Once again, Ryan and Bethany have made an outstanding video. This one has some technical and editing flourishes which I haven't seen them do before - they are getting better and better. Go check it out, vote for it or something, maybe they'll win some furniture for their new home.
The timing was nothing short of impeccable. It seems like the very moment I got home on Friday, I got sick. My throat swelled, became scratchy and raw. My joints ached, my muscles became sore. I was exhausted, and it happened so suddenly, like someone flipped a switch. And, lucky me, it lasted all weekend so I wasn't able to do anything worthwhile. I suspect I will still be subpar Monday morning, but not enough so taking time off makes sense. Such a ripoff.
So I spent the weekend watching movies and playing video games. Sunday was fairly cruddy out, so I don't particularly mind. But Saturday was beautiful - maybe enough wind for sailing, certainly nice enough for a long ride out the W&OD trail. Maybe next weekend.
In a small bit of interesting news, in Alabama one of the ships we've been doing work for, the USS Independence, was unveiled at Austal Shipyard. There are some quick shots of it in the video below.
There is an excellent article this morning in the NY Times about the troubles on the LCS program. I've been working on and off with the LCS program since I was an intern at NAVSEA in 2001. Back then it was still called Streetfighter. Then it was the Small Fast Surface Combatant, followed by the Focused Mission Ship, until it finally became the Littoral Combat Ship.
Most of the industry has been involved with the program at one point or another. There were many teams competing with original design proposals a few years back. Now, the two winning teams are extremely busy, and many others (such as my company) are working on the government side consulting and reviewing. It is a huge effort, and is almost universally decried as a mess.
The two designs are fairly solid; the trouble has been the execution. This article does a good job of explaining how it has happened, and why. It's not $500 wrenches that make the defense budget so high - it's half a billion dollar frigates that are the problem.
Pretty amazing footage of a Georgian UAV being shot down by a Mig-29, taken from the UAV.
Very sinister, the way the Fulcrum just smoothly slides into the frame before firing.
Yesterday started out so hot and still - even a little muggy. I hate that kind of weather, and it is all too common here. However, I knew a front was headed our way - big storms predicted for today. Fronts mean changing conditions. And changing conditions mean wind.
I had all my sailing gear gathered up and ready, and right after lunch I saw the tops of the taller trees across the street begin to sway. I loaded Betty onto the roof rack and drove over to Gravelly Point. As usual on nice days, the park was packed. I was lucky to get a space right next to the grass - it makes it easier to offload the boat and set her up. I was on the water in no time flat.
For the upper Potomac, it was about as perfect as it ever gets. Warm, in the low 80s. Partly cloudy or hazy, so it is sunny but without too much glare. And good, steady breeze out of the south - 10-15 knots, and none of the usual flukiness. It made for fantastic sailing. You could make good progress to windward since the current was with you. If you wanted to just bury a rail (or your leeward ama in my case), you could set up speed runs on the broad reach, criss-crossing the river.
Starting at the point, I worked my way downriver about as far as the end of the Naval Research Labs, near the plants at Blue Haven. As the crow flies that only works out to about two and a half miles, but it is the farthest south I've gotten sailing out of Gravelly Point. If I hadn't gotten hungry, I could have made it to Old Town, easily.
Betty performed beautifully downwind. I set the sheet in the cam lock, and didn't even have to touch the rudder. We eased straight back towards Fort McNair until we hit the lay line for a screaming broad reach back to the dock. It was a great day of sailing - perfect conditions, not too crowded in the river, and it stayed that way for as long as you cared to enjoy it.
Back on land, things got a bit trickier. Loading up the vaka (center hull), I set the stern up on the roof rack, and began to lift the bow. But something slipped, and the whole thing started to fall. I caught it, awkwardly, by twisting my left hand around some, and pinning most of the weight against my hip, braced against one of the akas (cross bars). I had to hold it like that while I figured out a way to reset myself to lift the bow without any more slippage. I managed it, but it feels like I sprained my left wrist, and there is a nasty-looking bruise on my hip. Pretty minor though, and a small price to pay for such a great day.
Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous outside - put forth as a potential Nicest Day of the Year by the folks at CapitalWeather. The day before was nice as well, and I had ridden the Arlington Triangle after work. I decided to do a longer ride, since I had nothing else set up that night and the weather was perfect for it.
It was great, but I am working with the burden of a slothful winter. In past seasons, the Mount Vernon trail was my standard after work ride. Yesterday it was... a bit more challenging than before. Not huffing and puffing, or stopping to rest, but certainly I was more keenly aware of the effort. I wish I had followed the example of my friend Matt and Kate, and kept up a better regimen in the colder months.
Even so, I've missed my long rides. More than just exercise and fresh air, the steady rhythm of pedaling for an hour or two away from home or work helps me clear my mind. And days like yesterday, where I can do that without blistering heat, smothering humidity, stinging cold, or biting wind, are the best.
Many months of study and preparation came to a head yesterday, as I took the Principles and Practices of Professional Engineering (PE) Exam. We were so anxious, Jane and I drove out to the site the night before, to make sure we knew how to get there, and how long it would take. We had maps, we had a GPS unit. There was a plan for messages and phone calls to guarantee we were both up and ready on-time. Each of us brought a ridiculous number of references. I had an entire rolling suitcase full of textbooks. We had this thing wired.
The test itself was challenging in a number of ways. Even though I reviewed all the study modules, there were some questions I was completely clueless about. Time was a factor - in order to complete the 80 questions in time, you have to average 6 minutes per question. It sounds like plenty of time, until you are staring at the test booklet, dumbfounded. Plenty of pressure to rush, and so many different topics - electrical motors, harmonic vibrations, ship resistance and propulsion, beam strength and deflection, and on and on. Lastly, the scale of the thing is daunting. While we got an hour off for lunch, we sat down for the exam a little after 7 AM, and we were dismissed a few minutes before 6 PM. It is a long, long day.
The length of the day was compounded by the site they held the exam. It was in a Shriner hall, which holds plenty of people, but has horrible exit design from the parking lot. The lot fed out onto a short frontage road, which had only one outlet onto a side street which in turn fed into Route 50 about 20 feet away. That intersection was governed by a streetlight with a very short green and a long red. We spent more time bumper-to-bumper on the frontage road with the other 200-odd examiness than we on the whole rest of the drive home. That didn't help anyone's mood. Luckily, we went directly to the Dogfish Head Brewery to meet Zina, Sarah & Paul, and some of their friends for dinner. That made up for a lot the trials of the day.
While I admit the test was difficult, I feel confident about my work. Perhaps it is overconfidence, but I think I passed. Historically, the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering test has one of the highest pass rates. Unfortunately, results are going to be sent "within twelve weeks." So it could be until July before I find out one way or the other. At least I don't have to study every night anymore.
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