2015 Volume 54 Issue 8 The Plotter November 2016 From the Commander: District 21 Fall Conference News Austin Power Squadron dominated the attendance at the conference with 17 members from a total of 55 registered. We needed that many to promote the Fall 2017 Conference. And promote we did! We were highly visible with our yellow Tshirts with message Surfs up Climb aboard the Liberty for the 2017 Fall Conference Cruise, we manned a table at the registration with our members handing out the two page flyer about the cruise, and if anyone missed that, flyers were put on every chair for both the Council and Conference meetings. For follow up 836 color post cards were sent to the 1100 members of District 21 on Tuesday 25 October. In addition we plan to send out monthly email blasts to the entire District 21. Jesse Comeaux has headed up this planning and promotion from the start. Many thanks to Jesse and Chet Geist for expert work. National has finally allowed Districts to hold just one conference per year. This has been long sought after. This motion The past commanders file in for the General Meeting passed and starting in 2018 there will be just one District conference in the Spring. The suggested theme or focus will be Education. Our Fall 2017 cruise will be last Fall D/21 meeting. Please attend the November 12 meeting at Los Pinos where Ed Fredholm will show you how he built a boat from scratch with thin plywood and epoxy in only six years! Cdr. John Causey, SN-IN District 21 held the Fall Conference on October 20-22, 2016, in San Antonio. Fall conference is the education conference. This conference recognizes the squadrons education departments for their accomplishments. Members of District 21 that have completed all USPS courses are recognized with very nice plaques. The Chapman Award for Excellence in Education is presented to an exemplary instructor from one of the squadrons. The squadron with the greatest percentage of Junior Navigation and Navigation completions receives the Prince Henry Award. The squadron with the greatest percentage of overall course completions received the Education Award. An exhibit of training aids are entered and displayed by the squadrons. One is selected as Best-ofShow and will be exhibited at the USPS Annual meeting in Orlando in January 2017. Austin received the Best-of-Show award for a Weather Course training aid and it will be taken to the National meeting. A Navigation Course is scheduled to start in November. The students will be taking celestial sights this year if there are enough clear days and nights. Most of the course will be taught next year. The Weather class is ready to take their exams. We hope to report on their results next month. Registration for courses or seminars here in Austin may be made by phone, 512-343-BOAT (2628) or by e-mail at education@austinpowersquadron.org. P/D/Lt/C Christine Geist, SN Squadron Education Officer
The Plotter is the official publication of the Austin Power Squadron, a unit of the United States Power Squadrons. Address correspondence and contributions to the editor: Steve Schmidt, phone 512 909-4825 Or to e-mail address: secretary@austinpowersquadron.org We retain the right to edit any material submitted to The Plotter. Unless otherwise noted, photos by Matt Syptak and Steve Schmidt. APS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Commander Cdr. John Causey, SN Educational Officer - P/D/Lt/C Christine Geist,SN-IN Administrative Officer - Lt. Ed Fredholm, AP Secretary -- P/C Ginny Strong, AP Assistant Secretary - Lt. Jan Comeaux Treasurer - P/D/C Charles Strong, JN Assistant Treasurer - P/C Ginny Strong, AP Member at Large - P/C Chester A. Geist, SN-IN Member at Large - P/C William Smith, AP Member at Large - P/C Steve Schmidt, JN NEED A FISHING LICENSE?? Buy it online and have the receipt on your smart phone!! Tim Spice, Director of Water Safety for Texas Parks and Wildlife and two of his staff were guest speakers at the recent D21 Fall Conference. One of the main topics of their presentation was the role electronics are playing in the current water safety program. When you take the ABC course, you become certified with the Texas Parks and Wildlife. You receive a temporary certificate the day of the course and you receive your permanent, laminated certificate in the mail in several weeks. Now you are able to immediately download this certificate to your smart phone. You can carry your smart phone with you on your power boat, sailboat or personal watercraft. If you are boarded by any of the law enforcement agencies, you can show your electronic copy of the certificate. They also reported that you can buy your fishing/hunting license online and you will receive an immediate confirmation. I was able to personally buy my senior combo license while we were in the meeting and on Tuesday following I received my paper copy in the mail. Stay tuned for more improvements from Texas Parks and Wildlife. P/C Ginny Strong, AP Page 2 SAFETY COLUMN It is fall in the south and we are not winterizing our boats yet. The weather has been exceptional for boating. There is less traffic on the lake. You are by yourself. If something unforeseen should happen, there is no one to see that you are in trouble. You can use your cell phone or VHF radio to contact someone that might be available to help. If not, this is when you can rely on the completed float plan you left with your friend. You did file one with a friend? A float plan is a fill-in form that is available online at www.uscgboating.org. It should be left with a friend or emailed. Page 1 of 3 of the USCG float plan. Your float plan will have your name, any crew that is onboard, your boat s description and survival equipment, your departure point and time, your planned return and planned time of arrival with instructions on what to do if you do not contact your friend at the arrival time. The App, U. S. Coast Guard, is available for your phone. Besides File Float Plan, this App also has Rules of the Road, State Boating Information, Report a Hazard, Report Pollution, NOAA Buoys, and Report Suspicious Activity. It will record your Latitude/Longitude. You can also complete a personal profile of yourself and your vessel. A cell phone application that includes a float plan. Reference: United States Coast Guard P/D/Lt/C Christine Geist, SN
That wasn't a problem, though, as the stores came to us, as seen in the pictures below. The fellow on the left was selling women's clothing, and the boat below is a waterborne supermarket. Travelog What s In a Name? Many of you know that Terry and I traveled to Turkey in August and that we spent some time on a boat cruising the southwest Aegean coast. When I heard we would be doing this, I asked what type of boat we would be on and was told it would be a "gulet". Now, I think I know a fair amount about boats, but this was a new one on me. So I consulted the dictionary and learned that a gulet is "the passage by which food passes from the mouth to the stomach". Could it be that we would be traveling on an oversized esophagus? After further investigation I learned that a Turkish gulet is a very distinct vessel built in the coastal town of Bodrum, typically a ketch or schooner rigged motorsailer ranging to over 100 meters. Our vessel, The Schatz" checked in at 30 meters with a beam of 7 meters. With five staterooms and a crew of five it was much more than the four of us would ever need, but what the heck, life is short. Even the ice cream man showed up to sell us dessert. At the end of our trip I was honored to be named a Sultan of the ship. And finally, just in case there's any doubt about the honesty of Turkish folks, I offer the last photo. We spent five wonderful days on this vessel eating gourmet food, enjoying adult beverages, swimming and snorkeling. The only thing we didn't do was go ashore to shop. All Photos courtesy of Ed Fredholm Lt/C Ed Fredholm, JN Page 3
NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHT BERT PERKINS Bert and his son attended our June ABC Course and Bert accepted our invitation to join the squadron. Bert was born in Mobile, Alabama and his family lived and boated on Gulf Island. When he was a junior in high school, his father moved them to Connecticut. He continued his boating there. He acquired a 22 Chris Craft and pursued his love of the water by becoming a certified diver and diving for lobsters. Bert went to college at Arizona State Photo - Bill Smith Bert Perkins and pursued a career in the electronics field. He moved to Sun City in Georgetown and keeps his 36 Cruis ers yacht at Crosswater Yacht Club. Bert has already been active in the squadron by cooking fajitas at Fajitas for Folds at Crosswater and volunteering with their parking during their Rods for Ribs annual event. THANK YOU!! A big thank you to Charles Mohle for his generous donation to the Austin Power Squadron. Chaz was able to direct his United Way annual contribution to the Austin Power Squadron. It took a great deal of effort on his part to get United Parcel Service and United Way to set us up as a recipient, but he persisted and got it done!! Thanks Chaz!! COOP Charting Let me remind you that even with the demise of the COOP charting nautical program with its awards credit system, we still have the option of reporting safety issues on the water. The National COOP Charting committee encourages using the Coast Guard online reporting as outlined on the website. Here in Austin, we can participate in the Geodetic side of COOP charting by recovering geodetic markers. We will be holding a small outing Sunday morning, November 13, 2016. We ll send out a flyer before the 13th. You can also give me a call or email (I m in the directory) and I ll give you the particulars, but basically, we will meet at about 9 am at a coffee shop (to be determined) and spread out from there in groups of 3 or 4 persons. We will insure that each group has one experienced searcher and the data sheets will be supplied. Just bring yourself a cell phone would also be handy. We will mostly search within the city limits of Austin. If you would like to pre-load the cell phone app, we use Solocator for i-phones or Camera Timestamp for Androids. P/C Steve Schmidt, JN APS Coop Charting Chairman Page 4 All are invited to Charles and Ginny Strong s boat dock for some late afternoon boating after the meeting. NOVEMBER 2 Charlie Buerschinger 5 Jack Ford 5 Paula Freeman 7 Ed Fredholm 8 Granville Ott 13 Matt Syptak 15 Bob Little 25 Homer Parker 29 Bert Perkins 30 Christine Geist DECEMBER 8 Sandi Causey 10 Desiree Parker 16 Philip Wise 17 Cassandra Tuten 31 Christine Wenk-Harrison
Columbus Day Celebration in Pictures Mindy and Jan Bill Smith Mom (Kelsey) is excited but little Oliver is not sure about his first boat ride. Fred gives boat rides. Liz Bill Smith They call her Zippy The day included zip line rides. If you weren t there, here s what you missed. If you were there, here s what you didn t miss! Spectators gather for the blindfolded kayak races. New members Libby and Dan English pose with Cdr. John Causey. Standing around but not missing anything. Page 5 and they re off! Both of them. A little. Bill Smith
What s Ahead for APS NOVEMBER 9 Executive Board Meeting - Crosswater Yacht Club, 1100 Hours 12 Monthly Meeting - 2 pm at Los Pinos at Hudson Bend 13 Geodetic Mark Recovery - details to be announced (see page 4) DECEMBER 3 Lighted boat parade on Lake Travis go to https://allevents.in/austin/2016-lighted-boat-parade/319727618399163# for details 11 Holiday Party - Smith residence (1307 Fernglade Ln., Cedar Park, TX) JANUARY 10 Executive Board Meeting - Crosswater Yacht Club, 1100 hours 17 Members meeting FEBRUARY 19-25 USPS National Meeting - Orlando, FL Visit our website: http://www.austinpowersquadron.org Austin Power Squadron 6105 Hudson Bend Rd. Austin, TX 78734-1332