The Plotter. From the Commander:

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2015 Volume 54 Issue 2 The Plotter June 2016 From the Commander: On Sunday May 22, 2016 where were you?

If you could not come, here s what you missed: A beautiful weather day in the mid 80 s with no rain although the forecast was for 60% scattered thunderstorms. Humid, yes, but no rain!

If you ve not been aboard Ed Fredholm s home-built wood/ epoxy twenty six foot cruiser you have missed a beautiful example of extreme craftsmanship.

It has extensive electronics including digital charting and even a remote controlled autopilot. Kinda fun to drive the boat from what looks like a handheld TV remote control!

My boat lost the alternator so was not reliable for rides. We helped trailer Karl s boat so that it could be diagnosed and repaired. I have replaced the alternator thanks to Amazon.

It has only 500 engine hours and it should be 1500 hours based on average usage of 50 hours per year. Very sad.

1 2015 Volume 54 Issue 2 The Plotter June 2016 From the Commander: On Sunday May 22, 2016 where were you? If you were at our Spring Rendezvous at the Fisher s Lake House then you know what a really fine event it was. If you could not come, here s what you missed: A beautiful weather day in the mid 80 s with no rain although the forecast was for 60% scattered thunderstorms. Humid, yes, but no rain! Three boats were there for boat rides. If you ve not been aboard Ed Fredholm s home-built wood/ epoxy twenty six foot cruiser you have missed a beautiful example of extreme craftsmanship. ED s boat features a very light weight construction and is about as modern a construction technology as Cdr. John Causey, SN you can get. It has extensive electronics including digital charting and even a remote controlled autopilot. Kinda fun to drive the boat from what looks like a handheld TV remote control! In the future, don t miss checking out Ed s boat. made two trips with members aboard. Karl Fisher s boat had problems getting above RPM so no boat rides there. My boat lost the alternator so was not reliable for rides. We helped trailer Karl s boat so that it could be diagnosed and repaired. I have replaced the alternator thanks to Amazon.com shopping. My boat, a Stingray 21 foot bow rider, has its 30th birthday this month. It has only 500 engine hours and it should be 1500 hours based on average usage of 50 hours per year. Very sad. Upcoming events so mark your calendars: On Saturday 18 June 2016 a shrimp boil at Jim and Lindi s home in Lago Vista. Yes you can arrive by boat! On Saturday 25 June 2016 America s Boating Course at the Travis County West Service Center on Hwy 620 North. Cdr John Causey, SN You also missed some super food! Ed Fredholm provided pulled pork and Chet Geist grilled the cheeseburgers. But what was amazing was the ping pong table crammed full with appetizers, fruits, deserts, baked beans from Jan Comeaux, and really tasty potato salad from Diane Smith. Maybe we should rename ourselves as the Austin Power Squadron and Gourmet Society. Thanks to all who brought side dishes. The promised boat rides were somewhat compromised. Ed Ed s home-built cruiser, the Terry V.

The Plotter is the official publication of the Austin Power Squadron, a unit of the United States Power Squadrons.

org We retain the right to edit any material submitted to The Plotter. Unless otherwise noted, photos by Matt Syptak and Steve Schmidt. APS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Commander Cdr.

Jan Comeaux Treasurer - P/D/C Charles Strong, JN Assistant Treasurer - P/C Ginny Strong, AP Member at Large - P/C Chester A.

2 The Plotter is the official publication of the Austin Power Squadron, a unit of the United States Power Squadrons. Address correspondence and contributions to the editor: Steve Schmidt, phone Or to address: secretary@austinpowersquadron.org We retain the right to edit any material submitted to The Plotter. Unless otherwise noted, photos by Matt Syptak and Steve Schmidt. APS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Commander Cdr. John Causey, SN Educational Officer - P/D/Lt/C Christine Geist,SN-IN Administrative Officer - Lt. Ed Fredholm, AP Secretary -- P/C Ginny Strong, AP Assistant Secretary - Lt. Jan Comeaux Treasurer - P/D/C Charles Strong, JN Assistant Treasurer - P/C Ginny Strong, AP Member at Large - P/C Chester A. Geist, SN-IN Member at Large - P/C William Smith, AP Member at Large - P/C Steve Schmidt, JN We started the Watch Year completing courses and promoting new ones. The next project is America s Boating Course scheduled for 9:00 AM on Saturday, June 25, at Travis County West Service Center, 4501 RM 620 North. Preregistration is required. More information is on our website, The material in our textbook, America s Boating Course, was approved in 2015 by the national standards set by the National Association of Boating Law Administrators. The instructor s DVD was also updated last September. Registration for courses or seminars may be made by phone, BOAT (2628) or by , education@austinpowersquadron.org. P/D/Lt/C Christine Geist, SN Squadron Education Officer P/C Clint O Connor, SN (center) receives the Coast Award at the 2016 Annual Conference. This photo was made available by National too late for our article on Clint s accomplishments in Cooperative Charting in our last issue. Congratulations again, Clint. Come for the Boating Education...Stay for the Friends Page 2 MEMBER BENEFITS Come for the education stay for the friends!! Many of us joined APS for the wonderful education opportunities offered by our squadron. The national membership committee is always working to make many more benefits available to members. To name just a few, you are eligible for discounts at LifeLock, Office Depot, VPI pet insurance, SeaTow, Avis, Budget Wyndham Hotels and Cruises Only. For a complete list, visit the member benefits page of the usps.org site. Your membership is important to the squadron and to you.

Cloud Watching Mare s tails and mackerel scales, Make tall ships trim their sails.

and pink, a stunning backdrop for coastal dwellers gathered on porches for a ritual sundowner Happy hour eases in with weather

Come hurricane season, shore residents gather in small groups, hovering behind plate glass, staring at clouds on steel black

3 Cloud Watching Mare s tails and mackerel scales, Make tall ships trim their sails. Gauzy wisps, mounds of tiny snow peaks-- mounted on a periwinkle sky, transformed by solar rays into fiery hues of red, orange and pink, a stunning backdrop for coastal dwellers gathered on porches for a ritual sundowner Happy hour eases in with weather conversation, toasts, artist talk, seascape dreams... ending with the three-day outlook and outdoor plans. Come hurricane season, shore residents gather in small groups, hovering behind plate glass, staring at clouds on steel black skies, formulating forecasts weathermen, trained in the school of meteorological folklore. By Christine Wenk-Harrison Published in Blue Hole, A Magazine of the Georgetown Poetry Festival, 2013 Page 3

4 Cooperative Charting Nautical Charting is back! The government maintained CCweb online reporting site no longer exists but, in a limited way, we can continue to report corrections and updates to the NOAA charts. Inspection reports, ranges and adopted charts are gone but chart items, depth wiz and Coast Pilot entries are accepted on the three separate forms at: The remainder of this year will be rebuilding time for Coop Charting s nautical program. It will have to be decided if we want to have our own USPS adopt-a-chart program and we ll have to think about coming up with a credit system if we want to continue with awarding the highest achievers (District, Squadron and individuals) as in the past; remember, the reports now go directly to NOAA without passing through USPS reviewers. Fortunately, the geodetic cooperative program was finalized and successfully implemented just as we were hit with this surprise turn of events. The charting portion of the Cooperative programs has always been our mainstay and the National Committee is now turning all its attention to making a transition to the new chart update report requirements. We had a short geodetic search in South Austin a couple of weeks ago that only netted us a couple of recovered marks turns out there were last minute time conflicts. Also, a week ago, Chet Geist hosted three interested parties in an instructional meeting demonstrating how to locate marks using online programs and then how to print and interpret their datasheets in preparation for the field work. Before, we were just dangerous; now we are armed and dangerous so be ready for any of the upcoming geodetic mark search events. Be sure to read Chet s article in this issue about using your cell phone as a tool for the geo searching. By the way, we were invited to share what we know about Geo Mark Recovery with the Oklahoma City squadron. They are eager to participate and I thoroughly enjoyed my trip up North to visit with them. They are an active and friendly group a welcome addition to District 21. P/C Stephen R. Schmidt, JN APS Cooperative Charting Chairman Page 4 JUNE 1 Karl Fisher 13 Jan Comeaux 15 Sharon Cole 23 Clint O'Connor 27 Anabelle Parker JULY 8 Karen Werkenthin 16 Max Werkenthin III 20 Mary Anne Rickhoff Hunting Geo Marks With a Cell Phone Yes, it can be done, but you still need to use a computer to turn them in to USPS to get credit for your work. There are two apps you will need to find these survey marks. For an iphone load in find-a-control and solocator and on an Android load BenchMap and solocator. Solocator will cost $0.99 the others are free. Find-a-control and BenchMap are map programs with benchmarks overlaid on them. With these programs you can zoom in and out and change from map to satellite views. By zooming in at some point the survey marks will be indicated and you can then click on the mark and see an NGS datasheet for that mark. Bear in mind the marks on the map are placed per the datasheet and if the latitude and longitude is noted as scaled on the datasheet it could be off as much as one tenth of a mile. Steve and I find this to be the hard way to locate survey marks, but it can be done. A better way is to use your home computer and a printer to make copies of datasheets, etc. to take to the field. The NGS website has a lot more tools and options available. Either Steve or I will be more than happy to sit down with you on a computer and show you the How to. Let us know if you are interested. Solocator is the best way to record the survey mark you found and report it to the USPS cooperative charting committee. With this program you can take a photo of the benchmark and after downloading into your computer send it off to the committee as proof of our find. Solocator s photos show the date you found the mark and the latitude and longitude of its location. P/C Chet Geist, SN

Save the Date Lake Travis Shrimp Boil Saturday, June 18, 2016 At the Lago Vista Home of Jim and Lindi Pollok

weather forecasters wrong. It was a lovely day, with good food and good company.

I m sure most of you recall this event from last year and how successful it was.

potatoes. In addition to the food, this year we will also have boats available for rides.

5 Save the Date Lake Travis Shrimp Boil Saturday, June 18, 2016 At the Lago Vista Home of Jim and Lindi Pollok Our Lake LBJ event in May at the Fischer s Lake House was a great success, and we once again proved the TV weather forecasters wrong. It was a lovely day, with good food and good company. Now we re on to June and another Shrimp Boil at the Pollok s home. I m sure most of you recall this event from last year and how successful it was. Once again World Renowned Chef Jesse Comeaux has volunteered to oversee the cooking of the shrimp, corn and potatoes. In addition to the food, this year we will also have boats available for rides. So, mark the date on your calendar, get your boat in shape, and start looking forward to Jesse s culinary skills. More details to follow. At the May Rendezvous: Christine Wenk- Jesse Comeaux Page 5 Photos by Christine Geist

What s Ahead for APS JUNE 2016 14 E-board meeting at CrossWater Yacht Club and Marina 18 Rendezvous and Shrimp Boil at home of Jim and Lindy Pollok (see page 5) 25

6 What s Ahead for APS JUNE E-board meeting at CrossWater Yacht Club and Marina 18 Rendezvous and Shrimp Boil at home of Jim and Lindy Pollok (see page 5) 25 America s Boating Course at 4501 RM 620 North (see page 3) Visit our website: Austin Power Squadron 6105 Hudson Bend Rd. Austin, TX

America s Boating Club. The Plotter. From the Commander:

America s Boating Club. The Plotter. From the Commander: America s Boating Club 2016 Volume 56 Issue 2 The Plotter May 2018 From the Commander: Greetings from Norway. Terry and I are currently in Stavanger, Norway on the fourth day of a two week cruise of the