Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room Jessica

Fortnight: Two weeks; you will hear this term in any country that has its roots in colonial english.

B

fortnight is 14 days or two weeks.

Jessica travels about a hundred miles a day, so her speed is 11,200 furlongs per fortnight.

For what it's worth, it's a shortening of the Old English for "fourteen nights". More ammunition to win big in Trivial Pursuit.

Who needs school when we have this MB?? It's a virtual academic potpourri here!

Speaking of Jessica, a friend of mine who is also following her adventure online commented to me recently that "she'll never have to work another day of her life if she doesn't want to, with the book and movie deals." Probably true.

CaT

> "fourteen nights"

THANKS Bulldog! Now that is something that will finally stick in my brain. I just couldn't find any connection between fortnight and 2 weeks.

Apparently the Old(e) English spelling for 14 was something like "fortene", so it made sense to them at the time. Guess they needed a handle for a time frame between a week and a month - "bi-monthly" probably didn't fly back then.

Neither did "semi-monthly."


Yeah, around here you'd get the colonial Spanish version.

bi-monthly -- twice a month.

So I have seen bi- used to mean "every other" and also twice with in the period. Google "biweekly definition" and see what turns up. How can one tell the difference????

I was taught that "bimonthly" means every two months and "semimonthly" means twice per month. However, the Miriam Webster site gives two definitions for "bimonthly:

On the same site, you can find "biannual" meaning "semiannual" and the opposite of "biennial."
We have a screwy language.

Well, working off of a word that is probably more well known -- "semi-annually" -- which means twice a year, it would seem to indicate that semi-monthly would mean twice a month, and bi-monthly would then mean every other month. That's the way I learned it, too -- Miriam notwithstanding.

I also work for attorneys, and they must fulfill "x" number of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) hours per two-year period (known as a biennium). So since a biennium (or bi-annually) means every other year, ditto for bi-monthly -- every other month. As one other example, a bi-monthly newsletter is sent every other month.

And yes, we do have a screwy language -- ask any non-English speaking person who has had to learn our language.

CaT

American English is no longer a language with strict meaning in it's vocabulary - not that it ever really was, I suppose. It's more a collection of formal Queen's English at it's base, heavily blended with very broad colloquial terms, auxiliary slang, and contextual you-figure-it-outs, augmented nowdays with successively more techno-speak and ethnic spice. Plus, I've read that we have more compound words than any other language. I've also been told by several folks who speak numerous languages (between 5 and 9) that American English is by far the hardest Western language to master because of this lack of rigidity and its free-form style.

Anyone who watches the show NCIS sees this regularly with Ziva, the Israeli team member who can never get a colloquialism right.

In other words Alan, yeah we have a screwy language. For all intents and purposes, semi-annual and bi-annual are the same - only different . . .

So you sailers help me out here.Sounds like a wave knocked Abby's boat over on its side.When that happens do these type of sail boats right themselves? What is the sinking danger? I imagine its has something to do with whether the keel stays in the water or does that matter?

Below applies to keelboats, only.

Yep, she apparently had a "knock down", where the mast touches the surface of the water, generally meaning that the boat was over 90 degrees. Virtually any modern keelboat will right itself from that position, barring severe structural damage. Most boats on such a voyage will experience such an action, and are built for it. Just from the knock down, there is virtually no sinking danger.

Much more problematic is if the boat turns "turtle", when the keel is sticking straight up, and the mast straight down. Unfortunately, there is a bit of stability in that position, and the boat can stay there. However, the action of waves will almost always push the boat out of that stability window, and the boat will right itself.

ASA 101, 103, 104, 105, 110 instuctor.

Thanks Ken. Wow so even if it "goes turtle" completely upsidedown it can right itself.Very unlike flying in that if you get into an unusual attitude you better make the right correction immediately or down you go.

Jessica had a bit of excitement.

Abby's rocking & rolling, and says...

"It seems from the blog comments that some of you don't realize that I do know Jesse Watson. She was in touch with my brother Zac last year on his circumnaviagtion (sic) and we have been in touch with email back and forth during the trip. My mom has also been in touch with Julie Watson, Jesse's mom. They are great people and a lot like our own family. Hopefully, we will be able to meet one day!"

Abby's making some good progress.

"Dad flew out today but won't be to Ushuaia until tomorrow night. Thanks to Julie Watson and their team, he has hooked up with the right people to get him out to say hello."

Her route was quite interesting. If you look on her "where's Abby" map, and use the "satellite" setting, you'll see that she stayed far offshore, and off the continental shelf...meaning that she stayed in deep water. This should have had the effect of reducing the waves/swells, and particularly reducing the encounter of a Rogue Wave (Palin wave?)

Good one, Ken.