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New Boat 4 Sled
- Thread starter sleddog
- Start date
The navigator of note died during the voyage which successfully continued. You've named the bright navigational star, Canopus. If you can't name the epic voyage nor its primary navigator, can you tell us the name of the navigator's boat, familiar as a name on these pages and still being sailed.
Thanks, Ants, for reminding us of the JEREMIAH O'BRIEN's epic voyage to Normandy and return in 1994. What a story of determination and seamanship celebrating all who fought in the largest invasion force in human history.
And thank you to all of you who told us of your favorite voyage of exploration in answer to my trivia question of a week ago:
"The father of one of our SSS Forum's posters was navigator for the most audacious, well planned, and successful voyage of exploration ever undertaken. From Magellan to Drake, to Slocum and Stan Honey, this voyage and its navigator is their peer. There was no GPS, the charts could be many miles off, communication was tenuous, and where the voyage would end, if ever, was uncertain.
For a bowl of Macapuno, what voyage of exploration is this? Here is your hint: a primary celestial object, one of the brightest stars in the sky, was the primary guide to navigating the voyage. No, not our sun, Sirius, nor Hokeule'a. You will be closer thinking of the keel of ARGO, the mythical ship of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece."
The answer to the name of the voyage can be found in this below photo. Look closely, no imagination required. The name of the navigator will be told in a future post. His boat, ex-FUN, sails to this day. Thank you for playing.
Thanks for the additional clues. For me, the clues do not complete the puzzle.
However, I know which sailboat you are referring to. It is nicely restored and sitting on a low trailer at Brickyard Cove. The sailboat reminds me of the Mair 28 I used to own. There seems to be soft spot for daggerboard boats.
Patience young grasshopper, the full answer will be revealed.
Ants
However, I know which sailboat you are referring to. It is nicely restored and sitting on a low trailer at Brickyard Cove. The sailboat reminds me of the Mair 28 I used to own. There seems to be soft spot for daggerboard boats.
Patience young grasshopper, the full answer will be revealed.
Ants
Sorry, Ants. The Voyage navigator was an avid sailor of Central CA waters on his FUN. But she is a keel boat, sails regularly, and not berthed at Brickyard Cove. I'm sorry the attached photo has not completed the quiz for you. You deserve Macapuno for persistence.
If you know the answer, you have a different perspective than I do.
The photo was identified (thanks to a little help from a friend), the name is extensively used, so the name leads to more dead ends rather a narrowed selection.
Some other broad criteria - since Canopus was critical, the notable voyage did not travel North of the 37th parallel. Since there was no GPS and included a father of an SSS forum poster, the date of the voyage was likely between 1940 and 1990.
If a sextant was used to navigate, why would Canopus be preferred over the sun. A possible clue is that sun angle was near vertical for noon sight so a star sight may have been more accurate.
Close? Yup, sure!
Where are the guesses from others?
Ants
BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
https://space.stackexchange.com/que...work-are-there-any-still-out-there-in-service
Ants, this one is all yours - you've earned it. There may be multiple boats named Fun. The little bronze-colored Davidson (26?) with lifting keel was last seen in Brickyard Cove's dry storage yard. Its current name is Joyicity.
Great fun out on the Potrero Reach course yesterday for day one of RYC's Totally Dinghy regatta. There were two fleets on our course - the El Toro veterans and the RS Teras raced by many new (and little!) juniors. I was on a markset boat with Jasper and had a front row seat.
Several of the Tera sailors were quite good, but the winner was a girl who'd only been sailing for four weeks! At first she was sitting too far aft and dragging the transom. She was encouraged to sit farther forward and that really helped. After a fourth in her first race, little Ihsan (RYC) came back with a second and two firsts to edge Keira from Sausalito Yacht Club. I was on the edge of my thwart! As the wind dropped off, the coach from SYC towed her kids back in like a mother leading her ducklings. But Ihsan sailed back in, sitting as far forward as she could with tiller extension at full reach, beating the rest of her fleet back to the harbor. We'll have to watch this one!
Ants, this one is all yours - you've earned it. There may be multiple boats named Fun. The little bronze-colored Davidson (26?) with lifting keel was last seen in Brickyard Cove's dry storage yard. Its current name is Joyicity.
Great fun out on the Potrero Reach course yesterday for day one of RYC's Totally Dinghy regatta. There were two fleets on our course - the El Toro veterans and the RS Teras raced by many new (and little!) juniors. I was on a markset boat with Jasper and had a front row seat.
Several of the Tera sailors were quite good, but the winner was a girl who'd only been sailing for four weeks! At first she was sitting too far aft and dragging the transom. She was encouraged to sit farther forward and that really helped. After a fourth in her first race, little Ihsan (RYC) came back with a second and two firsts to edge Keira from Sausalito Yacht Club. I was on the edge of my thwart! As the wind dropped off, the coach from SYC towed her kids back in like a mother leading her ducklings. But Ihsan sailed back in, sitting as far forward as she could with tiller extension at full reach, beating the rest of her fleet back to the harbor. We'll have to watch this one!
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Yes, Canopus in constellation Carina ("Keel") was critical to the cited Voyage navigation. Canopus, second brightest star, is at right angles to the sun and better for navigation below 37 degrees N. Latitude. Why better? Because looking at the sun can be blinding, even using filters. BTW, in the 1978 SHTP, before electronics,, I used stars to find Hanalei. During the middle of the race the sun was so directly overhead at LAN that it was hard to tell which side of the boat to look. As well, the sails would often be in the way.
And yes, the date of the Voyage began after 1940. I cannot tell you the end date of the Voyage as it is unknown. The primary navigator did die during the Voyage, as previously mentioned.
I'm sure Ants would appreciate help with this, so don't be shy about sharing hints, clues, or guesses despite BobJ's abnegation. And thanks to BobJ for sharing the RC viewpoint for yesterday's dinghy races at RYC. I am not familiar with RS Teras and will have to investigate. It would be fun if the marks were a low hanging arch that had to be sailed under and through. Sculling and rocking races are fun too, especially in light wind or after the "official race" ends and getting back to the club dock first becomes the race.
https://www.rssailing.com/project/rs-tera/
And yes, the date of the Voyage began after 1940. I cannot tell you the end date of the Voyage as it is unknown. The primary navigator did die during the Voyage, as previously mentioned.
I'm sure Ants would appreciate help with this, so don't be shy about sharing hints, clues, or guesses despite BobJ's abnegation. And thanks to BobJ for sharing the RC viewpoint for yesterday's dinghy races at RYC. I am not familiar with RS Teras and will have to investigate. It would be fun if the marks were a low hanging arch that had to be sailed under and through. Sculling and rocking races are fun too, especially in light wind or after the "official race" ends and getting back to the club dock first becomes the race.
https://www.rssailing.com/project/rs-tera/
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BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
I looked at the RS Teras on the dock after the races. Think Madeline with a sail and you wouldn't be far off. I love El Toros but the Teras are fine little boats in comparison, and they sail very well.
I don't think the low-hanging arch idea would have gone over well with the hard-core El Toro seniors who were sharing the course. One veteran sailed by and suggested the leeward mark be moved ten feet to the east. We eye-balled the course and decided he was right at the time, but it was an oscillating shift. Don't mess with those guys...
I don't think the low-hanging arch idea would have gone over well with the hard-core El Toro seniors who were sharing the course. One veteran sailed by and suggested the leeward mark be moved ten feet to the east. We eye-balled the course and decided he was right at the time, but it was an oscillating shift. Don't mess with those guys...
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Dazzler
m/v PACIFIC LOON
I’m late to this party having been away for the past three weeks delivering a boat from Ketchikan to Port Townsend. I, or my relatives, have no connection to this quiz that I’m aware of. I’m not related to CG Admiral Thomas Patterson of the JEREMIAH O’BBIAN, though I’ve received phone calls from his past shipmates trying to track him down. My father was navigator and pilot on flying boats in the early 1940’s. I donated his octant (bubble sextant) to the Flying Boat museum in Foynes, Ireland. It’s nice to see one of Skip’s quizzes be a stumper.
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Agreed Bob
We were told that our Start/Finish line was too long, and the weather mark was too far to the right, although we got a left shift right after than. That said, it was SO FUN to watch the older El Toro sailors duking it out right in front of those fabulous kids in the Teras I agree with you that the Teras will bring out enthusiasm and competition- we saw it yesterday !
We were told that our Start/Finish line was too long, and the weather mark was too far to the right, although we got a left shift right after than. That said, it was SO FUN to watch the older El Toro sailors duking it out right in front of those fabulous kids in the Teras I agree with you that the Teras will bring out enthusiasm and competition- we saw it yesterday !
I own 4 sextants, and cherish them all, and know how to use them. I think mariners lose a lot of connection by staring at computer screens for navigation. When I look in the drawer where my dad's drafting/navigational tools are, and think about the navigation of a spacecraft, I am very humbled
The twin spacecraft VOYAGER 1 and VOYAGER 2 were launched by NASA in conjunction with Jet Propulsion Labratory in the summer of 1977, 45 years ago, from Cape Canaveral. As originally designed, the VOYAGERS were to conduct closeup studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's rings, and larger moons of the two planets.
To accomplish their two-planet mission, the spacecraft were built to last five years. But as the mission progressed, and with the successful achievement of all its objectives, additional flybys of the two outermost giant planets, Uranus and Neptune, proved possible -- and irresistible to mission scientists and engineers at JPL in Pasadena.
As the spacecraft flew across the solar system, remote-control reprogramming by JPL astrophysicists, led by Alex Bratenahl, Milly's father, was used to endow the VOYAGERS with greater capabilities than they possessed when they left Earth. With over 10,000 possible trajectories studied, two were chosen and the two-planet mission became four. Their five-year lifetimes stretched to 12 and is now 45 years.
Bratenahl and his associates designed the VOYAGER mission to take advantage of a rare geometric alignment of the outer planets in the late 1970s -80s which allowed for a four-planet tour for a minimum of propellant and trip time. This layout of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, which occurs about every 175 years, allows a spacecraft on a particular flight path to swing from one planet to the next without the need for large onboard propulsion systems. The flyby of each planet bends the spacecraft's flight path and increases its velocity enough to deliver it to the next destination. Using this "gravity assist" technique, pioneered by Bratenahl, it was first demonstrated with NASA's Mariner 10 Venus/Mercury mission in 1973-74, and VOYAGER'S flight time to Neptune was reduced from 30 years to 12.
Eventually, between them, VOYAGER 1 and 2 explored all the outer planets of our solar system, 48 of their moons including 21 new moons, and the unique systems of rings and magnetic fields those planets possess. Had the VOYAGER mission ended after the Jupiter and Saturn flybys alone, it still would have provided the material to rewrite astronomy textbooks. But having doubled their already ambitious itineraries, the VOYAGERS returned to Earth information over the years that has revolutionized the science of planetary astronomy, helping to resolve key questions while raising intriguing new ones about the origin and evolution of the planets in our solar system.
To this day, the VOYAGER continues to press onward into outer space while "calling home." Eventually, their instruments may be the first of any spacecraft to cross the heliopause -- the boundary between the end of the Sun's magnetic influence on our solar system and the beginning of interstellar space.
The photo clue of our "Blue Marble," above in post #5166, is an iconic photograph of Earth taken Feb. 14, 1990, by VOYAGER 1. VOYAGER 1 was speeding out of the solar system — beyond Neptune and about 3.7 billion miles from the Sun — when mission managers commanded it to look back toward home for a final time. And this is the photo returned to Earth of the Earth.
As well as a solar physicist, Alex Bratenahl was an avid sailor, musician, artist, and teacher. He loved conversing with young people and sailing with his family. Below is a photo of Alex sailing FUN on Tomales Bay. Milly, age 13, bought FUN from her father, who didn't realize the piece of paper he'd just signed was a Bill of Sale. No problem. To continue competing, Alex bought another 110, US 418 SOLAR FLARE. Both boats continuing sailing to this day.
So VOYAGER is the answer. And unless there is a collision or is retrieved, will continue on a voyage into Outer Space for All Time.
And here is Alex sailing FUN, #445 (later BIG PINK), with daughter Laura and son Carl. According to Milly, her father never wore a shirt when sailing. Thank you all for playing.
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MAGICdreamer
Member
Well done, Sleddog! One of your epic ones.
My better half commented this morning that MAGIC (and Archie, the Bengal) have introduced us to a fascinating bunch of people.
Many thanks. C&V&B
My better half commented this morning that MAGIC (and Archie, the Bengal) have introduced us to a fascinating bunch of people.
Many thanks. C&V&B
Yesterday's storm brought southerly winds, 20-30 knots, to the Monterey Bay coastline. At least 3 boats broke their moorings and went on local beaches. Anchoring in an unprotected roadstead with that much wind and 4-6 foot breaking waves from the open sea is foolish.
The boat below remains on the Capitola Beach. The optimistic salvager in the photo is trying to dig her out with his hands. The professional team will come in at this evening's high tide, put a strap around the keel, and pull her off with their powerful towboat. Likely damage will be minimal except the rudder will be bent or broken and the bow cleats have been ripped out.
All in a day at CBC.
The boat below remains on the Capitola Beach. The optimistic salvager in the photo is trying to dig her out with his hands. The professional team will come in at this evening's high tide, put a strap around the keel, and pull her off with their powerful towboat. Likely damage will be minimal except the rudder will be bent or broken and the bow cleats have been ripped out.
All in a day at CBC.
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Well, golly gee! I can sleep better with one less puzzle on my mind.
I realized my search may have been too narrow (confined to sailboats) when Dazzler commented his father was an aircraft navigator.
The spacecraft need to be navigated just like sailing craft.
Live and learn.
Thanks for the challenge!
Ants
I realized my search may have been too narrow (confined to sailboats) when Dazzler commented his father was an aircraft navigator.
The spacecraft need to be navigated just like sailing craft.
Live and learn.
Thanks for the challenge!
Ants