Monday, October 22, 2012

Natural Navigation Quiz


  1. What state are we in? (If you can't guess this one, I'll disown you all.)
  2. Which way are we looking?
  3. What was I standing on to take this photo?
  4. Where is the nearest sailing club?
  5. Where is the nearest boathouse that isn't a boathouse?
  6. What did Tillerwoman and I have for dinner?

24 comments:

JP said...

I will of course race to answer your questions but blogger is very keen that I read a blog post called "Oh the Suspense" so I'll do that first.

Oh darn it, just remembered I am meant to be working, really.....

Tillerman said...

Blogger wants you to read my post about the Newport Bridge Run from last November? Why would that be? Do you mean it's one of the "You might also like:" suggestions?

I don't think there are any clues in that post! Although there are some clues to some of the questions elsewhere in the blog.

litoralis said...

1. The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
2. WSW

I think I know the others too, but I won't spoil it for your other readers yet.

Tillerman said...

1. Very correct. Although of course not many people use the full name of the state.

2. I would have guessed that too. But when I checked the direction with my iPhone compass app after taking the photo, and reconfirmed just now with Google Maps, I was actually facing only a couple of degrees S of due W. Close enough though.

For those of you who don't know, Litoralis is my son and so probably does think he knows all the answers. It's genetic.

Litoralis said...

It's hard to judge the exact direction without knowing exactly where you were along the thing you were standing on and how you cropped the photo.

Without giving it away, I think the sailing club that is the answer to #4 sails a variation of a Soling.

Tillerman said...

The photo was lightly cropped, hardly any off the sides as I recall but I asked him to shave my neck and trim my eyebrows.

Baydog said...

3. Your car door-step
6. Stuffies and fried softshells

Tillerman said...

Baydog- why did you choose the most difficult unanswered questions?

Anyway, both your answers are wrong.

The trick of being a successful natural navigator is to use all of the information available to you and to use all your senses. The answer to #3 may also require some knowledge of geography and history. The answer to #6 requires knowledge that can be gleaned from other recent blog posts and an understanding of human nature aka applied psychology. The actual meal is actually mentioned in at least two older blog posts.

Anonymous said...

Evelyn's and clams

Anonymous said...

#5 Tiverton, RI The very good Boat House Pub/Restaurant.

Anonymous said...

#4 TYC, Tiverton Yacht Club near where you took the photo.

Tillerman said...

Anonymous 5:58 PM - Wrong. Evelyn's is closed for the season.

Anonymous 6:04 PM - Correct. I don't think the Boat House would call itself itself a pub but it is an excellent waterfront restaurant. Great for a casual lunch, a romantic dinner, or a family dinner with all the kids. Just a short stroll from our house.

Anonymous 6:07 PM - Wrong. This is the obvious answer but actually there is a sailing club somewhat closer to where I took the photo. I have mentioned it at least a couple of times on this blog. And litoralis's second comment was something of a clue.



Baydog said...

I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep

Tillerman said...

The original Natural Navigator has just written a post on his blog titled "Sensing Lots When We Can See Little."

Exactly what I was saying! The answers to 3, 4 and 6 just need you to do some "sensing."

3 needs geographical and historical sense. And there is actually a clue in one of the previous comments.

4 needs you to have a sense for what I have written on the blog earlier, and there is also a clue in the previous comments.

And 6 needs a sense for human nature and a sense for where and what Tillerwoman and I have been eating in the past few weeks.

O Docker said...

Looks like you were standing on a pier next to the restaurant.

Couldn't track down the name of the pier, or its history, but it looks fairly recent, and more substantial than something that would have been erected by a private business, so maybe a municipal public fishing pier.

The whole site the pier and restaurant are on looks recently 'reclaimed' and may have been where the footings for a former bridge once stood - there's a similar site just across the river in Portsmouth. Or does 'Schooner Drive' tell us a large wharf once stood there?

There are a number of nearby former bridge sites on the Sakonnet - both north and south of the current highway bridge that's being redone. You can tell from Google maps that some of the bridges were for roads and some for rail lines that no longer exist.

You can read a lot of the history of a place by studying aerial photos for clues very similar to the ones the Natural Navigator uses to navigate.

I'd guess the nearest sailing club is across the river in Portsmouth and that you and the Tillerwoman had Marmite sandwiches.



Tillerman said...

Good research O Docker.

I'm not sure what the history of that old pier is.

The restaurant is on the waterfront of a huge condo complex known as an Active Adult Community. I think that means it's for people over 55 who are so active they don't have time to mow their own lawns. The site is indeed "reclaimed". I think it used to be some sort of fuel storage facility. I did hear tales of contaminated soil having to be removed. I think "Schooner Drive" is purely a name made up by the property developer to help him sell the condos at inflated prices. Sounds so much better than Chemical Alley or Contamination Close.

I see what you mean about the shape of the land on both sides of the river suggesting that there may have been a bridge near where the restaurant now is at one point, but I'm pretty sure the river was never bridged there. The first bridge was at Stone Bridge a mile or so to the south. This was destroyed by a hurricane in 1954 but you can clearly see on Google Maps the remains of the bridge on both sides of the river.

And you are correct that there are two road bridges (one recently opened - the other about to be demolished) and the remains of a rail bridge all very close together about half a mile south of the restaurant.

Talking of rail, you can see on Google Maps the route of the now abandoned rail line up the eastern shore of Mount Hope Bay. It's never been properly converted into a bike trail as many other former rail lines around this area have, but it's used as an unofficial walking trail by local residents.

Anyway, your answers to all three questions are totally wrong.

But I'm going to give you consolation marks for #3. We were not on a pier by the restaurant. The foreground of the picture is actually the beach at the north end of that bay to the north of the restaurant. But we were standing on that abandoned railway line which you came so close to identifying.

The club where boats are sailed is on the Tiverton side of the river and is very close to where the picture was taken. It's a bit of a trick question, although the club has been mentioned on this blog before.

You are sort of on the right track with Marmite sandwiches. But that would be more of a lunch or a picnic than a Sunday dinner, don't you think?

Baydog said...

If O Docker can't figure it out, we're all screwed.

Tillerman said...

Baydog - with your background in the food business you ought to be able to figure out what we were likely to eat for Sunday dinner last weekend.

Clues

1. We had just returned from a trip of over 3 weeks in Europe when we had eaten almost exclusively in hotels and restaurants. Where would be likely to eat on our first full weekend back?

2. For the past 2 weeks of our trip we were in Spain. We ate Spanish food. What kind of food do you think an English couple might want to have for Sunday dinner after two weeks of Spanish food?

O Docker said...

4. Mount Hope Bay Model Yacht Club, which sails scale model Solings near the Boat House restaurant, and whose members you once ran into (figuratively) on a bike tour of the area.

Tillerman said...

Correct O Docker.

Dallas Dude said...

6. St. Georges Bay Scallops

Tillerman said...

Sorry Dallas Dude. Not correct.

Read my clues about 4 comments back. We had just spent 2 weeks by the sea in Spain, near a fishing village, eating seafood almost every day. That was the last thing we wanted when re returned home.

Dallas Dude said...

Must be a good cheeseburger, then . . .

Tillerman said...

Dallas Dude, good guess. I know Americans love cheeseburgers. Some years ago I did a business trip with two American colleagues to China and Hong Kong. I was enjoying all the Asian cuisine but after three days they were craving cheeseburgers. We had to go to MacDonalds in Hong Kong!!!

But Tillerwoman and I are English dammit. We enjoy all sorts of foreign foods, but there does come a point when we want something that reminds us of home.

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