So it's Thursday night a few weeks ago, the night before we left for a two week cruise. I'm going through all of my checks, oil, ATF, HX anode, sea strainer, electronics, alt belt, refrigeration belt, packing gland, etc. when I suddenly realize my depth sounder is reading --- not good...Oh fahk I think to myself, I have no time to replace the sounder before we leave.
In Maine our depth sounder is the #1 navigation tool I rely on most often. This probably stems from my days as a commercial lobsterman where I could navigate almost entirely by depth, even in pea soup. I am constantly cross checking spot soundings with actual depth, just an old habit and left over practices from before GPS or Loran, but it is ingrained and I am not going to stop anytime soon...
I am just about to run back to my shop, where I know I have a Garmin P-79 in-hull depth transducer in-stock, and I can snip the ends and convert it to my ST-60, but this will entail allowing sealant to cure etc. and I have no real time for that.
It was at that moment when I remembered back to about 8 years ago when I did a 100% re-wire of the vessel. At the time I had a P-79 kicking around the shop so I installed it and ran the wires to the NavPod, but I never connected them and left it alone as a spare/redundant transducer...
The original Radarsonics transducer had survived at least 4-5 displays and was still going strong so I continued to use it. It lasted 38 years and one lightning strike.. It was one of the only things to survive that strike. How? I have not a clue...
Once I realized I had already done some pre-planning, to fix this problem, hours before leaving, I simply pulled out my NavPod tool, loosened four screws, tilted the bezel forward, unplugged the 38 year old transducer and plugged in the P-79's three wires.... All fixed and in less than 60 seconds....... Redundancy is a nice thing....
In Maine our depth sounder is the #1 navigation tool I rely on most often. This probably stems from my days as a commercial lobsterman where I could navigate almost entirely by depth, even in pea soup. I am constantly cross checking spot soundings with actual depth, just an old habit and left over practices from before GPS or Loran, but it is ingrained and I am not going to stop anytime soon...
I am just about to run back to my shop, where I know I have a Garmin P-79 in-hull depth transducer in-stock, and I can snip the ends and convert it to my ST-60, but this will entail allowing sealant to cure etc. and I have no real time for that.
It was at that moment when I remembered back to about 8 years ago when I did a 100% re-wire of the vessel. At the time I had a P-79 kicking around the shop so I installed it and ran the wires to the NavPod, but I never connected them and left it alone as a spare/redundant transducer...
The original Radarsonics transducer had survived at least 4-5 displays and was still going strong so I continued to use it. It lasted 38 years and one lightning strike.. It was one of the only things to survive that strike. How? I have not a clue...
Once I realized I had already done some pre-planning, to fix this problem, hours before leaving, I simply pulled out my NavPod tool, loosened four screws, tilted the bezel forward, unplugged the 38 year old transducer and plugged in the P-79's three wires.... All fixed and in less than 60 seconds....... Redundancy is a nice thing....