WE Energies to Squash Distributed Renewables with their latest rate case.

[ChrisOlson]

I have a boat named "Adventurous" btw. She's a Catalina 30 that I sail out of SSYC. Our family has had her as far North as Mackinac Island and pretty much everywhere else on lake Michigan. Not blue water like you but still fun.

Cool! We'll be sailing our Legend 37 back down to Kenosha the last week in Sept to get her off Lake Superior before it gets too wild for the fall. One of these years we want to sail her out the St. Lawrence, but this year is not that year. We're sailing to the tropics again in November.

[kwilcox]

What interesting light?

This was the quote from the document that I found interesting:

During the 1990s, several countries started to restructure
the power sector by unbundling generation and transmission. The nature of PHS falls into
the gray area between generation and transmission [10]. Because the net electricity output
of PHS operation is negative, a PHS facility usually cannot qualify as a power generator.
Although PHS provides crucial load-balancing and ancillary services to the grid and
reduces the needs for transmission upgrades, PHS facilities do not typically qualify as
transmission infrastructure. For instance, in the United States, the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission denied a request from a proposed PHS project to be categorized
as a transmission facility for purposes of rate recovery [11].

This would apply to virtually any large scale energy storage since one would think that net output could never be positive.

[russ]

Reads like a high school term paper.

Mention pumped storage and the greens go bonkers - must not damage mother nature! Upgrading existing units would be cost effective and politically possible it seems. New reservoirs take many years to plan and build - reservoirs of the size required to be of any use.

It is a difficult fit to find the geography and the politics that would allow new reservoirs - not to mention it being horribly costly.

[Sunking]

We're sailing to the tropics again in November.

Come to El Puerto de Boccas del Toro and I will have some real Pirates great you. Just kidding put you up for a couple of nights up in the mountains. We got some of the the best coffee and fresh fruit in the world growing, great seafood, and judging from all the Dead Heads and ole Hippies that live here I would say probable some pretty good Ganja dirt cheap. Its a lot like a cross between Hawaii and Jamaica. You get Hawaii class cities and towns with a Jamaica price tag and without Jamaica hassle from the locals. Americans get pretty good treatment from Panama City to the west. Just don't east of the canal or near the coast beyond there, and swing wide of Venezuela . Or else your boat will be turned into a Smugglers boat and you put to work in the fields or shot.

[kwilcox]

You're in Panama? Damn! I've always wanted to go there. I have a friend who moved there years back. Owns a marina. Lol... when Y2K hit, I was chartering a bare boat in Belize. My first French Cat it was... The running joke during that 3 week vacation was if the world fell apart we would just sail it to Panama & let Richie hook us up...

[ChrisOlson]

We weren't too far from Panama last winter. We spent Christmas and New Year's on Ambergris Caye. Then sailed to San Andres and spent two weeks there snorkeling and fishing around the reefs.

San Andres is wall-to-wall people and condos. Nice place to visit as long as you don't have to go ashore.

[SunEagle]

Cool! We'll be sailing our Legend 37 back down to Kenosha the last week in Sept to get her off Lake Superior before it gets too wild for the fall. One of these years we want to sail her out the St. Lawrence, but this year is not that year. We're sailing to the tropics again in November.

Chris

Do you keep your Legend at your property?

[kwilcox]

....We spent Christmas and New Year's on Ambergris Caye..

Nice! I have a great story navigating through Porto Stuck with a huge barge on our way North to Ambergris. It's marked by friggen palm tree trunks for God's sake. We actually named a Rum drink after it....

[ChrisOlson]

Chris

Do you keep your Legend at your property?

No - she's moored at the marina in Bayfield right now. This coming Friday we're sailing her thru the Soo Locks and down Michigan to Kenosha. It's about a 700nm cruise and it will take us 6-7 days if the wind cooperates. We get off Superior while the gettin' is still good in the fall and moor our boat on the south end of Lake Michigan - then get out of there before freeze-up. Take the river system (Calumet, Illinois and Mississippi) to the Gulf. There's nine locks to go thru until we get to St Louis where the Mississippi is big, deep and wide. Then it's clear sailing the rest of the way to the Gulf. It takes 3 - 4 weeks to get to blue water, depending on how many places we stop at and visit on the way. After we get to the Gulf it's only a week cruise to Ambergris Caye, Belize.

However, this year we want to go the other way and spend a week or two on the Great Bahama Bank.

[kwilcox]

... my wife after I read a few of the above posts back to her:....

"What the hell do you care about WE Energies? Let's just leave!"

[kwilcox]

This coming Friday we're sailing her thru the Soo Locks and down Michigan to Kenosha. It's about a 700nm cruise and it will take us 6-7 days if the wind cooperates.... .

Ping me if you feel like stopping in Milwaukee for the night. SSYC is on the south end of Milwaukee Bay. I'd feel privileged to buy you one.

[ChrisOlson]

Ping me if you feel like stopping in Milwaukee for the night. SSYC is on the south end of Milwaukee Bay.

Will do! We got a slip leased at South Port in Kenosha. People are usually getting their boats hauled out like crazy first of Oct and they got all kinds of slips open. I imagine the yacht club there has the same thing going on. But there's a few hardy sailors that keep their boats on the water right to the bitter end.

You should listen to your wife The first part of the voyage down the river system is a little busy with freighters and barges. But the further south you get the better it gets. And warmer too. We don't sail on the rivers after dark because we're not familiar enough with them and prefer daylight so we can deal with the barge tows and freighters while being able to keep a good visual on them.

Sailing down the Mississippi is absolutely beautiful and many historic sites you can visit. Last year we were lounging in the cockpit with some drinks around sundown and talking about what it must've been like back in the heyday of the steamboats on the Mississippi in the mid-1850's. There's still a few on the river and you can take a dinner cruise on one. We might do that this year and experience what it was like.

[SunEagle]

No - she's moored at the marina in Bayfield right now. This coming Friday we're sailing her thru the Soo Locks and down Michigan to Kenosha. It's about a 700nm cruise and it will take us 6-7 days if the wind cooperates. We get off Superior while the gettin' is still good in the fall and moor our boat on the south end of Lake Michigan - then get out of there before freeze-up. Take the river system (Calumet, Illinois and Mississippi) to the Gulf. There's nine locks to go thru until we get to St Louis where the Mississippi is big, deep and wide. Then it's clear sailing the rest of the way to the Gulf. It takes 3 - 4 weeks to get to blue water, depending on how many places we stop at and visit on the way. After we get to the Gulf it's only a week cruise to Ambergris Caye, Belize.

However, this year we want to go the other way and spend a week or two on the Great Bahama Bank.

I never realized there was a wet path South from Lake Michigan. I do know that last March the ice was still pretty thick up there as even thicker up in Green Bay.

[kwilcox]

I never realized there was a wet path South from Lake Michigan. I do know that last March the ice was still pretty thick up there as even thicker up in Green Bay.

The Chicago Ship canal cuts right over to the Mississippi. I've never traveled it but I'm told that you need to unstep the mast first & carry it along. Not exactly sure where you can re-step it either but I believe you need to travel most of the Mississippi first.

[ChrisOlson]

The Chicago Ship canal cuts right over to the Mississippi. I've never traveled it but I'm told that you need to unstep the mast first & carry it along. Not exactly sure where you can re-step it either but I believe you need to travel most of the Mississippi first.

I depends on the size of the boat, but you can step your mast at the end of the Illinois River, or any time once you hit the Mississippi. The Eads Bridge in St. Louis has 65 feet clearance at the center of the arch. Our boat has a 49 foot main'sl leech and 61 feet from the water line to the top of the mast and it clears. But you have to check on river level before trying it to see if it's above or below nominal.

You have to hire a crane at a marina to step your mast and that costs around $500. Our boat has a B&R rig and I tune it myself but if you have to hire a professional rigger to get the rig back in tune it'll cost you another $300 bucks.