The Water of Leith is a hidden gem – I love taking the family down there for a stroll. I have created a Water of Leith Walk Map
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=207247126701027189535.0004a1dfc672072bcea29&z=13
Let me know what you think or if I’m missing something.
Thanks,
Ian
The debate between wind generators, towed generators, solar power and the so called 'gensets' has been raging for years.
The fact is that in these days with all of the environmental issues surrounding us, installing a genset is just a non issue. A combination of air, solar and water power generation is the only solution for most cruising sailboats. By most, we are referring to yachts up to 50ft. approximately which would comprise 90% of cruisers sailing our oceans.
All these options draw their energy from the natural elements we are passing through whilst sailing - with a nil carbon footprint. They take up little room (excepting solar panels) and are silent - perfect! Stack this up against the diesel generator which is noisy, requires a lot of inboard space, uses diesel fuel, needs constant attention (servicing), and with a poor power output - you do not want a diesel generator running all day! I personally used a combination of a wind generator and a water towed generator. The wind generator is fine when sailing to windward, but output drops off a lot when sailing downwind. So the back up was a towed generator which produced 9 - 11 amps constantly when sailing downwind at 8 - 9 knots.
This pumped enough power into the batteries so that would run all the boats' power needs effortlessly, including the refrigerator and water maker, which enabled us to arrive at every port with full water tanks. I ran (towed) it during the day, retrieving it onboard again at sunset
Technology has moved on and the units you can now purchase are even more efficient.
The average yacht these days is more often than not fitted out with a wide range of electrical equipment to help make navigation simpler, safer and more enjoyable for the skipper and crews onboard. These all take a drain on the ships batteries and that power needs to be replaced as efficiently and quickly as possible.
Anyone who owns a yacht already owns a large wind energy generator, and that is the yacht itself. The average wind turbine suitable for mounting on a yacht may span 7 - 10 square feet of air stream, whereas the sail of a typical cruising yacht will of course intercept an area far greater than this.
As a result an easy and efficient way to maximize power generation for your battery whilst cruising is by drawing energy from the yacht's movement through the water rather than directly from the wind.
This is where a towed generator comes into its own. Many yachtsmen consider towed water generators too much trouble, but this is an efficient way to get a lot of energy out of the wind, particularly when on long passages.
Originally these towed generators were designed just for towing but since the first were developed things have changed and there are all sorts of varieties available to choose from to suit your needs. The most modern designs can be used as a towed generator whilst sailing and can then be adapted to work as a wind generator when anchored and stationary.
You can read more about power generation and water towed generators in my ebook 'Voyage of the Little Ship 'Tere Moana' downloadable from my sailboat2adventure website.
Vincent Bossley is a publisher and sailor and lives on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. He has is own website http://www.sailboat2adventure.com for cruising sailors, sailors planning their lifetime adventure, armchair sailors, virtual sailors and in fact anyone who has ever dreamed of sailing the oceans of this beautiful planet of ours. You can find him and his ebook 'Voyage of the Little Ship 'Tere Moana' on http://www.sailboat2adventure.com
I was walking around the foundations of the old hotel near Docspond. You now the ones the Piney's burned down in the late sixties. Ah you know the one, I seen you in the woods hiding when it was on flames with your ax in hand and the helmet you fought to keep slipping over your eyes. But that is years ago and neither hear nor there. But You want to know a bigger secret I found out than the local fire company burning out the nudist in town. MIB.
Yes that is right, MIB. Yep. I found one of those mind eraser thingies. You might think I am a bit nuts, but I found one for sure. Marked "Property of the United States Government". All right it is a bit rusty and one end is missing, but the piece that slides up and out of the shaft is still intact.
Now Officially, it was first cleared and settled as an Iron forge and site for bog mining in the 1800's. They missed the glory days when the bogs provided devil's pills for the Revolutionary War, but no less viable. The hotel originally stood to house the employees in this industrial town. Three plots up some industrious young man even grew produce to feed these men of the forge. Up to 1944, being abandoned for years, up to that point, Misses Jeanie Epolito was forced to sell when the county foreclosed on all of Manchester Land Companies properties for tax evasion. This is when Mr Giovanni Enea, a doctor of sorts, owner of United Spring down the road snatched up that property for a nudist colony. To ride on his success of selling mineral water to NYC, why not have a spa that not only can you drink the water but bathe in it. Adding many years to your life.
Now you might not of liked Mr Enea, or the Doc as he was called, but you have to admit there was something of fortiture and propensity, if not fortunsity! Being a Doctor and genealogist in Biotech. Did he grow some monster Blueberries with Mrs. White of Whitesbog, the first woman or man to cultivate blueberries. She even made those little plastic baskets that all fruit comes in nowadays. I still eat them from the orchard and they are so juicy! But there was more to this Sicilian Doctor...
When I first moved to this house kitty corner from the colony, I used to see this strange star. It sat low in the sky. To high for a street light that sat on a small hill through the woods. But too low to be any star. Yes Fort Dix was shooting flares, but these were yellow and zig zaggged and fell within fifteen minutes. No this stood in the sky motionless for the whole night, right after sunset. I seen this star ever summer for four years. Then one summer it was gone.
I thought not much of it over the next five years, until! My parents went away when I was in High School and I had invited friends over for a party. Being a bit concerned, rough crowd, We sat outside on the porch. One named Shambo pointed up and looked us all in the eye in turn and spoke "Have you ever heard of the alien they shot trying to escape over a fence at Fort Dix!" I thought he was full of shit. "They captured his ship and they were examining him until one day he or it just had enough and excused himself. Well he made it to the fence alright, but not any farther." I learned long time ago from Pugsley, or Peanut on the account he was the first to get caught shoplifting peanuts or anything else for that matter at the new food store, to listen to tall tales and not interrupt them with questions of validity as long as money and transportation was not part of it. So I listened, although non believing to Shambo until...
" Yep, they shot that alien five years ago!"
Five years ago? No it can not be. Has it been that long! Summer of 73, yes it has been. These are things that went through my mind at the time.
Now the window facing the north west from my room. It is a bit strange.. See now to the south west corner of it, is where I seen the star. We know now what happened to that. Below it is where the doctor got burned out. But to the north corner, that is where the tower stands that was suppose to connect to the Hindenburg. But we all know what happened before it could do that. The window of destruction.
Now back to yesterday. I found that MIB mind eraser thingie all right. I did some research on topographical and aerial maps. They were field inspected. Not only were they field inspected, but the 1947 aerial map is top secret. 1947 Roswell sighting and all. The USGS office does not even have access to it. Have you ever heard of Whiting, NJ ? So why should the army?
When I was little walking the swamps behind Docspond, I found PVC piping coming from the center of the swamp. Ventilation? A young five year old mind goes towards underground silos. Could there be men sneaking out here in the middle of the night with lunch boxes going to work; "Hey Joe" :Good Night Frank."; in the swamp. We do have a known silo just three miles away. It has been closed since June 7, 1960. A BOMARC missile at McGuire Air Force Base, [near Trenton,] New Jersey in ready storage condition (permitting launch in two minutes) was destroyed by explosion and fire after a high pressure helium tank exploded and ruptured the missile's fuel tanks. The warhead was also destroyed by the fire although the high explosive did not detonate. Nuclear safety devices acted as designed. Contamination was restricted to an area immediately beneath the weapon and an adjacent elongated area approximately 100 feet long, caused by drain-off of the firefighting water. Well the next town up in Toms River has Radionuclide or something in the water, but not to worry.
The New York Times reported the 47-foot missile "melted under an intense blaze fed by its 100-pound detonator TNT...THe atomic warhead apparently dropped into the molten mass that was left of the missile, which burned for forty-five minutes." The radiation "had been caused when thoriated magnesium metal which forms part of the weapon, caught fire,... the metal, already radioactive, becomes highly radioactive when it is burned."
I think the aliens did this on purpose. To mark the spot. You know as a sign post seen from the stars. A beacon. Was the Doctor's nudists Earthlings, or not. Was Giovanni Enea more than a recent alien from Sicily, or was he from the stars. They might say that New Yorkers might be out of this world, but was he selling his mineral water to Mars? As all scientist know, there is no water on Mars. So who else would need it more than them?
I do not know how in 1947, three years after Nature's Rest Nudist Colony opened, how they came to come across these aliens. MIB, how did they find out. Was it spied during normal aerial photographing that they seen something strange. Up Devil's mountain from the colony in the woods sits a circle of trees blown over like Dominoes. In the Periphery for a sixteenth of a mile in thick brush, trees have been felled. Now was this there landing spot?
But what brings them here in and around 1940's. Well in 1938 the Hindenburg was the first internationally transmitted news disaster in the world. Now those waves bounce in space forever. Did they listen to it. Did it take them six years to hear it and travel here? In that report it was heard, " In the resort town of Lakehurst a boro of Manchester outside of Whiting at ..". Maybe all they cared about was the mention of a resort town. Could this be all that was needed. Did some cosmic Lief Erickson sell some aliens on traveling to Whiting NJ? Did scouting parties report back about United Spring Co that got water from one of North America's largest aquifers, the Cohansey-Kirkwood aquifer. 17 Trillion tons alone in the Cohansey. Where else would you go if you were from Mars and you needed water? Have you ever heard of Whiting?
So Doc Enea was not only hated for his car with the Black devil of a hick Hood ornament thumbing his nose at you, or his optional clothing style, his intellectual snobbery, or his dangerous choice of fauna for nudists ( Honey Locust and Holly trees), but was hated for allowing in illegal aliens.
That explains all the military transports flying low, real low, over the site all hours of the day. You Know!
Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin is propietor of Docspond Life Coach Services providing Individual Counseling, Group facilitation, and key note addresses that speak to the heart of the mission while delivering the bottom line finacial growth. Helping millions find their bliss and return meaning to success! Guaranteed 20% improvement in your quality of life aftre the first meeting!
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