Comments: Signs of Spring
The ice is a problem as it breaks up and flows towards Niagara. The response boats are not rated for ice floes and if they go out they may end up mooring somewhere that is not their station. About six years ago we in the USCG Auxiliary were doing regatta patrols for high school crew racing in the Trenton Channel of the Detroit River; this year we will be lucky if we get underway under orders for a routine safety patrol before the middle of May.*
*Water patrols - and the equipment necessary - are dependent on the air and water temperatures. Right now the Great Lakes water temps are at the 'dry suit' rating - even with a Mustang suit** we in the USCG Auxiliary cannot launch.
**This is a Type V PFD that is like a snowmobile suit except it is also a lifejacket - you are kept warm and you will float. A dry suit keeps out all water and is quite expensive.
Posted by Mikey NTH at April 16, 2014 7:19 PM
Now that is very interesting. I never knew any of that. Thanks.
Posted by vanderleun at April 16, 2014 8:44 PM
The cartoonist forgot to add a corkscrew for Venezuela
Posted by Fausta at April 17, 2014 6:52 AM
Mikey, thanks for a glimpse of what I would have just taken for granted. And thanks for serving in this way.
Posted by chasmatic at April 17, 2014 9:13 AM
The big blade should be marked "Socialism," or as I prefer to call it these days, "Totalism."
Here is a challenge you will never successfully complete: find a "climate change" activist who will agree that, absent the crisis of AGW, government should keep out of people's lives to leave people to live the way they want, with strictly limited governmental powers over their lives and life decisions, paying the lowest possible amount in taxes.
You will never find one who will agree. Which is to say, Climate science has no "product" except selling papers and opinions to totalist politicians as justification to restrain, undercut and finally remove the liberties of the people.
Posted by Donald Sensing at April 17, 2014 11:35 AM