Excerpts from the previous Scuttlebutt issue.

Hi Everyone,

I hope all is well with everyone.

The big news is that I've recently added a Discussion Board to our web site for use by our members. This board contains several forums where members can post messages, exchange ideas, ask questions, etc., and reply to the various topics. This is a feature that many members have requested over the past few years.

Registration involves entering a user name and password. It's recommended that you use either your name, call sign, or a combination of both as your 'user name'. This will simplify verification as a current member. As soon as you are verified as a Waterway Radio & Cruising Club member, you can begin posting, replying, etc.

When posting, try to post in the most relevant forum and/or thread. If you discover that you may have posted in a wrong area, you can easily move your post to another. Near the bottom right of your post, you should see a "Quick-mod tools" drop-down menu where you can move, copy, delete, etc., your post. Also, try to use a descriptive subject line; otherwise, readers might just skip over your topic.

Please read the posting instructions. Also, browse through the board to get a 'feel' for how things are arranged and what topics are already there.

On a money matter, because of rising printing and postage costs, we are considering not printing the roster for one year. This would allow our funds to 'catch up' and get us back in the 'black'. It's almost costing us as much as our annual dues just for the roster, and we still have the Scuttlebutt and the web site as expenses. For one year, we could either print a supplement to the current roster or, to save postage, have this information available as a download (or email). A complete roster would still be available, just not in the regular printed form. Otherwise, we will have to increase our dues structure.

Your thoughts and comments will be appreciated. You could post them on the Discussion Board! Or email me if you prefer.

Bill. . .N4UMS, Commodore

The National Weather Service has encouraged the Waterway Net to participate in the MAROB (MARine OBservation) program. MAROB is an experimental marine observation program still in development. It seeks the participation of all mariners, both commercial and recreational. The goal of the program is to collect as many marine observations as practicable to improve the accuracy of coastal, offshore and high seas forecasts.

The collected observations are converted to the standardized MAROB format, then are automatically distributed, ingested, and displayed on operational workstations by NWS forecasters, along with many other forms of real-time data.

The National Weather Service has been developing cooperative arrangements with organizations such as the United States Power Squadron, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the WinLink 2000 Global Radio Network, the Maritime Mobile Service Network, and the YOTREP Reporting System, to help train observers and forward observations to the NWS. Technologies utilized include HF and MF Marine radio, VHF Marine Radio, Ham Radio, cellular telephone and e-mail. Several MAROB reporting schemes will work in conjunction with vessel position reporting systems such as WinLink's Position Reporter, the Maritime Mobile Service Network's ShipTrak, and the YOTREPS Reporter.

We have chosen the YOTREPS Reporter as our method of submitting weather reports. Reports taken during our net's Position Reports will be sent via email in plain language and will subsequently be encoded and forwarded to the NWS.

Scott Spratt, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at his NWS office in Melbourne, FL.

Below, is the list of desired weather data, which is more information than we will be able to collect during our nets. However, the NWS is interested in as much current data as we can collect, considering the time constraints of our net.

YOTREPS AIRMAIL			WIND_DIR	CLOUDS
IDENT: call or boat name	WIND_SPEED	VIS
TIME				WAVE_HT		BARO
LATITUDE			WAVE_PD		TREND
LONGITUDE			SWELL_DIR	AIR_TEMP
COURSE				SWELL_HT	SEA_TEMP
SPEED				SWELL_PD	COMMENTS

Once the MAROB data is sent, it is automatically routed into the NWS data network and becomes immediately available for display on Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) workstations. Using AWIPS, the forecasters can graphically examine the MAROB data plots by themselves or in combination with other marine or land-based observations, and can mouse-over plotted observations for a textual listing of the reports. Additionally, forecasters can overlay the observations on radar and satellite imagery or model analyses and forecasts to make comparisons.

This year we began taking weather data only from vessels offshore. Now we find that data from vessels in protected watersaway from the US mainland are also very desirable, even if those vessels are at anchor. Therefore, we are now also asking all vessels in the territorial waters of the Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico equipped with Pactor modems to submit weather data from each port or anchorage on a regular basis, daily if possible. Modems such as the SCS PTCII incorporate a MAROB weather page in the position report feature which transmits your weather report to YOTREPS where it is encoded and forwarded to the NWS. Vessels not equipped with a modem, please submit your report to us during position reports and we will forward it for you. Emphasis should be on: wind direction and speed, waves (if underway),air andsea temperatures, barometric pressure with trend, and cloud cover.

Although our project began only a few months ago, NWS marine forecasters have found the additive data very useful and have thanked us for our participation in the MAROB program. Please try to participate whenever possible and help the NWS further improve marine forecasts.

- Dave, N4NVI

The Waterway CW net was started several years ago by a few of the Waterway Radio and Cruising Club members. Our membership has continued to grow over the years and today we have over 50 hams on the roster. A normal net will have around 20 check-ins.

Initially, the net's primary goal was to help novices and technicians increase their code speed so they could pass the 13 wpm and 20 wpm code requirements for general and extra classes. With the elimination of code requirements in the amateur license exams, the net has moved away from its initial purpose and has evolved into more of a social net, or what some call a "rag chew" net. The speed has settled down to between 18 and 25 wpm on most days and most of the traffic exchanged is very informal in nature. If you are not up to 18 wpm all you need to do is send "QRS" (Q signal meaning: please slow down) a couple of times and the net control will match your speed.

A typical net day would start around 6:30 am when net members start gathering on the net frequency of 7.050 MHz. The net uses rotating net control stations so the NCS of the day will start building a list of QNS (Q signal for stations that have checked into a net). At 7:00 am the net control station will open the net with a short preamble and then ask for any QNI (check-ins) that are ST (short of time and need to check in and out). After the short time stations are recognized net control will ask for "QNI?" If you wish to join in the net all you need is to send your call sign in reply to the net control's request for QNI?. The net control will acknowledge you and ask you to standby, or just send the a and s characters together. "AS" meaning "please standby". Net control will build a list of check-ins and may go to a relay station to pick up others he cannot hear. If you do not hear the net control all is not lost, as eventually a relay station will be used to pick you up.

When it is your turn the net control, or a relay station, will call you and ask you "QRU?" (Q signal meaning: Do you have anything for the net?). Most stations keep their report fairly short and not too complicated. Weather reports seem to the most popular report but others give their location if they are mobile. Aside for the Q signal QNI and QRU there are few Q signals used on the net. Chuck ND7K maintains a roster of the net and provides a short list of the most popular Q signals used.

The NCS will take reports for each station that has checked in and ask for relays to pick up more. Around 07:45 or so all stations will have reported and the net will end by net control giving a list of those who have checked in and sending "QNF" (Q signal meaning the net is finished).

You can find out more by looking on the WRCC website or joining our YAHOO group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WRCCWNET/. Hope to hear you on the air soon.

Net Controls:

Recently I have worked as a ship's doctor on a number of cruise ships. Some of my embarkation ports were San Diego, New Orleans, Miami and Cape Canaveral. It is not a "snap" job. We see a number of patients each day, both cruising guests and crew persons, and they have a variety of problems ranging from colds and coughs to intestinal bleeding, heart attacks and broken hips... even psychiatric emergencies.

One of the shipboard illnesses is that of Norovirus diarrhea. Fortunately, even with my many assignments I have not been on a ship with a big outbreak, but it can and does happen. Instead of the usual 2 to 4 per 1000 there may be as many as 100 cases per 1000. The illness is abrupt in onset, generally with explosive vomiting, and multiple watery stools plus lots of nausea. It is usually over in 24 to 48 hours, but in a few individuals it causes severe dehydration requiring IV fluid administration. The treatment is "supportive" since there is no real cure. Plenty of liquids, bland food as tolerated, and loperamide (Imodium) in measured doses.

Rarely do the doctors and nurses on cruise ships suffer an attack. I think it is because they wash their hands religiously and frequently. Also, we are taught that the source is NOT the ship's water supply, but rather the virus is passed on by a dirty hand planting the virus on railings, on table tops and the like, and then the virus is picked up by an innocent victim's hands left unwashed and passed into the mouth during the process of eating.

The government's CDC teaches us that such diarrhea attacks occur just as frequently on land as in the ships, but generally go unreported since the illness in short lived and often not seen by a doctor. The CDC takes an interest in the illness in cruise ships for several reasons. Some of these are a chance to study, under controlled circumstances, how the disease is transmitted, the financial threat to the cruise ship industry, a chance to learn how person-to-person transmission takes place, etc. Here is a quote from my friend, Dr. Art Diskin, presently the medical director for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line:

"Between January 1996 and November 2000, 348 outbreaks of norovirus were reported to the CDC. Out of these, 54% of patients were contaminated by food, 17% by person to person, 4% by water, and 25% by unidentified sources. Most of the food sources responsible were identified as oysters, salads, salad dressing, sandwiches, deli meats, cake and frosting, raspberries, drinking water, and ice. Shellfish have been implicated in some outbreaks, but it is not a frequent source on cruise ships, where the predominant mode of infection is believed to be fecal-oral and person to person from individuals who come onto the ships ill and do not report the illness or quarantine themselves in their cabins. The same study reveals that 39% contracted the disease in restaurants, 30% in nursing homes, 12% at school, 10% on vacation, and 9% remain unidentified."

To this end, the CDC requires that every passenger ship of every line coming into U.S. ports report, by e-mail, ON A DAILY BASIS how many cases they have!

On my last cruise (3500 cruisers and 1300 crew) we had only 4 cases of acute diarrhea. Even so we were still are required to make the daily reports of these cases to the CDC in Atlanta.

If you are on a cruise ship and go to the infirmary seeking help for your diarrhea you will be helped; but you become a statistic, and you will be quarantined in your cabin for 48 to 72 hours so as protect the other passengers from being exposed. (Of course food and beverage will be brought to you, and your medical care will be at no charge). The reason I mention all this now is that if you have a minor diarrhea, or an irritable colon syndrome (IBS) problem, you should take your own medicine along with you and/or have a note from your doctor stating that you suffer from chronic non-contagious diarrhea problems. If you don't, and you go to the infirmary you will be quarantined, not by caprice but by government edict! Please, don't avoid the infirmary if you need medical help, but recognize that if you have severe acute onset vomiting and diarrhea you will be asked to protect others from being exposed.

- Jim, K4TCV, Fleet Surgeon

The following members or their families have received cards or flowers from the Sunshine Fund recently.

MARCH

Robbie RobertsKH6FMD Silent Key

Bob Thompson KD3BV Silent Key

The Sunshine fund is not funded through your dues, but is supported by donations collected over the year.

If you are aware of a club member in need of some Sunshine, please contact me via phone (correct in the roster), email (correct in the Roster), or sunshine@waterwayradio.net.

Please provide me with as much information as possible and a point of contact. This especially holds true if someone is in the hospital. When you receive flowers, please let me know, so I can confirm they were received.

I want to thank the members of the WRCC for your support.

Debbie Lerner, KD4GRR,
Sunshine Fund Chairman

The 2009 spring migration north is about to begin, and most of us cruisers will pass through or near the Hampton Roads area at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The transition from the relaxed slow pace and beautiful scenery of the ICW to the heavy traffic on the Elizabeth River through the Norfolk metro area may cause a bit of anxiety for a cruising boater. This is truly an "eyes on the Roads" experience. The close proximity of so many large vessels (some heavily armed) can be rather intimidating to be sure. But beyond the river banks are some of the most hospitable folk to be found. I speak from my own experience when I say many of them are Ham radio operators monitoring the bands, always at the ready to offer assistance and hospitality to all.

Most of us who have traveled the ICW are familiar with the lock at Great Bridge, mile 11.5, on the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal segment of the ICW, Route 1. What you may not know is that between the lock and the bridge, at that famous Free Dock at mile 11.9, is the clubhouse of the Chesapeake Amateur Radio Service, CARS, just 20 paces from the dock. It is no surprise that SERVICE is their last name; the CARS club is very active in civil and social events around the community. The club's 2 meter repeater, at 146.820 MHz with a 162.2 Hz PL tone, W4CAR, has very good coverage of most of Hampton Roads, the Dismal Swamp, and on south to North Carolina. A great repeater to be tuned into during threatening weather conditions.

A little about the free docks near the new bascule Great Bridge. It is no longer a swing bridge as indicated on the older charts. There are 2 Free Docks, one on either side of the bridge and on opposite sides of the ICW. If you are north bound on the ICW, there is a dock on your right just before the bridge and another dock just beyond the bridge on your left. This second dock is the one by the CARS club house. Each dock will easily accommodate 4 to 6 boats and are within easy walking distance to restaurants, fast food, and other shopping.

The Dismal Swamp, Route 2 on the ICW, and Deep Creek Lock are easily within reach of the CARS repeater. The area south of the Deep Creek Lock and Bridge, and the anchorage just north of the lock are within 3 miles of WA4BUE, Richard Siff. Richard is monitoring the CARS repeater almost every day from his home on the banks of the Gilmerton Cut, adjacent to Deep Creek, noted on your charts as an abandoned canal near mile 10.0 on the ICW RT 2. Richard has lived in the Norfolk area all his life and knows where almost everything is that a boater might need. His uncle, Bob Siff, K4AMG, was Richard's Ham Radio mentor when Richard was a boy. Bob was very active in the WRCC 10 or 15 years ago when he checked into the Waterway Net from his trawler, M/V PHD, out of Sarasota, Florida. Bob was also extremely active with the Sarasota Power Squadron. So next time you are in the Hampton Roads area, give Richard a call on 2 meters and say hello. I know he will be ready to assist you in anyway he can and he will certainly enjoy hearing from you.

If you are sailing offshore of Hampton Roads, the Virginia Beach Emergency Amateur Radio Service repeater at 146.970, W4KXV, will serve you well. It also has very good coverage of the Greater Norfolk metro area.

A regular check in and member of the WRCC and the Chesapeake Amateur Radio Service, Terry Hunsicker, KI4RXC, lives in Virginia Beach. He has been greeting cruisers visiting the area whenever he hears them on the air. His boat, S/V Do U Wanna, is docked on Little Creek. Give Terry a call on the CARS repeater when you are in the area. He will be pleased to hear from you.

For those of you using the IRLP nodes, here is some information you might like to have. There are 5 IRLP nodes, listed below, that are readily available to the waterways of the Hampton Roads area.

KN4KL, 146.490, SIMPLX, 100.0 Hz PL tone, Node #7900, Virginia Beach
W7OTQ, 146.420, SIMPLX, 100.0 Hz PL tone, Node #4987, Virginia Beach
N3GX, 145.555, SIMPLX, 88.5 Hz PL tone Node #4577, Chesapeake
KG4ZXK, 145.600, SIMPLX, no tone Node #4865, Portsmouth
KA4VXR, 147.225. DUP +, 136.5 Hz PL tone, Node #4183, Hampton

Have an excellent and safe journey. I'll be watching for our WRCC burgee on the waterways.

John, K0GPN aboard S/V Gavia immer

It has always been (and remains) the policy of WRCC that reciprocal license designators must be used by any amateur radio operator transmitting on our Net while in the waters of a foreign country. Under existing regulations, each of us has the obligation to obtain reciprocal licenses in advance if we intend to operate in foreign waters. Once obtained, the reciprocal license will carry the proper call sign for use in that country. Typically that will be our original call followed by a reciprocal designator; for example, my Bahamas license shows my call as "K3PKC/C6A."

This requirement does not apply when operating "Maritime Mobile" which means on international waters outside the territorial waters of any nation. When operating MM we are governed by the laws of the country which issued our license.

Information regarding licenses for the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Mexico and Bermuda may be found at www.waterwayradio.net/intl_operating.htm or go to our home page, click on the Club Info page and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find links to information about other countries.

For several weeks now we'd battled terrible early winter weather as we made our way south from the Potomac. Leaving Capital Yacht Club the day after Thanksgiving 1989, we brushed 8" of snow off the decks as Born Free headed toward a scheduled opening of the Wilson Bridge. We made a fast 100-mile run down the river, another 60-mile run down the Bay, and entered the ICW at Norfolk with thoughts of sun and fun ahead. As we moved further south, expecting major improvements in the weather, we were sorely disappointed. After four weeks and eight hundred hard-fought miles of unbelievably bad weather Born Free was at last in Florida, but still in miserable weather conditions. Cold, rain, sleet, snow, gales and storms seemed to be our lot on this trip. It was about to get worse.

Dawn broke eerily through the heavy ground fog below the Bridge of Lions. It was blowing like stink. Born Free's heavy anchor chain -- 200' of 3/8" hi-tensile steel -- was stretched taught as a violin string. Inside the cabin, the temperature hovered around 45 degrees. Alone, I cowered in my berth beneath layers of blankets and comforter. Florida just wasn't supposed to be like this. No escaping it, though: it was like this. I wasn't just dreaming.

Screwing up my courage, I dashed into the main cabin, switched on the Espar diesel heating, tuned the VHF to the St. Augustine weather channel, and dove quickly back into my warm berth. The Espar would heat the cabin in about 20 minutes but, it seemed, nothing could be done about the weather outside. The VHF confirmed this: it was very nasty, indeed. And not getting better anytime soon.

The cheerful voice on the weather report informed me that it was 26 degrees outside, blowing a full gale here in the anchorage, and a full storm offshore. Adding to the misery, the ground fog was so thick only the tops of trees could be seen. There were no other masts. Evidently, no one else was dumb enough to be out here in this weather. The Big Dummy would have to face this all alone (my last crewmember having had the good sense to jump ship in Savannah).

Another heavy gust layed us over about 20 degrees. Born Free was now tugging fiercely at her chain, signaling her desire to continue heading south and out of this cursed weather. After all, we (she and I) told ourselves, further south in Florida it just HAD to be better than this. And Sandi was coming to meet the boat in Melbourne next week. After a hot breakfast things seemed a bit better. As part of my morning ritual, I optimistically programmed the Loran for the next 60 miles or so down the ICW. Then I piled on several layers of clothing over my thermal underwear, and finished up by donning a full wet suit. No more Mr. Nice Guy!

I left the Espar running so the cabin would remain nice and toasty, and hooked up the small heating pad to the inverter for hand warming in the cockpit. The never-reliable autopilot had packed up hundreds of miles back, so I rigged lines to the wheel so I could steer with my shoulders. This allowed me to sit on the bridgedeck under the dodger, feet dangling in the warm cabin, hands wrapped in the heating pad, and the Loran readout comfortably visible in the cabin below. This was a good thing, because almost nothing was visible outside except the tops of trees. Watching the numbers click over on the Loran and running from waypoint to waypoint gave me a sense of being in control. Well, sort of in control. I gotta admit, leaving a windswept but secure anchorage in this maelstrom alone wasn't a very bright thing to do, but you have to understand that after several weeks of relentlessly miserable weather I was more than tired of it. And, truth is, I was mad. More like, hopping mad! The fates hadn't been kind to us on this trip, and I was determined to get to a better place as quickly as possible. Damn the torpedos!

Time to get the anchor up. By now, Born Free's 45lb plow had buried itself halfway to China, so this wasn't gonna be easy. After numerous tries running between the cockpit engine controls and the foredeck, taking in several yards of chain at a time with my (then manual) anchor windless, the anchor finally broke free of the bottom and Born Free took off downwind like a scared bird. Really didn't need the engine or sails. . .she was moving very nicely under bare pole with gale force winds behind her. I kept the engine going anyway, and huddled beneath the dodger.

After about an hour we were doing fairly well, given the horrid conditions. I hadn't frozen to death, yet, and Born Free hadn't fetched up against a piling or in someone's back yard. According to the Loran, we were about seven miles along our way. An experienced mariner tries to think of everything which could possibly impede progress or undermine safe navigation to the next port. In your mind's eye, you run over all the possible emergencies, beginning with the most likely, and you try to imagine how you'd face them. Gentle reader, think now about the worst thing imaginable -- other than a nuclear attack - which could have befallen us in these atrocious conditions.

Well, it did: a wholly unexpected and very severe ice storm! Yes, an ICE STORM. In Florida. Fifteen minutes later the boat was completely coated with thick ice, the anchors and lines frozen to the deck. The running lights were growing dimmer as ice built up on their lenses. Worse, the dodger had frozen solid and was impossible to see through. This meant I could no longer steer from a relatively sheltered location, but had to stand in the cockpit at the wheel where there was no protection at all (the bimini top hadn't yet been fitted). From the wheel, I couldn't see the Loran, so had to steer by the tops of trees and dash repeatedly to the companionway to see if my guesses were anywhere near correct.

And with the ice and the wind it was unbearably cold. Even in the wet suit and multiple layers of clothing, it was evident I couldn't take much of this and would have to do something drastic. . ..and soon! The danger of Born Free's predicament was beginning to seep through my anger and bravado.

Another 10 minutes and I was, indeed, desperate. I resembled nothing so much as a poster boy for the Abominable Ice Man. Hypothermia was just minutes away. Anchoring wasn't possible, as the anchors and chain were firmly frozen to the icy deck and I would have broken my fool neck just trying to go forward. I thought seriously about running the boat aground if I could find a muddy beach. I was so cold my mind wasn't working very well at this stage, and even considered just going below in the warmth and letting poor Born Free fend for herself.

In the end I caught a lucky break. Rounding a curve in the ICW, like in a movie the ground fog cleared a bit and I spotted a big sign tacked to a tree: "Marine Land Marina. . .Next Left". I grabbed the handheld VHF and called, "Marine Land Marina, this is the sailing vessel Born Free on Channel 16, do you copy?" A very surprised voice came back to me right away, and directed me into the marina where I saw another junior Abominable Ice Man standing on the dock to take my lines (and he'd only come a hundred yards from the Office). "What in the world are you doing out here?" he shouted. "They're telling people not to leave their houses today!" Good advice!

My strongest memory of Marine Land Marina is not of the Junior Ice Man waiting to take my lines, but that of the poor pelicans frozen atop their perches. It just didn't seem fair, to them or to me. After tying up, there was nothing more to be done. I was unable to leave the marina for two days as the bridges over the ICW were frozen shut. Moreover, if you can believe it, the Interstate (I-95) was closed for two whole days! Old timers said it was the worst weather in Florida -- ever. I believed them. Perfect timing for my first trip down the Waterway.

Sandi joined the boat in Melbourne a week later. By then it was sunny and 70 degrees. She wondered what the talk of bad weather was all about. I didn't try very hard to explain it, as she wouldn't have believed it, anyway. It was hard even for me to believe. But Born Free and I knew we had shared an experience we never, ever wished to repeat. Those cold winters at Capital Yacht Club would hereafter be a piece of cake.

Bill, WA6CCA

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