Dictations of the Conkerer

GPS tracklog overlay.

The above was made at GPS Visualizer. It makes some very nice plots, and has a lot of configuration options. The only downside is that because it’s all done through a web interface, there’s a lot of slow iterations to find the settings that work. In that sense, it would be nice to have a piece of software which would go grab the maps and allow more real time tweaking of all the input parameters.

Lest you not be bothered to note the key, the track is colorized by heading (read / pink heading North, green heading South). I had colorized it by speed, but we cruised right between 3 and 3.5mph for almost the entire time we were moving, so that didn’t show much. You can see in the middle that we passed on the upwind side of the lighthouse each time.

Last weekend I had a chance to add a new island to the kayaking repertoire. Doug, Callum and I had been to South Manitou a few years back. This time, Todd and Linda were making a quick trip to the North island.

The trip was fist planned a week earlier, but weather wasn’t cooperating. On the second attempt, the weather appeared to be holding, so we headed up to the area on Friday night. Crashed at the farm in Empire, mainly to avoid having to pack up, paddle in the dark then pitch a camp somewhere along the point.

Saturday morning we got up kind of early to head out to the island. Stopped at DH Day, filed a float plan, got car passes and a back country permit. Stopped in Glen Arbor for breakfast and were unpacking at the beach when I had the brilliant idea to lock my keys in the car. Since there were no objections, I went ahead with the plan. That ended up causing about an hour delay in getting on the water.

Conveniently, I’m still within the three year / 36k mile window on the Subaru, so with that I get free roadside assistance. I called Subaru, Subaru found a tow service who they then contracted to come let me back into my car.

Launching… from this angle you cannot see the lighthouse which was our crossing landmark.

Morning drama aside, we got on the water in what was a beautifully clear day with maybe 10kt winds from the West / Northwest. We cruised three miles out to the point before turning to cross the channel. Finding the point is kind of battle between logic and instinct. Instinctively, every outcropping of land we went around seemed like it might be the proper departure from the mainland. Logically, you just have to keep paddling until the lighthouse and the island are squarely to your side. At that point, unless there is obvious land jutting out infront of you, you’re probably starting to turn and move away from the target.

Also, since I failed to mention, there is a lighthouse in the channel. Island & lighthouse – this was a two-for-one trip.

This is what much of the mainland shoreline looked like, with Linda for scale.

The crossing itself is about seven miles with the lighthouse roughly in the middle. For the most part, the waves stayed under 1ft. and the wind wasn’t anything to horrible.

If Todd gets to stop and take pictures, so do I!.

Perspective is a neat thing, but don’t let it fool you – those dunes are huge.

This is the closest clear shot I have of the lighthouse. It’s not really in the best condition, especially noting the poop covered solar panels on the second level.

Made it to the island.

After the initial landing on the island, we paddled up the West coast a ways. There was a very nice campsite up there (as Todd and Linda has speculated) but beacuse of the winds and waves, the water near it was quite churned up. Too bad, because watching the sunset from a tent on a bluff would have been kinda cool. It would have also added three miles to Sunday’s return trip, so given the options, we headed back to the South end of the island.

Cruising back toward the South end of the island for the night.

It rained overnight and this guy took shelter under my kayak. And then I chased it down for a picture.

We didn’t waste much time in the morning, because the best weather was slated to be early on in the day. It was overcast and raining in places – we got to see South Manitou consumed by rainclouds while on our return trip. The weather held well enough, and we only got sprinkled on briefly.

These clouds looked more concerning than they really were – there was no lightning. I found it neat how you could see how they were sitting on a pocket of lower air.

Back on the mainland – I think this was the tallest and it was definitely the steepest bluff we saw. Obviously some daring people have climbed it.

As we were getting back to the launch site I grabbed this picture of Sugarloaf. Too bad they’re no longer open for skiing.

Every other Wednesday throughout the summer a group called GRASP – Grand Rapids Area Sport Paddlers – “organizes” an evening paddle. Yesterday was the first time that the opportunity and motivation coincided and I decided to attend one. Josh, Megan and Claudia were also there, so we had our own mini-contingency of paddlers within the larger group.

The official paddle started at M21 and the Grand River and went to Knapp and the Grand River from 7:00 until whenever people got done. My unofficial portion started at Knapp and the Grand at 5:30 and went up stream to the M21 crossing. It was probably the most athletic paddle I’ve ever done, and it didn’t help that it was 85 degrees out.

On with my actual notes of the paddle. I’m guessing the Grand River has about 1mph current. This 1mph current carries the water through piles of farmland, so by the time it’s flowing past Ada it’s kind of pretty disgusting. It wasn’t quite so bad at the Knapp crossing, so I avoided a bit of the nast by not putting in at M21.

As for the paddle itself – there’s a lot of variety in the boats that people show up in. In sea kayaks we were definitely among the fastest of the group. I think I hit the landing third after having looped behind everyone else at the launch and paddling with minimal effort the entire way down stream. Without the paddle up stream, the excursion would have been more of a float than a paddle.

Moral of the story – I probably won’t bother going back to the Grand. The upper Thornapple is cleaner, has a nicer launch and almost as convenient when coming from work.

First extended weekend of the year = first kayaking trip of the year. At least that’s the goal.

With this in mind, on Tuesday, I put out a suggestion that I wanted to do some version of the Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island / Round Island trip. It’s short notice, I know, but that’s how I roll. Also, some combination of “we” have paddled this area four or five times, so the logistics don’t take much thought.

Participants were determined to be Callum, Doug, Samantha and me. After a slight miscommunication which involved Callum being up in the Straits area a day early, we all converged on Mackinaw City shorly after noon on Saturday. Conditions were a bit choppy and 10 miles a bit long for Samantha’s first sea kayak adventure, so the decision was made to depart from the St. Ignace side of the bridge. About 2:00 we got on the water and headed toward the island.

That didn’t last long (we got to the first Ferry route) and ended with me towing several people against a 15+ mph wind and foot and a half waves. There are two morals to this story: 1. Don’t be too encouraging to a new paddler. 2. Don’t be the only one with a tow belt. I guess there’s a third lesson which is “have a tow belt.” We were apparently concerning enough that the Cost Guard boat came over to check on us, but didn’t really hang around after seeing that we had things under control.

This was the first picture taken, after we returned to the St. Ignace launch and decided to take a little jaunt West past the bridge where the waves were less.

Beyond the bridge are a set of islands inhabited by birds. In one of their coves there was a school of carp, which Callum found. He was much happier about it than I would have been.

Proof that islands too are being overrun by cormorants.

Callum decided to pay the gulls a visit. A bold move, which surprisingly yielded no direct bomber hits.

Having expected to be on an island for Saturday night, we did not have a camp site at St. Ignace reserved. Fortunately, the State Park guys anticipated extra and we used the overflow camping / picnic area. As a consolation prize for not having made it to the island, we got pasties for dinner.

Sunday was much calmer. Winds sub 5mph.

If you can ignore the phone camera quality, this makes a nice comparison between the days as viewed from shore.

We cruised over to Mackinac Island with ease on Sunday. Slight tail wind and no waves to speak of except the ferry wakes. We stayed South of the ferry routes most of the crossing as the ferries tend to hug the island a bit to indulge the touristy nature of their clients.

I think I’ll call this one “Two kayakers and a photographer.”

We hit Mackinac right around the Devil’s Kitchen area. That big hole in the rock… yeah, that’s it.

Obligatory shot of the Grand Hotel.

We stopped for a bit in the Mackinac Island harbor. The others went ashore for coffee and fudge. I caught a few surfs off the ferry wakes. About when they got back on the water and we crossed the shipping channel we must have hit our highest winds of the day. Easily 15mph and odd since the rest of the day had been calm.

The light on Round Island. The near camp site area is a few hundred yards down the point to the East (left).

The camp “sites”. You can see the fire ring and dry areas where the tents were.

We pitched camp around 5:00 and commenced with dinner and hiking around the island. Everyone but me decided to cook on the leeward beach. I have this obsession with having fires when camping, and if I was going to have a fire, I was going to cook my food on it.

Fire and fire ring, all mine.

The highlight of the weekend was that the Mackinac Island fireworks. I got to sit on the deck of a lighthouse, on an island and watch fireworks being launched against the backdrop of the Grand Hotel on Makcinac Island. It was one of the best fireworks viewing setups possible and certainly the best I’ve experienced.

The forecast for Monday had been a concern fromt he onset of the trip. It was slated to be thunderstorms over night then scattered thunderstorms all day. We knew that we might end up waiting most of the day for enough break to get to Mackinac and take a ferry home.

Fortunately, the forecast was wrong. There was a bit of rain over night and a lot of fog the next day.

Doug, fog and the Grand Hotel.

The return trip was a bit cooler and rather colorless as indicated by the pictures, but otherwise very nice. Minimal wind and wave action except for the dumb-ass power boater who saw us, but just decided he didn’t want to be inconvenienced with giving us a reasonable berth.

Final shot of the Mackinac Bridge with some fog under and clouds over.

In preparation for WMCKA next weekend, I figured I’d better get some paddling time in. I also wanted to get a bit more time paddling the fiberglass boat, which despite being the same design as the plastic one, handles differently.

Saturday, I was informed that the Grand Haven Kite Festival was going on, so I figured it would make for some interesting viewing and headed over to Lake Michigan. I saw the forecast that said dense fog until 4:00, and figured that if I showed up at 4:00 I’d hit maybe the very tail end of it… Wrong.

This was the view from the North Shore Park. Not really optimal for paddling solo across a channel with no fog horn, or GPS.

Plan A abandoned, I resorted to a local paddle and headed to the Upper Thornapple River for a cruise. Josh and I had paddled there before. It’s a bit of an architecture tour and there are power boats, but overall it’s not too bad a place to go cruise around. I paddled what I later found to be 3.5 miles up river to the known “end” of the trip, this house:

I continue to be impressed by this mansion of a house on the river. Hopefully the owner won’t mind the picture being posted on my obscure little blog.

The forecast was extended, but was canceled today mid-morning. So, Josh and I headed over to Grand Haven with the same plan in mind as I had on Saturday. Today it worked. We started at North Shore Park and headed around the channel to Grand Haven State Park to see the kites. It was a calm day, and we hadn’t considered how optimal this was for power boats to more just outside the swim area. Still, the kites did not disappoint.

The giant kites – Josh included so you can verify that this is my picture and not scammed off the web.

A more extensive view of the beach.

Video clip of a kite demo. It’s 15MB and I’m not really interested in learning how to embed it at the moment, so you’ll have to download if you want to see it.

Tour of Asia 2: The Pictures

The last entry was posted with some haste due to a departing plane. Also, these two combined would result in an overly long entry I think.

So, here we have some additional thoughts, comments and pictures from my second trip ’round Asia.

We had lunch at the World Cup Stadium in Korea. The lunch was fine, what’s more of note is that there was justification to build a brand new stadium for the world cup when Seoul already had the Olympic stadium.

It can haul a metric ton! These micro-semis are very common all over Asia. It makes sense given that the true semis that we have in the US wouldn’t stand a chance of getting down most of the roads.

The centerpiece at the Grand Hyatt Taipei. One of the most ornate hotels I’ve ever stayed at. Oddly (surprisingly?) – not the nicest rooms of any hotel I’ve stayed in.

Sphere o’ log at the Grand Hyatt. Fred tells me that The Baarman has a mild obsession with this thing. I’m not sure I disagree – it’s pretty cool and at the same time, remarkably simple.

The second day we were in Taipei, the Ferrari owners club of Taiwan decided to descend upon the hotel and have breakfast there. It’s not that surprising – the hotel serves as a venue for all kinds of interesting things. The last time I was there, the head of Foxconn was getting married and there was a whole todo about that.

Pop the trunk… er, hood… whatever covers it, it’s a damn fine piece of machinery.

Normally, I’m not a huge fan of blackouts on any lights, but in this case, I think it looks pretty damn cool. Also, you can see the engie through the back window.

Awesome as the Outback looked with it’s orange-rimmed-mockup, I think this guy’s got me beat.

For small sports cars, I continue to prefer yellow over the stereotypically sexy red. It just has better constrast, accentuating the vents, wheels, etc., but it only works on cas that have these features. Miatas, for example, do not, and they look much better in red.

And… then we got to the airport and I decided that I should take pictures of airplanes. Are they any different than airplanes anywhere else? No. Are they better than the stock pictures you can get of airplanes on the web? No. I get the point, quit yer bitchin’ already.

“Nom nom… get to close and I’ll eat you.”

I have worked for three years in a fluids lab. My understanding of aerodynamics is not great, but it’s far better than average. I continue to be flat out amazed every time I see a plane take flight. So big, so cumbersome, such small engines, yet they do it.

I’m near certian this is the 747 that I am on at the very moment that I am writing this entry.

Not ours, but majestic none the less.

This may become my new banner image for a while.

Ritzy as I feel flying in international business class, there are those who even on a bad day have me beat. While we could sit and watch most of the planes take off, this guy was airborne before even coming into our field of view.

As a final thought, I would like to comment that the showers in the Asiana air lounge are fabulous. Private little rooms with all the amenities you’d find at a high end hotel and then some. I continue to be of the opinion that being clean is very pleasant.

Saturday, at 1:05 in the afternoon, I successfully missed the first leg of of what was to be a three leg international flight to Seoul.

Saturday, at about 1:20, I was reseated and scheduled for a couple different flights, which would in the end get me to the same place at the same time as originally planned. The only real difference was that I would have to fly coach for the Detroit-Narita leg. First world crisis.

The flight turned out not to be too bad. I had an aisle seat with an empty seat next to me. I discovered that things I miss most from business class are power at the seats and free drinks. As a consequence, I didn’t watch any of the movies I had stashed away for the trip and didn’t sleep very much.

Fred and I had two days of meeting in Korea, the details of which must remain confidential. This was my first trip to Korea and I was happy to have a chance to try authentic spicy chicken. The only real difference I noticed from its US counterpart was that the cuts of chicken were not as good as Asians generally don’t bother removing skin and gristle. I failed to have bib-bim-bab, so I’ll have to come back.

After Korea, which was amazingly useful, we headed out to Taipei for a few more days of meetings. The most notworthy think from this stay was the gianormous suite of a room that Fred had. Apparently, being super double diamond platinum has its perks.

Third stop, Tokyo, for, you guessed it: more meetings! We didn’t do a whole lot of venturing out otherwise. And, that brings us to the present, relaxing in the Delta sky lounge at the Narita airport until the flight home.

That’s the timeline… now some observations:

1. Fred has done more traveling that I will likely do in my lifetime. Consequently, traveling with him tends to be very organized and lacking in unpleasant surprises.

2. People flying first class have a much higher than average probability of being self absorbed and oblivious to the world around them.

3. It has occured to me that I am probably often the youngest person seated in international business class. I think this is an indicator of how well Amway takes care of its employees.

4. The Japanese are very clean, organized and formal. And some of them are very short. In Japanese, “Hi” means something like “I acknowledge what you have just said.” It gets used a lot. Every time I hear a string of “hi… hi… hi… ” I want to complete it “hi… hi… Macho macho man.” and break into song.

Pictures will have to come later… sorry Patrick.

Josh and I had our first kayaking venture of the season on Saturday.

Todd, who is prepping for a trip to the Aleutian Islands sometime later this summer, wanted to start getting practice in wind, waves and frigid water. To this end, we went over to the North Shore Beach by Grand Haven to have a little paddle.

Conditions were for 10-15 knot winds and 3-5ft. waves, at least to the best of my recollection. I can safely claim that there were 3ft. waves, because I was able to lose sight of Josh over the top of several. I can’t say much for the wind other than it picked up about an hour into the paddle.

We paddled for maybe an hour and 45 minutes, staying just outside the breaking waves, and made almost two miles of progress into the wind. By that time, I was completely worn out, barely making forward progress, and thinking that maybe this wasn’t such a brilliant first paddle of the season. We landed, rested for a bit then spent all of 20 minutes getting back to where we started.

This was my glass Tempest’s first run on anything bigger than the flat water of Long Lake. It handled nicely, but feels less stable than the plastic one; odd, given that they are in theory the same design. It has a smaller cockpit than plastic boat also. Like the plastic Tempest, I still have to figure out how to arrange the outfitting so that I can sit comfortably for more than 30 minutes. Legs falling asleep leads to tentative paddling and slow rescues.

Also, I discovered that I am not in very good paddling shape. I think there will have to be a standard day of the week nominated for paddling this summer.

I believe Linda took some pictures, so maybe they’ll surface sometime in the future.

Yesterday I flew out of Tokyo to Beijing after my first trip to Japan. The trip was a three day event focused on meeting potentially key eCoupled customers. At the same time, the Wireless Power Consortium was meeting, so many coworkers were also on travel for that reason.

It snowed a few days prior to our arrival and as a result, the air was drier than usual, allowing us to see Mt. Fuji from the hotel. Apparently the ability to see the mountain from Tokyo is rather rare.

Mt. Fuji in the distance.

On day 1 we took the train from Tokyo to Osaka. This was about a two and a half hour train ride, on a very fast train. The alternative was flying, but by the time you get to the airport, mess with boarding and get out of the airport, there’s just no point. Fred and Mike were guiding us, and they knew all the details of ticketing etc. so things went smoothly.

One of the pictures I captured of the bullet-train over Tom’s shoulder.

On our trian ride, we went closer to Mt. Fuji. The down side was that I was then trying to take pictures at 150mph.

Mt. Fuji, closer.

The garden as seen from my room above.

Same garden at night.

On day 3, they day we were leaving, we woke up in the wee hours of the morning (3am) to go to the Tokyo fish market and tuna auction. I took a bunch of pictures, but none of them can capture how huge and busy this was. There were several city blocks packed with people selling everything you could possibly pull from the ocean. In addition, there was a huge warehouse area where the tuna were being inspected and later auctioned off. And, to think, this goes on every day of the week with the exception of Sunday.

A chopped off fish head, one of the first things we saw upon walking in.

Red fish (blue fish?).

Squid.

The tuna, deep frozen and out for inspection. This doesn’t even close to capture the vastness of the tuna area.

Octopus on ice.

Bandsawing the fish in to salable chunks.

If you’re going to cut up fish, you’re going to need knives.

Last, but not least, Tom did find a Tokyo meathook.

It all started with a beautiful day during the Michgan winter. It was cold, there was snow and QED there would be skiing. A couple members of the Baarman clan an myself decided to hit up the “Alta of the Midwest,” better known to most as Caberfae Peaks.

Ski hills in Michigan are short. It’s not desirable, but it’s a fact of life. In light of this, I tend to find the most enjoyment to come from either jumps or practicing to improve my skill (and avoid tailbone fractures) on the snowboard. This day was a jump day.

For most of the ’09/’10 season there were three consistently present jumps at Caberfae. Mind you, I speak of the kind of jumps I like – smooth take off, smooth landing and requiring of speed. There’s a separate area for the terrain park aerial kiddies.

Mid way through the morning, one of my “smooth” jumps ended not so smooth. I was a bit off balance on the take-off and came down on my heels. When standing on two foot planks, being a bit on your heels means the tips of the skis are a few feet in the air. Those of you who have passed high school physics can predict what happens when a person lands in this form. The tails hit, the skier continues coming down in freefall, and the tips come down at roughly twice the speed of the skier… that is, right until they are reunited with the hill.

It’s that freefall to hill transition that sucks. The normall curved ski tips go momentarily flat to the hill and all kinds of crazy stresses and strains occur.

Too many of these, and the tips delaminate like mind did. In my particualar pair of skis, there is a metal stringer that runs the length of the ski. Apparently, this metal had more interest in being near the snow than did the top sheet of the ski, and thus they parted ways. The skis might have been fine for the remainder of the say, but being cheap, I didn’t really want to chance the damage getting beyond repair and thus the benefits of being able to ski and board became apparent.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. At least for those not too pretentious for a few bolts in their skis:

If you have good grey balance on your monitor, you’ll be able to see the separation here. The metail stringer is approximately defined by that squared off portion sitting nearer than the rest of the ski base.

Side view of the same.

The fix. Two 10-24 bolts placed just inside the metal layer, four 1″ washers and liberal use of epoxy. I’ve skied on these a few times since and it’s holding nicely.

The bolts and washers from the top (ski tips missing). It’s surprising how many people, with nothing better to divert there attention, notice this on the ski lift.

Old vs. New. The current Volkls and the previous Rossis. Took both into the model shop for clean up, which for the Rossis, involved a belt sander.

This would illustrate the difference between good and worn out skis. Notice the camber (space between the skis) which dictates the pressure on the snow at tip and tail and thus affects how the skis respond in a turn. Also, the Rossis no longer have brakes (they were a nuisance anyway) making them prohibited on most every hill in the country. Tear.

I “fixed” both skis. One because it needed it, and the other as a preventative measure and because I have kind of an OCD thing about symmetry.