Re: Quiet Day yesterday
With all this friggen rain, it sure is a NAVY day ! .. have to be be cruisin UPstairs @ 85,000 ft.,way above all the garbage weather, indicated ground speed, @ 3,250 mph, 37 min. to rendezvous with tanker, heading down to 36,000 ft. pull back on the throttles attain airspeed of 550 mph. ... DAM ! ... back 2 feeling stationary ....
Boo,
36,000 feet ~ UP!?!?!? Good grief man a guy could get a nose bleed that high! And then you gotta come down! (That's what really sucks about flyin', the coming down part!) Sometimes it happens too fast and then there is a sudden stop at the end ~ and we all know where THAT leads!! No thanks amigo, No flyin' for this old boy.
Chuckster came up with 969 views for yesterday's count, somewhat short of his hoped for 20,000, but still better than I had thought, whereas the actual posting had dropped off.
Glad to see that Ron received his refund for not only for the non-functional tool, but his return shipping as well. There is a lesson there for everyone! In today's world of half-arsed work and acceptance of of sub-standard equipment and workmanship, you can still slap the useless buggers up-side-the-head, if you keep at them! Way to go Ron!
We had quite a day here yesterday! The manager of the local Marina has been bugging me to run a 22-foot pontoon boat with a brand new 115HP Mercury on it to break in the engine before he adds it to his boat rental line. He wanted to get 8 hours on the engine. I was supposed to run it for three hours at 2,500 RPM's and then at variable speeds for the remaining five. Well, like Boo says, our weather this week hasn't been very pleasant (especially compared to last week, when it was in the 80's every day!!) so I kept declining the job. But yesterday turned out (or I should say "started-out") better than forecast, so I lined up two more couples to come with us and went down to get the boat.
They had told me it was USCG ready for sea! Ha!! The only safety equipment aboard was a marine fire extinguisher! Hell! That was the ONLY thing aboard! Period!! So I made them give me 8 life jackets, a whistle, a set of flares, an anchor, 25-feet of line, and 10-feet of chain (with shackles). I rigged the anchor and stowed it along with everything else and then discovered there were no registration papers. They had to call the main office and have them emailed over and then printed me out a copy.
Just as we were finally ready to shove off, a couple from Australia showed up for a Manatee tour, only to discover that their tour guide wasn't there. (I know the guy and he is somewhat of a nut-job.) He does not work for the marina but the store manager asked me if I'd take them along too and I said, "Of course!" so with eight people aboard we headed down river towards the Gulf of Mexico.
The Aussies were great company and everybody was only too happy to point out points of interest to them and ask them questions about living "down under". It seems they were here to visit their youngest son who is a basketball player, presently a Junior in High School and is in some program where he was selected by Nike (mind you) and must play Basket Ball as well as complete his school year here in the USA in Florida.
After reaching the Gulf and suggesting we continue West until we hit Corpus Christi, TX (an idea which everyone turned down) we went back up river to the Springs where we anchored while our guests (who had come prepared for the trip) went swimming to see the manatees up close and personal. The recent cool snap and rain had dropped the temperature of the Gulf waters enough to force some manatees into the Springs to warm up, so they were able to see several there, and we saw more of them while maneuvering the boat on the river. (You must be VERY careful not to hit one with your boat or propeller!) - If you run over some human-being swimming around trying to see a manatee, the "powers-that-be" may get angry with you. However, if you should injure a manatee, they will hang you from a nearby palm tree as an example to others! In eight years of plying these waters, I have never so much as 'bumped' a manatee!
After enjoying their swim we took our guests to a great restaurant with a dock and we all had lunch which THEY insisted in paying for! They were great folks, great fun to be around and very interesting company. They had to get back to their rental car at the marina by 2 PM so I may have 'very slightly' exceeded the recommended RPM's for a brand new Merc's break-in period, but we had them back only 15 minutes late, which they said was fine..
We actually got 3-1/2 hours on the engine and got back before the afternoon rain, so all went well. By the way however, I have to say that pontoon boats SUCK!! I guess if you are a party animal, then OK, go buy one, but if you are a "boater" then run away! A 20' pontoon with a 60HP engine can probably do 18-20MPH. Put a 115HP engine on it any it might do 22MPH! What a pig they are! And could be likened to boating on a barge.. My old man used to say, "If it floats, it's a boat." But I'm not sure that can actually be applied to a pontoon.... Hell! Pigs can float!
That's my report for Florida Living for yesterday. We may try to put some more hours on it today.
Roger
