Boating: Are reading and arithmetic skills required?

--Vic

I was surprised to learn that most of the Mythbusters team, including one of the stars, are artists and sculptors. Which shouldn't have surprised me on second thought - there is a spatial component to being an artist that some engineers I've met never seem to quite grasp.

And we have some tough state ramps up here on the small ponds. Never had a problem on or off.

I have seen, and I can't find a reference to them now, fiberglass rods with springs on them (almost like CB antenna springs, but smaller) that attach to the trailer with a side mount. I wish I could find them - I looked in Bass Pro, but they didn't have them.

Actually, now that I think about it, you could probably make up a set without much trouble and for a few bucks.

There is an airtight car with a helium balloon on a string attached to the center of the floor. There is absolutely no air movement in the car. The car is moving straight ahead at a constant speed and then makes a hard left turn. Which way does the balloon move relative to the car?

After about 1 second of thought she confidently answered "It moves to the left."

Being surprised that she got it right at all, let alone that quickly, I asked "how did you know that?".

"...Well, that's the way I'd lean..."

-rick-

It never seems to work though.

1) You're watching a movie. Someone is about to say something VERY important to the plot of the movie, and it's plainly obvious to any regular person that it's going to be whispered. At that precise moment, women will say "pass the popcorn". It's always when you're watching something you can't rewind.

2) This has happened multiple times, so I know it's an absolute thing. I'm in the back of the boat, steering with the tiller on the outboard. We're in a river known for lots of floating tree chunks, travelling at log-appropriate speed. Woman's sitting up front, and claiming she will let me know if she sees anything. When she does, she announces it in a voice appropiate for the bedroom, not for a situation where there's 75 db of motor noise. When I (with great respect) mention this discrepancy, I'm told I'm grouchy.

A few years ago we had the RV bug, thinking of using it for winter trips to Florida and other warms places. So, I went out and bought a 36' Pace Arrow class A motorhome ... looks like a bus. I drove it home and was attempting to back it into a narrow, tree lined, gravel parking spot that had a dog leg in it. The RV was equipped with a rear facing camera on the back that I could monitor from the driver's seat.

So, I asked Mrs.E. to go behind the RV and make sure I wasn't going to hit anything as I backed in. As I started to back up, she gave me the "come on back" signal with her hands, then suddenly started shaking her head from side to side. I jammed on the brakes. She looked up at the camera, and started to give me the hand signals to back up again. Started moving the rig backwards and she again started shaking her head violently from side to side. Jam on the brakes again.

This was repeated a couple of more times and I finally threw the RV in Park, jumped out and asked her why she was shaking her head everytime I started backing up. Her answer?

"I was saying, "No .... you are not going to hit anything"".

Eisboch

Pansy. :>)

Mrs. Wave now knows better than to try and give me backing advice, but in the early days, she would get out and help by "directing" me.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that whatever directions she gave me, I di the exact opposite. :>)

And your still a pansy. :>)

My son suggested attaching driveway markers to big magnets, and just slapping them on the trailer when backing it in (without the boat). Then, he noticed that the water at most boat ramps is not something you want to wade in, but that's the only way to remove the markers before pulling the boat onto the trailer.

So, I just deal with it.

Yes they can, but no they don't. How's that for obfuscation?

Allow me to explain. Garmin makes general purpose handheld GPS units that use audio prompts when you use the Mapsource auto software, but as far as I know, no with the Bluechart marine software. In other words, the hardware is there to do it, but the marine software doesn't support it. As far as I know, and I must confess that I looked into this a while ago so things may have changed, marine software doesn't use a speech interface as auto software does.

The reason, as explained to me, is that marine mapping is different than auto mapping because of how the units are used. Additionally, marine use is generally different due to other factors like set/drift, wind, wave and the fact that on open water, you can pretty much go where you want as long as it's safe. Now, can you use a chartplotter functions with an audio alarm? Yes. Will it tell you you are at a waypoint or require some sort of course correction? Yes. Will it talk to you - not that I know of.

>Thanks SWS, you've given me some info to dig into. > Short Wave, I've already come up with some info on the accuracy of GPS, which I pasted below. I still have more digging to do.

--Vic ** A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost. She lowers her altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat below. She shouts to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." The man consults his portable GPS and replies, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude. She rolls her eyes and says, "You must be a Democrat!" "I am," replies the man. "How did you know?" "Well," answers the balloonist, "everything you tell me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you're not much help to me." The man smiles and responds, "You must be a Republican." "I am," replies the balloonist. "How did you know?" "Well," says the man, "You don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."

I have a wife.

When I ask her where the off button is, she gets sulky and rude.

Eisboch