It's full of crap!

[dacap06]

I intended to go out for a sail today. The weather was perfect -- the temperature was in the 60s, the wind was brisk, and the rain mostly held off. But I didn't go. I never left Rock Creek. I was dismayed at all the debris floating around and didn't want to try sailing in it. I saw other sailboats out on the bay but I wasn't terribly keen to entangle the prop or rudder. How very disappointing.

Instead I tried out my dink with my new-to-me Honda 2HP gas engine. But that trip around the marina just brought the point home. The Rock Creek water and shore line is littered with branches, logs, and other bits of wood, broken crab pot floats, detritus, and more plastic and glass bottles than I would ever have thought possible. I can understand the wood. What I can't believe how shabbily some people treat our beautiful bay.

[DoubleEnder]

On a different note....how do you like the new 2 Honda 2hp? I've been thinking of getting one.
Brian

[dacap06]

DE --

I like my Honda 2HP outboard a lot. It is a perfect match for my Portabote. I got it to replace my Torqueedo 2 HP, which doesn't have enough range to suit me. If the battery only lasted longer ... sigh.

DE already knows this, but I'll add it for those who do not know this motor. The Honda 2 HP outboard motor only weighs 27 pounds. It has a centrifugal clutch so idle is neutral. For reverse, you must spin the engine around and flip the control handle over. That's a little awkward but is workable. Used values seem to be $600 or $700.

The guy I bought it from didn't like it -- he said it wouldn't idle right for him and kept dying. It is 4 years old and had only been used 3 times, he said, and I believe him. It looked brand new. I did not see a way to adjust the idle when I took it apart. After cleaning the dust off I changed the oil, changed the gear oil, and put a new plug in it.

The guy was only sorta right. It does not idle well when it is cold. I had to fiddle with the manual choke and leave it running a little fast until it warms up. After warm-up, it idles fine. I ran all around the marina with it. I tried idling after 5 minutes of running and it was smooth as silk.

The motor pushed the 8' Portabote along at around 5 Kts running flat out with 450 lb of people in it, the boats maximum load. When I tried it with just me, it was 1 - 1.5 kts faster. The Portaboat is light -- maybe 80 lb total, with a deep V displacement hull. Inflatable dinghies might be a little faster.

[Ulladh]

Irene and Lee over taxed suburban and rural sewage treatment plants throughout the Chesapeake watershed all the way to NY State, your waters may very well be full of crap.

The Delaware River just in the past few days has flushed out and is no longer chocolate brown (or crap brown). Yesterday visibility was about 2ft at my rudder, but still plenty of debris clunking against the hull. Eventually the Chesapeake will flush a bit cleaner.

[CalebD]

If it makes you feel any better the water in the lower Hudson River is still turbid (brown) and full of small hunks of wood. Most of the litter probably is along shore or made it down past NYC to the ocean.
It is pretty sad to see how badly we pollute the waters with our land based garbage. The huge rains helped to flush out a whole lot of nasty stuff into your bay and my waters and all along the east coast.

[dacap06]

Originally Posted by CalebD

It is pretty sad to see how badly we pollute the waters with our land based garbage. The huge rains helped to flush out a whole lot of nasty stuff into your bay and my waters and all along the east coast.

Quite right. I wish we did not. I feel bad when an ounce of fuel comes out the overflow vent when refueling. But it can't touch run off from a thunderstorm and tossers.

[dvuyxx]

There is certainly a lot of manmade trash. But another big problem (ongoing) is runoff from land to water ... which carries suffocating silt, oxygen depleting nutrients, and harmful contaminants. Of course the hurricane and tropical storm were extreme, but if people would control runoff and stormwater they could prevent a lot of crap from going into the bay. The two things to do ... is to slow or stop water before it becomes runoff (i.e. raingardens, barrier beds) ... AND to stop using lawn fertilizers and pesticides.

[sealover]

Thinking of going out on the Susquehanna today. Not sure what I'll find. I also have one of those 2 HP Hondas. Moves my Venture 17 at pretty close to hull speed in moderately calm waters. It's noisier than the 4 HP Yamaha 2 stroke it replaced, but it's a sailboat. I run the motor for 2 minutes then shut it off. When I'm done it runs another 2 minutes. It's perfect for that. It's air-cooled so there's nothing to flush, and you can start it dry in your driveway without fussing with a bucket. The reverse thing seems dumb at first, but it's certainly intuitive, and with the shape of the handle it's not hard to do at all, and it can be done at any speed. Just watch how you lay it down. Because it has oil in the crankcase you can only lay it down on one side or the oil where go where it shouldn't.