A treasure worth keeping
On the morning VHF radio net here in Grenada there is a very popular section titled Treasures of the Bilge. It is a time when boaters can advertise any items that they have to either sell, or to pass along to someone else. When we purchased Frost (yes, we finally got around to performing the renaming ceremony), we found a number of “treasures.” Some of these items we immediately offered up for sale but others are guaranteed a place with us. One of the things in the keeping-it category is an old patent log, a tool for measuring the distance travelled.
The fish weren’t biting yesterday so we took the time to test out the patent log that we found.
When we were first inspecting the boat, the previous owner pointed the log out to me. Until yesterday though, we had yet to try it out. Having never used one before, I have to admit, it’s pretty cool. A little paddle wheel is trolled behind the boat on a line and as it spins, it transfers that rotation to the log unit. It’s old school, but it really works!
Did a few deliveries way back when, where every 2 hours we had to log the speed log data. I still have one as a power loss back-up. Mostly, just because it’s cool looking!
Do you know off the top of your head what brand yours is? Does it look like this one?
Very cool!
It was a fun find. There is a really nice sextant on board too.
All the tease, and no mention of a name…and then you just casually drop the boat’s new name in an article about something else? Geese, not like Mike!
Not keeping up, eh?
http://www.zerotocruising.com/and-the-new-boat-name-is/
Mike,
Read you everyday. Here and on FB. Don’t know how I missed that!
It’s alright… I’ll forgive you. 🙂
Sometimes the old and simple, the tried and true the clever and unique far surpass the technogadgetry… or at least give us a solid connection to those who came before us!
I’m a simple person so I like simple things. 🙂
We used to trail the log years ago. It worked well at 4knots or so. But boats were hard pressed to do 4 knots in those days. Ours was a Mathew Walker log. Similar to yours though different in detail.
The two big snags with it were learning how to coil the line so that it did not twist itself into a knot (use a figure of 8 coil) and the attractiveness of the spinner as a big fish lure. Even around Britain there are big fish that can take the and they are expensive to replace. I don’t know if it is even possible replace them now, my comments are going back over 50 years and things are different now!
Have fun with it.
Cheers
Mike
I could see a fish going after that spinner!