MLSPS OCTOBER 21 DINNER MEETING HAS BEEN CANCELED
Elsie Dill Launer, the wife of Capt. Don Launer, our speaker for this Thursday's dinner meeting, died Sunday morning. They had been married 61 years.
This week's MLSPS dinner meeting is canceled. Checks will be returned. Further information will be announced when it's available.
Here is Mrs. Launer's death notice as it appeared in the Asbury Park Press:
ELSIE DILL LAUNER
AGE: 84 FORKED RIVER
Elsie Dill Launer, 84, of Forked River, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010, at home. She was born in New York City and raised her family in Upper Saddle River, NJ, prior to moving to Forked River in 1989. Elsie was a loving wife and mother and especially loved her grandchildren. For decades, she tremendously enjoyed cooking for family as well as countless friends and guests, and she was always quite taken by the small birds and animals near her home. She had a whimsical and unique approach to life and will be greatly missed by her family.
She is survived by her husband, Donald of 61 years; her two children, Kathryn Davenport of Wyckoff, Thomas and his wife Margaret of Bedminster; and her two grandchildren, Jennifer Davenport of Nyack, NY, and Nancy Davenport of Wyckoff.
A visitation will be held on Wednesday, October 20th from 2-4 & 7-9 pm at the Riggs Funeral Home, 130 Rt. 9 North, Forked River, NJ. Donations in her memory may be made to the Popcorn Park Zoo, PO Box 43, Forked River, NJ 08731.
Navigation Through the Ages
by Capt. Don Launer
WHEN: Oct. 21. Cocktails 6:30 pm Buffet 6:45-7:45 pm Program 8:00 pm
WHERE: The Paddock at Devon
MENU: Assorted hors d'oeuvres, including Maryland crab cakes, Coconut shrimp with sweet chili sauce, Buffalo chicken spring roll with bleu cheese, teriyaki beef kabob, smoked salmon bruschetta crostini, assorted crudite with dipping sauces, sliced baguettes and water crackers.
Cash bar available.
COST: $27 per person
RSVP TO:
Lance Parry at
lapnews@gmail.com
Send checks by Oct. 14 to:
Lance Parry
16 Salisbury Lane
Malvern, PA 19355
TOPIC AND SPEAKER:
The presentation, Navigation Through the Ages, is a “show-and-tell” in which Capt. Launer demonstrates navigational gear used through the millennia, and explains the theory behind the devices.
The presentation is roughly chronological, starting with the polar stick and shadow board used by the Vikings around 1,000 BC that enabled them to sail to England, Iceland, Greenland, and beyond. Capt. Launer moves on to the Roman’s lead-line, which was such a perfect device that its original design is still in use today. The progression leads to the Arab’s kamal, and the astrolabe, cross-staff, and quadrant which enabled sailors to navigate through the Middle Ages.
Until the late 1700s sailors were obliged to navigate by “sailing a latitude,” but when the availability of an accurate ship’s chronometer and the sextant came together in the late 1700s, sailors could, for the first time in navigational history, determine longitude as well as latitude.
Capt. Launer then turns to the electronic age when echo-sounding could determine depth, and electromagnetic waves were used to establish a “fix.” The presentation ends with a short explanation of GPS, in which he stresses the fact that although GPS is a wonderful tool, it is subject to terrestrial, and more importantly, solar interference, which can disable the system. It is then that the knowledgeable sailor must go back in time to those other navigation systems, which should be in every sailor’s “bag of tricks.”
Some of the navigational tools that are demonstrated are: the polar-stick, shadow-board, lead-line, sand-glass, chip-log, compass, Walker or taffrail log, marine chronometer, astrolabe, quadrant, cross-staff, kamal, sextant, RDF, and finally, GPS.
--Captain Launer has presented Navigation Through the Ages to numerous boating organizations throughout the northeast, and was recently invited to give a presentation on the history of navigation to the cadets and officers at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
Thanks,
--
Lance Parry
lapnews@gmail.com
16 Salisbury Lane, Malvern, PA 19355-2836
Home: 610-296-0890 Cell: 610-247-3904