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mhabich

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    Chebacco Lake practice on Thursday evenings

    in Past Trips

    Posted

    Come join us at Chebacco Lake in Hamilton on Thursdays at 5pm until sunset though the summer. Practice strokes, rolls, rescues, falling out of your boat, or just watching kingfishers.  It's a great place for new and developing paddlers to learn and experiment, and for experienced paddlers to tune up.  Dress for immersion.  A wetsuit is warm enough in early season, and keeps down the bruises from climbing back into your boat ten times a night.

    We meet at the boat ramp at the south end of the lake, and hang out in the cove to the left of the ramp. You can either get off 128 at Pine st (exit 49) and head north on the dirt road, or find Chebacco road off Rt 22 in Essex and avoid the dirt. No entrance fees.

    New to Sea Kayaking pool session CANCELLED

    in Past Trips

    Posted

    POOL SESSION CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF REGISTRATION

    Want to practice getting out of your boat when you capsize?  How about getting back in?  Rescuing your buddy?  Don't have a boat and want to find one that fits?  We'll bring some.  NSPN is hosting a pool session for new sea kayakers on Saturday, May 13 from 1-3 PM at the Haverhill High School pool.

    This pool session is free to paid NSPN members...join here.  You need to sign NSPN's Participant Agreement here to participate in any NSPN activities.

    We are using ACA (American Canoe Association) insurance, so you need to either be an ACA member ($40/year) or buy a one-day ACA membership here for $10.  You can join ACA here.  (Most people who pay for one day end up buying an annual membership anyway, as it covers a year of pool sessions and skills sessions.)  Then, you need to sign the ACA annual waiver through NSPN's special link here.

    Once you've jumped through all those hoops, you can register for the pool session here.  You'll need your ACA member number if you have one.

    Questions?  Email mike@nspn.org or send me a message through the board (only works if you're a paid member).

     

    Using phones and internal GPS to contact USCG

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    Cell phone calls one person...just the CG, for example.  VHF channel 16 calls all boats, since they're required to monitor (and many do).  Generally anyone with a small powerboat could provide meaningful assistance.

    Cell phone works great around here, maybe not so good downeast...although 5w VHF from 3' high from water might not reach anyone there either.

    DSC transmits farther than analog voice VHF.

    Search on the Merrimack

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    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

    Salt Removal Product Recommendation

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    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.

    NOAA Custom Chart 2.0 released

    in General Message Board

    Posted

    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

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