Brazilian Pepper Tree Problem

We live at the end of a canal off the Caloosahatchee River.  Almost everyone here has a boat or boats, but unfortunately most of the boats never get used. We are about the only ones on our canal that use our boats regularly. One of the things we liked was there were big tall trees all around. Big trees and sailboats sometimes fight each other.

There is a big mast-catching tree just down from our dock, which has a large limb that stretches out over the canal. The limb is about 30’ off the water so to get past it we have to hug the opposite side of the canal to get past the tree. The other side of the canal is overgrown with Brazilian Pepper Trees. Brazilian Pepper Trees were imported to Florida as an ornamental.  They now are listed as an invasive exotic species as they outgrow the native vegetation…big-time! The owner of the bank with the Brazilian Peppers is in their 80s, and cannot trim them back.

Once or twice a year I take our dinghy out on the canal and trim back these peppers so I can get our sailboats out easily. It is a big undertaking. You load the dingy with cutting tools, motor over to the peppers, and then cut over-hanging branches. Next, collect the branches and put them in the dinghy and bring them back to the dock. Then unload them from the dinghy and run them threw the chipper or bundle them up for pickup. It usually takes 3 or 4 trips to clear enough branches out to make it easy to get our boats in or out. It is a ½ day job by the time all is done and cleanup of the dinghy is complete. Then, you have to get the sap off your hands and arms.

When I start the trimming project, no one is around to help or volunteers to help. If your boat has no mast there is no problem going in and out of the canal. When I am done they let me know it looks better. Best of all, I can get my mast passed the mast-grabbing tree.

 

See the story about "Directions said use VINYL gloves", The sap on my hands made me think of the story.

A Dog's Tail

Dog’s tail wagging

My wife and I went out for a relaxing sail today. The wind was about two or three knots at the most so we were going only about one knot faster than the river was going down stream. We went out to relax and just enjoy the warm sunny day. As we were moving up river slowly, a kayaker came out of an oxbow and was fast overtaking us.

The dog saw the kayaker first and started moving around the boat almost prancing. As the kayaker got closer the dog started wagging his tail. The closer the kayaker got the more the dog wagged his tail with excitement. Just as the kayaker got alongside the wind picked up just a little and we started to sail at the same speed as the kayaker was moving at. He looked over and said he was surprised that the dog wagging his tail like that could increase our boats speed that much. My wife replied that on the average, his tail wagging could increase the speed by a ½ to one knot depending on how excited he got, but we could not always count on him. We all got a smile out of it, and the kayaker paddled away leaving us in his wake.

I will have to work that one up into a tale for telling to kids. With the right embellishment, I may be able to get some mileage out of it. The trick is to have a story that lets a sea dog save the day with his tail wagging. Kids love it when a dog saves the day. I tell the little kids I was a cabin boy on Capt. Hook’s ship and learned to sail on his ship, and I helped work on Capt. Nemo’s sub on an island in the South Seas when I got older. The worst part is the younger kids don’t know who Capt. Hook and Capt. Nemo are. When they ask, I tell them to ask their parents because they were scary, and I didn’t think I should tell them about people like that. Or they could Google them, and what is really scary, they know what that means. I guess I am just an old sea dog getting older and I am still looking for Fiddlers Green. I wonder if I can find a compass that will point me to Fiddlers Green. I wonder if Capt. Jack Sparrow’s magic compass could find Fiddlers Green. Maybe I could Google it?

I could call the story something like: Sea Dog Bosco and His Fan Tail. Now the hard part…fabricate a good sea tail. 8-)

Sail Boat Propellers

Sail Boat Propellers

Most sailboats that have an inboard motor come with a two blade propeller. This is done so that when the boat is under sail, there is less drag on the boat. This is understandable, you want to sail the boat, not motor. When you motor, the boat may not have the push it needs to motor well with a two blade prop.

To be effective the propeller has to have enough blade area to keep the blade loading at a good rate to provide thrust. When the blade loading is too high for the prop, high cavitation results, and there is a loss of thrust to the boat. This gives the boat poor response in low-speed maneuvering. Blade loading changes with the boat speed and how water flow passes the prop. At low motor speed and high motor speed a two blade prop may not get enough blade loading or it may get too much loading to effectively give the best thrust. At low motor speed, you get poor response and at high speed the boat is sluggish.

Going to a three blade prop of the same width as the two blade prop will increase the effective diameter or blade area by 40% to 50 %. This usually gives better low and high speed performance. Unfortunately, at the same time, the drag on the boat when sailing goes way up.

A feathering propeller or folding propeller can be put on to get the best performance when motoring or sailing. When the motor is pushing the boat the propeller opens and the blades catch water. When sailing, the blades fold-down on themselves and gives much less drag. These props are big dollar items but they give the best results for motoring and sailing.

Picking a two bladed prop or a three bladed prop may come down to how much motoring you do with your boat. If you mostly motor, go with a three bladed prop. If mostly sailing, go with a feathering prop. When you pick a propeller, either two blade or three blade, pick the correct blade type. They come in sailor blade and standard blade types. Sailor blades are not as wide as the standard blade and give less drag when under sail.

Navigation or Boating Binoculars

Binoculars are great to have on your boat. Good binoculars are invaluable for reading channel marker numbers or signs on bridges so you can know where you are so you can plan your action. They can run from cheap to expensive, and have extras like a compass or rangefinder reticule built in. Binoculars are as important as a basic compass, and can work with a GPS, and a chart plotter for boating safety.

Binoculars have a number telling you what the magnification they are. You will see a number like 7X50 or 8X32 or 7X42 on them. The first number is magnification. A 7 means that what you are looking at appears that it is 7 times closer. The second number is the size of the front lens. The larger the number the larger the front lens is, and the larger the lens is the brighter the image you see is. It is like how much light is let in a room by a small window compared to how much light a picture window lets in.

A binocular is simply two telescopes mounted together, one for each eye. The mechanical connection of the two telescopes determines how good the image you see is. The collimation or alignment of both should / must give only one image when you look through both telescopes at the same time. If you see a slightly different image, one with each eye, this is bad collimation.

Focus also should be coupled, but some require you to focus each separately. If they are coupled, one of the two eye piece lenses should have a fine focus for that side. This lets you focus on an object with the coupled adjustment using the eye on the non-adjustable eye piece side. Then you open the other eye and fine tune the focus of that eye with the eye piece lens focus adjustment. Now both eyes see the same object in focus if the collimation is correct.

A few things you want in a boating binocular are that you can hold them steady, that they have a bright image, and they should be waterproof. The most popular size of binoculars for boating is a 7x50. These are easy to hold, not two large, and bright in low light. The military uses this size.

If they are water proof, float, have a compass, a range finder, and or a stabilizing feature all the better. Get what you can afford; there is a full selection you can choose from, and a wide price range to pick from. The best binocular is one that you can see well through. That is what you are getting them for.

On our boat we have two binoculars, a his and a hers. This was a necessity. When my wife adjusts a binocular to her eyes and I look through them, it is as if I am trying to see through pop-bottle glass. If I adjust it for my eyes, she cannot use it. Her binoculars are a wonderful old 7x50 that she used going around the world in her sailboat. Mine is a 7x42 that is ½ the size hers is and because of the new lens coatings as bright as hers is.

I have less trouble holding mine steady because of the smaller size. If someone sees us both using our binoculars at the same time it would mimic the pirates Barbosa and Jack Sparrow looking through their telescopes…one large one small. *-)

 The new 7x42 in as bright as the old 7x50 because of the new lens coatings and it is 1/2 the size.

Have you ever made a compass?

Have you ever made a compass?

Making a simple compass is not hard. Making an accurate one is way beyond me. All you need to make a simple one is a magnet, a needle and something very light that floats. I made one for the kids next door to mystify them. I am sure they think that I am just an “older guy” that likes to work on boats…my boat, their boat, anybody’s boat. I guess that would be a fair assessment.

I started with the bottom of a foam cup I pulled out of the water, it was just floating by. I then got an old rusty fish hook from my fishing box and straighten it with two pliers so it was more or less straight. Next I brushed the rust off with a wire brush. With a screw driver that had a magnet end, I stroked the magnet part of the screw driver along the hook. You have to stroke what you want to magnify in only one direction.

As I worked the kids got interested in what I was doing with the junk. I did not tell them…I said old buccaneers don’t tell there secrets.  *-) That just made them watch me more. 8-) 8-)

After the hook was magnetized I stuck it to the cup bottom with the sap from a rubber tree plant. That sap is sticky and white and glue like. If you snap a rubber tree twig the sap drips out. That was it. I floated the cup bottom with the hook side up in a bucket of water. It slowly turned so that the hook lined up north and south. I turned the hook so it was east and west and again it slowly turned to the north south line. I marked the end that was pointed north with a N.

The Captain Hook Compass made for the kids

One of the kids said “it is a compass”! They could not believe you could make one, and out of junk no less. I told them that it was a trick that Captain Hook had showed me how to do back when a I was a cabin boy on his pirate ship. I told them that Captain Hook used his hook as a compass by putting it on a large wooden plate that had a compass rose on it. I do not think they believed that part of the story…

I also told them that the Vikings made sun compasses, but it would take a full year to make a set of them. Of course they did not believe me, so I went on board my boat and brought out my box of sun compasses. When I found the one marked January I showed them how it worked. One asks why there were so many in the box. I told them that you needed one for each month so they would stay accurate. I picked the July one and showed it did not point north.

I let them have the Captain Hook Compass. I told them you would need a much better compass to navigate a boat with, this Captain Hook Compass could give you rough directions in an emergency. I enjoy showing kids’ stuff like that. I like to show them you do not have to buy everything, that you can make things. I may yet convince them I was a buccaneer, but that was a long time and long distance ago. 8-) 

A One Dog,Six Cat Florida Night

Cold Florida Dog

Our dog had never experienced cold weather, being a Florida dog. The coldest he has experienced was about 60 degrees. We had a heavy frost last night, down to twenty degrees and our dog and 6 cats did not like it at all. I was not all that thrilled about it either, but I still had my Alaskan parka to keep me warm.

The bed we have is one that my grandfather had made over 80 years ago. It is a walnut spool bed that was made from a walnut tree that he had cut down on his Indiana farm. The old farm house granddad lived in had small bedrooms, and granddad made the bed to fit one of the bedrooms. The bed is what is called a ¾ bed, the bed width is ½ way between a twin and a double bed.The bed was 6” shorter than a standard bed. The bed had a straw tick base and a feather bed on top of the straw tick to sleep on, both made by grandma. When I got the bed I had to special order a mattress and box spring for the bed and make new side rails so the mattress would fit in it.

My wife and I are small so the smaller bed was no problem and it also promotes spooning. We put on an extra blanket when the weather man’s forecast said it was to felt down to the 20’s. About a ½ hour after we went to bed I felt the dog hop on to the bed. By 2 AM the cats had joined us. With the cats and dog and us in the same bed there was little extra room. They did make it warmer, and as long as you did not try to change positions we all were comfortable. Then the cats and dog became blanket stealers. I would wake up with some part of me cold and would have to struggle to get that part covered.

The next morning I had to force the dog to go out. He took two steps away from the door, did his business and wanted back in. That morning the dog and cats were all competing for any sun patch coming through the windows to keep warm. The dog curled up in a ball on a chair because the cats had all the sunny spots. I took heart and put a blanket over him. He did not move from that spot all morning.

Up in Alaska the local Indians would describe how cold it was by how many dogs it took to sleep with them to keep warm. They would say it was a two dog night or if it was really cold a 3 dog night. We had a Florida one dog and six cat night last night.  

What do you mean, its time to go outside!

Howling Dragon

Howling Dragon Wind Vane

In one of my moments of insanity or was it enlightenment I purchased a dragon wind vane. It is a great wind vane and there is no other in the neighborhood like it. We can always tell people looking for us that it is the house with the dragon wind vane on the house. It has character and it is not the common chicken on a stick wind vane.

 The pivot point of the wind vain started to squeak from lack of oil. To get the ladder out and get up on the roof to oil it was on my to-do list for about 3 weeks. I would oil it when I cleaned the gutters…that was on the to-do list also (for about 5 weeks).

Last Saturday, the last Saturday of the year 2011, I heard a moaning or howling sound while I was having coffee with my wife on our screened porch. We exchanged looks and went in to the yard to see what was howling. We found nothing. Off and on all morning I would hear the low howl. My wife said it could be a bird and then said I hope our neighbors on the South had not gotten a Parrot.

That would put a parrot on each side of us. Our neighbor to the north has a parrot that screams “Danger! Danger! Dive! Dive!”  when a boat comes down our canal or when we take our boat out.

I heard this howl two or three more times but could not find where it was coming from. When I went out to pick up the mail I heard it again. This time I was able to see where it was coming from. When the dragon wind vane turned it would howl and moan. This was great, my dragon howled.

I brought my wife outside and let her see where the howl was coming from, and thought she would be pleased that it was not a parrot. Her response was “that’s an easy fix, and when you are up there, you can clean the gutters also.”

The good that came out of it is that the dragon is quiet, the gutters are clean and there or two less things on my to-do list for 2012. 8-)

 I like it because it is not just a chicken on a stick wind vain: and it howled for a while.