Well, there was a memorial service on the dock next to us, and they were in prayer, and I didn't notice, until I saw all of these people at a dock "party" staring at us. They were not smiling. I felt pretty bad. Bad that I interrupted, and bad that I forgot about the service. I knew Captain Jim, he was a very nice guy. So, the youth in our group yelling and toasting a good sail, then pumping reggae through the boat was probably not in good taste.

Payback.

Last night I woke Deb up yelling in my sleep. I was actually kicking the side of the berth. The weirdest dream ever. I was hit by a car, while  riding my bike. Nothing new there, but this time I was laying near death on the road, and no one was helping. I felt someone grab me, and say, "Sometimes plans change, let's go.". I turned to find Captain Jim pulling on me, trying to take me to where he now resides. Yikes. Hope he enjoyed the karate kicks to the groin. Good thing Deb woke me up. Then she told me I was screaming like a little girl. Well, what if a dead Captain had his boney hands trying to drag you the great beyond? Huh?  Then I remembered that all the ports and hatches were open. Ugh.
I hope they were all drunk and passed out last night.