Difference between revisions of "2010-08-08 -37 144"

Revision as of 23:52, 27 August 2010

Location

A few metres off the coast on Williamstown beach.

Participants

Stevage. Mitch and D observed and laughed. Ellen sat in the car.

Expedition

I'd been hoping to do an aquatic geohash for a long time. This one was only a few metres off the beach, and in daylight would have been perfect - there's even a bike path running past. At 11pm, it was on the chilly side.

Fresh from the successful Footscray cemetery geohash, we zoomed in on the spot, parking within about 50m. I wandered over to the rocks and saw that I could get to 20m without getting my feet wet. I clipped on my helmet cam, whipped off my jeans, and slipped on the sandals I had brought for the occasion. It is faintly possible that I looked ridiculous, in sandals, undies, ski jacket, and helmet camera attached to a strap around my forehead.

At first, all went well. I delicately hopped from rock to rock, admiring the sludge and mildly nauseating odour. The lights across the water were pretty, and I could see the whole Westgate Bridge lit up. GPS in hand, I made my first steps into the mud. Squelch. Squish. The closer I got, the thicker the mud got, until simply extricating my feet for each step became a major challenge. Retrieving the sandal, even harder... Then I slipped, plunging my GPS underwater in my frantic efforts to regain my balance. Yes, it really is waterproof.

Eventually I got to within 7m, and having great difficulty moving in any direction, I called it "close enough is good enough". I clumsily waded back to shore, quickly dried off (I even remembered to bring a towel!), and drove back home. Mitch caused a few last moments of drama by revealing that he'd locked himself out. Fortunately, a passing PhD student was able to let him in.

Photos

You've gotta have some of this one!

Achievements

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-<!-- If you did not specify these parameters in the template, please substitute appropriate things for IMAGE, LAT, LON, and DATE (YYYY-MM-DD format)
-[[Image:{{{image|IMAGE}}}|thumb|left]]
-Remove this section if you don't want a image at the top (left) of your report.   You should remove the "Image:" or "File:"
-tag from your image file name, and replace the all upper-case word IMAGE in the above line.
-And DON'T FORGET to add your expedition and the best photo you took to the gallery on the Main Page! We'd love to read your report, but that means we first have to discover it!
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 {{meetup graticule
 | lat=-37
-| lon=145
+| lon=144
-| date=2010-07-23
+| date=2010-08-08
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 == Location ==
-Just off the coast in Altona (I think), feet wetting time.
+A few metres off the coast on Williamstown beach.
 == Participants ==
-[[User:Stevage|Stevage]] - I think he was alone for this one.
+[[User:Stevage|Stevage]]. Mitch and D observed and laughed. Ellen sat in the car.
 == Expedition ==
-From Stevage's description, he dropped the other skiers off at their respective houses from the previous day's [[2010-08-09 -37 144 geohash]], then drove to the beach near the hash, waded in to within 5m, the GPS accuracy level, before heading home.  Unfortunately, it was past midnight, so it doesn't count as a success.
+I'd been hoping to do an aquatic geohash for a long time. This one was only a few metres off the beach, and in daylight would have been perfect - there's even a bike path running past. At 11pm, it was on the chilly side.
+Fresh from the successful Footscray cemetery geohash, we zoomed in on the spot, parking within about 50m. I wandered over to the rocks and saw that I could get to 20m without getting my feet wet. I clipped on my helmet cam, whipped off my jeans, and slipped on the sandals I had brought for the occasion. It is faintly possible that I looked ridiculous, in sandals, undies, ski jacket, and helmet camera attached to a strap around my forehead.
+At first, all went well. I delicately hopped from rock to rock, admiring the sludge and mildly nauseating odour. The lights across the water were pretty, and I could see the whole Westgate Bridge lit up. GPS in hand, I made my first steps into the mud. Squelch. Squish. The closer I got, the thicker the mud got, until simply extricating my feet for each step became a major challenge. Retrieving the sandal, even harder... Then I slipped, plunging my GPS underwater in my frantic efforts to regain my balance. Yes, it really is waterproof.
-More detail Stevage!
+Eventually I got to within 7m, and having great difficulty moving in any direction, I called it "close enough is good enough". I clumsily waded back to shore, quickly dried off (I even remembered to bring a towel!), and drove back home. Mitch caused a few last moments of drama by revealing that he'd locked himself out. Fortunately, a passing PhD student was able to let him in.
 == Photos ==


Sun 8 Aug 2010 in -37,144: -37.8514438, 144.8988717 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox