A Swedish Jetty

Midsummer

Annalisa: So hot today, thirty-five degrees. 

Sven: Feels like forty. 

Annalisa: Lucky we’re close to water. A picnic at Kungfiskare Bay?

Sven: Under the trees? We could do that. Let’s take the boat.

Annalisa: Is the motor fixed?

Sven: I wouldn’t row it in this heat. Put lunch in the hamper and I’ll carry it down to the jetty.

__________

Voice-over

A jetty (from the French jetée to throw out) is a landing stage for boats to dock jutting out into the water. They look good in wood. Even more picturesque and summery if tree branches overhang a dinghy. But jetties can also be bigger, made of steel or concrete, for ships to discharge cargo as in Namibia, or even as a sculpture like the Spiral Jetty in Utah.

A summer jetty

Thinking of a cool vacation near water.

Tom: We used to spend summers at the lake.

Mary: A cabin or a tent?

Summer 1956

Tom: Both. The cabin was small and the kids slept in a tent. A heavy canvas one, it took ages to set up.

Mary: Not like the modern ones which pop up almost as easily as an umbrella. Well almost. It was near the water?

Tom: Ten meters back from it. A jetty jutted into the water, an old Frostbite tied up. That jetty, it was a place of magic, a place of mischief. You never knew if the fish would bite and there was a small boy always lurking to push people into the water.

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Voice-over

Summer lakes lure us to cool pools. Especially from 35 degree city swelters. Better yet if there is jetty with a boat tied to it. Something about messing about in boats, as the vole said to the mole in Wind in the Willows.

White Superyacht Rabbit

The white rabbit search this month turned up an 84-meter long White Rabbit, pretty big for a rabbit. The owner is paint baron Goh Chen Liang (he owns 39% of Nippon Paint). He’s actually owned a number of motor yachts called White Rabbit since 1989. The latest one, White Rabbit Echo, cost $100 million. He also has a flying white rabbit, a private jet, a Bombardier Challenger (N955JG, EYE 77) worth around $20 million.

To afford these toys, he needs to be pretty wealthy. At 11 billion dollars that makes him second wealthiest in Singapore. But down near slot 180 on Bloomberg’s world list of billionaires. Over his 94 years, Mr Goh may well have uttered quite a few White Rabbits!

 

WHITE RABBIT WHITE RABBIT WHITE RABBIT

Photoshop evidence

Something fishy?

Strahan: We’re going out to have lunch on the yacht.

Parris: Which yacht?

Strahan: I have a picture of it. Here. See. The boat is named "White Rabbit".

Parris: You photoshopped it. You added the name White Rabbit to the photograph.

Strahan: Can you prove it?

____________

Voice-over

The name has been carefully blended into the side of the boat.

But Parris, with a sharp eye for details, has discovered the remains of a text box.

Microsoft Word has such a function for typing words in on top of an image.

The Roaring Forties

Building in fire and wind…

.

Robin: Eerie sky.

.

Peter: Bush fires in Aussie.

.

Robin: Windy too. All blow, no rain, bit stressing.

.

Sunhail

Peter: Anchor yourself with a rope when you go up on the roof.

.

Robin: Like old times, clambering up the rigging.

.

Peter: With a harness. Like Knox-Johnson sailing around the world, driven by the power of the Roaring Forties, and sometimes climbing the mast to avoid monster waves.

.

Robin: Get a grip! That’s the story!

________

Voice-over

New Zealand is a windy country, westerlies prevail driven by the latitudinous winds of the Roaring Forties, or down in the Furious Fifties.

...

MTB 454

A war story…

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Raleigh: Picked it up at Belfast shipyards and headed for Lands End. Fire broke out on a switchboard so returned. Attempted sabotage, it was. Even the shipyards had sympathizers. Had that fixed. Asked for a letter to recommend running engines at 2000 rpm so we could plane.

481 and 454 planing

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Grandson: 2000?

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Raleigh: Yes, we were only authorized to run them at 1600 rpm. Couldn’t get up to planing speed. Wallowed along.

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Grandson: I can imagine. Like a hippopotamus.

.

Raleigh: So we got up to planing speed, 20 knots or so. Skimmed around Lands End and up to Falmouth. But when we arrived we received a Morse message. Report to HQ. I was asked, “Did you exceed 1600 rpm?”

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Grandson: But you had permission?

454, remembered

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Raleigh: I had a letter, yes. But it didn’t prevent a rap over the knuckles. Carried on to Felixstowe at the designated speed.

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Grandson: But you had fond memories of 454. So much so you named your lake boat the same.

.

Raleigh: Er, yes.

_______________

Voice-over

MTBs were sprightly little vessels/warcraft, later models achieving 30 knots. Post-war, a generation of MTB sailors relived their memories, in stories, even on boats.

...

Manuals could explain WHY

In the workshop…

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Water Pump Impeller Kit

Mike the Mechanic: Never start the outboard motor without water running through the cooling system.

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Joe Fisher: Why?

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Mike the Mechanic: The impeller will melt down.

.

Joe Fisher: Serious. But the manual only says "Don’t start the engine without water running through the cooling system." It doesn’t say why.

____________

Voice-over

Ford Model A engine

High tech engines now are so delicate. Modern manuals assume little knowledge of the user. Instructions such as “Take it to the dealer.” Not how Henry Ford designed his automobiles. If they went wrong on the road, the operator could fix it himself. With a bit of Number 8 wire. The Model A manual explained how AND why.

...