Ferry Trail

[jthorson]

On Friday morning I took the 630AM ferry (Lake Express) from Milwaukee to Muskegon MI. While there, I ummmm… cached and returned on the late afternoon crossing. I wrote most of this report during the return voyage.

I rented a car (for $35) hunted 6 caches, found 5. All were traditional, and poorly maintained, but in interesting (lakefront) locations.

The mechanics of the voyage worked smoothly. Bottom line, I was caching within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. The boat maneuvers and accelerates almost like a speed boat.

I was keen to use/play with my GPSr during the crossings. The observed top speed was 40.3 mph. I couldn’t get signals inside so I needed to be topside to track. One very important discovery: my GPSr ceases to function near the ships radar antenna. Not just as a GPSr but as an electronic device!! I needed to remove the batteries to reset it. I later talked with a passenger with a Magellan and he observed the same thing. I wonder what it does to PDAs and digital cameras? Needless to say, I spent my time outside at the back of the boat.

The bottom line for the trip ($119 passage and car rental) is that it had a high cash to cache ratio. It was a fun day, but I have no plans to repeat it.

Footnotes:
Boat packed with people & cars.
Airline like security.
Easy parking at Milwaukee.
On the return trip the boat died off Muskegon, but was underway again in 5 minutes.

Confessions:
After I had passed security for the return trip, security made a big deal about a man with a pocket knife. I observed, and then paled; my GPS kit includes such a knife that security didn’t catch. I felt like a smuggler the rest of the trip.

[sbukosky]

What you experienced is called signal desensing or front end overload. (too many breakfast events?) The front end being one of the first amplifying stages of any radio receiver. It is not as selective to radio frequencies as other stages and when in the presence of a very strong radio frequency signal, will weaken the tuned signal to the point of being unusable. AM radio experiences this when driving and you lose the station while driving by another strong AM transmitter. Or on the FM dial, your radio can jump from a weak signal to a stronger signal close to the tuned station. In short, your GPS is a reciever and the radar is a transmitter and a receiver. The signal strength degrades by the square root of the …… blah blah blah. (cut off by Colonel O’Niel)

[Cathunter]

I never had a GPS when I was near any of our radar systems, but I did get rather ill once from the EMI. After that, we received training which mentioned that not only will it make you sick, but it will make you sterile. For some of us, that might be a good thing. :O

[RangerBoy]

So, Can we expect to see a new multi with unusually large distance between stations in the near future?
Anyway what a fun way to do a day of caching. The rental car idea sounds like a good way to lower costs. Do they have a rental agency right by the dock? How long does it take to cross the lake? Interesting that security is so tight. I remember during my India trip the struggle I had trying to explain to armed security police why I had magnetic and rock key hiders and so many batteries with me. It hadn’t occured to me how suspicious this stuff would look to security. I should have put it in my checked-in luggage. As it turned out I never got to plant a cache anyway due to the theft of my Garmin V in Amsterdam! Too bad I had a plan to hide a micro rock on Elephanta Island by the Elephanta Caves. This too requires a ferry trip, from Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay).

[This message has been edited by RangerBoy (edited 06-19-2004).]

[jthorson]

They have set up an unrealistic schedule of 6 crossings a day. 2.5 hours per crossing. 0.5 hour turn around. Their biggest problem is getting people and cars on and off.

Car rental was right in the terminal. I rented a purple PT Cruiser, not my style, but the normal cars were out.

[This message has been edited by jthorson (edited 06-19-2004).]

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