EchoPilot Forward Scan Sonar FLSII

by John January 1, 2005

We have found that having a forward scan sonar has made exploring in the high latitudes safer and more feasible. Instead of feeling our way along at 2 knots when off the charts, we can now travel confidently at 6 knots, since the forward scan reaches out up to 200 meters ahead. Also, the sounder [...]

Furuno NX-500 Navtex

by John January 1, 2005

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.

Furuno Radar Model 1832

by John January 1, 2005

If we had to choose only one piece of electronics to have on board Morgan’s Cloud, it would be radar.

HF Radio Installation

by John January 1, 2005

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.

The Joys And Tears Of TurboCAD

by John January 1, 2006
A TurboCAD rendering of a wooden bookshelf and computer case to be mounted to the mast supports on expedition aluminum sailboat Morgan's Cloud.

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.

UUPlus—E-mail Server

by John January 1, 2008

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.

Bohlken Westerland Barograph

by John February 1, 2010
A Bohlken Westerland Barograph on aluminum expedition sailboat, Polaris.

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.

Nexus Instruments, Great Gear And Great Culture

by John October 10, 2010
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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.

Safe WiFi Access

by John December 4, 2010
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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, [...]

Gear Test—Electronic Navigation

by John February 18, 2012
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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 grueling test of all the gear on the boat. Here is our report on how the electronics and navigation [...]

Gear Test—Radar

by John April 14, 2012
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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 [...]

Gear Test, Autopilot

by John April 27, 2012
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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.