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A reliable autopilot comes right after radar on our priority scale. A short handed crew that steers all the time, or even much of the time, is a tired crew, and a tired crew is a dangerous crew.
As most of our regular readers know, we just completed a 10,000 mile, eight month voyage to the Arctic and back on Morgan’s Cloud, our 56-foot McCurdy and Rhodes aluminum cutter. A voyage that constituted a gruelling test of all the gear on the boat. In the last post of this series we covered our [...]
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I’ve written before on the potential benefits of AIS for small craft, and having used it far more since then, it’s time for an update. After being initially impressed with it, and the capabilities it offers beyond radar, has it lived up to that first impression? A good test was when we recently crossed to [...]
Question [Edited for brevity]: We have been upgrading the safety equipment on board our boat and are thinking of installing radar reflectors to amplify and enhance the radar signal we create to alerting oncoming vessels of our position during offshore sailing in bad weather and heavy seas. The Echomax Active-XS-Dual Band reflector seems very good, [...]
In Part 1 I asked the question: “who contributed more to a safe and seamanlike voyage over three days recently, Phyllis who rebuilt the mast winches and went through our medical kit, or me who installed a new AIS transponder and nearly lost his mind doing it?”.
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In the last few weeks there has been a huge brouhaha in the cruising community about the dangers of using open WiFi hotspots, and rightly so. This has never been a particularly safe practice, but the release of Firesheep—a plug in for the Firefox browser that allows literally any idiot, no matter how technically inept, [...]
Reasonably Priced Seven years ago, when KVH stopped supporting our previous sailing instrument system, we looked at Brooks and Gatehouse but balked at the cost and instead settled on a new NX2 system from Nexus at less than half the price.
Sailing down the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal is generally pretty easy going– reliable northerlies make for steady downwind progress. The only concerns are the swell (which can close some ports), and the fog, which can be a real pain. Along the northern part of this coast, on most days we could see a [...]
Last weekend we had a pleasant break from our re-power project while visiting some good friends in Camden, Maine and giving a slide-show to some members of the Ocean Cruising Club. While there, our friends suggested that we visit Ben Ellison, author of Panbo, the popular blog on marine electronics, on his aptly named motor [...]
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In these days of readily available weather forecasts and satellite- or HF radio-delivered GRIB files, it could perhaps be argued that the barometer has been supplanted as a weather forecasting device. However, in our opinion, that supposition would be a serious mistake.
Question: What do you use for time keeping at sea? If you use a wristwatch then which one?
One thing that most sailors dread is poor visibility. Throw in high levels of shipping traffic and you have a perfect recipe for sleepless nights.
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Question: What is your preference regarding the best place to mount a radar antenna? As far as we can tell from the pictures of Morgan’s Cloud you have mounted yours on a pole aft. Our previous experience with radars tells us that the antenna should be as high and free as possible. Wouldn’t a radar [...]
The UUPlus software and server substantially reduce the time it takes to send and receive e-mail via cell or satellite phone. At $35/month it’s not cheap but it saves a fortune in download time and makes good sense if you have a fairly high volume of e-mails.
Question: I’m planning to purchase a navtex receiver (NASA model, made in UK), so your comments about your experiences with navtex captured my attention. I wouldn’t want to purchase something that didn’t have a good track record where it counts. We considered the Furuno, but based on [magazine] reviews, the NASA model would suit us [...]
Question: We are looking at sonar options for use in areas with poor charts and low visibility. Our interest is primarily for checking anchorages and narrow passages, looking for obstructions. We have a small plotter/sounder in the dinghy, but nobody wants to go out in the dink when it is cold and rainy (and warm [...]
The Problem In 2005, KVH abruptly stopped supporting the Quadra system, which had served us well for many years, albeit after its own set of teething problems. After considering most of the options and nearly settling on B&G, but finally being put off by a sudden and substantial increase to their already, in our opinion, [...]
The Problem In 1999 we installed a new Northstar GPS. At the time we could have bought a perfectly functional GPS for one quarter the cost but we went with the Northstar because of its reputation for quality and reliability and its easy to use software.
The Problem In 1999 our trusty old Furuno combination weather fax/navtex machine died after many years of faithful service. We decided to use our PC for weather fax and buy a dedicated navtex. We selected a unit from ICS.
For the last few years we have been using TurboCAD for visualizing and designing projects on Morgan’s Cloud. TurboCAD is a great value, with much of the functionality of systems costing many times more, at just US$150, and you can often get it discounted to as little as US$80.00 by shopping around on the Internet.
Question: I recently purchased a GSM phone for when I travel on business and pleasure to Europe and Asia. What interests me is how do I arrange in advance the software and Sim cards for say Hong Kong, so that when I am there, I can get my e-mail as well as use the phone [...]
In the winter of 2002/03 we decided to replace our aging Icom SSB with a new Icom. You would think that installation on a metal boat would be easy. Not so.
If we had to choose only one piece of electronics to have on board Morgan’s Cloud, it would be radar.
Navtex is an invaluable resource for weather and ice information. When our old Furuno combined weather fax and navtex receiver died, we balked at paying the high price (over a thousand dollars) of a new Furuno navtex and so bought another brand.