Morry Kapitan - Norm’s divining rod               Even though it rained on Saturday, I had a great time.  I experienced all of the stuff I expect on a Spring Cruise, bald eagles and sighting other wildlife, quiet anchorages, being aground, and the company of a group of like-minded sailors.  I sincerely hope that others write more about those aspects of the cruise, because my best memory of the 24th Annual Chesapeake Bay Spring Cruise is completely dominated by John Zohlen and the mysterious weather divining lumber.  I must tell the story...         Four boats ended up in a raft around Ken Murphy’s anchor on Saturday morning.  My Peep Hen, Peep Hen, was on the port side of Sanity, John Zohlen in Zephyrus was on Sanity’s starboard side, and Phil Sampson had tied off his Dovekie, Dovekie, outboard of my boat.  The general discussion at the time was about what sailing plan should be followed for the rest of the day.  Since on-going rain played a big part in this decision, conversation about the current forecast started, especially between Ken and John.  Ken tuned in a NOAA station.  I started listening to the broadcast from Ken’s boat and happened to glance over in the direction of The Sanity and Zephyrus.  At that point I noticed John standing in his Dovekie holding what looked to me like a piece of pressure treated lumber.  This piece of lumber was about four feet long and had the dimensions of a 2x2.  It was pretty crude looking as some saw marks were still evident where it had been ripped off of a wider plank, and the end in the air that I could see was not even cut squarely.          I have come to expect that everything on Zephyrus is ship-shape and squared away.  Since the existence of this rough piece of lumber did not obviously fit my paradigm of what would be expected as part of the gear on Zephyrus, I became curious.  But then I observed what John was doing with this object.  He was facing pretty much to the south, cupping the lumber in both hands at the bottom end.  The other end was up in the air, the stick held perfectly vertical.  While John was holding the wood in this manner, he was carefully speaking into the lumber at the area of his cupped hands.  I couldn’t hear what he was saying to the lumber as Ken’s NOAA radio report drowned out anything that John was saying, but John’s lips were moving, so I assumed that he was talking to the wood.  After John finished speaking, he appeared to listen very intently to the lumber for a time before speaking to it again.

Well now, I have seen a few things in my short life that I have not been able to explain, but nevertheless work for some reason.  Therefore, I am not one to pass off strange phenomena involving common, everyday items.  An example would be the use of a divining rod.  I have seen people use this device to find pipes and things underground and was quite skeptical.  However, about five years ago an acquaintance made me divining rods out of a coat hanger and taught me to use them.  Sure enough, I can now find pipes underground and sometimes determine their orientation, but still cannot explain why.  I was thinking that John might have found something similar.  After all, John was clearly carrying on a conversation with an oddly shaped length of pressure treated lumber while standing in Zephyrus facing pretty much south.  And he looked pretty serious about what ever it was he was doing with that wood.          I couldn’t stand it any longer and asked John if he was trying to communicate with the lumber and if it had special weather predictive properties.  John was sort of taken aback by this comment and said that no, the lumber was actually a radio!  I thought about this for a split second figuring that John had really lost it, but before I could respond with a sarcastic “Oh, really?”, John turned the lumber towards me revealing a small, handheld VHF radio strapped to the bottom of the wood.  This was still an odd sight.  Why would anyone attach a modern, high-tech VHF radio to a long board?  Using a small radio with a long board attached has got to be pretty cumbersome.  I got to thinking that maybe John was concerned that the radio wouldn’t float if it went overboard.          John must have sensed that the gears in my mind were grinding while trying to make any sense of all this, and he quickly disavowed all involvement in the creation of this “device”, explaining that Norm Wolfe had put it together to try out a new antenna design.  This short statement, of course, explained everything.  I have had the opportunity to inspect Norm’s boat and look at some of the improvement items that he was working on.  Based on these observations, I have come to consider Norm a tinkerer of the highest order.  And I mean that as a true complement, as Norm actually carries out ideas that most of us just mull over in our heads.  He actually makes his ideas real and physically tests them to extract any learning.  If I had seen Norm using the lumber, I would have instantly known that something tangible and educational was to be found.  Unfortunately, I didn’t associate Norm with the device from the start.  I did get a good laugh out of this (more than once during the next day or so), however at John’s expense.          I didn’t take any pictures of John using the lumber out of respect for John; however, I think someone else may have sneaked a photo or two.  It brings a smile to my face just thinking about it.  So I really have Norm to thank for this.  Thank you Norm, you weren’t in attendance, but you made my cruise!

Jake takes a snap of Morry as he is about to raft up during a rainy period