Canadian boating - Great Lakes and Atlantic region

[Dave Lochner]

Originally Posted by Montanan

An excellent picture of Donny.

I'm thinking the Queen probably had some harsh words and thoughts when she heard that the PINO was desiring to buy Greenland, adding it to his list of resorts. I know that most of the Yanks in the States were like: What is Greenland? Instantly, where the hell is that - Google search, major trending word. I knew where Greenland was because I used to play the board game Risk. Followed by: Google search. Where is Denmark?

So are the Faroe's for sale? Just asking for a guy who lives in a white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. Might be interested in a toilet paper for land exchange.

Well now, being a Yank I could take offense at such a statement. Of course I know where Greenland is, just to the NW of Iceland. I could never understand why an island covered in ice was called Greenland and an island covered in rock was called Iceland. Soon both will be covered in rock.

But, then again, Danes created Mads.

https://youtu.be/DPrZL8el0ik

And about that real estate developer, let's just leave that subject alone lest I start screaming at computer again and saying things that will get the attention of the Secret Service.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by Dave Lochner

Have you seen this forecast from the IJC?

https://ijc.org/en/loslrb/watershed/forecasts

The forecast gives a very low probability of exceeding 2019, probably on the order 10-15%.

It will likely be above the average level, and 50/50 on being at the threshold levels. While there may be some short term flooding, it doesn't appear to be as bad as last year.

If weather patterns are as they were in 2018, we'll be good, if the weather is wetter than average as in 2017 and 2019, there will be some flooding.

+1 Dave

As far as this year's flooding forecast, I took part in an *excellent* IJC Update Webinar yesterday at lunch where Jane Corwin (US Committee Chair) gave a really clear explanation and update of where we currently are - which was cautiously a bit better than last year, depending on how much Spring precipitation we get.

I just went on the IJC website to try and find the link to the Webinar, but they haven't posted it yet. As soon as I get a notification from them, I'll post it.

Listening to International Joint Commission Webinars on a Friday... FUN, WOW!

(Sort of like kissing a cod... )

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by Dave Lochner

I am intrigued by cod tongues and cheeks as a meal. I'd rank that a little above haggis.

Can't speak at to "tongues" (no that's not a pun) but don't discount cheeks. You can find them on salmon and northern pike (pickerel? - not walleye) if they're big enough. Off a smoked fish they are wonderful!

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by garyfdl

Funny, I don't remember the falls, but the pict of the poor bastard bike-trekking is spot on. I do seem to remember a tall chimney/flu sticking up above the trees at some point - figured it to be a mine site. I do have pictures (real photographs) someplace. Great, now I'll have to find them...

The guy who recommended it said it would save time... regardless it was worth the trip.

You don't remember the Falls. Okay. Wow. Must have been distracted looking at something on the other side of the roadway. Grizzly bear, wolves, pretty girl, perhaps.

Here is a fuller view of what you missed or don't recall.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by garyfdl

I did business in Ontario - eastern Canada for years so that's why I mentioned the 49th. I think Toronto might even be south of where I am. Furthest north I got (on dry land) was Kapuskasing. Funny - everybody there was real short, except for one guy in a red suit with a big white beard...

I was thinking more the lines of Calgary and Winnipeg. When we complain about -20 here they laugh at us, just like we laugh at the southern boys who complain about 3" of snow.

Calgary is much warmer than Winterpeg They commonly get chinooks in the winter that can raise temperatures 30 degrees overnight, it's there location being close to the Rocky Mountains.

Winterpeg is a different story, I actually did time there, lol. Learned to sail in Lake of the Woods..what wonderful memories of days gone by. Unbelievably hot in the summer, tornadoes often and colder than a witches tit in the winter but very close to the border and you don't have to go far to have the same climate in the USA.

Our home is Vancouver Island, not that cold, not that hot, just right actually when you spent most of your time in the tropics and catch the peak of summer there.

[TrentePieds]

Quote: "I could never understand why an island covered in ice was called Greenland and an island covered in rock was called Iceland. "

The reason is dead simple: Back in the 9th Century a bunch of Scowegians sailing out of that part of Denmark we now call Norway happened to discover that a hitherto undiscovered island in Nordhavet - the Norwegian sea as we call it - was quite lovely. It was farmable, at least as farmable as Norway, and there were hot springs everywhere. Just the ticket for a bit of subtle "udbygd" - settlement.

This lot had little inclination to share their discovery with the hoi-poloi, and preempting Madison Avenue's MO of a thousand years later, called the place by the uninviting name of "Island" - literally "the land of ice" or as we say: Iceland.

However, as some of their lot had also discovered another, far less inviting and inhabitable place, they called that place Greenland as a diversionary tactic, luring gullible wannabe settlers off to a shore where a man would be lucky to survive even three months of "settlement". When some of those who tried it gave up and struck out to the westward, they, in turn, discovered "Vinland". Contrary to modern American belief, "Vinland" does not mean "land of wine". It may, though there is doubt about it, have alluded to "vines" in the sense that e.g. the strawberry plant has vines crawling along the ground. Thus "Vinland" may have meant a land characterized by low, scraggly vegetation. An alternative name was "Helluland" meaning a land where you can rest or find refuge. To this day, a pedestrian island in the middle of a busy street is called a "helle" in Danish.

Now as for Mads: I used to follow him because he gives me a giggle. His English is excellent, of course. It should be - his GF is a Yank and he was acculturated in the IT industry. But his accent slays me. There is NO getting rid of a Danish accent. Ever! Lord knows I've tried these 60-odd years gone, but it ain't workin'. And by now it doesn't matter :-)

And about that other guy - take heart Dave Lochner. In just a few month you'll be given a chance to escape from the embarrassment :-)!

TP

[Dave Lochner]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Quote: "I could never understand why an island covered in ice was called Greenland and an island covered in rock was called Iceland. "

The reason is dead simple: Back in the 9th Century a bunch of Scowegians sailing out of that part of Denmark we now call Norway happened to discover that a hitherto undiscovered island in Nordhavet - the Norwegian sea as we call it - was quite lovely. It was farmable, at least as farmable as Norway, and there were hot springs everywhere. Just the ticket for a bit of subtle "udbygd" - settlement.

This lot had little inclination to share their discovery with the hoi-poloi, and preempting Madison Avenue's MO of a thousand years later, called the place by the uninviting name of "Island" - literally "the land of ice" or as we say: Iceland.

However, as some of their lot had also discovered another, far less inviting and inhabitable place, they called that place Greenland as a diversionary tactic, luring gullible wannabe settlers off to a shore where a man would be lucky to survive even three months of "settlement". When some of those who tried it gave up and struck out to the westward, they, in turn, discovered "Vinland". Contrary to modern American belief, "Vinland" does not mean "land of wine". It may, though there is doubt about it, have alluded to "vines" in the sense that e.g. the strawberry plant has vines crawling along the ground. Thus "Vinland" may have meant a land characterized by low, scraggly vegetation. An alternative name was "Helluland" meaning a land where you can rest or find refuge. To this day, a pedestrian island in the middle of a busy street is called a "helle" in Danish.

Now as for Mads: I used to follow him because he gives me a giggle. His English is excellent, of course. It should be - his GF is a Yank and he was acculturated in the IT industry. But his accent slays me. There is NO getting rid of a Danish accent. Ever! Lord knows I've tried these 60-odd years gone, but it ain't workin'. And by now it doesn't matter :-)

And about that other guy - take heart Dave Lochner. In just a few month you'll be given a chance to escape from the embarrassment :-)!

TP

Ah... so Greenland was a con job. No wonder he who shall not be named wanted to buy it.

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by Montanan

You don't remember the Falls. Okay. Wow. Must have been distracted looking at something on the other side of the roadway. Grizzly bear, wolves, pretty girl, perhaps.

Here is a fuller view of what you missed or don't recall.

Boy, You'd think I'd remember that. The bigger picture looks familiar, but I don't recall anything flowing that much. This would have been in the early '90's. Wondering if maybe it was during a drought and it just looked more like a rockfall? The "pretty" was the entire trip, fabulous views. No bears, but quite a few muley's. Winding gravel road, "thousand foot cliff" on on side, "thousand foot drop" on the other, (at least it seemed like it for a flatlander like me) and no guard rails!

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Calgary is much warmer than Winterpeg They commonly get chinooks in the winter that can raise temperatures 30 degrees overnight, it's there location being close to the Rocky Mountains.

Winterpeg is a different story, I actually did time there, lol. Learned to sail in Lake of the Woods..what wonderful memories of days gone by. Unbelievably hot in the summer, tornadoes often and colder than a witches tit in the winter but very close to the border and you don't have to go far to have the same climate in the USA.

Our home is Vancouver Island, not that cold, not that hot, just right actually when you spent most of your time in the tropics and catch the peak of summer there.

Winterpeg - I like it.

Was fortunate enough to travel to Vancouver a few times as well. Golf in the morning, sail in the afternoon, and go skiing at night. (I hated those guys! )

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by Dave Lochner

Ah... so Greenland was a con job. No wonder he who shall not be named wanted to buy it.

ROFL

My brother-in-law travels for business to NYC (not lately) Stays at the Trump plaza (business says he has to) he calls it the "Tower of Doom".

[TrentePieds]

Quote: "Ah... so Greenland was a con job."

Hm... Greenland was not so long ago a de facto American colony. She was in international law a Danish Colony governed from Copenhagen. She was invaded and occupied by the Americans in 1941 after Cordell Hull had leaned on the Danish Colonial Governor. That worthy, knowing which side of his bread was buttered, acted in direct defiance of orders from the Danish Government, which in any case had been subjugated by the forces of that bizarre little Austrian corporal. Whatever the exigencies of the time, we may be excused for seeing shades of the Monroe Doctrine in those events.

The Americans built an airbase at a place in Western Greenland known to the local population as Kangerlussuaq and to Scowegians as Søndre Strømsfjord ("Fjord of Flowing Water"). This airbase was essential for the transit of American war matériel to England. The Americans called it "Bluie West 8". After Hitler's War the Americans abandoned BW8 briefly, the geopolitical arrangements being then quite different from what they were to become ten years later. In 1951, I believe it was, America made Denmark, now a member of NATO, an offer she couldn't refuse, and BW8 continued under American military occupation until 1992 or thereabouts, i.e. until after the collapse of the CCCP.

It should be noted also that Greenland, by virtue of having several American airbases during Hitler's War, enabled the Allies, early in the war, to close the "mid-Atlantic Gap that was out of range for convoy escorts, and threaten U-boats operating there. These escorts were mainly Canadian "Flower" class corvettes though there were a few antiquated American "four-stack" destroyers of the "town" class in play also. they came to us on "Lend-Lease". We called them "River" Class and named them after rivers on the Canadian-US border.

You will recall that Gander played a significant rôle in offering an alternative destination for aircraft of many nations when traffic had to be diverted away from JFK during the 9/11 crisis.

During my early years here, when Canadian Pacific Airlines was the principal Canadian air carrier, an air voyage from Vancouver to Copenhagen on a war surplus DC6 took nigh on 24 hours. The route was by way of Calgary, Toronto, Gander (in Newfoundland), Strømsfjord, Keflavik (Iceland) Prestwick (all of them fueling stops) and London, there to change to another DC6 operated by Scandinavian Airlines System.

But I get carried away...:-)

Cheers

TP

[Dave Lochner]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Quote: "Ah... so Greenland was a con job."

Hm... Greenland was not so long ago a de facto American colony. She was in international law a Danish Colony governed from Copenhagen. She was invaded and occupied by the Americans in 1941 after Cordell Hull had leaned on the Danish Colonial Governor. That worthy, knowing which side of his bread was buttered, acted in direct defiance of orders from the Danish Government, which in any case had been subjugated by the forces of that bizarre little Austrian corporal. Whatever the exigencies of the time, we may be excused for seeing shades of the Monroe Doctrine in those events.

The Americans built an airbase at a place in Western Greenland known to the local population as Kangerlussuaq and to Scowegians as Søndre Strømsfjord ("Fjord of Flowing Water"). This airbase was essential for the transit of American war matériel to England. The Americans called it "Bluie West 8". After Hitler's War the Americans abandoned BW8 briefly, the geopolitical arrangements being then quite different from what they were to become ten years later. In 1951, I believe it was, America made Denmark, now a member of NATO, an offer she couldn't refuse, and BW8 continued under American military occupation until 1992 or thereabouts, i.e. until after the collapse of the CCCP.

It should be noted also that Greenland, by virtue of having several American airbases during Hitler's War, enabled the Allies, early in the war, to close the "mid-Atlantic Gap that was out of range for convoy escorts, and threaten U-boats operating there. These escorts were mainly Canadian "Flower" class corvettes though there were a few antiquated American "four-stack" destroyers of the "town" class in play also. they came to us on "Lend-Lease". We called them "River" Class and named them after rivers on the Canadian-US border.

You will recall that Gander played a significant rôle in offering an alternative destination for aircraft of many nations when traffic had to be diverted away from JFK during the 9/11 crisis.

During my early years here, when Canadian Pacific Airlines was the principal Canadian air carrier, an air voyage from Vancouver to Copenhagen on a war surplus DC6 took nigh on 24 hours. The route was by way of Calgary, Toronto, Gander (in Newfoundland), Strømsfjord, Keflavik (Iceland) Prestwick (all of them fueling stops) and London, there to change to another DC6 operated by Scandinavian Airlines System.

But I get carried away...:-)

Cheers

TP

Those of us at a certain age know Greenland as the location of Thule Air Force Base and as the location of several radar installations as part of the Distant Early Warning System.

The purpose of the DEW line was to give the US sufficient warning of a Soviet nuclear attack, so we could launch a counter attack and annihilate the Soviets shortly after they annihilated the US. It was part of a wonderful plan called Mutually Assured Destruction, also know by its appropriate acronym, MAD.

[TrentePieds]

Indeed :-) I count myself among those above "a certain age". A great many Canadians made good money in the late '50s working "on the dew line"

And Thule is still "occupied territory". Thule AFB was then, and is now, a "two way street". In the late 50's not only was Thule AFB a part of the DEW system. It was also a "forward" AFB from which B36s ("Peacemakers", IIRC) could carry their atomic cargo not only to Moscow, but also to the industrial areas still operating in the Urals. I have only seen a B36 airborne once, and that was in Denmark in 1954. Probably en route from Germany to Thule in order to participate in the MAD stand-off of the time.

You will recall that in 1958, the B36s became obsolete with the development of the BOMARC surface-to-air missiles which were specifically designed to have a range that permitted CCCP intercontinental ballistic missiles to be intercepted and destroyed in CANADIAN airspace. The original proposal was to station the BOMARCS along the 49th parallel. Sound policy from the US point of view, certainly, but objected to, for equally sound reasons, by the Canadian Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker ("Dief the Chief").

The BOMARCs would have been useless for their intended purpose unless they were nuclear-tipped, of course, and so they were when they were first installed at bases in northern Ontario and Quebec, rather than at the 49th, after lengthy negotiations between the two governments. That fact was kept from the Canadian public, and when it became known in about 1960, a brou-ha-ha ensued that compelled "the Chief", due to a revolt of his Cabinet, to call an election in 1963. Dief's government was run out on a rail because the public felt that he had mislead them on something quite fundamental to the Canadian ethos, and replaced with the liberal government of Lester ("Mike") B. Pearson, a "standard issue" liberal who had won his political spurs by being in the right place at the right time and mediating when England and France nearly came to blows over the Suez Canal in '56-'57.

Being what he was - a member of Canada's "natural ruling party" - Mike promptly, upon his election in 1963, caved and accepted that this sovereign nation must accept that a foreign power would station and control nuclear warheads on Canadian soil. Well, no cloud without a silver lining! We Canadians have undeniably existed under the umbrella of the USAF's Missile Squadrons ever since. If indeed the CCCP was ever a threat to Canada.

And having spoken a while ago of the 45th POTUS: I know one or two Canadian Real Estate magnates who founded their fortunes with money earned on the DEW line in the late '50s. Something about oranges falling into turbans, I think :-)

All the best

TP

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Dave Lochner

Kissing a cod? Is that anything like kissing a girl after a bad date?

I am intrigued by cod tongues and cheeks as a meal. I'd rank that a little above haggis.

Actually, the cheeks are really tasty, and meaty. The tongues tend to be a bit chewy, rubbery. A bit like octopus. Tasty, but not my favourite.

Oh, and kissing the cod is a actual thing, but it's really just a way for the locals to get a good laugh at the tourists -- in the kindest and gentlest way of course .

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Calgary is much warmer than Winterpeg They commonly get chinooks in the winter that can raise temperatures 30 degrees overnight, it's there location being close to the Rocky Mountains.

Winterpeg is a different story, I actually did time there, lol. Learned to sail in Lake of the Woods..what wonderful memories of days gone by. Unbelievably hot in the summer, tornadoes often and colder than a witches tit in the winter but very close to the border and you don't have to go far to have the same climate in the USA.

Our home is Vancouver Island, not that cold, not that hot, just right actually when you spent most of your time in the tropics and catch the peak of summer there.

Indeed, Winnipeg is colder than Calgary. It also gets hotter in the summer. But both are dry areas, so not that bad most of the time. And Calgary does indeed have those blessed chinooks which can turn deep winter into summer in the span of an hour. I was in one deep chinook in southern Alberta where the temperature changed so fast it fogged all the windows in the house.

Now, if you want real winters, move to Thunder Bay. Temperature ranges are similar to Winnipeg, but we have the Big Lake with all its moisture to add to the mix.