An old timer on the Columbia River showed me how to read the water by watching the gulls.

He said, 'See where they're diving easy? That's a sandbar you can't see, run your cutter head a meter left of it,' and it saved us a whole day's work.

3 comments

3 Comments

rileyl981mo ago

Honestly that's the thing about old timer advice, it always sounds way more mystical than it actually is. My grandfather told me to read the cattails on the riverbank to find the deep channel, and I spent two hours staring at reeds before I realized he was just messing with me. Ngl a sandbar you can't see with a meter left margin sounds like a good way to hit something expensive. I get that experienced people have their tricks but maybe it's not that serious. Like yeah the gulls might be on to something, but there's a reason we have depth finders and GPS now.

lee_gibson2mo ago

A meter left of an invisible sandbar? That's some insanely precise advice.

the_emery2mo ago

My uncle once gave me directions like that, lee_gibson, and I ended up in a ditch.