Winter Sun

 Life, Outdoors, Work  No Responses »
Jan 052012
 

It is winter right?

The traffic reports were pretty horrific today, but the run over the M62 was pretty good, making good time to Lancaster services. Back on the motorway, and off at the next exit, then right before the uni – I guess they are all on holiday still as very few cars parked on the road, and along rural roads to site.

What struck me was how nice it was to be out of town, fields all around, well except for the embankment of the reservoir, and trees, and the buildings, and the cloud hiding the top of the hill opposite.

Still, nice to get out.

Should have taken a photo though.

 Posted by Eddie at 11:25 pm

World Of My Own

 Outdoors, Sailing  No Responses »
Jan 102009
 

I received as a present for Christmas, a copy of A World of My Own: The First Ever Non-stop Solo Round the World Voyage which was written on his return by the sailor Robin Knox-Johnston.

It was a gripping read, even though of course I know the ending (you know that Knox-Johnston was the first person to single handedly sail around the world – right? Francis Chichester in Gypsy Moth IV sailed round singlehandedly, but with a stop in sydney.

This does really make a difference, for much of the journey Knox Johnston had no radio contact with the outside the world, although he could recieve transmissions, he couldn;t tell anyone that he was still fine and out there, relying on contact with a handful of merchant ships to give updates on his progress. And this was before GPS – so he was using Sextant and Chrononometer to tell where he was.

Its not quite enough to make me leave for the sea, but I do plan to carry on self medicating on that score. Whilst sailing this october, One afternoon, instead of doing what I should have (sleeping) I spent much of the 12-4 watch with the 2nd officer getting some bits of my training book signed off, and also getting the idea into my head to learn about astro navigation – tough going just to get a basic understanding of the principles, next off to learn how to use a sextant and then I just need one to try it out on, and the data to use with it
….

 Posted by Eddie at 7:55 pm

Stored Garmin Tracks

 Computers, OSM, Outdoors  No Responses »
Jan 102009
 

I was aware of a problem with the way in which Garmin saves historical tracks, in that it strips out the time stamping data, and this makes it no use for OSM, (or I guess for geotagging photos either.)

The good news is that this does not apply to the tracks that are automatically stored on an inserted Micro SD card, at least not in my Vista HCx. I have set my unit to log to the card as well as its internal memory. When accessing my tracks using the mapsource manager i only access the current track, but if i put the GPS into USB Mass Storage mode, then i can browse a series of tracks, with one .gpx file per day.

I have pulled back these tracks, and successfully managed to upload one to the open street map.

 Posted by Eddie at 7:18 pm

Mappy Musing – a new year’s resolution.

 Computers, Life, OSM, Outdoors, people, Technology  No Responses »
Dec 142008
 

I have just been looking at AndyA‘s cycle map that he is always going on about (though I am about to say, i can see his point…)

and looking here just doesn’t look like i think it should.

I think I will fix it.

I *have* just been shopping at Amazon…

So here is the resolution, I will be taking my new toy out and a bout in the local area, on foot, and on bike, and put the data into the open street map project, and the open cycle map when its a cycle route…

That’s better than saying my new year’s resolution is to get fit.

 Posted by Eddie at 6:27 pm

Climbing

 Life, Outdoors, Scouts  No Responses »
Sep 022007
 

I have now entered enough routes in my UKC Logbook to be able to Register for the Single Pitch Award. Obviously, filling in the registration form is only the start, but at least if i keep writing down the climbs i do then I will be getting some where….

As an aside, there is an award for indoor walls in the pipeline. I wonder if the Scout Association would be so kind as to put it in their activity requirements to save people having to get an SPA by default due to someone’s lack of ability to see the true meaning of “meet the following requirements, or hold SPA”

 Posted by Eddie at 6:49 pm

Mmmmmm. Plant rooms.

 Outdoors, people, Work  2 Responses »
Aug 032007
 

So, the other day I was at a Water Treatment Works (a very short visit. induction, a cup of tea and that was it. Well, except for then going to the WTW we were meant to be working on, as opposed to the one with the site office….) and part of the induction mentioned how the company running the site works put notices on the wall in the canteen with updates on health and safety, e.g. from occurrences on other sites, other parts of the company, etc.

And as I was perusing them, waiting for my tea to cool, I noticed a sign which mentioned how some people seemed to like to break into such sites, look round, and put photos on the web.

For some reason, a certain someone muttering “MMMMMmmmmm – Plant Rooms” at college sprang into mind.

Remember, its not big. and its certainly not clever.

Of course I have a job that lead me round these places anyway. Which is cool. As is the amount of Hi-Vis yellow clothing in my boot at the moment. Thinking of boots tho, i must remember to get some new ones, a lace eye came off, which doesn’t help keep my foot in…. just as well i have spare shoes.

Failing that, why not just be a tourist? Or combine the industrial with lighting?

 Posted by Eddie at 9:21 pm

Night Vision

 Current Affairs, Outdoors  No Responses »
Apr 132007
 

Photo reactive glasses might not be so good in the dark, according to part of the MAIB report into the loss of the yacht Ouzo.

The lookout?s photochromic glasses were sent to University College London?s Institute of Ophthalmology to assess whether they might have had an adverse effect upon his night vision.

The glasses were examined and a report was prepared (Annex 1), which concluded that the optical transmission of the lenses was no more than 80% efficient and, taking into account all of the other known factors, was probably less at the time of the accident. This compares to 94.7% and 99.4% optical transmittance of ordinary uncoated and coated lenses, respectively. This was a startling result as the consequences of such a reduction in night vision had not been fully appreciated by opticians and ophthalmologists before the investigation of this accident.

That is quite a surprise to me, though i do not wear photo reactive glasses all that much, they tend to take quite a while before i feel comfortable outside, or go amazingly dark on overcast days…. I guess its another example of using the correct tool for the job, i.e. sunglasses for bright sunshine, and normal glasses for the rest of the time.

 Posted by Eddie at 12:51 pm

Squeek!

 Life, Outdoors  No Responses »
Apr 012007
 

Well, a mouse is eating from one of the bird feeders in the back garden. I’m glad its not going entirely to waste…..

 Posted by Eddie at 6:54 am

Make Like a Snail

 Life, Outdoors  1 Response »
Feb 132007
 

The other weekend, I was out and about on the hills with a bunch of scouts we are training for a challenge in a little over a month’s time.

My Pack weighed far too much. It was easy to carry, but it still should not have weighed 17kg. especially when the scouts were only carrying 9kg each. Even if i was being self sufficient.

I think it is time i learnt a few lessons, I have been looking around at how I could reduce my pack weight. the main thing so far is to ditch the tent. Then i will have to look at cooking. And then I think the rucksack (as my 65L weighs almost 2kg all by itself….)

Backpacking Lite has some really good information on it. I think the only thing it is missing is details of what foods to eat, to both keep the weight down, and the calories/nourishment up.

I have just discovered the value of army rat packs. They are Heavy (as they are not dehydrated) when compared to the dehydrated meals one can buy, but I think the quality is so much better. (no dry un-rehydrated bits in them for starters….) and all you have to do is sit them in water coming to the boil whilst you are pitching your camp, and then eat them straight out of the packet. I think in summer on fine warm evenings I can be bothered to cook, but on a cold wet evening boiling in the bag is going to be so much more rewarding.

I’ll be trying out a khyam bivi bag on winter camp in 2 weeks time… we will soon see who breathable they are….

Updated: The Khyam Bivi Bag Link

 Posted by Eddie at 9:19 am

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