[Rhodes22-list] Dynamic Equilibrium Put Into Winter Storage

[Roger Pihlaja]

Mark,

Our family lived in Russellville, AR from 1987 - 1990.  Russellville is
located about 90 miles west of Little Rock.  The Arkansas River runs right
thru town.  A US Army Corps of Engineer's dam across the Arkansas River at
Russellville creates a manmade lake called Lake Dardanelle.  Many of the
state parks in Arkansas are associated with US Army Corps of Engineers dam
projects.  The state leases space along the shoreline, within these state
park, for marinas, which are operated by private companies.  The
Russellville Marina, where we kept Dynamic Equilibrium, was operated under
such an arrangement.  Although the winter months were too cold for swimming,
the water never froze & there was good sailing all year round.  The only
reason to pull the boat out of the water was if you were going somewhere
with it or doing maintenance.

The marina was about a 10 minute drive from our house in Russellville.  In
general, I liked this arrangement except for two things:

The predominent type of boat at the Russellville Marina was the pontoon.
(i.e. "party barge")  The owners of these things were notoriously bad at
docking.  They just didn't seem to care what they hit & docked "by ear".
The aluminum pontoons, dive planes, & square edges on the decks of these
things would just chew up the hull of a plastic boat.  I always tried to get
a competent skipper with a "real boat" in the slip next to mine & stayed
away from the gas dock during busy times.

The other thing that sometimes made life in the Russellville Marina
unpleasant was the watershed that emptied into it.  You see, Lake Dardenelle
is surrounded by hills.  Many of these hills are used for commercial large
scale poultry & hog farms that were there long before the lake & the marina.
The state of Arkansas has such lax antipollution laws that these farms were
allowed to dump animal waste onto the ground.  Most of the time, this
practice didn't seem to matter & was undetectable.  However, during the
normally dry summer season, the area would occasionally get a brief
thunderstorm.  This brief but torrential rain would wash some of this animal
waste down the hills into the Russellville Marina basin, but then would stop
before the marina basin was flushed out.  At these times, the smell around
the marina was incredible!  While we lived there, the marina & boat owners
petitioned the City of Russellville & the state DNR to do something.  But,
the farms were grandfathered in under the pollution control laws & weren't
doing anything illegal.  I was always surprised the issue wasn't considered
a threat to public health.  Anywhere else, you would expect the state would
either close down the farms or close down the marina, but not in Arkansas!

We usually use the winter months for planning next summer's cruises as well.
The boys & I would still like to circumnavigate Isle Royale National Park in
western Lake Superior.  We were going to make that voyage last summer, but
then I got laid off from my job & our life has been pretty hectic since
then.  Hopefully, 2003 will be better.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Kaynor" <mark@kaynor.org>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 8:03 AM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Dynamic Equilibrium Put Into Winter Storage


> Roger,
>
> I'd have to agree with you on that one. Pulling the boat at the end of the
> season is always sad for us, too. Then it's a long winter of reading
books,
> magazines, and catalogs, and "pining for the fjords". Sigh. Our weather
just
> turned cool, too. We managed to get in an overnight a couple of weeks ago,
> but it looks like that's the last one for the season for us.
>
> I envy you your indoor storage - I'd love to keep the boat out of the
> weather and be able work on it over the winter. We sail mostly out of a
slip
> at the local state park. They close the marina from 1 Nov through 31 Mar,
so
> even if it's nice weather, we have a deadline - if we're not out by 1 Nov,
> we could lose our slip.
>
> Mark Kaynor
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402@centurytel.net>
> To: <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 9:44 PM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Dynamic Equilibrium Put Into Winter Storage
>
>
> Well, today I cleaned the boat for the final time, winterized it, & put it
> into winter storage.  I store it at the Midland County Fairgrounds.  For a
> mere $187, I can store the boat inside a secure, guarded facility until as
> late as May 1, 2003.  Midland County rents out winter storage space inside
> the buildings which are used for the animal, craft, and vender displays
> during the annual county fair.  It's such a good deal that people come
from
> as far away as Detroit & Grand Rapids to store their summer toys at our
> county fairgrounds.  I wish Midland County would restrict fairground
access
> to county residents thru the month of October because the available
storage
> space fills up so fast that I have to cut my sailing season a little
shorter
> than I would prefer.
>
> It was only about 55 deg F & with a 10 - 15 knot wind this afternoon.
> That's a little chilly & windy to be playing in the water.  But, at least
> the job is done & NOAA weather radio is predicting snow flurries around
here
> this Wednesday.  So, I'm glad to have the boat safely tucked away in
advance
> of that!
>
> Putting the boat into winter storage is sort of the last act of summer for
> me.  I'm always sad to see summer end, but I enjoy fall & winter
activities
> as well.  So, it's time to move on.
>
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>
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