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Good morning all...


Soon as the old girl leaves to get saved again I shall be off to the Bugsmasher Field to sit around the Bullshit Table and listen to a bunch of Old Retired Rocking Chair Flying Geezers chew the rag....

This morning I am going to mentions about most small boats having the steering wheel on the right/starboard side to see what interest I can stir up about driving on the left side of the road.

I do want to bring to everyone's attention that today is September 1st and there is only three full weeks of summer left and then we are into Autumn/Fall on September 22nd.

Gosh, can't remember what we did this summer, it seemed to slip by so fast.

Autumn/Fall is a wonderful time of the year, the colour of the trees are beautiful looking down from the air.

It is a CAVU (clear air, visibility unlimited) day here with hundreds of small boats on the river and bay doing their poker runs and whatever else boaters do.

Children are back to school tomorrow so keep an eye out for those yellow school bus vehicles and be extra careful as children have a tendency to forget the road safety rules and dart out from behind parked vehicles.

Enjoy the last weeks of summer folks...

FlyingTrucker wrote:Good morning all...


Enjoy the last weeks of summer folks...

Doug .....that's the most depressing thing you have said all day....

....knowing how I feel about the cold Winter months!... ...!

I dread late Autumn, Winter, and early Spring. The coldest and most miserable time of the year for me.

Yearning for "Next Summer" accelerates me into the future, and makes me one year older, each time!

My Central Heating is already switching itself on again, each early morning and evening!

Paul... ...warmth!

Fozzer wrote:

FlyingTrucker wrote:Good morning all...


Enjoy the last weeks of summer folks...

Doug .....that's the most depressing thing you have said all day....

....knowing how I feel about the cold Winter months!... ...!

I dread late Autumn, Winter, and early Spring. The coldest and most miserable time of the year for me.

Yearning for "Next Summer" accelerates me into the future, and makes me one year older, each time!

My Central Heating is already switching itself on again, each early morning and evening!

Paul... ...warmth!

Actually, I look forward to Autumn here in Colorado; it's probably the best time of the year here, climate wise. The high temps drop down to the 70's, the nights are cool, but comfortable. In years past, we've had 12 inches of snow on Labor Day weekend; others, it's been in the 90's! Today, it's a comfortable 72 degrees. For us, it's also the start of Indian Summer, where fair skies and 70 degree temps could last all the way to Christmas, or it could snow next week!

Autumn is also the time for the changing of the Aspen leaves in the mountains. The East Coast has theirs, but seeing the Aspens way up high evokes similar imagery, but more gold and yellow interspersed with the green of the Conifers.

Sorry Paul, our heat has been on once here and several times in the vehicles when travelling.

Mind you we thrive on all four seasons and life here in the colony would not be as nice as it is without snow.

Thanks ViperPilot...The State of Colorado is very pretty...

ViperPilot, living in VT, having moved from Colo, I'd tend to agree with your assessment of things. Nothing, but nothing beats the golden hue of aspens at sunset..."alpine glow" at its finest. Might even be more spectacular than the northern lights...and certainly easier to view. Three weeks...what did I do this summer? Worked, worked some more, re-set win8 (I hate this program) and lost FSX. Rode the bike some, and fished not at all, unfortunately. I did try to remember to thank God for allowing me another day (after two MI's, another day is really special) and even though I know none of you personally, have come to enjoy your company from time to time. Three weeks? Hey, still some time left...

FlyingTrucker wrote:This morning I am going to mentions about most small boats having the steering wheel on the right/starboard side to see what interest I can stir up about driving on the left side of the road.

Interesting. I see lots of small boats & it's something I've never noticed before. I think this is a reasonable explanation. http://www.captkujo.com/aa/aa9072010.htm

Before the use of the modern day rudder, boats were steered by a specialized oar, which was situated on the right-hand side, or starboard side of the vessel (originally steerboard). This oar was held by a sailor located towards the stern.....
Traditionally, boats would also moor with the left hand side to the quay to prevent damage to the steering oar, and this was referred to as larboard (loading side), later replaced by port to prevent confusion from the similar sounding words.

Or ... you might prefer this one:

Early powered boats used automobile engines that were fitted with a crankshaft extension to turn a propeller on the boat's rear. Back then, all engines turned the propeller in a clockwise direction (when viewed from behind).

The trouble is that if you have such a high-powered engine on a small boat, the boat constantly will want to veer left. In fact, in many cases, you could even see the right side of the boat lift slightly out of the water as the engines were revved up.

If you then put the weight of the steering mechanism and pilot on the left side, it would add to this problem and might conceivably cause the boat to capsize. So, to keep things shipshape, boat builders put the steering wheel on the right so the added weight of the mechanism and the pilot would counteract the force of the engine and propeller.

Knew I could count on you Doug to have one or two explanations for me...