SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2011

For dinner last night we ordered pizza delivery to the boat. Thinking ahead, we ordered an extra large. That way, once underway this morning, we could enjoy our hands down all-time favorite breakfast of cold pizza!!! Mmmmm. (although cold take out Chinese runs a close second)

About 15 miles into the trip the fog rolled in. For quite a while we could see maybe 100 yards at most. The boat has a feature on the radar called MARPA.  If Ross sees a blip on the screen as the radar sweeps around it he puts the cursor on the blip and clicks on it. This acquires the target and the radar will track it and tell us the target’s speed and direction in relation to our boat. That way we know how close it will pass to us and how soon. We came very close to one boat and still couldn’t see it, but we could hear its foghorn.

 We sounded ours back, but sound is deceptive in the fog. The MARPA  “dangerous target” alarm was sounding so we knew were very close to the other boat. Suddenly it appeared out of the mist. We were less than 100 yards apart. Gotta love electronics!

We arrived safely in Manitowoc. As usual our guardian angels were working overtime because shortly after we were snug as bugs at the dock the fog really socked us in.

Rather than just sit on the boat in the misty gloom, we decided to ride the bikes around in it. I could bore you with the history of the town of Manitowoc and how they built submarines here during WWII, but I won’t. We’ve toured so many museums at this point in the Loop that I’ve become a bit jaded.

So I will share with you the coolest story about Manitowoc. This article from a website called Roadsideamerica says it best.

SPUTNIK CRASHED HERE

It was with much fanfare that the Soviet Union launched Korabl-Sputnik 1, dubbed "Sputnik IV" in the West, on May 14, 1960. It carried a super-secret 7-ton payload including, it was rumored, a life-size "dummy cosmonaut." The Reds were so proud that they put their newest satellite on a postage stamp. But five days later, when its re-entry rockets were fired, something apparently exploded. Instead of a triumphant return to earth, Sputnik IV (and the dummy) drifted into space. This time there was no fanfare. The Russians said that they'd never planned to bring it back anyway.

Sputnik IV stayed in its useless orbit until September 5, 1962, (Ross’ 9^th birthday!!) when it fell screaming from the sky over Wisconsin. All 7 tons, including the dummy cosmonaut, burned up in the atmosphere -- except one 20-pound hunk of metal. That piece crashed into 8^th street.

(a brass ring was embedded here to mark the exact spot where Sputnik had fallen)

The hunk had been embedded three inches deep into the asphalt of 8th Street, just off the centerline, for an hour before patrolmen Marvin Bauch and Ronald Rusboldt noticed it from their squad car.

They thought that it was a piece of cardboard and ignored it. An hour later they noticed it again, stopped to move it, and found that it was too hot to touch. They then thought that it was a piece of slag from a local foundry that had fallen out of a dump truck. They kicked it to the curb.

It wasn't until noon that Bauch and Rusboldt associated what they had seen with the reported breakup of Sputnik. They returned to the spot and found it, still in the gutter, more than seven hours after it had fallen. A check at the fire department with a Geiger counter showed no radioactivity, so the lump was shipped to the Smithsonian.

Nine days after the crash, satisfied that what they had was essentially just a hunk of metal, the Americans offered most of it back to the Soviets. The Russians huffed and puffed and finally accepted, carrying away the hunk in a box.

Not to let a good piece of space junk go to waste, the locals here celebrate Sputnik Days every year in September. There is the crowning of Miss Space Debris, a cosmic cake decorating contest, a cosmic costume contest, food, music and all sorts of things. The event is billed as wacky, tack, hokey, fun and ridiculous. Wish we’d still be here. Sounds like our kind of event!

We did tour the Maritime Museum and I must say it was excellent. Included in the admission was a guided tour of the WWII submarine COBIA. I never paid much attention to submarines so I was amazed to learn that when submerged they were powered off of 252 of these huge black battery cells! Trick was they had to surface every so often to run their diesel engines to recharge them.

Another fact that wowed me about the subs is that it was a very select group of sailors on them. 93% of applicants failed the cut. Each crewmember was tested on his knowledge and operation of every single piece of equipment on board! When “battle stations” was called, the closest crewmember took over the operation of the nearest station.

I also learned about torpedoes and that the fuel for their engines was 180 proof grain alcohol. Yikes. If the torpedo wasn’t needed, the “fuel” would be drained from it. Not to be wasteful, the sailors would save it. There was usually a rudimentary still of some sort on board that they would run it through and then mix it with pineapple juice. This concoction was known as “Torpedo Juice”.