Quantum Travelers

It is SO Nice to Arrive

Here’s a real good, down-in-the-hold telling of the troubles you can have while out at sea.

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/pantarhei/?xjMsgID=327740

 

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Quantum Travelers

Your Editor, Carl, With His Quantum Sibling(s)

This is a column where your dutiful Editor follows the retirement paths of his quantum siblings as they appear suddenly throughout the Universe.

Well, entangled twin particle Larry has made it to Brisbane, Australia following engine and autopilot troubles traversing the Tasmanian Sea.

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/pantarhei/?xjMsgID=327389

Entangled particle Gary has been exploring the Garden Wall trail.

While entangled particle Gary has been traipsing cliff sides on the Glacier National Park’s Garden Wall Trail.  Where they have witnessed this charming old goat.

Glacier Goat

Quantum Traveler

 

Editor’s Note:  Our retired entangled particles, Larry and Gary,  bring with them a little excitement in this latest posting:

Riding Out a Gale / Bus Celebrity

Entangled Quantum Particle Larry Rides Out a Gale Off New Caledonia

 

”

21 July 2014 | 58 miles from New Caledonia

Our last posting happened at a time when I could get to the keyboard on the computer. Usually that is pretty tough whenever the story gets interesting. It wasn’t long after that posting when another well established gale came through.. Our condition at the time: severe dark, gale force winds, 4+ meter seas (very rough), moving hard to weather. We had already transited across 900 miles of winter seas. There are 58 nm to go to the transition through the reef that surrounds New Caledonia. We thought we would be there about dawn, except for one little detail; we couldn’t quite hold our course. We were moving east of our planned route. Could we tack and somehow, even though it would be horrible, make it to our destination? The question weighted heavily on our minds. In these conditions, there is not enough power in the engine to go to weather. Starting the engine won’t help at all.At that very moment the autopilot failed. Now there is something you need to know to appreciate what this meant. On a boat, an autopilot is the human equivalent of a heart. So, in human terms, the boat had just suffered a heart attack. That’s not much of a surprise considering the conditions it was working through at the time and the even worse conditions that we anticipated. I was thinking of having a heart attack myself!Our situation: we are 58 nm from our safe haven destination, but we cannot get there and we are in a pretty bad gale … and it is night. Of course, it is night. It’s always night when things go really really wrong.I moved to the helm and turned off the wind. Maybe we could sail to the east side of the island which was downwind? There is a passage from east to west that is inside the reef. That is a plan. But it is a long way to steer by hand while in a gale. It is days long. I cannot do that. But I have to try, at least for now, until I can thinking of something else. For those of you helmsmen that thinks you know how to steer a boat you might consider that I didn’t do it very well at all. Maybe I steered within +/- 60 degrees of course, sometimes worse. After an hour I had had it. We had to try something else. Normally, when the autopilot works, we keep the boat moving. Now we had to heave to. Heaving to means turning into the wind until the boat stops, then keeping the wheel in a position to tack the boat and tieing it in place. The boat cannot tack because it has no forward speed, but the mainsail causes it to turn toward the wind. The windage from the rolled up headsail drives the bow off the wind. A steady state condition is achieved that does not require a helmsman. The boat moves slowly sideways to the wind and a little downwind. In this condition we can wait for daylight and for better weather. Daylight will come in a few hours. Better weather looked a very long way away. Oh, yes. I forgot to mention that there are reefs around. We are drifting toward them.

Now comes an important learning opportunity. We will diverge from our story long enough to understand what the crew is thinking. The crew is unhappy. In fact we are pretty much maximally unhappy. We cannot get to our destination and we are 900 miles away from shelter. 900 miles that we would have to drive across without an autopilot. Or it all might end earlier on a reef that is hundreds of miles from any land we can reach. I learned recently that they can actually measure how unhappy you are using brain scans. There is a region in the brain that lights up when you are unhappy. How bright equals how unhappy. At the same time that we are unhappy, we are also happy. We do have the boat slowly drifting and we don’t have to steer! Happiness lights up a different part of the brain. We’ve reached a condition where we are both happy and unhappy at the same time! And the whole crew is experiencing it!

Back to our story, we are moving to a reef, so in a few hours we have to leave the heave to condition in order to hand steer under sail to a new spot that is clear of danger for a while longer. Of course that has to happen at night and did I mention that I’m not doing well at steering? We manage it, but after we heave to again we notice that on one tack we drift north east; on the other tack we drift south west. It turns out we can navigate using this knowledge. Over the course of the next two days we navigate around all the reefs and actually reach the south east part of the reef. 50 miles north east along the reef lies the entrance to the passage. The reef even breaks the waves so the sea is much calmer. My steering improves. The weather also improves, a lot.

The rest of the story is simple. We made it to Noumea, New Caledonia. Yay! Flat water at a dock never felt so good.”  – Larry Nelson

Marathon Home Featured

Editor:  Meanwhile, entangled particle Gary (and bus), are featured in this Ad:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s2Xuj6LVig&list=PLBp2anFaQYheJge6K7aSB0fZzW40txN3d

Quantum Traveler

In a rare meeting of entangled particles, quantum particle ‘Gary’ (right) announces a ‘quantum’ upgrade.

Quantum Upgrade Announced

In a surprise move, entangled quantum particle ‘Gary’ announced a quantum upgrade following a rare meeting with his entangled twin, ‘Larry’.   Apparently finding their lower energy field bus confining and dated, entangled particle Gary and his wife began purchase of a newer Premium ‘Provost’  Field Bus to be built from scratch in Quebec, Canada and delivered during a power surge in March of 2014.  The announcement, made August 3rd, included these specifications:

“From scratch. They start with stainless tubing. There will be 10 to 15 people working on it every work day from now to delivery. It is quite a project.

Here are a few of the features:

We moved the drivers seat back 3 inches. I could drive it with no movement. 3 inches means I will be adjusting it forward to get comfortable. Plus the tilts, even max tilt, does not hit the cabinets. You should see how high the seat adjusts. Active massage while driving. Air adjusted steering wheel telescope and tilt.You will need sunglasses to find your way through the bus when I turn up the lights.You remember that red, blue, green make a full color gamet? Well, we can program the lights under the bus, or on the interior ceiling to be any color. And to change from color to color. Selectable. On our computer control screen.

Yes, we have that home theatre trick.

We have his and hers headsets for the TV or stereo.

We have a Full Size California King bed.

We have a washer and dryer.

We have a cool engine (that tilts). I heard it. It is quieter. But it is not as quiet as a small car.

We have a pressure washer, with a special outlet in front to wash off bugs.

We have super accurate tank gauges.

We have so many heat sources we may be a fire hazard. 4 heat pumps, with electric grids, on top. Heated floor. 4 electric forced air heaters. 5 fuel fired hot water heaters inside the coach plus two fuel fired heaters in the water bays and the storage bays. 2 electric heaters in the bays. We have a block heater for the engine. Plus, it can be pre heated with the fuel fired heater.

We have 2 each, 4 kw inverters, that have three stage battery chargers. AND we have an independent 3 stage battery charger that runs off a 30 amp circuit.

We have a battery monitor.

Our coach can be run from anywhere by cellular phone from either of our telephones or our newer iPad. Turn up the heat, check temperatures, raise or lower the blinds, unlock the door, anything doable from our controller in the bus.

We have antilock brakes plus a stability enhancement system that can control engine power or braking on individual wheels to enhance stability.

We have an anti collision system that alerts and can automatically apply engine and chassis brakes.

We have lane change alerting radar and cameras covering blind spots.

Very stable large mirrors.

Great chairs and a wonderful couch.

A big (for a motorhome) kitchen.

Two slide outs. Big slide outs. 30 inch slide. 14 and 11 feet wide.

Two exhaust fans, one in the shower, one in the bathroom.

Extra large bathroom and extra large shower (that you can stand up in.)

Redundant, pulse width modulated, water pumps for full smooth water flow.

Awnings, 5 feet on slide side, 11 feet on curb side. Motion sensors instead of wind sensors for stowing. Electrically deployed. Out and down, not just out. Full bus length both sides. Curb side lit with LEDs. A 40 foot, dense, string. Lights up the campsite.

4 apron lights on the curb side. 2 apron lights on the drivers side. Back end lit for hooking up tow vehicle at night.

Lange change lights. When I turn on the turn signal, big lights illuminate the lane I am signaling for. Helps to see vehicles in the lane at night.

A marble floor.

Carbon Fiber tail light and head light bezels. (Actually fiberglass, but looks like carbon fiber)

An entry way with elegant carved blue night lighting (Marathon Coach logo) and carbon fiber painted steel hand rails for entry. This elegant entry is a Marathon Coach signature.

Custom, color matched, tool box.

Bay slides.

Automatic level. And stay level. Pumps to keep the air right.

Custom ramps for extreme leveling. Aluminum. Folding and stacking for compact storage. Strong enough for this bus. 18 inches wide.

Single track tires. 18 inches wide!

A Sub Zero refrigerator and freezer. With automatic lock.

A dishwasher.

A knife rack.

An ottoman.

13 foot ladder, collapsible.

Lights in bay doors, latches, interior of bays.

Temperature monitors in bays.

Cable chains and a place to put them. They are going to put special fenders on that won’t get damaged by the chains. Most customers of motorhomes never chain up.

Fuel tank insulated underneath and surrounded with heated bays, and the heated floor on top.

The full Prevost bus engine, transmission, lights, brakes etc. you have seen. This is a big deal.

The interior is to die for. Alice (and Alan, their interior designer) have outdone themselves.

The bed is wonderful. We get 3 sets of linens. 2 bed mattress pads, 2 duvets with 2 comforter weights.

This is the “Entertainer Chassis” designed for stable smooth ride. It has their longest wheel base and their lowest center of gravity. The single track tire is supposed to give a noticeably improved ride.

A built in vacuum.

50 inch front TV. 40 inch rear TV.

Power bar for all our electronic stuff. Power outlet next to the passenger (so the iPad doesn’t run down playing bridge).

A zoned stereo system from heaven.

We are going to purchase a new tow vehicle. 4WD.

Sirius/XM radio

Open face satellite TV, Dish Network. Local TV antenna. Cable hookup.

Apple TV. Apple AirPort Extreme WiFi connected to Sprint cellular receiver. (Only Sprint makes a fixed IP address available – which is needed to make the system connect to the on board computer.”

At press time, entangled quantum particle ‘Larry’ was on vacation from his retirement and could not be reached directly.  But through his representative he could be quoted only to have said that he found “the knife rack to be a little excessive.”

Photos by Carl Nelson and Unknown

Quantum Traveler

Editor:  We are adding a new category here at SchnOOdles Blog, hoping to attract the modern moneyed, retired set where “70 is the new 16”.  And maybe even introduce a few of our youthful readers to the new 70’s.  We’ve title it “Quantum Traveler” in an effort to capture the ever changing  hip, new, approaching singularity.  Like charged electrons, these Quantum Travelers appear wherever you look for them; their very nature and the nature of their travels governed by what you’d expect, yet appearing unexpectedly, exploring the conundrum.  And for this  new blog category we’ve chosen two quantum ‘entangled retirees‘, Larry and Gary.   Follow us down the ‘wormhole’ as they pop up here and there, each redefining the other, as we follow their behavior.

Entangled particle, Larry. 

 

Larry again, in Fiji

Photos by the Particle Twins

Gary, again. Trying to gain the upper hand on his other, through a little self-promotion.

Entangled particle, Gary.

Seattle Celebrity News!

Seattle Retirement Celebrity Sends Photo

Seattle World Traveler Retirement Celebrity, Larry Nelson, sent us this underwater shot  from Fiji, where he is hanging onto  a coral cabbage leaf to avoid being swept away by the current.  You may follow the exploits of this near septuagenarian risk-taker at  http://www.sailblogs.com/member/pantarhei/

Photo by Sandy and Rankin of the SV Gypsea Heart.