mhabich

This is the general message board. I'm leaving it to readers to consider for themselves the concerns you mention, along with the significant currents in the Merrimack.

We received a request: My name is Hans Hug and I live in Exeter NH and when I’m not selling Insurance I am scuba diving and running side-scan-sonar looking for a wide variety of things in a wide variety of places ranging from the Connecticut River to Cape Ann to Cape Cod. Sometimes I get paid to search for specific things like platinum rings, snowmobiles, guns, outboard motors, mooring blocks etc. and sometimes I charge nothing depending on the what-where-when and why of the inquiry. Bodies are another target-of-interest to me and I have spent a lot of time searching for a number of missing people over the years. Sometimes it’s an accident sometimes it’s a murder sometimes a simple missing person case. What I am working on now and the purpose of my email has to do with a missing person from the Lowell area. Last week I got a call from a very upset woman named Suzanne Lemire in Lowell who is the mother of (missing person) Matthew Hrinchuk, Dracut MA. Upset, as in shattered, that her (depressed) son had disappeared after apparently jumping off the Aiken Street Bridge (“Oullette Bridge”) sometime in the early morning hours in Lowell on or about 2/23/23. She asked me if I would help search for her son and I have decided to start a file on him and work the case free of charge. News story here: https://www.masslive.com/police-fire/2023/03/matthew-hrinchuk-37-year-old-dracut-man-missing-since-feb-25.html Suzanne was referred to me by the brother of a person I was looking for in August 2021 as part of a 39 year old cold case out of Chelmsford. At the time I did not know the brother as this was a quiet search between me and my buddy Bruce, who is an ROV pilot when he is not working for Dell. As a rule we don’t talk about our searches for various reasons. We do of course talk about them at some point but there needs to be a compelling reason to do so. My buddy and I did find her car in a river in Billerica that lead to her body, among other things we were specifically looking for so he sent her to me because you could say we are friends now. Why I write: As a scuba diver and sonar operator I know a lot about how things change when submerged in fresh or salt water and besides my diving and sonar capability I am going to use I was thinking: Bodies often float (and often sink again) so why not see if he can be found floating in the Merrimack and checking both riverbanks from the Aiken Street bridge to a few miles south by kayak. Actually a number of kayaks. Bodies can travel great distances given the right circumstances-miles is not unusual at all. Here is what I want to know: Do you know any kayakers who would volunteer their time and kayak the Merrimack looking for Matt’s body? Unless he is snagged on something thus holding him underwater he “should” float. The warmer the water gets the faster gas is created hence, floating. I believe due to the present water temp (about 40-45 degrees F) he is on the bottom and only river current will bring him to the surface-hence get eyes on the surface paying particular attention to shore areas. One bend south of the bridge has my attention. Snow melt will increase the chances of him coming to the surface. Can you help finding me volunteer kayakers or know someone who can? The day(s) of any kayak search(s) would be coordinated by me from shore so we act as a group, but staying together during any actual search is not needed nor realistic. Any help or direction with my idea of a kayak-based search would be appreciated. Please note I have also sent this email to ACA Paddlesports in Beverly and the UMass-Lowell group based on the Merrimack River north of the Aiken Street Bridge above the dam to the north. Hans Hug Sonar Search & Recovery P.O. Box 580 Exeter NH 03833 Tel: 603-778-8939 Cell anytime: 617-513-2778 Website: www.SonarSAR.com Email: info@SonarSAR.com

Dang. Thanks!

It’s a cleaner, not a lubricant. I’d stay with something waxy. Gear Aid (was McNett) zipper lube works for me.

Interesting. I have some zippers that are salted shut. So what's better about this stuff than water, which dissolves salt pretty well? The product MSDS identifies a main ingredient as glycol ether EB, also known as butyl cellosolve, aka 2-butoxyethanol. It's a commonly used solvent/surfactant, a constituent of lots of household and industrial cleaners (and paints, inks...). The molecule has one polar end and one non-polar end, so it can dissolve both polar and non-polar solutes.

Mebbe you could patch the tractor seat with the bottoms, and use one leg to store your tomato stakes. Or could just make a scarecrow out of it.

Yes, of course.

Haverhill High School is cancelling activities tomorrow for weather. Put some soup on the stove.

Yup, a lightly damped second order system.

I asked: On the generated chart, the low water contour is labeled with many zeros, obscuring detail (see chart below). --- Thank you for your additional feedback on the NOAA Custom Chart web application. For some reason, an unfortunate side effect of customizing depth contours was unwanted labels (particularly on the low water line, which is only going to be "0" and does not need a label). We are working on fixing the issue and plan to release a new symbology update soon. However, I've never seen that many labels on any depth contour before. It makes me wonder what is going on with the underlying data. There is only supposed to be one label per depth contour segment. Are the low water lines broken up into that many segments? I'll take a look at the source electronic data and see what is going on. This was a recently released reschemed area, so I'm surprised the output would look like that. - Sincerely, Christie Ence, Cartographer Chart Standards Group Marine Chart Division | NOAA Office of Coast Survey 373221486__ags_CustomChart_17.pdf

I asked NOAA about the land contours and got a really prompt response: Thank you for your feedback on the NOAA Custom Chart web application. The NOAA Custom Chart resymbolizes NOAA ENC® data to create paper charts. So, if the data is not on the ENC, the data is not found on the Custom Chart. The plan is to add back topographic contours and roads during our ENC rescheming effort. However, the process is slow. If you zoom into the Trenton, NJ charts, you will see the way topo and roads look on the NOAA Custom Chart (Note: you have to zoom in very close to see them in the web map). -- Sincerely, Christie Ence, Cartographer Chart Standards Group Marine Chart Division | NOAA Office of Coast Survey

Al, I thought I'd answered my question with lunar declination. But, as you well know, my purpose in life is to make things more complicated than they need be and confuse hell out of everybody.

Big tides today, and big variation between larger and smaller tides. We're at the new moon, so we'd expect big spring tides...but why the variation? Looking at the whole month, the two tides in a day are unequal now, but equal a week ago or a week in the future. The moon's orbit plane around the earth is at an angle to the earth's axis. When the moon is at a high angle of declination above or below the equator, one tidal bulge at our latitude is large and the other is small, so we get a big tide and a little one each day. We're also at a peak of declination at this time of month, and near zero declination a week before or after today.

NOAA has just released a major new version of their chart print-on-demand service. Search on NOAA custom chart or go to https://devgis.charttools.noaa.gov/pod/ Labeling of islands etc. now pretty good. Looks much more like our old familiar paper charts. Still no land contours. Go play with it.

Contact me if you want it...

There’s an open spot for Saturday. Contact me if you want it.

Phil, just get payment from Britta and Nancy. I know who's coming.

You guys work out the payment among yourselves. I've got who's coming.

Workshop's coming up this Saturday. Looks like it might be rainy and cold, so you might as well join us. Sign up on the calendar here.

That’s me.

8/26 looks good. I'm in.

Join NSPN for a Wilderness First Aid class taught by Todd Johnstone-Wright, expert kayaker, BC/ACA coach/instructor, and EMT. The class will be held at the Gould Barn in Topsfield, MA, from 8am-5pm each day. You MUST be a member to register for the course. (If not, join here) We will be in close contact. Pretest for Covid in the morning before attending. We promise an educational, practical, and FUN experience... hope to see many members there! More info from SOLO... WHAT IS WFA? Accidents happen. People get hurt, sick, or lost. The temperature drops, the wind picks up, and it starts to rain. Would you know what to do? Many backcountry emergencies are preventable, and even when bad things happen, sometimes the wrong care can make things worse. By learning a few basic skills, you can make the difference between a good outcome and a bad one-and maybe even save a life. WHO IS THE WFA FOR? The WFA is the perfect course for the outdoor enthusiast or trip leader who wants a basic level of first aid training for short trips with family, friends, and outdoor groups. It also meets the ACA and BC guidelines. WHAT IS TAUGHT? The WFA is 16 hours long (two days), and focuses on the basic skills of: Response and Assessment, Musculoskeletal Injuries, Environmental Emergencies, Survival Skills, Soft Tissue Injuries, and Medical Emergencies. IS THERE AN EXAM? Yes, there is ongoing evaluation of practical skills, and there are written assessments throughout the course. DO I GET CERTIFIED? Yes. You will receive a SOLO WFA certification, which is good for two years.

Andy, could happen. Let’s see if we can figure something out.

It's a live event, with real people there. Won't be recorded.

Found this on West Beach. It's been in the water a while...some growth on it. If you find a Whetman belt in Marblehead harbor, that one's mine. Unless it's wrapped around a prop, in which case I know nothing about it.