Nom de plume: Rivrdog

First word on a badnasty

Here in this Instagram post. Will have to authenticate it, but since this government is SOOO good at accepting badnasties, I'll put it in the file. If true, it's aimed right between the eyes of the fishing industry AND recrecreational boaters. Fit's right into the Gates-plan for depopulation.

BTW, this will self-authenticate if it turns out that this compound has been granted exempt status from lawsuits like the mNRA jabs were...

Consider designing a tool

It turned out that the reason my boat's engine overheated on the way back from the boatyard wasn't the thermostat after all. When I crawled into the engine compartment to assess the job of changing out the thermostat, it came to my immediate attention that the water-pump belt was loose. It had been tight enough when the engine was first fired when the yard splashed the boat, but it continued to get looser because for some reason, the meck-a-neck loosened the alternator in it's bracket and failed to re-tighten it and correctly tension the belt. The alternator just kept getting looser until it wouldn't turn the water pump or the alternator.

A lesson here. If you're young, you might never have serviced an engine with actual V-belts. They are not made now for common uses such as automotive and boats, and have been replaced by those wide serpentine belts, which themselves have changed in the past couple of years. You don't need any tools to install the latest serpentine belts, they are stretchy and just slip onto the pulleys (heaven help you if you don't have the diagram of how they are fitted over which pulleys in which directions, though!)

So, I have a V-Belt to tighten, and no way to get the usual lever-bar onto the alternator to tighten it, because it's on the underside of an engine which has a front end laid out that doesn't permit access from the top, and there isn't enough room on the bottom to swing a long enough lever.

What to do?

I remembered that years ago, when I was wrenching on big ugly machines for the Air Nasty Guard, we had a tool in the tool crib just for this purpose. It had welded Y-ends on threaded rods, one left hand and one right hand, and a turnbuckle in the middle. It was used by fitting it to the side of the alternator or water pump, whatever was movable in an adjustable bracket, and bracing the other end on something fixed, usually the flywheel on the front of the engine. Turning the turnbuckle then lengthened the tool gradually, and the alternator was moved outward of the immovable part, and held until the correct tension was obtained, either by eyeball or tension gage, and then the alternator bolts were tightened to complete the job, and the tool removed, carried back to the tool crib, and exchanged for my stamped chit.

So, I go to NAPA, and ask the counter guy if he has such a tool for sale. He had never heard of one, but he was in his 20's, and I hadn't seen one of these myself for almost 20 years.

Time to design one.

Over at my nearby Ace hardware, they sell turnbuckles, so I after driving over from NAPA, I selected one which would take up 2/3 of the required span, which I had estimated at nearly 6" by comparing it to a dollar bill (you DO know that a dollar bill is exactly 6" long, don't you?). I got a stainless one, 4 times more expensive than the aluminum, but capable of exerting several times the force before deforming, too. I bought two stainless carriage bolts of that 5/16th size also, to replace the right-hand threaded side of the turnbuckle (which comes with eye-bolts). The two bolts gave me a total span of up to 8 inches on the 4 1/2" turnbuckle.

Back at the boat, I sat in the tiny space in the side bilge, fitted sticky duct tape to the lefty end of the turnbuckle, and selected the short carriage bolt and ran it out to the approximate loose-alternator size, then fitted it and began to turn the turn buckle to take up the slack. I reached hand-tight between the flywheel and the alternator with more than half the bolt's length left, then used a small adjustable wrench on the carriage bolt to take it up to the proper tension level, then snugged down the two alternator bolts. Job done! Except for the tight squeeze of the side-bilge on my ancient body, nothing was the worse for the 10 minute job.

For the future, I will get more turnbuckles, and have my son (who can weld any metal) weld up a variety of fittings for the turnbuckles. I will then have a set of these tools to work with.

The best tool in the toolbox is never IN the box, it's between your ears.

Wednesday WTF

Okay, in a huge PR show by NASA, the Space Shuttle Enterprise is going to be displayed on the USS Entrepid in New York Harbor, and NASA has seen to it that the maximum amount of press exposure of it's trip to it's final display location is well-publicized.

So, this ayem, I'm eating my meager breakfast (yep, trying to unload all the Winter Blubber) and I see a film clip on TeeVee of the shuttle on a barge, being shoved upriver towards the berth where the Enterprise is displayed.

What catches MY eye? Not the always-impressive sight of the Shuttle, not the magnificent NYC skyline, but a huge mob of PASSENGERS on board the large barge transporting the shuttle.

So farging what, you say? Have you finally gone completely round the bend, 'Dawg, you ask?

Ummm, no.

It's illegal to use a freight barge for transporting passengers, and I seriously doubt that all those passengers could be designated as crew to make them legal to be there. These VIPs should have been on board a yacht or the passenger ferry which WAS keeping station with the barge tow.

There's a reason for this. Just google "ferry disaster", and you will see a list of why we have and enforce passenger vessel regulations. On that list, you will likely see where thousands to tens of thousands of humans lost their lives on poorly-regulated ferry systems, and those ferryboats were even designed as passenger vessels, most were just overcrowded and capsized in a seaway due to that overloading alone. In the USA, passenger ferries have to have special seaworthiness certificates not applicable to freight barges, there have to be liferafts available, etc.

"Nanny Mayor" Bloomberg is too busy trying to save us all from Big Gulps to see this potential disaster moving in his harbor, and moving only in the name of public relations, not any actual necessity. This is the precise reason you should never let a limousine liberal run anything except his or her own bank account.

Thursday Thuds #11

Today's Thuds are highly specific, and are agressive, all of them being the sound of my "Clue Bat" connecting with dense skulls. 

Thud the First redounds to the City of Portland Planning Division, which is in the process of ginning up support from the Left to take over political hegemony of the Willamette River, which bisects Portland. Note that the Willamette River is both Federally and State of Oregon protected and regulated, but no matter to the City, which demonstrates here that they want to assume control. As I spoke of in Friday Foibles recently (Foible #2), I did complete the fisk of the City's Grand Plan. you can see it here:

Download RivrStratReply2

So, off it goes, but I'm not done on this subject. The Yacht Clubs, who collectively (through their memberships) own hundred of millions of dollars worth of property in this burg, are supposed to have a voice, the Columbia River Yachting Association, speaking for them before Star Chambers such as the "Healthy Rivers" office of the City. In the past several years, that org lost it's two most effective members, Jim Schwitter and Richard Rydman, who used to ably represent we power boaters' interests, so now the CRYA is barely a shadow of it's former self, and I was told NOT to bring this matter to their attention by my Club's representative to the CRYA.

Fine, I won't. There are over 85,000 powerboats registered in the tri-County Portland Metro area, and if I can put together a PAC to represent them, I need no more than 10% of those boat owners, each paying a $10 annual donation to the PAC, to be in business representing the interests of power boaters. I've put together my business plan for the PAC, discussed it with a Big Name in both the local TEA Party and the AFP, and have support there. All I need now is to have a Corporate Constitution written, get my incorporation papers filed and my IRS tax status applied for, and I'm off to the (boat) races. Considering the wealth (word used in it's FULL capitalistic sense) of executive talent available amongst local boat owners to help me fight the advancing take-over of the River by the Green Movement, and the potential resources available, I smell napalm on the morning air. It smells like Victory!

Thud the Second is the sound of the "Clue Bat" connecting with the cranial shell of the local (Gresham, OR) version of the Occupy Movement. They have tried to get going in my suburbian City, but we're mostly surviving and more conservative out here, 15 miles East of Portland, so the Gresham version of the Flea Party is struggling. I gave an AAR and simultaneous warning to them via the Letters section of my local blatt.

Thud the Third is the sound of Reality connecting with European Socialism, as in the heavy bill for that political folly hitting the floor of empty vaults in almost every European Union member country's Central Bank. This article contains the news. Note that the ECB and the member Central Banks are again going to try to "monetize" (socialist-speak for printing fiat-money) their gargantuan debt. At best, that buys time, but since the only proper use of that time is to convince the European populations it is past time to dump Socialism, and that can't be done in most cases, so the European economic situation is terminal. The US stock exchanges, which breathed a HUGE collective sigh of relief at this "solution" yesterday, are having buyer's remorse today. Personal stake: my eldest daughter and her hub are touring Austria and southern Germany for the next two weeks, but hub assured me he has sources of moolah there in case the Euro collapses while they are visiting the empty shell of Western Civ.

Thud the Fourth ought to be the sound of a Federal Judge's gavel crashing own on the cult called Scientology. This report is probably more truth than fiction, given previous reports on the cult-behavior of the Scientologists, so if I'm a Federal Judge, I find Probable Cause that the cult HAS engaged in kidnapping and slavery, and I order that the cult expose all it's members to an immediate examination to see if they are living aboard that hulk of their own free wills. I order a Search Warrant based on my findings, and have a Federal Marshal's unit take over the ship (or a Navy unit if it is outisde the 3-mile limit). Based on the return of the Warrant, if evidence supports the suspicions of civil rights vioations, I order the Marshals to impound the vessel.

Thud the Fifth is the sound of a steam explosion, not exploding tofu, as the Portland Fire Dept finally "solved" the big mystery that made the national news a few days ago. It happend exactly as I said at the time.

Stay thirsty for knowledge, my friends, and you will avoid the sound of the "clue-bat" hitting YOUR cranium.

Alaska King Crab fishing

...will likely be ugly for a while.

In one of the stormiest part of the ocean's surface on the planet, this is a monster of a storm.

The energy involved for this storm to spin up so fast, and lower it's central pressure 60 millibars (1.77 inches of mercury) in 48 hours, is beyond calculation, but suffice it to say, it dwarfs anything Man could ever do in energy generation.

What this tells us is that there is HUGE atmospheric energy available in the Northern latitudes right now. When that energy gets over the North American land mass, some region is going to get hammered with a Fall blizzard of humongous proportions. BTW, there is significant Arctic air just northeast of here in British Columbia.

Tomorrow is the 36th anniversary of the tragic loss of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which loss is hauntingly memorialized in song by Gordon Lightfoot. That large ship was underway on Lake Superior when she navigated into a monster storm, with huge winds and seas possibly in the 50-foot range, on an inland lake, no less! News account here with storm video. Note that the video-depicted storm is nowhere near the strength of the storm that the Big Fitz experienced on it's fatal last voyage. Note also the inland wave conditions: for those big combers, the period is MUCH shorter than at sea, creating a much more rapid motion in the ship. Open-ocean swells have periods up to 17 seconds when the waves get that large, but here they are half of that.

The Great Lakes have seen few storms even approaching that magnitude since, but it might see one again soon.

Pray for the mariners if such a storm ever hits again.

It's not the first "Corvette" speedboat

Ran across this one-off speedboat written up here. Very zoomy, but not entirely original.

Back in the late 1980's, I was chartering a President 42 motoryacht out of Anacortes, WA for ten days, and we ran hard for a full day to reach Jervis Inlet, WAY up the British Columbia coast (burned over 600 gallons of diesel juice in the twin Cummins turbodiesels doing it). After running one of the world's most dangerous tidal races there, we tied up for the night in the basin at the end of the inlet, Princess Louisa. Right after us, an ordinary Bayliner Avanti 30-footer showed up, and the two gentlemen aboard gave us a tour of their engine space. Sitting down there (you could eat off the deck in their engine room) were TWO blueprinted, marinized Chevy LT-1s, each capable of turning 5,000+ rpm all day long, churning out 350 HP or so, EACH. That Bayliner had just made it up from Vancouver, BC in 3 1/2 hours, making over 50 knots in all the varying sea conditions they encountered. In our 42' heavy Taiwanese motor yacht, we had had some bumpy moments at 20 knots, and these guys were in a boat of less than half our weight.

Both of these guys were on the Engineering staff of the big Molson brewery in Vancouver, and they had lived and breathed mechanics for 30 years each (and had been together as a couple that long, but that's THEIR story).

Yessir, a REAL "corvette" boat. I was impressed.

Calling all Squids - UPDATED, with AAR

...and other Navy types who might be up to date on Security NavOpInst, or whatever passes in modern squid-dom for those vital oeprating rules of yesteryear.

I'm particularly interested in those regs dealing with in-port secuity near and alongside moored vessels.

Maybe what I need is a good sea-lawyer, but my question is this, how can NavOpInst supersede the US constitutional rights of citizens, when NOT on a military installation?

Implementing some (unstated) NavOpInst or other regulation (not stated or briefed to the public), all vessels proceeding upriver on the Willamette River with weapons of any sort, were barred from proceeding past the Broadway Bridge from last Wednesday to today at 1100 PDT. Yours truly, a retired Air Force officer and retired Deupty Sheriff of this jurisdiction, had to use up a few chips and call at the River Patrol office to turn over all the "weapons" on my yacht, to wit, one snubby revolver and one 380 mousegun and their ammo, plus a 4-oz can of OC defense spray. I then underwent a "voluntary" search of my vessel (which has dozens of places weapons can be stashed) before being allowed to wait in line for escorted navigation upriver to my destination, Riverplace Marina, where I could have gotten off, gotten a ride home, re-armed myself, and come back to my boat, had I wished. I didn't so wish, and resorted to carrying edged weapons for the duration of my trip. Between edged weapons, and hornet spray, I figured I could repel boarders well enough.

I'm not done with this situation, though. The following things bother me.

• There IS a war on (actually, 4 active areas of combat, all on foreign shores), but how does that turn an entire major River navigation system into a military area when the Fleet comes for a social call in our Port, which is at peace?
• The state's policing agencies carried out this Naval Operating Instruction, even though both the Navy and the US Coast Guard had operating security boats out on the water. Where is THAT written down as possible without some sort of declaration of civil/military emergency?
• Where does MY Civil Right to Keep and Bear Arms come in as inferior to this NavOpInst ?
• Isn't there a supreme requirement to actually PUBLISH any such restrictions before implementing them?

Inquiring minds want to know. Inquiring minds know how to hire sea-lawyers. Inquiring minds know how to blog and write letters to Editors. In short THIS inquiring mind knows how to stir the pot.

Any commenters with knowledge on any of the above points are encouraged to post that information in comments, below, or email me at [email protected]

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AAR: After the Fleet left early yesterday, the river returned to a normal state of operations. I slipped my moorings at Riverplace, called at the River Patrol base just downriver, retrieved my weapons, and had a nice chat with the Lieutenant in charge there. He was operating under the impression that his people (and all the out-of-town Marine Deputies as well) were operating under the direct supervision and orders of the Navy and/or Coast Guard. He agreed with my hunch that this is all Navy in-port security procedure.

Fine, as far as that goes. Where is it written, what laws authorize it, and especially, how do the civilian Marine Deputies or even Federal Police (there were uniformed Federal Police there as well, from the DHS) operate under military regulations? For example, there is a free-fire zone of 150 meters around the moored Navy ships, seaward from their hulls as they sit in the river. Can the Marine Deputies fire on any boat in the Free Fire Zone? If so, I can tell you EXACTLY that such use of Deadly Force is NEVER permitted under Oregon law. I doubt that the Navy approving it would make it legal under Oregon law, as contested in an Oregon courtroom.

So many questions remain, but I at least convinced the EllTee to ask those questions at the next Port of Portland Security Committee meeting, a regular session that the Coast Guard Port Captain holds.

When I win the Lottery...

...there might be a few additions to the gun collection, but they will be minor.

Mostly, there will be a new yacht.

Actually, most folks would have trouble calling this a yacht.

This is a direct rip-off (licensed, I hope) of the Russian Ekranoplan Ground Effect Vehicle designs, which have been big enough (550 tons) to transport an entire battalion of troops, and mount a pair of 5-inch, 38 caliber naval rifles as main armament (that version no longer exists) (refer: "The Caspian Sea Monster").

What's not to like here? About as much interior room as a 25-foot express cruiser, 85-knot speed, 300 nautical-mile range, powered by a 6.5 liter Chevrolet turbodiesel truck engine....no pilot license required.

The Ninth Circus strikes again...

In just the type of ruling one has come to expect from the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court, a panel of the 29 Idiots Who Think They Are The Real Government has ruled that every boat that floats on any water of the US must be regulated the same as if it was a large, ocean-going freighter. They have ruled that the EPA must require every boater to go through the same inspection and permitting process (known as the "800 Permit" if you are familiar with such things), pay the same $1,000 fee and follow all the same rules as ocean-going vessels.

The rules that the EPA has for boats in the present are reasonable enough: they require vessels from foreign ports to NOT discharge their bilges or ballast water in US inland waterways (this is how invasive species such as the Zebra Mussel or the Mitten Crab got here). They have exempted recreational vessels, because they don't have ballast tanks, don't fill those ballast tanks which they don't have in foreign waters, and don't maintain huge tanks for oily wastewater, which freighters generate in the hundreds of tons (a junker recreational vessel with even poorly-maintained engines might discharge a couple of gallons of bilge water occasionally with maybe an ounce or two of oily waste, but very few recreational vessels are this poorly maintained).

So, our supposed friends in the boating industry rush off and have a Bill introduced in Congress to re-exempt us from the ruling of the Ninth Circus.

The only problem is, the Bill, HR 2550, is flawed, because it leaves out a number of things, not the least of which is TREATED sewage. I have a state-of-the-art sewage treatment system on my boat. It takes the toilet sewage, holds it, mixes it with just enough salt to make it conductive, then zaps it with a huge electrical charge to kill all the bacteria in it. What is discharged is just sterile solids and water. I pay/paid a lot of money to keep this system up because I AM a good steward of the environment, even though I'd gut-shoot Gaia if she appeared in front of me (copper bullet required, I have a magazine full of them). HR 2550 leaves out nice guys like me, so, because I have a sewage system, instead of a holding tank (which many people discharge, untreated into the river anyway because there aren't enough pump-out stations), I will have to go through the EPA "800-Permit" process.

If we boaters are lucky, the Ninth circus will get reversed by the SCOTUS, because their ruling is absurd, putting recreational boats all the way down to canoes in the same class with freighters.

Your (and my, unfortunately) Ninth circus at work. Aren't they geniuses?

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UPDATE: 072407 1323 PDT: I just spoke with an executive at BoatUS, the major voice for recreational boating in our nation. She was very friendly, and seemed anxious to have me on board with HR 2550. She told me that since sewage treatment effluents come under different laws than are addressed in the Ninth Circus ruling, I need not worry. I countered with the list of effluents that IS mentioned in HR 2550, wondering why there couldn't at least be a mention of the other effluents being regulated by other divisions of the code. She said that she would contact the sponsors' legal counsel and see if she could arrange that, just so as to slam the door on a "re-interpretation" of the regulation expressly forbidding MSD discharges. I then told her I would wait and see.

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River Life 2 - Living on the River

There's much more to River Life than boating or commerce. Many people make their home on the river. Such homes run from liveaboard boats to simple floating homes to swank palaces. All homes share one thing - they float, so their residents must deal with an assortment of challenges that landside homeowners never face. This house is a simple 600 to 700 square foot home, old but well-kept, with wood heat. The wood is free: all you have to do is snag it out of the river as it goes by, wrestle it onto your deck and cut and stack it alonside your house to dry out. View image