Your contributions
and suggestions for upcoming
issues would be much appreciated! Please send your ideas,
photos or articles to
the
editor.
COMMANDER'S
REMARKS
|
2005 was a milestone year for the
Pender Island Squadron, as it marked the 25th anniversary of the
formation of our Squadron. The Squadron was formed on October 2, 1980
and initially consisted of 25 founding members whose names are
still well known on Pender
Island: Billyeald,
Brackett, Bradshaw, Grimmer,
Hemphill,
King, Moore, Storrie and of
course Symes; and I have not listed
them all. Under the leadership of the Commanders over the years, the
Squadron has grown and currently
|
we have 82 members. Even though in terms of size we are
relatively small,
we more than make up for that in quality. Our Squadron is very active
and more than measures up compared to much larger Squadrons. The
number
of trophies we have received speaks volumes!
Thanks must go to all the Past Commanders and Bridges for building a
Squadron that certainly does not have to take a back seat to anybody. A Letter of Appreciation was received
from CPS National which reads, in part: “Your Squadron is to be
commended for achieving this milestone, and for the dedication it has
shown in the instruction
of safe boating.”
Our Christmas party was again a
success. The Kaptain Krunch trophy was awarded to the dynamic duo
mentioned below. The writer was nominated, however saner heads
prevailed
and I escaped serious humiliation!
Evan, son of Gerry and
Helen, was awarded first place in his age category for his
submission in the National Boatwise competition. For his Note Card
entry he was presented with a medal and certificate at the Christmas
Party. Congratulations, Evan!
Graduation of our boating and PCOC
students will take place February 9 and we look forward to having a
number of new members pledged.
Remember
our mission: We are a dedicated group of volunteers interested
in increasing safety and pleasure on the waterways through education.
Cdr Nick Samsom
PENDER ISLAND POWER AND SAIL SQUADRON IS
CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF SERVICE!
Below is the letter of appreciation mentioned by Commander Nick Samsom
in his message. The Saltspring
Island Power and Sail
Squadron sponsored us as we ventured forth with 25 charter members.
The first
commander was George Storrie who was both knowledgeable and
diligent. We were off to a good start!
The letter arrived mounted on a brown wooden plaque protected by
a glass plate. You will note that it is dated October 2, 2005 and is
signed by the Chief Commander,
Howard Peck. Sadly he died on June 25, and so must
have inscribed his signature earlier in
the year.
EVAN WINS FIRST
PRIZE THIS YEAR!
As the May 2005
issue of this newsletter mentioned, the CPS BoatWise Bookmark
Contest for 2005 changed to
the CPS
Boatwise Note Card contest. The 2005
contest was open to children or grandchildren of CPS members,
or any
young
people
who have taken BoatWise or Boat Pro courses. The age categories were 6 to 10, and 11 to 14 while
the
theme was "Lifejackets" and only original art was acceptable. Entries
had to be in colour on poster cards, size 10 cm x 13 cm.
Evan won third
prize last year for his 2004 bookmark, but in the 2005 contest, he came
FIRST among all entries in his age category! Here is the delightful
first prize winning note card. The photo gallery below includes photos
of the proud winner and his parents.
OFFICER AT LARGE REPORT
On
November 7, 2005, Transport Canada issued a news
release (2.) announcing that in April 2006, 320 Service Canada Centres across the
country will begin to deliver licences to pleasure craft operators on
behalf of Transport Canada. Currently 120 Canada Border Services Agency
locations handle this service.
On December 26, I sent the following message to the Canadian
Hydrographic Service information office:
I have just read on page 15, Volume 5, 2006, Canadian Tide and
Current Tables of your proposal in 2007 to
express tidal depths in decimetres. As an instructor of the Weather
Courses for Canadian Power and Sail
Squadrons I have nothing against metrification as I find
it simpler when referring to altitudes/elevations and temperatures
plus the fact that it is used internationally (except for the USA). My
question is, "why are you proposing to make this change"? Are tidal
heights generally expressed in decimetres
internationally? Regards, Tony Merry.
The following response, date January 6, 2006, is from Ilona Monahan,
Tidal Officer, Tides, Currents and Water Levels, CHS
Hello, Tony
Thank you for taking the time to comment on the proposed metric change.
Your comments along with those of others both in favour and against the
change will be collected this year and help us to determine if this is
a
change that the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) need to make or not.
Since Canada has officially gone Metric (back in the 1980's) and many
of our navigation charts are now metric
and in fact even one of our Tide Tables (Volume 4, Arctic and Hudson
Bay) is already metric only we are just
trying to standardize our products by making the rest of the Tide
Tables metric only. If however, people do really find the dual
presentation (metric and imperial) useful then there is a good chance
that the CHS will leave the Tide Tables format as is.
I do believe that tidal heights are generally expressed in decimetres
internationally when expressed in metric only however many are still in
imperial measurements as well.
Thanks again for your comments.
(The following notes from Tony were also published in the December
Pender Post.)
I
recently attended national Canadian Power Squadron training meetings
in Winnipeg. Boaters may be interested
to learn that of the 45,846
Radio Operator Certificates (Maritime) issued to date, 42,643 have been
obtained as a result of courses conducted by CPS.
The
text editions, with coloured illustrations, for
2 new CPS courses,
Navigating with GPS and Distress Signalling, are
now available and will both be accompanied by CDs. The CDs are still
under development but a sample for the Navigating with GSP course looks
very promising and certainly takes all the mystery out
of using GPS. Also accompanying that course is an exam.
As
a matter of interest, the
teaching of
all navigation in United States Power Squadron Boating
courses assumes
the student will be navigating electronically, hence
traditional charts are considered to be secondary sources of
information. Also all course lines and bearings drawn on charts
are labelled in Magnetic rather than True.
Transport
Canada plans to
introduce a 50
question Pleasure Craft Operator’s Card (PCOC) exam in future.
There will also be a national data base to coincide with the cards
being issued by Transport Canada. Some type of instructor
certification such as the CPS Instructor Development Course will also
be required to ensure that all
PCOC course providers are maintaining
adequate quality. The United States Power Squadron conducts a
very
simple re-certification every four years and CPS is currently
working on a similar initiative. PCOC testing from a private
residence will no longer be allowed and any internet testing will have
to take place in a public environment supervised by a Course
Provider. All operators of pleasure boats equipped with motors
will require a Pleasure Craft Operator’s Card by September 15, 2009.
I
also attended the Regional
Boating Advisory Council meeting in Vancouver recently. The sole item
of general interest from that meeting was the news that the Office of
Boating Safety in Victoria has moved from the Coast Guard base to
Government
Street.
The
federal Contraventions Act is
now in effect and the books of offence tickets have been printed but
due to a glitch brought up by ICBC, Transport Canada estimates that it
will be 6 months before the new ticketing system
can be used A
proposed national system of vessel licensing/identification, has gone
nowhere so the status quo remains.
Last
but not least, the RCMP on
the lower mainland are building a portable incinerator for the disposal
of out ofdate
flares hence we should from now on be able to turn in
time expired flares to the RCMP. The
next Canadian Power Squadron
Annual General and
Training Meetings in October 2006 will be held in
Vancouver.
R/C Tony Merry, Officer at Large
NAVIGATING WITH GPS COURSE 2006
There is
still time to sign up for the Navigating with GPS course. This is a
practical introduction to using GPS and includes hands-on practice.
WHEN: Saturday March 11 and 18, 0900 - 1400
each day
COST: $55.00,
payable in advance.
Call Marti at 6767 or Elizabeth at 3021 to register.
Lt/C
Marti
Tilley, Training Officer
UPCOMING EVENTS
1. Speaker's Night
WHEN:
to be announced (either Friday, March 24 or Friday March 31)
WHERE: Pender Island
Public Library, Meeting Room
2. Annual General Meeting
WHEN: Friday, April 7,
19:30
WHERE: Pender Island Public Library, Meeting
Room
3. Change of Watch
WHEN: Friday, May 26 (time
to be announced)
WHERE: to be announced
ENVIRONMENT
The
Power Squadron has received for
distribution a limited supply of the Georgia Strait Alliance’s Guide to Green
Boating (3.) pamphlet. Its eight pages contain a
wealth of practical information as well as some guidance in choosing
“green” or “environmentally friendly” products. It was not
encouraging to learn that, in Canada, manufacturers do not have to
substantiate these claims before slapping them on a label.
The Guide goes on to explain some of the harmful effects of almost all
cleaning agents when they are introduced into sea water. For
example, the active surfactants in all detergents and soaps interfere
with fishes’ gills, destroying their ability to breathe normally.
Perhaps akin to our walking through a room sprayed with oven cleaner.
So much of this kind of literature leaves one feeling helpless, but the
Alliance has some excellent suggestions for boaters anxious to avoid
introducing harmful substances into the environment such as fuel, oils
and cleansers. They provide some simple recipes for creating less
harmful compounds for cleaning fiberglass, aluminum, brass and chrome
as well as a treatment for mildew. I’m going to try out a few of
their recipes and report back.
If anyone would like one of these pamphlets in the meantime, please get
in touch with me or any member of the Power Squadron Bridge and we’ll
get one to you.
Lt
John Cowan, Environment Officer
SOUTHERN RESIDENT ORCAS
CLASSIFIED AS ENDANGERED
On November 15 2005 the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service announced that
the Southern Resident orcas, being considered for listing under the
Endangered Species Act as threatened, have in fact been placed in the
Endangered category. This is both good and bad news. The good news is
that they will
receive even more protection under the Endangered category, but the bad
news
is that this listing means the population is even more fragile than
NOAA initially thought, and the orcas are in danger of extinction. The
final listing decision with links to a chronology of events, press
release and other related documents is available from the Northwest
Regional Office of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. (4.)
Thanks to Training Officer Marti Tilley for this information.
KAPTAIN KRUNCH AWARD
At
the annual Power Squadron Christmas Party held on December 13, 2005, there were three nominees for the
infamous Kaptain Krunch award. The following paragraphs detail the events
leading up to the nomination of these individuals for this honour.
The
first candidate was Michael Doyle. It seems that Michael found it
difficult to remember when the Piloting class was held, and didn't show
up for one of their meetings. The hardy students carried on by
themselves. Upon hearing of
this, Michael decided to make it up to them by inviting them to a
Docking/Undocking demonstration, where he would be using his
boat. At the start of the demonstration, Michael discovered that
his boat wouldn't start, due to a dead battery. While these two
events were inconvenient to all involved, there were no real water
safety issues involved, so instead of the Kaptain Krunch award, Michael
was given a 2006 datebook and a fresh new battery (Duracell AA).
The
second candidate was Nick Samsom, our revered commander. The
following "poem" describes the reason Nick was nominated.
Let me tell you a story about a man named Nick,
Whose tiny harbour ferries are an entertaining pick.
Around the Inner Harbour with passengers they scoot,
And all do declare that they are fun and mighty cute.
They visit many tourist shops and lots of businesses
Which are selling souvenirs to misters and to misses.
Some of their passengers get off and other ones get
on
This goes on from start of day until the daylight's
gone.
One day a skipper docked his craft to let one
tourist leave.
Time was short and there was no new rider to receive.
He didn't tie up to the dock the way a skipper
should,
Instead, he stepped upon the dock, and held onto the
wood.
Now, his other foot was firmly placed upon the
ferry's deck.
Can you imagine what comes next? It's not a ferry
wreck!
A gusty breeze just came along and hit the ferry's
side,
The gap between the boat and dock now opened up
quite wide!
The skipper gasped and tried to pull the boat back
to the pier.
This proved to be impossible, and his fate soon came
clear.
As his craft moved further out, his grasping hand
came free
And sure enough this brave skipper soon fell into
the sea.
Now, if this tale's not bad enough, let me add one
thing more.
This man had sailed throughout the day, but no
P.F.D. he wore.
He struggled from the water, his wet clothes weighed
him down.
He somehow managed to get out, and was lucky he
didn't drown!
Now, I agree, this was not Nick, but one of his able
crew.
But the commander is responsible for what his people
do!
So, for this act, we nominate Nick and his sailing
bunch
For the award that we know as the famous "Kaptain
Krunch".
Dire
though this was, the offender was actually one of Nick's captains, and not
Nick himself. Therefore I chose to award Nick a package of
Lifesavers to
share with his captains.
The
third candidates were Steve Fisher and Rich Fox. Another Bridge
member neatly described the events leading
to this nomination in the
paragraph that follows.
On
their return to Pender for the summer Rich and Steve found that Thieves
Bay marina had been reconfigured. The new berth for their Bayliner
sport cruiser Whale Song was on one of the new fingers on B-dock, close
to the rock wall of the access road. Their problems started on a
pleasant July day when Rich and Steve needed to take Whale Song out at
low tide to work on their mooring buoy. Thinking that the Thieves Bay
powers-to-be would have warned them if there were hazards at their new
location, Rich and Steve
started the engines, slipped the mooring lines and managed the right
angle turn out of the berth without hitting the rock wall opposite,
which was very close at this low tide. Then came an unpleasant scraping
noise as Whale Song's leg had touched the mud underneath. After
frantically shutting down the engine and raising the leg, they managed
to grab hold of the end of a passing finger and pull her into an empty
berth to carry out a damage inspection (luckily there was none) and
wait for the tide to rise. After an hour the water depth increased by a
foot and Whale Song made a more graceful departure.
Later in the summer, the dynamic duo took two friends on a dinner
outing to Mayne Island's Oceanwood Inn,
known for its prix fix gourmet dinners. They motored over to the
restaurant's mooring buoy, then dinghied in
toward their beach and stairs to the Inn. With no dinghy dock, they had
to push aside a giant log that was blocking the entrance to the beach.
After a fabulous tour of the nearby Japanese Gardens and long,
leisurely dinner, they returned to the beach under the light of a full
moon. To their dismay, the giant log was now lodged between the beach
and their exit to open water, and could not be moved. They had to throw
their dinghy over the log, then negotiate over the moss-covered log to
gain access to it. Well, one of the guests slipped and fell into the
water
up to his knees. Luckily, he had been forewarned and was wearing water
shoes and a PFD. The remaining party opted to bushwack to a more
accessible location, and were picked up by the dripping adventurers who
had
launched the dinghy. The sail home was magnicifent under the full moon.
While not really a boating safety event,
it was Kaptain Krunchy just the same.
I
awarded the 2005 Kaptain Krunch award to Steve Fisher and
Rich Fox. Now, it's 2006, and I advise you all to watch your
friends and be ready to
tattle
on them for the presentation of the 2006 Kaptain Krunch award.
Lt/C Nancy Coutts,
Executive Officer
PHOTO GALLERY
For
those members who have not had the great privilege of seeing it,
here
is a recent photo of the Kaptain Krunch award.
(Photo by Cdr Nick Samsom)
|
|
Instructor
Sid
Nightingale, winner of
the Dr. Howard Helm Trophy.
(Photo by Lt Elizabeth Wilkes) |
Close
up of the trophy, awarded for the person achieving the highest
average mark in Advanced Piloting in the Vancouver Island South District.
(Photo by Lt Bob Rose) |
|
Bob Rose, Tim Lywood and Tony Merry happily sample
some of the many
delicious offerings provided by members who attended the Harvest Wine
Tasting
at Morning Bay Vineyard and Estate Winery.
(Photo by Cdr Nick Samsom)
|
|
|
Julie Lywood, Assistant Socials
Officer; Liz Watts, Socials Officer
and
Dave Hargreaves enjoying the wine and food.
(Photo by Cdr Nick Samsom)
|
Tables and wine kegs, with host Keith Watt
striding out of the camera's range.
(Photo by Cdr Nick Samsom)
|
|
|
Evan with his proud parents at the Christmas Party. He
has just received
the medallion for his first prize win in the
CPS Note Card contest.
(Photo by Cdr Nick Samsom)
|
Commander Nick with Former Commander Bev Gerry at the
Christmas Party.
(Photo by P/Cdr Frank Weniger)
|
|
|
Evan and his delighted Mum, 1st Lt Helen Lemon-Moore.
(Photo by P/Cdr Frank Weniger)
|
R/C Tony Merry unwrapping his Christmas gift.
(Photo by P/Cdr Frank Weniger)
|
RECENT BACK
ISSUES
OF THE
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
October 2005
August 2005
May 2005
December 2004
FOOTNOTES
1.
http://www.cps-ecp.ca/english/index.html
2.
http://www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2005/05-h213e.htm
3.
http://www.georgiastrait.org/greenboating.php
4.
http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/Marine-Mammals/Whales-Dolphins-Porpoise/Killer-Whales/ ESA-Act-Status/
Listing-Final.cfm
Editor:
Lt Fran Rose
(S)
Phone: 629-2060 E-Mail: frose at cablelan dot net
URL:
http://www.cablelan.net/frose/PIPS.html
