What a difference an "R" makes....

[John Denney]

Whilst telling the wife about my plans to take a tour of the Wold (an area I have yet to visit - I believe Stow is a delightful town) I was somewhat taken aback at her unbridled enthusiasm and encouragement. Her insistence on life insurance, medical cover and a 2 year time limit should have alerted me to the developing misunderstanding. I was showered with admiration and praise for my adventurous spirit and bravery so, needless to say, it would have been somewhat churlish to admit that my plans were considerably less ambitious than she thought. Essentially, I am now committed to crossing two oceans (really big ones!) and various other bits of water in between. I have to set off next Spring because she has placed an advert to rent my shed out and I think she will be taking a lodger. She is one of those "glass half full girls".

Luckily enough both of the kids had been returned from slavery (marked "unfit for purpose") so I have renamed them and they now have new owners in the middle east somewhere... the profits have enabled me to order new wire to keep the mast up, new bits of rope to keep the sails on the yacht, various gubbins to fix the whirly bit behind the engine, new cushions to encourage sleep, new windows that will not pop out at the sight of a wave, (I hope the only wave I see is the wife's on the lock gates at Widnes International Marina) oh.. and some shiny new sails.
I think it is fair to say that the ball is rolling.So......, you may have guessed that I need a fair bit of advice! (and yes... I have already been told to seek advice from a psychiatrist).

Expensive stuff first...... windvane steering jobby thing. I have been told that a Navik is the one for an Albin Vega but they do not appear to make them any more. (Don't suppose anyone has one in there shed?). If anyone can find one for me that would be great - or suggestions for an alternative?

Radar - I believe you can get modern ones that do not use much power - any thoughts would be appreciated....

enough for now - wife has just asked me how to spell "desertion"....hmmmm.....

 

[n4lbl]

The view from 5,000 miles away (Colorado) is that she is bluffing. Still,
you'd better check to see if she has hired a barrister (or whatever is the
equivalent of a lawyer in the US). Hopefully the owners of your kids
haven't paid the barrister so when you check her checkbook and credit cards
you will have an authoritative answer.

As a self-appointed expert (just in case, that is a serious warning!!) look
into AIS as a possible substitute for radar.
Automatic identification system - Wikipedia
MarineTraffic: Global Ship Tracking Intelligence | AIS Marine Traffic

Alan
Minke, #2505

 

[pjacobs55]

...Which brings to mind the story of the senior monk watching over the junior monk transcribing sacred texts. He taps him on the shoulder and says "Careful now, you left the 'r' out of 'celebrate'".

Peter
#1331 'Sin Tacha'
www.sintacha.com

 

[tomfentonvega2977beowulf]

Nice one John. On the equipment questions:
Self-steering thingy: Beowulf has a Monitor windvane. It is simplicity itself to operate, incredibly strong, and seems to require little maintenance. I am fairly sure it has had none since it steered Beowulf across the Atlantic. Expensive I believe but I highly recommend it.

Radar: why? To use up the battery power you would save using a windvane? I have an AIS receiver wired in to a Standard Horizon chartplotter(the middle sized one). this gives me warnings of potential collision. Once I have wired it up with the VHF as well it will I believe allow me to call threatening vessels using their mmsi without having to note the ID and re-enter it. The chart plotter must use a fair amount of power, but I still seem to be able to start my motor from the same battery at the end of a 12 hour passage.

Tom Fenton
Beowulf, V2977

 

[j.hunter9999]

Hi John,

A couple thoughts on the radar issue. I would not discourage you from purchasing whatever equipment makes you feel most safe. This is a very personal decision. I use a Standard Horizon VHF with AIS receiver. I output the AIS signal to a Mac laptop, which also houses my charts. I also input a GPS receiver into the Mac.

I have only used the setup one season on Lake Michigan. However, it works EXTREMELY well. The AIS on the Standard Horizon is sufficient to identify boats and hail them by name or call sign. The data also appears on the Mac charting software; however, I only fire up the Mac about every 3-4 hours when under sail without sun (i.e., no solar charging capacity).

I know of others using laptops as chart plotters. My brother in-law has cruised most of the Caribbean with a handheld GPS and a laptop. My only concern with a laptop is the moving parts in a hard drive...his laptop only lasted a year at sea. My Mac has a solid state drive, no moving parts.

I use a Garmin GPS76CSx and the computer charts (with or without the AIS & GPS inputs) for the majority of our navigation needs. I've used the AIS and GPS input on the Mac as a backup because it is so easy to do.

I hope this helps. Buy whatever gives you the best feeling at sea.

Jack
Bella - V2620