Keeping your internal compass tuned up

A friend at Wednesday lunch at the Hilltop noted that his electronic rain gauge indicated we had had 1.1 inches of rain on East Street on Tuesday night.

Thundershower activity can have various amounts of rain in different places.

It is possible to have a half inch of rain at Fire Lane 17 and at the same time to have one to two inches of rain in the village.

It is easy to see the different zones of rain by watching the various intensities of the rains impacting the surface of the lake.

The storms often go north to south or west to east and you can see the visible line move along the surface of the water.

If you happen to be transiting from north to south in your runabout, you can move faster than the storm does. Sometimes you can beat it for home and try to get your boat all put to bed before the storm arrives at your roost.

I have never kept a running record, but it is fun just to remember the successful races and to forget the ones when you were just 10 minutes short of beating the storm home.

When the storm hits, it will slow down “the putting to bed performance,” and you are guaranteed to get drenched from head to foot.

It is a good idea to dump the water out of your shoes or boots rather than sloshing around with a boot full of water. You might get quite chilly weather with a quick summer downpour. It is also a good idea to get under some cover when the yellow streaks of lightning start bounding around the sky.

If you are too far away from home, start looking for an empty boathouse so you can sneak off the lake.

Just find a dock to tie up to and maybe a porch roof that you can shelter under. Most folks will welcome you, as they may have been watching your progress through the storm.

I spend some time during Monday to Friday on the lake and there are not many people hanging out.

After Labor Day, the number of saviors is greatly reduced and this should be considered when you set out on a nifty day in mid-September when you may be the only guy on the lake.

You might ask why not just drive your car and then the weather on the lake will not be a problem. The first consideration is that I like being on the lake.

Secondly, from Bentley Cove to four or five camps below Carpenter’s Brook takes no more than 20 to 25 minutes on the lake.

To drive down there takes at least 35 to 45 minutes, plus a lot more time to find the correct lane or driveway. You may find yourself wandering around trying to ask directions, but finding only empty houses because everybody has gone to work or home for the winter.

I can recall hearing the confusion on the scanner when the dispatcher tried to direct a trooper who grew up in Albany to find a remote camp on the east shore in the area of Spafford south of Ten Mile Point. I recall that the guy went up and down three lanes before he got to the target.

I think GPS has helped a lot, because the lost person can tell the dispatcher what his GPS coordinates are. This is much more informative than what kind of sailboat is anchored off shore or what color the camp is.

My son Jay has worked for the Coast Guard R&D on GPS since the late ‘80s.

Things are much improved and it is now very useful and reliable. If anyone has technical questions regarding GPS, my son makes two or three appearances here in the summer, or I could put you in touch with him electronically.

I’m in the phone book, so just call. I might even be able to answer some of your questions if I haven’t forgotten it all.

I would say that if you venture out at night, south of Ten Mile Point, you cannot see the village lights to orient yourself. You can get confused easily and have a hard time working your way home. One night I was a bit lost quite a way down on the west side of the lake.

I was chugging along, very close to the shore, and I heard Tex Smith’s voice coming across the quiet night. I called out to confirm it was him and then was able to find my way home, as I had a mental picture of where his family point was.

It’s good practice to get out on old blue at different times and seasons to tune up your intuitive navigational senses.

They will always work. Navigation aids can fail or give confusing information.

A compass is small enough and uncomplicated enough that it is usually reliable, but you need to have experience gained by touring around the lake and noting the headings or reference points to your favorite spots.

Some boats do not have the systems tuned up, so you should keep your personal internal compass tuned up.