The Grey NATO - Ep 43 - The Hermes Adventure
Published on Tue, 19 Sep 2017 07:59:46 -0400
Synopsis
The podcast episode covers various topics, including:
- Announcing giveaway winners and new giveaways from brands like Mâchant Flashlights and Oak & Oscar
- Jason's experience at the Monterey Car Week and driving exotic cars like the Acura NSX
- Jason's upcoming trip to Memphis to meet with the founders of Bremont Watches during their vintage car rally
- A detailed account of Jason's recent dive trip to Sri Lanka to explore the shipwreck of the HMS Hermes, including the technical diving preparations, challenges of nitrogen narcosis, and the experience of diving the historic wreck
- The show's sponsor, Kill Hubris, a clothing brand offering casual wear like t-shirts and accessories
- Recommendations for watch-related artists Julie Crellis and Watches & Pencils
- A titanium pocket clip/multi-tool from Big Eye Design
- Custom watch straps from Rover Haven
- A video explaining the demise of the Concorde supersonic airliner
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
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| James | Welcome to episode 43 of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. Thanks for listening. This episode of The Grey Nado is brought to you by our first ever sponsor, Kill Hubris, a clothing and accessories brand started by a fellow watch geek and friend of the show, Sam. Sam, we can't thank you enough for stepping up and supporting TGN, and we couldn't be happier with our first sponsor. Check out killhubris.com and we'll have more about the brand and their gear a little later in the show. So Jason, welcome back, man. How's, uh, how's the jet lag? It's, it's been a while. Huh? What? |
| Jason | Oh, um, yeah, no, sorry. I just woke up. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's, uh, I'm getting there, you know, it's, uh, I've been back about 10 days and I think they say you, you gain back like a time zone per day. So I'm, I'm getting close, but, uh, still waking up at three 30 in the morning. |
| James | Yeah. Well, this is one of our first daytime recordings, but it's probably good. We'll just try and keep it really sharp. We didn't try and do an evening recording where you would literally be falling asleep just after pressing the record button. We've got a ton to catch up on. You want to jump right into some show business? Yeah, let's do that. What do you have? All right, so first up, we're talking giveaways, and we're going to buzz through these as quickly as possible to get on with kind of the main event for the show. So the first up is we have the winner for the Michant Flieger giveaway. Congrats to ATBLALAND369, that's Benoit Lalande. Fellow Canadian, you have won a really great prize by my measure, and it'll be in the mail shortly. You may even have it by the time this episode airs. So congrats on that and many, many thanks to Michant Flashlights. for providing the Flieger both for me to check out, you know, as a topic to chat about on the show and something cool toy to play with and then on to Benoit. So that's a killer gift. That's great. Congrats. For sure. Next up, we have a new giveaway. So for everyone keeping up, if you're, you know, saying rats, you missed out on the Flieger, we've got a new giveaway from Oak and Oscar. They made a watch wallet for us. Jason, you've got that in hand. So why don't you tell us about it? |
| Jason | I do, yeah. Chase from Okanosker sent over one of his modular watch wallets. Beautiful, beautiful product. It looks and smells really good. I've got it sitting here on my desk. For those of you that haven't seen it, you can certainly go and check it out. We'll put a link in the show notes, but it's just a beautiful product. Almost too nice to just use for carrying watches, but it kind of opens out like a small portfolio. It's made of this really supple, beautiful Horween leather in a dark brown, kind of held shut with a couple of little studs. When you open it up and fold it out, it has sort of a gray wool sort of felted pad for use for like changing a watch strap or something like that. But what's really unique about this is that along one of the flaps that opens, there's sort of a belt and then you slide these three modular watch pouches on this belt In which you can you can carry, you know, three separate watches and you can remove the pouches to carry individually if you'd like Just really top-notch stuff great quality that the pouches themselves are made of kind of a nice gray suede With some leather trim pieces on it And then the the wallet the overall watch wallet is sort of subtly branded for the gray NATO which which is really super cool and thanks a lot to chase for for offering that for our audience and for supporting the show. If you missed out, we did an interview with Chase, I think it was last year when he released his new Sanford GMT watch. You can go back and check that out if you want. But yeah, we'll be giving away this watch wallet to a lucky listener. And James, what kind of rules do we have for this one? |
| James | Okay, so same rules as always, please follow at TheGrenado and at OakenOscar on Instagram. We will post a photo of the wallet on TheGrenado's Instagram feed, and you just need to comment on that post with a couple watches that you would put in the case, and we'd like you to tag a friend that might not know OakenOscar or TheGrenado. We will announce the selected recipient on a future show, and as ever, we'll cover the shipping, but the winner is on the hook for any duties or import taxes should they get billed in receiving their new watch wallet. So that's pretty straightforward. Look for the post on the Graynado Instagram feed in the next week or so. We'll get it up there just like we did with the Machant giveaway. And as always, thank you so much for anyone supporting these giveaways, both the brands that are offering up product. Chase, we can't thank you enough for this customized wallet. It looks really good. And thank you for everybody, you know, entering the giveaways and tagging their friends and helping share the word. of the show and the supportive brands that seem to like the Grenado. And next up, I just want to ask the listenership for a little bit of help. If you happen to be somebody who's listening and you know the ins and outs of the Amazon Affiliate Program, we would love to get in touch and kind of chat about that. We're looking at using the Amazon Affiliate Program as a way to help support the Grenado into the future and keep lots of episodes coming out and more interviews like we did with Jason Lim in episode 42. So if you have any experience with the Amazon Affiliate Program, and you might be able to help us cut through some of the clutter and build a page that would be both helpful to the audience and helpful to the site, please reach out to TheGreyNado at gmail.com. And, and yeah, finally, excitingly enough, we have finally restocked our supplies for the TGN Supporter Bundles. So as we received quite a few messages from those who missed out on the first round, we're going to open availability for the second round of the bundles of just via Instagram, not unlike a giveaway, really. So likely in the next couple of weeks, just follow at the Grenado on Instagram if you don't already and look for a post mentioning that the availability is now open on the website. That's how we're going to do it. That's going to be the easiest way to get the word out in advance and kind of unilaterally to all the listeners. So follow the Grenado, we will post on there to let you know when round two of the Supporter Bundles are available, which should be, yeah, we're hoping in the next couple weeks, we just have to kind of time it around some travel so that we can, as always, thank you to everyone who has supported the show already and anyone planning to support the show in the future via the Supporter Bundles. |
| Jason | Yeah, thanks to everyone in advance and we're excited to kick off round two. Round one of the Supporter Bundles campaign was Tremendous for us a real success and thanks to everybody who participated in that I came home from my recent trip to a nice big package of some spanking new TGN branded toxic nato's so we're all set to go for round two and as James mentioned Just have a little bit of travel I want to make sure that I'm here when the orders start coming in so we can get those shipped off In an expeditious manner, so thanks Should we move on to? past the business and maybe even what's new with each of us. |
| James | Oh, yeah. So much business, but I'm glad we got that out of the way. Yeah. What's new with me? There's tons of stuff. I mean, it's been effectively... Like a month or more. A month really since we've done this. Yeah. Depending on the timing, probably closer to more like five weeks. |
| Jason | Yeah. I feel like the big kind of bit of news that I missed out on, because I think you were there when I was gone, was you went to the big sort of car week at Pebble Beach. |
| James | Yep, yeah. So that's probably as easy a place as ever to kick off what's new. So it was a few weeks ago at this point, but I went to Pebble Beach for the Monterey Car Week, which is essentially a week of various car shows is the easiest way to describe it. And I went covering a new model from Hyundai's new luxury division, which is now called Genesis. It's no longer like the premium Hyundai is no longer the Genesis. kind of done the Toyota Lexus thing and gone the route with making its own brand and having its own storefronts and all that kind of thing. So I was there five days in Monterey and Carmel and I had the use of a Genesis G80 Sport, which was quite nice, nice luxury sedan, you know, 365 horse, 3.3 liter twin turbo. So nice and quick, not a lot of roads that didn't have a ton of traffic. around Monterey and Carmel that time of year, but it was fantastic. And then basically you just attend one of these amazing car shows after another. And anyone who follows me on Instagram would have seen a great deal of car posts. And, and yeah, so, you know, crazy cars, met some fantastic people and anyone listening who I touched base with, whether on the trip or at one of the events, it was such a great time. And I met a handful of guys at the Fortayne vintage rolex forum meetup which i was covering for hodinke with a little watch spotting so had a really great time there and uh and yeah just a a lot of a lot of cars it's almost too much to talk about just because there were so so many and uh and it's hard to contextualize if you haven't been to any of the shows yeah the photos looked just utterly amazing i mean if you had to pick a single car that |
| Jason | you know, kind of took your breath away, or kind of was it a showstopper for you? What would that be? |
| James | If there is one? For me, because the internet kind of makes it possible to, you know, finger quote, see all the cars, you've seen them, then it's really those rare opportunities where you get to see something that you maybe haven't stood next to before. Yeah. So I thought the new GT2 RS, if you're talking about a new car, the new Porsche GT2 RS looks really, really just straight up bonkers. And of course now they weren't talking about it then, but now they have the new 911 GT3 with the touring package, which is essentially the new 911 R. Yeah. So it's a GT3 with a normal Carrera spoiler rather than the big race spoiler. Yeah. But otherwise, you know, a manual transmission and all the other GT3 goodies. But I thought that GT2 RS will be really fun to see in reviews. I don't think I'll ever get a chance to drive one, but you know, to see in the reviews and show up on YouTube. That's one I'm pretty excited about. And then as far as just really amazing stuff to see in person, I got to see one of the Jag Lightweight E-types. Oh, man. There was one of those at the McCall's Motor Revival. Nonstop amazing 911s. If you're in it to see Ferrari 250s of all types, including GTOs, then it's really going to be hard to beat Monterey Car Week. I saw 250s at McCall's. I saw them. racing at Laguna Seca for the Rolex Historics series. And I saw GTOs at Pebble Beach for the concourse. There's a big Ferrari display and just some, some really special stuff. I would say that the one that kind of stood out for me, the most of everything would be the, there was a Lancia 037. Oh, yeah. Nice. Which, uh, it was a beautiful reddish orange color and just disturbingly cool looking car. It really does kind of sit right in that space of the 288 GTO, you know, that mid late eighties group B, but was group B still going to exist by the time the car, and of course it did like they, they ran this car with some success. And it's, it's kind of one of those cars that borders on having some ugly angles that still somehow work. Yeah. It's such a wild thing. And I can't recall, certainly I've never taken a photo of another one unless I've just entirely erased it from my memory. But I think that's the first time I've seen one in person. And it's just, it's just such a cool thing. So yeah, the 037 really stood out and it's in my Instagram feed. There's a lot of fun stuff. Obviously, if you like the rarer Ferraris, both modern and old, great place to see it. And, you know, I mean, There's a lot of stuff I think that, that would qualify as really high quality car spotting that you don't necessarily have to pay several hundred dollars to attend. You know, the McCall's Motorworks and the, um, and the Quail and such, these are very expensive events. And these were covered by Genesis as far as part of the press junket. But there's all sorts of other car shows around Monterey where you can see some amazing stuff. And they do a big parade through Carmel. uh, with some really bonkers cars. And it was just, uh, just a really fun event. And I really enjoyed driving the, uh, the Genesis. If you've, if you've spent any time in a modern Infiniti, it's very similar from the overall setup and feel. I would say, you know, they've arguably done some nicer work with the interior as far as the layout and the ergonomics then in the last Infiniti I had, which was, uh, like a 2015. And so the Genesis stuff was really nice. And I got a couple of rides in the G90, which is their like their big flagship kind of S-class luxury limo sort of thing. Sure. And that was fantastic. Great seats, very quiet. Exactly. Like you getting into the back of that, if you're not a car guy, you would have no idea you were getting in something that wasn't big and German. Yeah. You'd have to know from the badge or from looking around, but otherwise, you know, beautifully appointed and a very nice place to sit in some heavy California coast traffic. Well, you know, a huge number of people kind of pour into Monterey and Carmel during that time. So the traffic gets crazy. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And beyond that, I got a chance to drive the new NSX. Oh, man. Wow. We got very early to the quail and they just had the line. A lot of brands do these test drives where you can, essentially anyone who's attending the overall event, in this case, the Quail, can walk up to a booth and say like, oh, I'd like to drive your car. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | And then providing they have space and it hasn't been all pre-registered by press or other people who are, you know, ahead of the game, you can get some seat time with a, you know, you sit with a representative from the brand, usually a driving instructor or a race car driver of some sort. Sure. depending on who they have available. And in this case, I walked it was very early, it's like 8am. And I walked up to the booth, I said, any chance you have any cancellations or like a reservation list, I was just, you know, figured I'd put my hat in if I got a text later in the day, I'd go for a drive. And they're like, No, it's full, you can definitely get on a waitlist. But to be honest, nobody showed up for the eight o'clock slot. So we can just go now if you want. Wow. And I was like, yeah, let's do that. So Yeah. So if you know where, um, the quail kind of golf club is, then, you know, there's a Canyon in there. Um, I believe it's called Laurel's grade. And, uh, and so you take the car into the canyons and kind of buzz around. And so this is, uh, essentially Acura's spin on something like a McLaren P1, where you have, it's obviously much less expensive than a P1 and not quite as fast, but you have electric motors on the front axle. and an electric motor that helps fill torque after the transmission to the rear wheels. So when you shift, you actually get a push of torque instead of a loss. The end result is it's a Honda or an Acura, so the seating position's really good. You can see, like I had no trouble kind of seeing around, and I'm 6'3", no real trouble fitting there. I'd actually say if you put the seat down really low, you could probably get in there with a helmet at my height, which is pretty impressive for kind of a little supercar. you know, the better part of, I think it's 570, 580 horsepower. That's a combination and it makes a really fun noise. It's a V6. It makes a great noise. And we got to kind of zip it around a couple, you know, a couple of canyons and then loop back the other way. I'm very cautious when it comes to these things because California has licensing reciprocity with Canada and it'll go on my insurance if you get a big ticket. And sure enough, as we're driving along, the woman who's a professional race car instructor, she was like, oh, you know, you're taking it pretty easy. And I was like, yeah, I just feel like I'm going to get a ticket. And she's like, oh, well, you know, there's there's definitely cops out here, but they seem pretty chill. And like we come around a corner and a guy in a McLaren is getting pulled over. Oh, no. And then so after that, I blasted for a little bit. And then when we did the loop around and came back down a different guy in a different McLaren, they were doing the same thing with McLaren. 570s, you could just kind of sign, sign on the dotted line and take one out. Yeah. And, uh, so they, they were, uh, she said that they were probably just giving out, um, warnings, asking people to slow down, but it would depend on how hard you're driving. But I got a couple of really good blasts out of the car and it's an absolute rocket. I mean, it puts on speed, like the McLarens I've driven before and, uh, the seating position's excellent and all the tech seemed to work. And it had like, like when we got back into, into traffic to turn into the quail. It had like a quiet mode that was all electric, which is really fun, you know, to be, to be in a car like this. And it's, you can hear the engine and everything's very loud and aggressive and awesome. And then just be like, ah, I'm just going to sit in traffic for a moment. And it just, it just, it might as well been off. Wow. So really fun. Uh, obviously if you get a chance, even just to kind of see one, I think they're actually a really fun design that doesn't translate as well in photos. Uh, but I thought it was an absolute missile. And, you know, it's less than the cost of a Porsche Turbo. Wow. Neat car, especially if you're leaning towards the more and more technology in your next $200-ish, $1,000 car. That's not really the space that I exist in. Yeah. But, you know, hence my extreme happiness at getting a chance to drive one. |
| Jason | And you've got another sort of car event coming up here. I think probably the day of the show runs, you're off to for a very different sort of car event. |
| James | Yeah, exactly. I haven't quite sorted out my flights yet, but I believe right around the time that this show will air, you'll see on my Instagram that I'll be traveling to Memphis to catch up with Nick and Giles English, the gentleman who founded Bramont Watches. They are driving two vintage cars, a vintage E-Type and a vintage 911 Targa across from, I guess it's from New York and they're going to Texas, but they're making kind of a jumping route across that part of the US. visiting various retailers and holding events at each one. So I'll have way more to say and I'm going to work very hard to get a cool interview with one or both of them while I'm there for a couple of days. But if by any chance you're around Memphis and you're going to be at the event at Medna Cow Jewelers, please be sure to say hi. I will be there. I may have mispronounced that. So it's M-E-D-N-I-K-O-W in Memphis. Check it out. It's listed on the website. I'll put a link in the show notes. But by the time this comes up, it'll be within a day or two. So if you know that that jeweler and Bremont retailer in Memphis, find out if you can join the event. And if you do, please, please say hi. I will have my bright orange camera strap, I'm sure with me and I'll have my solo on a Grenado. So I should be pretty easy to find in the crowd. |
| Jason | Yeah, it's crazy. You know, I've seen the photos even Um, from their kind of inaugural departure from, uh, from New York and in those cars. And it's crazy to think that in, in like, you know, another week, they're still going to be on the road. I just hope that E-type, uh, makes it, I have no doubt that the Porsche will do just fine, but that E-type seems like one of those sort of finicky vehicles that could present some problems, but who knows, you know, they, they seem to have sorted out the, uh, the issues with that car. So. |
| James | Yeah, it could be one of those things where it likes being run. So if they keep running it, yeah, it may hold up fine. My guess is the hardest thing on those cars is moving them from the UK to the States. Yeah, that's got to be really tough on those vehicles. And I would agree that if I had to pick one to get me home, I would take the 911. Yeah, especially an old 911, I think is by reputation, not that complicated of a vehicle. Yeah. And either way, I'm very excited to you know, get a ride in both of them and do a little bit of a transit. And obviously I'll take a ton, ton of photos and providing I sort out my current cell phone issue, they'll all be on Instagram while I'm in the States. Uh, my Note 5 is on its last leg. So I may have something new by the time I, uh, head down to Memphis. I haven't been to Memphis before, so I'm also pretty excited about that. |
| Jason | Oh, very cool. So, um, yeah. |
| James | So what's new in watches on your end? Yeah, I guess we should talk watches, right? Yeah, I think so. So by the time this comes up, I believe the day before on the Monday, my review of the Aorus Chronorus will be live on Hodinkee. And so I've actually spent a long time with the Chronorus. Due to some traveling, it pushed back my timeline for when it was going to be, when the review was going to be finished. I just took a little bit longer with it than I probably should have. And yeah, this is a This is actually a really fun watch. I liked it at Baselworld when I saw it, and I'm assuming you saw it too at Basel. And I have it on the kind of distressed brown leather strap. I really dig it. I think its calling card is the 39 millimeter case. And 39 millimeters with no bezel. The watch arguably has an area around the crystal, but no sort of bezel element. Sure. is really rather a charming size. I think that a lot of watches could work at this size, especially watches that aren't dive watches. Yeah. Where, you know, I think 40, 41 works really well with the dive watch and make some concession for that rotating bezel. Yeah. But this is 39 millimeters. It has a beautiful sunburst brushing, just like the old Speedy Mark IIs. And actually a lot of watches from the seventies had that kind of brushing. And I think it looks great. You know, it's $1,750 on a leather strap for a brand new one. Yeah. Yeah, I dig it. I think if you're looking for kind of a race-inspired watch and, you know, maybe you don't want to go with something like an Autodromo, which is a little bit less money, but obviously from a less established brand, if you like Oris, or if you really like specifically the 70s styling, I think it just kind of nails it. It's a really simple watch. It's actually the only Chronorus they make that's not a chronograph. |
| Jason | Yeah. That, you know, that kind of, that was one thing that initially sort of bothered me because the original Chronorus was a chronograph. And I thought, Oh, you know, they kind of missed, missed the boat. |
| James | Yeah. And it was the brand's first chronograph. Yeah. |
| Jason | But once I kind of got over that, I think it's sort of, do you remember when we talked about the, um, the Seaforth a couple of episodes ago? And, and I think one thing I had said that I like about the watch is that it's sort of, it's hard to put in a slot and it's, it's kind of this all purpose sports watch. And I, I feel the same about this Chronorus. I love the fact that it's a two-crown watch that is not a dive watch. It's just the sort of all-purpose kind of cool, sporty watch that's hard to peg. It could be an automotive watch, but then it's not a chronograph. It's not a dive watch, but it has that timing element to it. And yeah, I loved the size of it. You didn't happen to get the bracelet with it, did you? |
| James | I didn't, no. The rubber strap and the distressed leather. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think the rubber strap is kind of the move. Because the lugs are 19 millimeters. I didn't realize that until I was going back to just fact check the article because I wore it on 20 millimeter NATO a couple of times. Yeah. So it might be 19 plus. Yeah. I didn't get a chance. I saw it at Basel with the bracelet and kind of draped it over my wrist. And I think that's a cool look. The bracelet's definitely a different aesthetic than your standard bracelet. It's a little bit thinner. And it has an entirely different design than what you might see on an Oris dive watch. Yeah, I like, you know, the twin crown is cool. And I like that they made it so the it's the lower crown that controls the bezel, which means you can actually unscrew the crown and turn the bezel while the watch is on your wrist. Oh, sure. Right. So that's pretty handy, not only for use, but I think that's made possible by the 39 millimeter case sizing. And the watch kind of turns heads. I really liked the way that they've implemented a domed crystal into the curvature of that case shape. Oh yeah. Which looks really nice. The dial itself, and this at first bothered me and later kind of became one of my favorite things about the watch is the dial is very flat. You know, the use of gray, they use a very medium gray tone. So aesthetically it really hinges on that black circle and the orange markers. Yeah. But what you end up with is a hugely legible design. And then it just kind of bends and skews in the curve of the crystal, especially around its edges. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | And the watch feels very much like an old watch. Yeah. It wears like a vintage watch. In the review, I mentioned that it wears a lot like my Seiko Worldtimer. Sure. Which is of a similar style and also a similar case shape. Different, but similar. Yeah. And I think they did a really nice job with it. You know, it uses a simple movement. It's a relatively simple layout. You get a date at three. It's very wearable. And like with all Oris watches, I think that they could have gone the route of making another chronograph that looked just like the piece from 1970. And hey, maybe they will. I think they should. Yeah. They should do both. Yeah. But the fact is that they already have a Chronoris chronograph, two other models. Yeah. And I think in taking the aesthetic and applying it to a more accessible, simple and smaller watch than it would be if it was a chrono. I think they did really well in making a watch that's just accessible. Yeah. And both from its layout to its size to its price. |
| Jason | And what I'm finding just almost makes me giddy is all of these great 40 and sub 40 millimeter watches that we're seeing these days. I mean, look at the Bremont releases, the Airco and the and the S300s and then that Rado that I reviewed a while back, you know, like, and this Aorus, I mean, we're seeing this return and I know that, you know, I and we are certainly the first to notice this, but it's just really cool because like you said, these watches wear like vintage watches and I don't know if it's being driven by the heightened interest in vintage watches and brands are starting to catch on to that. Yeah, it's great. And, you know, as much as I love Oris' dive watches, the two that stood out for me from them this year at Basel were this Chronoris and that, I think it was the 1917, that really vintage-y looking piece. And I thought, you know, just two oddball choices from Oris this year, but both were a couple of my favorites from Basel. |
| James | Yeah, for sure. And it's fun to see the kind of twin crown styling. I dig that as well. It's not one that's traditionally rooted in automotive stuff. I mean, even the original Cronorus, of course, had a pusher. Yeah. So it essentially had, you know, three pieces on the case flank. Yeah. But nonetheless, I think they did a nice job with it. And it's really wearable. And if you want that vintage, that kind of new vintage aesthetic, but you don't want a dive watch, I think this is an absolute winner. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason | Yeah. I think, you know, speaking of twin crown watches. Real quickly, before we move on, the one that caught my eye recently, and I think you and I chatted about it briefly, was this one from the British brand Farrer. They made this one called the... I think they called it like the Aqua Compressor, and it's got three versions to it. Really neat-looking watch. I'd love to get my hands on that one. |
| James | Yeah, I think they look really cool. They launched it kind of just before we clicked record. So obviously we're just reading off the product, but the brand's kind of an interesting brand for me. I thought their GMT looked pretty cool. Yeah. And now they've gone the dive watch route with a kind of super compressor, the two crown with an internal dive bezel. The watches are 41.5 millimeters in steel with an ETA movement. What are they? $1,200, $1,300. Yeah. And they're all named after British ships, which is a definitely an inroad to the TGN universe, I think, you know, all named after HMS ships. Yeah. So it's the Endeavor, the Heckler and the Levin, you know, apologies as always for my pronunciation, but I think that's pretty close. And yeah, those would be, I think, really fun to check out in person. And if you're into kind of the fire or fair vibe, swing by their website and check that out. So just a little new watch off the cuff. Yeah. That's what you listen to a podcast that was recorded weeks ago for cutting edge Cutting edge news. Right, right. And how about you? What's new in your camp? I've been rambling for some time now. |
| Jason | Well, you know, the big thing for me is I've just been catching up on sleep for the past week to 10 days. You know, the reason that we haven't talked in such a long time is I was on my big trip to Sri Lanka, which is, you know, way too much to cover in new business here. |
| James | You just want to break right into into the main event, let's package the entire Sri Lanka trip with the Hermes adventure. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jason | Cool. So, you know, it was about a three week trip to Sri Lanka. And for me, you know, aside from visiting my wife's family who lives there in the capital of Colombo, we had a couple of sort of what they call outstation forays to the east coast and then across to the west coast just for some R&R. But for me, kind of the culmination of the trip or the thing that I was really looking forward to was this dive to the HMS Hermes, which we discussed a couple of times on previous episodes. And, you know, Sri Lanka is a place that I've been, I think this was my sixth visit, mainly because my wife's family's from there. So we did spend some time in Colombo, which is where her family lives. Uh, it was about the first 10 days and we fit in some kind of fun outings. Uh, one of the highlights of that little stint was, was visiting the old, um, Air Force base and the museum there. That's at the Rot Malana airport, which was the site of, of an RAF base back, uh, you know, World War II and before when the British were there. And. You know, I know that I think when I was gone, you went to an Air Force museum in, in Ontario. Um, yeah. they're, they're just so fun. And I was blown away by the sheer size of this. And, and what was neat to me was that in most of the kind of aviation themed museums that I've been to features, you know, planes from, uh, I guess the Western side of the cold war. So you get a lot of, you know, uh, American fighter jets and British jets and things like that. Well, Sri Lanka over the years has sourced a lot of its air force planes from the other side, from, from Russia and from China. And so, you know, these are planes that I really hadn't spent much of, if any time around, uh, including, you know, they had, um, you know, for, for years they were using MIG-15s. Then they went to like a MIG-17, a MIG-27. Um, and then there was kind of this Chinese offshoot, uh, that was kind of a, a Chinese version of the MIG-15. And they, they just had all of these planes, uh, around this, this Rotmalana airfield. um, helicopters and, you know, there's an old Sikorsky and they had two DC threes. Um, it was just incredible. And certainly, you know, when people ask me like, Oh, what, what, what is there to do in Sri Lanka? Going to an air force museum is not the first thing that, that I would recommend. And it, it was only on my sixth visit there that we were kind of looking for something new to do and, and ended up there. But, uh, for anyone that's into aviation, if you happen to be headed to that part of the world, it was, uh, it was a neat place to visit. Sounds awesome. Yeah. You know, we had a little beach time and we had some, uh, some kind of, you know, driving time around the country, which saw some new parts of the country that had previously been sort of off limits due to the civil war that was there for so many years. And then, um, post tsunami, it was pretty, pretty obliterated, but, you know, kind of the main event for me was, was something that I've been dying to do for many years. And that was to dive the HMS Hermes, which had kind of a special appeal to me because of my connection with Sri Lanka and the fact that I have this Um, you know, love of diving and of shipwrecks for a little background that the Hermes was, it was the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier was built in 1919, um, by the British just after world war one. And, you know, it served in the Royal Navy for. You know, 20 years until world war two came about. And by the time world war two came about, it was pretty well obsolete because when it was built, you know, they were still flying little by planes off of it and by World War II, you know, we're talking, you know, hurricanes and spitfires and things like that. So, but, you know, due to the call of war, it was called into action and sent to the far east. The British Navy had a substantial naval presence in Sri Lanka, which was then called Ceylon. And it was in April of 1942 that the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Sri Lanka. And it was It was actually engineered by the same guy who planned the Pearl Harbor attacks in the U.S. just a few months earlier and kind of had the same effect. They dive bombed the harbor at a town on the East Coast called Trincomalee where the British Navy had a fair number of planes and ships. And the British got some early warning of this and so they sent the Hermes and another ship, it was an Australian cruiser called the HMAS Vampire, which is one of those great Great warship names. Um, they, they sent these two ships kind of out of the Harbor to sort of escape and we're headed South, um, along the coast. And, and just as they were turning around to head back to Trincomalee, um, the, the Japanese planes spotted them and, and sank both ships and the Hermes went down. And I think they said like 15 minutes, it took, you know, 40 direct hits from, from dive bombs and, uh, sank with, uh, 307 men died on that, on that wreck. So, you know, I think to kind of bring it around a bit of the history to, to something we've talked about earlier on the Graynado, the history of the discovery of the wreck, uh, which was sort of unknown for many, many years, uh, came in 1967 when there was this, this Sri Lankan diver named, uh, Rodney Jonkles. And he was out, um, talking to some fishermen who had snagged some nets and, and knew about this rough location and he dove down and the late 60s and found the wreck. And then it was in 69 when Peter Gimbel and his merry band of divers showed up there during the filming of Blue Water White Death, which is a movie that you and I have seen and loved. So they were kind of the next gang to dive the Hermes. They were looking for the great white shark there, which turned out to be a bit of a fiasco for them. But then the wreck was kind of forgotten until the early 80s when the grandson of the photographer who took photos of the ship during its sinking, uh, tracked it down, talked to, to John, listen to some fishermen and, and they went on an expedition there in 1982 and, and rediscovered it. And they did a number of dives there and laid a memorial plaque on it and kind of surveyed it. But then the following year was when the 30 year civil war started and there was still no GPS at the time. So, The location of the wreck, you know, went dormant. Nobody really knew where it was after that until 2002 when this Sri Lankan diver named Felician Fernando, uh, decided that he wanted to go track this down. And he interviewed fishermen and he interviewed, you know, old timers that were living on the coast there, uh, during the sinking to kind of determine the location. And, and after several attempts, he, he located the wreck. And by that time he had, you know, one of these. small Garmin GPS units and, uh, pinpointed the coordinates and, and he's been diving it ever since. And so Felician is the, the guy who he's sort of the go-to Hermes guy there in Sri Lanka. And so he's the one that I connected with to, to take me out there. He's done. He told me upwards of 800 dives on the same rack, which is just mind boggling seeing as I, you know, I think I've done 400, a few little over 400 dives. in total myself and he's done 800 just on this one wreck so he's certainly the guy to go with. He runs a really small sort of dive operation on the east coast in this small town called Batticaloa which is kind of a sleepy little town that um it was kind of a weird place to get to it was a seven hour drive across the country from Colombo to get there and kind of end up on this end of this dirt road at this little tiny little place that has a few rooms to sleep in and an outdoor dining area. And then, and then you can tell where the money went in this place because it's this incredibly well outfitted dive shop. He's got like two huge rooms with work benches and tons of tanks and regulators and compressors. And, uh, uh, he, he has the ability to mix gases. He has helium and he has, uh, um, you know, oxygen, uh, pure oxygen rated, uh, equipment there and, you know, pretty crazy. So. Um, because the Hermes is a deeper rack, it sits at 53 meters or 175 feet. He won't take anybody out there who isn't a technical diving certified. So in order for me to do this dive, um, I had to take a course from him. And so that was kind of the. The first day I would say of my, of my visit there was kind of, uh, doing some pool sessions, kind of getting, getting my gear all set up and kind of getting familiar with, uh, the different techniques that you use and Um, I had done several months worth of studying and reading here at home and a lot of the knowledge reviews that, uh, that Patty requires for, for the tech, uh, certification. So I was fairly familiar with, with what, what to expect when I got there. But, uh, it's, it's definitely kind of a tick up from the kind of stuff you have to keep track of in recreational diving, just because there's, you know, in this dive we're diving with four tanks, four different, you know, three different gas blends, four regulators and mouthpieces. Wild. And so there's just a lot to, to kind of keep straight and keep sorted. And then you're, you're trying to do all of this while you're diving at a depth where nitrogen narcosis has a considerable effect. So just sort of going chronologically, I did, we did the pool session. We've got the gear all set up and then it was okay. Well, tomorrow morning at seven o'clock, we're going to set off for the Hermes and, um, sort of a baptism of fire, so to speak. And how'd you sleep that night? Um, a little nervous, you know, kind of, you know, it's like, uh, I didn't really know what to expect. I mean, certainly I've done, I've done some deep dives, but I've never done, uh, this kind of technical stuff. And so it was a little intimidating, but, uh, you know, we got up in the morning and loaded up the boat, just a small kind of open top panga boat with an outboard motor on the back and, and the wreck is about five miles offshore. So it took about 20 minutes to get out there. Felician or Feli as he's known, he's out there at the bow with a GPS sort of directing the, the boatman who's back at the outboard kind of which direction to go. And then, you know, at one moment he just says, okay, here now, and they throw the anchor over and hope that it snags on the wreck down below. Um, and then once we were hooked on the wreck, it was, you know, get suited up in this heavy kit. So, um, I had two, uh, aluminum 80 cubic foot tanks, uh, on my back with two separate regulators for, for what, what they call a bottom mix, which is the, the gas mix that you're breathing on the rack for the majority of the dive, which in our case was just standard compressed air. And then, um, clipped under each arm is, is a separate tank and regulator. And, um, under my left arm was a, uh, 50% oxygen blend for, for decompression and under my right arm. was a tank of pure oxygen, which we were going to use for, uh, the final stage of decompression at, uh, 20 feet, uh, just under the, under the dive boat. So once you get all this clipped in and you're, you're getting ready to roll off the back, I mean, this is, it's heavy, it's a heavy kit and it's, you know, it's hot and humid and you're just sitting there panting and sweating and. You're in a dry suit? No, no wetsuit. It's a, uh, wore like a three mil wetsuit. |
| James | And what sort of weight do you have to carry for that? Very minimal weight. I figured it's a lot of tank. |
| Jason | Yeah. Almost didn't need weight at all, but, um, you know, you don't want to be underweighted because you have to be able to hold your position on decompression and it's almost better to be slightly overweighted than underweighted. And, uh, so I think I took, uh, it was maybe four kilos, which might've been slightly too much, but it wasn't, it wasn't much. And I was just a couple, a couple of weights and one weight on each side, but it's, uh, it's a deep wreck. So it's, um, Like I said, it's 53 meters down and with the anchor line hooked on the wreck, we went hand over hand down the line, uh, took two and a half minutes just to get down to the, to the wreck. Wow. Just, just going like crazy, you know, just hand over hand equalizing every couple of feet. Um, and there was a considerable thermal client. So you get, you know, it's really warm water there. It's about 85 Fahrenheit, which is probably pushing 30 centigrade. At the surface. And then once we got down to the bottom, it was already down 10 degrees Fahrenheit lower than that. So I was glad I, uh, I wore a wetsuit. I was, I was tempted not to. And, and Feli just dives in kind of a shorty. Um, but I was, uh, I was pretty glad to, to have a little insulation for sure. Um, it's a big wreck. So we did three dives on it. It's a, it's 600 feet long. You know, it's an aircraft carrier. The first dive we did was kind of in the midship area. So it's where the superstructure is the. You know, where the, the pilot house is and kind of the, I don't know what they call it, the, not the flight deck, but the, uh, you know, where they're observing the planes taking off and kind of sits off center from the wreck. But once the ship sank, it's lying on its side and the superstructure is actually crushed into the sea floor. So that's where we hooked in initially. And so we kind of explored the, the middle area of the, of the ship and the flight deck and some cannons and kind of that area. |
| James | And so for people listening who may not know, the typical floor, the deepest you would go for recreational diving is 40 meters and that's considered very deep. Yeah. So to go a bit deeper, do you have any additional impression of that depth or you're just, you know, you're doing something more serious because you're carrying all those extra tanks? |
| Jason | I'm pretty fortunate in that I'm not someone who has issues with equalizing very, very much. Um, so I didn't really notice any issues other than equalizing a lot more as you're headed down. Right. Um, the, kind of the, you know, the main clues that you're, you're below recreational depths are, you know, the thermal client that the change in temperature, um, it's a lot darker. Um, you know, there's just a lot less light that filters down that deep and, The big thing is, uh, it's nitrogen narcosis. So, you know, if anyone that's familiar with diving, we'll, we'll recognize that that terminology and Cousteau called it the rapture of the deep. And, and, um, what it refers to is when you, when you're breathing compressed air or any gas mix that has nitrogen in it, when you get down, you know, to any considerable depth, that nitrogen starts to have Narcotic effect. It's almost like don't remember the rule. It's they call it like the martini rule, but it's You start to feel like you're drunk basically and you kind of start doing silly things you you get a little freaked out by things or Misreading your gauges or in some extreme cases people have taken their regulators out of their mouth and given them to fish and you know there's all these kind of stories and You know, I you don't really know how you're gonna react until you get there and everybody reacts differently and you know I did my first dive with Feli. It was just the two of us down there. And I can feel it, you know, you kind of slow down a little bit. Everything's a little bit hazy. It wasn't terribly unpleasant. Um, but you definitely have to pay attention to it. And, um, the, the second and third dive, there was another, another guy that was with us diving. And on the second dive we did, which was around the, the bow area of the wreck. We were kind of cruising around looking at something and I looked over and this guy swam over to me and I've never seen anyone's eyes that big. They were like saucers behind his mask. He was, and I kind of knew immediately what was going on. He was narked, as they say. He was, he was feeling the effects and he, it was kind of this look of sheer terror in his face. And he swam right over to me and I looked at him. And he pointed at his left side down near the decompression tank that he was carrying under his left arm and pointing furiously at the gauge. And I looked at it and I thought he was referring to the way it was clipped onto his, his BCD. Um, and I was like, you know, giving him big, okay, signs like, Hey, calm down. No problem. Um, but quickly, you know, Feli kind of swam over to us as well. And we both kind of looked at him and you know, the rule of thumb is abort the dive at any reason, or for any reason at any time. And Feli just gave the thumbs up and we were out of there. So we just, you know, swam back to the, the anchor line and started ascending. Um, fortunately we were, we were planning 24 minute bottom times on the wreck. And I think that was at about minute 23. So it's not like we had to cut the dive too terribly short. That's good. You know, after 24 minutes at the bottom, you have, we did a 38 minutes of decompression. So you're actually decompressing on the way up. for a longer period of time than you're down in the wreck because you need to off gas all of that excess nitrogen in your tissue. And that's why you're carrying these different gas mixes under your arms. And so at about 60 feet, we switched over to the 50% nitrox, which has less nitrogen in it, a lot more oxygen. So it, it helps to kind of accelerate that decompression process. And then we just sort of slowly worked our way up for three minutes and two minutes and one minute, kind of, we had this dive plan that we followed that just sort of had us slowly incrementally moving up the anchor line, breathing this 50% nitrox mix until we got to 20 feet or I guess that's six meters or so. We switched over to pure oxygen and you know, um, below that depth, pure oxygen becomes toxic. You, you know, you'll start to convulse. You can't breathe it below that. So you have to be very careful to, to make sure you've got the right mouthpiece in your mouth, you know, with the right mix at whichever depth you're at. The pure oxygen hang was at about 20 feet and we spent about 15 to 18 minutes there. So that was kind of the longest decompression stop we did. And then, um, got back up to the surface and, you know, kind of took off our, our gear and handed it up to the boat man and climbed aboard. And, and sure enough, you know, this guy who, who, uh, got narked, you know, he's, he said when he got back in the boat, he was, he said it never happened to him before. He was incredulous. Um, and he said He was convinced that his gauge read zero, that he was out of, out of air. And I'm sure it was very frightening. You know, I can imagine that's probably the worst, worst thing that you could ever imagine. And when I realized what happened was when, when you're carrying these extra, what they call stage bottles or decompression bottles under your arms, you, you leave the, the valves turned off. So you do that because you don't want them free flowing at depth. and lose all your decompression gas. So you don't actually open the valves until you get to that point where you need them. And when you have those valves turned off, the gauges on each of those decompression bottles will read zero. And I think rather than looking at the gauge for his bottom gas, which is the air that he was breathing on his back, he was looking at that gauge and sure enough it read zero. So I understood why he was thinking that, but this is what happens when you're suffering from nitrogen narcosis. And it was a very educational experience for I think all of us. You know, interesting to kind of just sort of see that happening too. |
| James | Yeah. I've only ever seen the narcosis thing once before. It was on the, I think maybe even have talked about it on the show in the past. It was when we did our deep dive for the advanced certification with Penny. Yeah. And, you know, we were in very limited visibility, maybe 10 feet. And, and one of the guys on, the group, you know, you kind of have to sit at a certain depth and they don't even take it to 40 meters. It's more like 30, 32 meters, somewhere around there. Yeah. And, you know, you have to kind of play with a padlock or tie a knot and then identify the way that colors change and that sort of thing. Like it's fairly straightforward stuff. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | And in that span of time, this gentleman who hadn't eaten any breakfast and all the kinds of stuff you'd want to avoid so that you don't have that experience that you've never had before. Yeah. He got really narc'd, his eyes got really big, like you said, and then we got back to the line and nobody really, like, he was just kind of, you know, his knees were on the ground a lot. He wasn't really maintaining his buoyancy properly. And we got back to the line and then he started trying to hand people rocks from the ground. Oh my gosh. To put, put in the pockets of his dry suit. Oh wow. Because he thought he was too light. Yeah, yeah. So we ended up kind of having to pull him up the line. Oh my God. And, uh, and so, and then, and then the funny thing is with, with narcosis, of course, like you go up even just a small distance and it fades. Yeah. Yeah. Like I think, I don't think we went up 20 feet and all of a sudden this guy was normal and he's kind of looking at this rock he's got in his hand. Like, why do I have this? And then we get back to the top of the line, you know, there's a 300 meter surface swim or something back to the, back to the shore. And by the time we get to the shore, he's like, Oh no, everything was fine. That dive was totally cool. |
| Jason | Yeah. It's weird. |
| James | It's a real altered state. Very much so. Yeah. And it would be like, it's one thing to do it in a classroom setting at 90 feet. It's another thing to do it at 175 feet where, you know, you're essentially, you're working on a bigger sort of goal than getting your advanced cert. |
| Jason | Yeah. And I think, you know, kind of what separates technical diving from recreational diving is this notion that there's no immediate access to the surface. And it's kind of the, the, the element of seriousness or scariness, I guess, if you want to call it that, that, um, you have to take into consideration. So if this guy totally freaked out and made a dash for the surface, you're risking severe case of decompression illness because you have to decompress on the way up for sure. And, um, it's almost like there's this false ceiling or like you're in a cave. I mean, you literally just can't go to the surface. Fortunately, like you said, that, that narcosis sort of dissipates as you get, uh, shallower and shallower, which is what happened with him. And then we did a third dive, uh, the next morning and he was fine, fortunately, but I was keeping pretty close eye on him. Yeah, for sure. The next morning we did the, uh, the stern end of the ship. So it was where the propellers are. And, and that was really fascinating, you know, very photogenic with those big, big propellers. And, um, it's just, it's a neat wreck and, and, you know, thinking back on it, it was, I don't know if it was narcosis or just kind of the overwhelming nature of the whole experience and kind of the newness of, of all of it. But, uh, I kind of thought, okay, I've checked off the bucket list. I don't need to come back and do this again, but it's such a huge wreck. There's so much to see that I can see why. I can almost see going back there someday and kind of re-experiencing it with, with a little more patience and kind of ability to, you know, take a, take a good light and maybe even take a camera. You know, I just had my GoPro and kind of really explore and kind of and kind of see some cool stuff because there's just so much to see. I mean, you know, there's a big terror in the hall up near the bow and you can kind of swim in a little bit and there's a row of, uh, of urinals. It must've been like the, you know, the, the, the toilets there. Um, there's just cases of, of unexploded ammunition, you know, cartridges on the sea floor. Um, you know, there's a lot of fish life. There's, there's cannons up and down the hall. Um, just, you know, just huge wreck. Um, and, You know, a lot of the wreck diving I've done has been here in the Great Lakes, some spectacular wrecks, but I've never dived on a warship that was actually sunk during combat. And, you know, it was a bit sobering to kind of know that, you know, 300 guys lost their life on this wreck and kind of the circumstances under which this ship sank. And I think that kind of added to the gravity of the whole thing. So, you know, certainly it was, the overall experience exceeded my expectations, which is pretty rare when you have been looking forward to something for as many years as I've been thinking about doing this. And, and, uh, definitely something I'll, I'll remember for, for the rest of my life. And, you know, I, I remember a couple of shows ago, we talked about, uh, you know, I think I put the query out there to people like, Oh, which watch should I wear for this? And as insignificant as that seems, I'm really glad with the choices I made and, and, um, you know, to, to have taken my Rolex Submariner, which was that 40th birthday gift that I have, that I climbed Mount Rainier with, and I've done several other things with. It, it, it did, it did enhance the experience as kind of trivial as that seems. It's, I'm glad I did that. And, uh, um, so yeah, I took, I wore the sub for two dives on a NATO strap. And, uh, and then for the first dive I wore, you know, I've got that CWC Royal Navy dive watch that I bought the quartz one. And I wore that on the first one because I was so unsure of what the whole scenario was going to be like that I didn't really want my watch to be a distraction or though the CWC is a really cool watch and it felt appropriate to be wearing a Royal Navy watch on a Royal Navy wreck. I felt like, okay, if all hell breaks loose and I snag it on something and I lose it far better to kind of do that with that watch than kind of my, my favorite Rolex. And so then after that dive, I just switched over to the, to the sub and, and, uh, you know, I got some decent photos of it down there. And of course it'll, it'll kind of always bear those memories, uh, as long as I wear it. So that was really fun. |
| James | Well, that's great. I think you made a great choice picking a watch with the sentimental connection that you already had. I would certainly kind of lean that road as well. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | And, uh, sometimes I still do that with, uh, with the SKX that I have, which I've had for a very long time is I'll be like, Oh, I'm doing something today where it might be in a photo. like a family photo or something like that and I'll wear that and it's maybe it's dumb, I don't know, but it's just the way that I'm kind of wired. So I totally get the choice. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason | And I think, you know, for, for guys that listen to the show, people will get it. You know, when I, when I talked to, to Feli Fernando over there in Sri Lanka and I told him what I do for a living and, and these watch choices that I made, I think he kind of was puzzled, you know, he's wearing this old Casio. I don't even know if it was a G-Shock. It was this Casio digital watch that I've seen in pictures. He's worn it for many, many years. You know, he said, I don't really care what watch I wear as long as it serves a function. And, um, you know, that there's always going to be that school of thought. And, and I think the interesting sort of footnote to this whole story was watch related. And that was that Divex quartz dive watch that Feli actually found on the rack that, that, uh, I wrote about for Hodinkee that, um, seemed to be a fairly popular story. And it just, you know, I was totally set on just doing this dive for my own sake, wearing my own watch and not writing about it. And lo and behold, this story sort of presents itself where, you know, Feli finds this watch on the, on the wreck, on the sea floor, tucks it in his pocket and back on the, on the dive boat, he shows it to me. And it's like, it was this incredible watch story, diving story that sort of was laid right in front of me. And I just, um, Just a neat story. It belonged to a Sri Lankan Navy diver who had been diving a month earlier with some guys from the British Royal Navy. They were doing a commemorative dive because it was the 75th anniversary of the sinking. And he lost his watch. The strap broke. And so he had told Feli, if you're ever down there and you find my watch, I'd love it back. And sure enough, that's what happened. So yeah, just, you know, I think it was sort of a great bookend on the whole experience to kind of have that kind of fun, fun aspect to the whole story. |
| James | So, yeah, very cool indeed. |
| Jason | Yeah. So that was kind of, that was kind of it, you know, then, then, uh, I had been there for, I guess it was three or four days and then Ghoshani, my wife, uh, drove over from, from Colombo and met me there. And we went on up to, uh, Trincomalee, which is that town where the Royal Navy base used to be. And we, we stayed for a couple of nights at, at a beach hotel there. And we actually did, um, One fairly interesting dive in Trincomalee, which is this dive site called Swami Rock. And it's a dive site that's at the bottom of a cliff. And at the top of the cliff, there's a very ancient Hindu temple. And when the Portuguese were trying to colonize Sri Lanka, they were visiting the temple and some of the sort of the Catholic zealots didn't like the look of these Hindu statues and they started pushing them off the cliff. And so in the 1960s, uh, this diver named Mike Wilson, who was a dive buddy of Arthur C. Clark, the sci-fi author who did a lot of diving in Sri Lanka. He was diving there and he discovered these old Hindu statues in the water below Swami rock. And so then it's become a bit of a famous dive site there. So we dove there, um, just one dive, the current was really bad and the visibility was terrible. So we only did one dive, but, uh, kind of a fun place to do it. And then, and then, uh, couple days on the West Coast and then flew home. |
| James | Very cool. Sounds like a great trip. |
| Jason | Yeah, it really was. Sri Lanka never disappoints. And I actually had one guy write me on Instagram, just a private message and said, you know, my wife and I have just booked a trip to Sri Lanka pretty much based on your photos. And I'd love some advice. And certainly I'm open to advising anybody that's interested in traveling over there. I've got some experience with a number of things over in Sri Lanka. If you need any sort of travel advice, hit me up via Instagram or you can write to TheGreyNado at gmail.com and I'm happy to share my knowledge of Sri Lanka. |
| James | Yeah, and I know we got one such email already, which I'll be sure to forward your way so you can take a look at it. But yeah, I guess we're becoming something of a travel advice house as well. I guess it's right in that intro though, so why not? Man, what a cool trip and what a great What a great sort of goal. Yeah. Uh, you know, to have, to have this difficult thing that requires study and preparation and is like a real adventure, not a, I'm going to do this this weekend, but like, I'm going to do this someday. And then when you know, months out that you're going to be near nearby, then you, then you kind of embark on the training and the preparation and the, you know, preparing the mental state and, and then to have it go so well and to see so much of the ship, I'm, I'm just really happy for you. That's great. |
| Jason | Yeah. Well, thanks. You know, I think I would compare it to, to, you know, your, your climb of Mount Baker or my Mount Rainier climb a few years ago. It's, it was one of those things that required purchasing gear, you know, reading up on things, training, all those elements that just added up to, to a really wonderful experience. |
| James | Yeah, for sure. I think, I think that's, I think that's the kind of thing. And I, I think it's nice to have those sorts of things, if not every year, then every, every few years where you have that. that big goal. Yeah. I think especially for, you know, you and I, we're not professional adventurers. We're not, you know, this isn't the way that we necessarily exist day to day. And I can't imagine the stress of kind of having a lot of these in a year. Yeah. You'd have to be, you know, certainly if it's mountains, you have to be in crazy shape and constantly working out sponsorships and all sorts of crazy stuff like that. Whereas with this, you know, I think pretty much anyone, anyone who's listening could Aspire to pick a big goal, whether it's a Kilimanjaro or Hermes or Rainier or just anything. Yeah. And do the research, learn what you have to do to get ready for it, learn what you need to do it. And luckily with almost all of these things, like, you know, you knew that you needed the tech class, so then you knew what the cost was and you'd already been to Sri Lanka, so you know what that cost is. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | In many cases, so many people have been there before you. whether it's a mountain or a dive site or whatever, that it's not that difficult with the internet to find out what the cost is. Right. And then once you know the dollar amount you'll probably need, it's just a question of, you know, planning it as a vacation a year from now, or maybe longer, or, you know, if it's something really extravagant, you know, like going Everest, I'm sure still cost six figure. Yeah, right. But it is possible. uh, depending on how bad you want it and, and how much time you have to prep for it and that sort of thing. And, and, you know, something like, uh, a Rainier or a Baker is probably in the realm of a thousand dollars. Yeah. Uh, once you're, once you're at the base of the mountain. So, I mean, I, I, I really love, uh, I really love that. And, and I know that even since Baker, I've been kind of searching for my next, my next sort of thing. And maybe this summer or this year it was, it was quitting my job and going that road. Always on the lookout for the next summit or Likewise. Hermes. I think that's so cool. I love the pictures. I can't wait to read and hear more about it. And I'm glad that we were able to share some great details on the show. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jason | I'm still riding the high from it and I'm sure I will for the rest of the year. So once I get my sleep cycle back to normal, I think all will be good. |
| James | All right. So what do you think? You want to bounce right into final notes? Yeah, let's do that. Alright, so before we get to that, we do have a word from our sponsor. Isn't that exciting? So this episode of The Great NATO is brought to you by Kill Hubris, a clothing company run by fellow Watch Geek Sam and built around the idea that we should all treat people like we want to be treated. The brand offers supremely comfortable pocket tees, graphic tees, raglins, sweatshirts, and then a handful of leather goods, coffee mugs, and other accessories. And we also have word, you know, a little birdie also told us that Sam is working on a watch related collaboration for later this fall. So obviously we hope that we would be on kind of the cutting edge of that announcement should it exist. Uh, you can see the entire collection at kill hubris.com and you can follow on Instagram at kill hubris for brand updates and picks of Sam's watches. He has a nice taste in watches. And in my opinion, really nice taste in a casual wear really, really just nice, uh, nice stuff to wear. So their tagline is kill hubris. When you believe in something, it's always statement season. You know, a while back before there was any sort of a sponsor deal with TGN, we received, both Jason and I received kind of care packages from Sam as he was a fan of the show and wanted to send some nice stuff our way. And that included things like t-shirts and various little accessories and stickers and kind of like a leather key fob chain and that kind of thing. Of the package, my favorite is this teal-washed pocket tee. And I know, Jason, you got one in just a different color. I think I lucked out because I love the teal a lot. Yeah. And it's not too boxy. I think it fits nicely. I'm kind of a thinner guy with wider shoulders, so it can be kind of hard to find a shirt that doesn't look too big around the waist. But it fits really nicely for kind of a casual shirt. It doesn't have much in the way of a logo. It has a little sewn logo at the hem, which I really like. and a nice pocket. The fit's really good. It's relaxed, but not like, uh, schlubby. And I like how the T-shirt, you know, the wash thing kind of makes it feel pre-broken in. So it feels very comfortable, like a shirt you've had for a long time, but not like something that's worn out. It still feels, you know, like you could wear it and enjoy it that way. And obviously with the kind of teal color, it matches nicely with the pastel dial on the C4. So that's an added plus that probably wasn't planned. Yeah, right. Yeah. What color did you end up with? |
| Jason | Well, mine is, I think, I think we did get the same color because mine is that sort of a washed light blue sort of aquamarine color, I guess. |
| James | Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I guess we did. I thought you'd add like a maroon one. |
| Jason | Yeah. It's you know, what I like about it too, what I like about Kilhubras is you can't really put the brand in any sort of a slot. You know, it's sort of like what we're talking about with the Seaforth or with the Cronorus. It's one of these brands that it's sort of very versatile. Um, you know, I love the, of course I love the apparel. I love the t-shirts, but, uh, what I really like is he sent this 15 ounce coffee mug with a Latin phrase on it that, uh, uh, sort of appeals to, to the former Latin student in me. Um, if, if only because I never thought I'd have the chance to use my, my high school Latin again, but, uh, and it's just the right size for my, for my morning coffee. |
| James | So yeah. So be sure to check out kill hubris.com and again, follow them on Instagram. At Kill Hubris, this is the first brand to step up and support a podcast that you like. I assume you like it. You're listening to it. So we thank them very much. And the next time you're looking for a T-shirt or a sweatshirt, I really like the Raglins. It's that kind of a baseball style shirt with the colored sleeve and shoulder. That's been in my cart for a little while, so I should probably jump on that at some point. Again, thank you very much, Sam. And let's move on to final notes and put a bow on what looks like it's going to be a fairly long show. Yeah. What have you got first there, Jason? |
| Jason | Yeah. The first thing I've got, it's actually two things. It's, it's two watch related artists. And, um, some folks might, might already be familiar with these two people, but, uh, um, the timing was such that I sort of communicated with both of them in the past couple of weeks. And, and the first is a woman named Julie Crowless, who is based out in, I believe the Toronto area, um, fellow Canadian there, James. Um, and Julie, um, she's. I, from what I gather, she's a classically trained artist. She's, she does some amazing sketches with, uh, with pencil and paper, um, from, from her website, which is julie crellis.com. And we'll put a link in the show notes, you know, in the past she's done, uh, she does a lot of portraits and, and, you know, just various types of sketching. But in the past, uh, let's say a few months, she's turned her focus to sort of iconic watches. So she's done some, some old Hoyers and she's done, uh, vintage Submariners and her most recent project is the Paul Newman Daytona. And her style, it's pretty amazing. You know, she does these kind of large format sketches that take her days and presumably weeks to finish. And the detail is just tremendous. And there's always these kind of interesting design elements that she incorporates. And she's done some collaboration work and she was featured not long ago on, I think, Time and Tide, the Australian watch site did a little feature on her. Check her out, juliecrowless.com. And then the second person is a Dutch guy named Toijn van Heribeek. And he goes by Watches & Pencils. And you might be familiar with Watches & Pencils from his work. He's done regular work for Fratello Watches, our friends over at Fratello. His style is very different from Julie's. His is a little more tongue-in-cheek. I hesitate to call it sort of cartoon like, but it's a, it's sort of clever takes on iconic watches. So, you know, he'll put the dial of a moonwatch on sort of a stylized rocket ship or something. You know, things like that. And, and he's done kind of these sort of little visual stories for, for Fratello for a number of years. And, and he recently launched his own site called watchesandpencils.com and he's, He's got a little shop on there where he's selling stickers and magnets and prints. If you're interested, just kind of an interesting fun take on a lot of the watches that everybody seems to like. So check out watchesandpencils.com. Very cool. |
| James | What have you got for starters here? So first up for me is a while back ago, I mentioned in the final notes, this little metal clip that I put on my key chains to hold my keys and kind of clip it to the hem of my pocket so the keys didn't go down to the bottom of your pocket and just kind of poke your leg and such. Oh, yeah. And with that, a brand called Big Eye Design reached out wanting to send me this titanium version of the same sort of concept. So it's this it's this really cool it's larger than the kind of pressed metal thing that I had before. It's a titanium clip that also has like a couple of different tools built into it. You know, there's an LED version and it has one quarter hex bit driver, a bottle opener and a key ring loop, you know, for your keys. They sent me the version with the 22 lumen flashlight built into it. Oh my gosh. So it's actually right at the top. It weighs nothing. You'd almost think it was made out of plastic, except that it, you know, it's a little bit cooler being metal. Yeah. It's weightless. It runs on three itty bitty batteries that go in a door on the back. And it does an absolutely great job of, you know, clipping into the pocket and doing just what it said. And then if you want to crack a beer with it, you can. And I've been really, really impressed with it. You know, they sell the normal version is $40 and the LED version is $50. And that's just through their website, which is BigEyeDesign.com. They didn't pay for this placement. They sent me the item because I had mentioned something like it on the show. And, you know, one, thank you very much for sending it. I had kind of a blast messing around with it. And, you know, really rather useful, cool little thing. So if you were listening to me talk about the the little metal pocket clip, I think this is the premium option. If you like the idea that you can clip your keys in your pocket and not have them move around, I would say this is a much more robust option than the two or three dollar eBay piece of metal that I bought. And obviously there's no sharp edges. It's really kind of a nice thing to hold. And then for the extra 10 bucks, you get a little backup flashlight. I wouldn't call it like, uh, you know, a do everything flashlight. I don't think you'd make a repair on your car. It's a dead man switch. You have to hold it down. Um, but as, as that backup, as that thing to sit in your bag, kind of in the same way we would use that little Phoenix that I sent you. Yeah. Um, something like that, I think very comparable, uh, certainly enough to read, uh, a map or something like that. Uh, just a cool product overall. And I thought it was kind of nice of them to, uh, send one to take a look at. And I can, uh, I can say that this is a neat little thing, whether you need the flashlight or not is up to you. Um, but, uh, a cool thing nonetheless. So again, uh, thanks very much to Big Eye Design for sending one over for us to take a look at. |
| Jason | Nice. Well, I've got one more, um, today. It's, uh, it's a guy that, uh, some, watch guys and people that are really into straps might be familiar with. It's Roverhaven. The guy's name is Myron Erickson and he's based near Grand Rapids, Michigan. Myron is someone I've corresponded with off and on for about the past year and I finally had him make a couple of straps for me. He makes some really great stuff. He's also a collector of a lot of vintage sort of military type watches. So, you know, he kind of makes his straps that that suit that type of watch really well. He does a lot with Horween leathers and he'll do like single piece sort of pull through straps. I've got a couple of really good thick chunky Horween sort of double layer stitch straps. I wanted a good leather strap to put on my Bremont Supermarine and I had him make a nice strap that kind of stands up to the bulk of that watch and then he made a really nice sort of dark brown rich Horween strap for my Speedmaster, my vintage Speedmaster, and just really love both the straps. As kind of an interesting side note, Myron, the name Roverhaven actually I think comes from his equal love of not only rescue dogs, but Land Rovers. And Myron has a really cool vintage series Land Rover that he lovingly Uh, I don't know if he fully restored it himself, but he, he tinkers with, and he's, he's become quite an expert and a great resource for all things land Rover. So very cool. Check out rover Haven.com. Um, I can't, uh, endorse the straps enough. Uh, I just, they're super high quality. Um, he cut makes them custom to, you know, your length based on your wrist size and, uh, just, uh, really top notch, uh, watch straps. So good job. |
| James | Yeah, I've seen them on Instagram before and they look absolutely gorgeous. And, uh, and for whatever reason, you know, it's always fun to follow and you see these straps and, uh, I like, I like that there's kind of this increasing growth of the guys that are making custom straps. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | So there's lots of, certainly lots out there. Yeah. And, uh, for my last one, what else would I talk about, but a supersonic plane. So this is a video from, uh, Vox Media and it was published, what do we got? Uh, July 19th last year. So it's not too old. And it's actually just like a 10 minute primer on why the Concorde failed. So it gives you a really cool background on the design and what it attempted to be and how it worked and what the mechanics were as far as flying on the Concorde. And then it explains kind of the scenario, the kind of multiple scenarios that led to it not being feasible to run anymore. There's not a lot more to cover just in explaining the video. It's only 10 minutes. The next time that you need something to watch with your morning coffee or a break at work or whatever, it's in the show notes. It's called This Plink Across the Atlantic in 3.5 Hours. Why did it fail? And I actually think it's a pretty good video. Certainly for whatever reason, I got on a Concord binge and this one was kind of the right length and the right amount of detail to be appropriate to share. There's some longer stuff on YouTube as well if you want even more details or kind of more of your Discovery Channel, PBS documentary. This is a little bit more fun and more or less tries to cover why it didn't work out. Not so much just the plane at a technical level. Nice. I'll have to check that out. Yeah, really fun and definitely worth checking out. And yeah, I'd say that's about it for the show. Looks like we got a few extra minutes in there with a good explanation of the Hermes. So a good usage of a little extra tape. |
| Jason | Yeah. Cool. Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. Hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Heaton. James is at J E Stacey and follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write thegraynado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive. |
| James | And until next time we leave you with this quote from T.E. Lawrence who said, all men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they act on their dreams with open eyes to make them possible. That was a cold read. I had not read that. Very proud. Proud moment for a guy who literally can't put a sentence together at times. |