Knidos on the West end of the Datcha
Promontory (
What was the last hole in
the boat that we had open? The log transducer.
This little water wheel sticks out through the hull below the forward
cabin. As the boat moves through the
water, the log transducer measures how fast water is moving by. When the boat is not moving, it is a nesting
surface for sea life: those nasty little crustaceans that attach themselves to
any surface in the sea and grow shells.
Enough sea shells and it doesn’t turn. Before we left Bodrum,
two days earlier, we took it out and cleared it of the new growth. Maybe it was not closed properly. He looked there. It was not leaking, but there was enough
water in the bilge that it was there also.
Sailors have a qualitative
analysis procedure for water inside their boat.
They taste it. The Turks and the
Greeks call fresh water “sweet”. It is
definitely more accurate. Sweet water is
a problem. Salt water is potential
disaster. This water was sweet. Knowing that it was sweet water, the urgency
level dropped dramatically. He only had
to listen for a moment to determine that the sweet water pressure pump was
running. He checked and there was no water coming out of the galley
faucet. He turned the sweet water
pressure pump off.
It must be a fact that no
boat ever sank in the sea from a sweet water leak. There are stories of people putting the hose
from the dock faucet into a disconnected deck fitting, filling a boat with
water and sinking her. That could happen
at the dock, but not at sea. If she
carries it away from the dock, moving it around inside the boat can’t make her
sink.
Fred was blessed with a high
school physics instructor, Louis Bolton.
This teacher explained Archimedes Principle with a story.
One
day a traveling salesman came to the king of
He
called in his number one scientist, a strange bird
named Archimedes, and gave him a challenge.
“In three days you must determine whether this crown is pure gold or a
fake. You can’t deface it in any way. If you do, I have to buy it.”
Even
then, good managers knew the best way to deal with a tough problem was to give
it to someone else.
Arch,
short for Archimedes, didn’t have a clue.
On the surface, it was gold. But
what was inside? How could he know without
taking it apart? One problem with being
on the king’s payroll is the king also had soldiers who could do some very
cruel things at a bad performance review.
Arch didn’t have a clue.
On
the morning of the third day, he had given up on the problem and used the last
twelve hours to develop the excuse. A
completely sound, scientific explanation of why it couldn’t be done with some
very theoretical nonsense tossed in for good measure. On his way to see the king, he stopped by the
town bath to relax, get himself in the right frame of mind and rehearse his
presentation one more time.
They
filled his tub to the brim with hot water.
He climbed in and some water spilled out. He had displaced some water. He leaned back and a little more spilled out,
but now he was floating. He had
displaced as much water as he weighed.
He jumped from the tub. Not
stopping for towel or toga, he raced down the street to the royal laboratory.
“Eureka!”
he shouted as he ran through town, “
The
town’s people always knew he was a strange bird. Featherless, he was pretty wrinkled as well.
He
cut up a gold brick to get a piece of equal weight of the crown. He filled a bowl with water. First he submerged the gold brick. Some water spilled out. He removed the brick and submerged the
crown. Even more water poured over the
edge of the bowl.
“
Pausing
to dress appropriately for an audience, he gathered up the crown and the brick
and toddled off to see the king.
The
king always enjoyed a discussion when the facts were on his side.
“If
you don’t want to die a dirty death,” he said to the salesman, “you should wash
your neck. We have a way for dealing
with thieves around here. We cut off
their feet, right behind their ears.”
The
salesman groveled and blamed it on the technicians. He was sent on an extended cruise of the
Arch
expanded his principle to explain why and how some things float, some sink and
others sink faster.
The
king enjoyed his new crown.
Displacement of water is a
powerful idea. Perception floats because
she displaces as much water as she weighs and there is still a lot of her above
the surface. She displaces 17 US tons.
Interesting: “A pint’s a
pound, the world around.” is a
Back to the boat that was
not sinking. The valve for the swim deck
shower had spit off the water supply hose.
The pressure pump had dutifully pumped 475 litres
of water out of the tanks and into the bilge.
The gauge in the water tank decided to keep reading ½ and the bilge pump
couldn’t empty the bilge for what reason we still don’t know. Several tests have been run and the pump and
hose to the outside will not fail on demand.
The anchor held.
Errata: In the Crews Letter #2003 07 I Love a Parade,
there was a totally avoidable error.
Fred said, “The American sailing cruiser, Traumerei, didn’t actually
join the parade, but her skipper couldn’t pass up the opportunity to blow his
own horn.” Had he performed a reasonable
level of research, he would have correctly said, “The American sailing cruiser,
Traumerei, didn’t actually join the parade, but her skipper couldn’t pass up
the opportunity to blow her own horn.”
This error has been brought to our attention. It is duly noted. Please make the correction in the appropriate
document.
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