You might be an old fart if...

[NorthernFocus]

You still carry a nav kit with compass, parallel rules, paper charts, and a hand full of quarters.

I've got a nylon brief case that has been with me for years and has done service on various boats. Every time that I go into it for something I consider whether I should leave the compass, dividers, and parallel rules at home. But today I had one more reason to travel memory lane. I found four quarters in the bottom of the bag. MANY years ago when I lived back east I had my operator(aka captain) license. In spring and fall I'd pick up work ferrying boats up and down the ditch. Back then nearly every marina would have a pay phone somewhere within spitting distance of the ramp to the docks. Somewhere running down the ditch I had mechanical issues in some backwater and was so broke that I didn't even have a dime to make a phone call. Ever since then I've made sure there are always a few quarters tossed into the bottom of my nav kit. I'll probably hang on to the dividers and compass for a while longer but I guess I can at least take the quarters out of the bag 😳

 

[Crewdog]

Uncle Bill, what's a pay phone?

 

[Red Raven]

Keep the quarters for the coin op showers! We still run into those fairly often.

 

[NorthernFocus]

Keep the quarters for the coin op showers! We still run into those fairly often.

If we had marinas maybe. No facilities where we boat on PWS. That's why the caution still with the nav bag at all. We do go to Valdez once a year and overnight at the dock. Showers there use tokens and cost $4 :cry:

 

[baz]

Some of us may be old farts, but the new farts will have to contemplate a new world...

There will come a day when we as a society will be operating in a cashless state, much like Sweden will be in a few years time as they're close to being cashless today. Sweden was the first country to produce printed/paper money and will likely be the first country to go cashless.

When our 'cashless' day arrives those quarters will be useless. You will use your finger print, eye scan, a grinning unique face recognition etc for paying for things. :lol:

....and speaking of Sweden today, there's this story of a recent bank robber who entered a Swedish bank and demanded cash from the Tellers. They looked at him in astonishment and pointed him to a sign on the wall that said the bank was 'cashless'. The dejected robber was 'gob smacked' and started to wander out of the bank and as he passed through the exit door, asked one of the Tellers, "Where else can I go?". 😱

 

[bill46]

I always keep a paper chart, hand bearing compass, and dividers on board. Electronics can fail. Fancy Garmin 7215 chart plotter locked up a couple of months ago. Problem was the 7212 on the command bridge. Powering down fixed. Now I shut off house power for a minute before a voyage to reset everything. Plan to add a simple depth sounder as the ICW is shallow in FL. My career was in electronics, and the more complicated it is the more ways it can fail. Also thinking a couple of rolls of quarters for laundry might be a good idea.
Good cruising, we are leaving for a week tomorrow, up the ditch to JAX, then St. John's to Ortega for the weekend.

 

[NorthernFocus]

I always keep a paper chart, hand bearing compass, and dividers on board. Electronics can fail....

Which is why I'm hanging on to the hand tools as well. But realistically, I've got fully functional GPS/plotter backup as well. So really anything short of the GPS satellites going off-line due to the Russians shooting them down or our govt. shutting them down because of global thermo-nuclear war, I'm covered. And if either of those things happening I'm probably better off staying where I am than trying to come back to Anchorage with its joint Army/Air Force base. Being that it is an F22 forward interceptor base it is likely high on Mr.Putin's target list :shock: