We are now having a beautiful sail down Hawk Channel with reefed main and genoa. Rolling along at 6-7 knots. ETA Marathon about 6pm tonight. We'll be in Marathon at least thru Tuesday of next week.
Labels: Florida Keys
Labels: ICW
The laptop built-in wifi is unable to connect with any signal, but using the little Engenius EUB-362 EXT, and a tiny $15 omni antenna, a wifi scan shows about 15 access points, about half of them unencrypted. There is one commercial operation--the strongest signal. But they want $15 a day to use their wifi. I can connect pretty easily with 2 of the next strongest signals that are unencrypted, for free. Access is pretty steady, though occasionally I lose the link as we swing (not sure why, exactly...maybe
the mast gets in the way?) Since I'm not sure where the access point is, it's hard to speculate.
While we were motoring down the waterway yesterday, I spent an hour playing with the EUB-362, and was able to actually pick up signals on the fly as we went by more populated areas. I had to be pretty quick, though. The signals faded pretty quickly as we went by, and it takes about 30 seconds to connect. And I'm collecting my AOL email via Outlook and it's kind of a pig. I'd have trouble getting a completed send/receive on email (checking about 4 different mailboxes these days!). Dave even offered
to slow down the next time I got a good signal. What a good guy.
I was fooling with the settings on our 'Big Gun' wifi setup (the EOC-3220) night before last and managed to change a setting on the configuration, that shut down my access to it. This morning I figured out how to do a factory reset on it (thanks to notes from a friend who had done the same thing). But it doesn't seem to be necessary to use that much power in here and I can use the little guy without needing to turn the inverter on.
I highly recommend the EUB-362 for a simple solution for mobile people looking for a little more boost to their signal. See the Electronics page on the website for links on where you can get one.
Labels: ICW
Labels: ICW
It's bad enough going down the Waterway on a normal weekend, but it seems that Memorial weekend has brought out all of boating's best and brightest. It warmed my heart to see the Marine Patrol handing out a ticket to a power boat that was blatantly ignoring the 'no wake' signs.
Someone in America is making some money, for all these powerboats to be cruising up and down the waterway at 'max fuel burn' speed.
Well, we had a nice evening on the hook at Marker 21. The last time we'll be doing THAT for awhile (snif). Sorry we missed TGIF at MYC, but we just needed to get going.
Tonight's stop is a wide spot in the ICW about 10 miles south of Ft. Pierce then on to West Palm tomorrow.
The boat's working pretty well. The autopilot and refrigeration are working well. The anchor windlass isn't... an electrical problem in the remote control. It still works manually. Dave spent an hour today troubleshooting and repaired one break in the wire. Still didn't fix it. So we'll use the old-fashioned manual windlass and repair it properly when we get to Marathon.
Labels: ICW
I forgot to put milk on the 'Last Publix Run' list when Dave took the rental car back, so I have to hoof it out to the 7-11 for a half gallon of milk before we leave. Yep, we're really cruising!
I think we'll anchor at Sebastian tonight, and perhaps even stay there tomorrow and finish getting organized. There's no big hurry because we can't (easily) go south of West Palm til the wind quits howling... about Mon or Tue.
We'll try to send in a position update via Winlink about every 8 hours or so.
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=KN4TH
Labels: Satellite Beach FL
Labels: Satellite Beach FL
Well, as usual, it took a *little* longer than the half a day that Dave estimated. But also as usual, he did a primo job, so everything went in better than it came out, and is all shiny and neat.
As of 5 minutes ago, with 5 minutes of running time, the compressor was running fine and the plates were cooling.
Here are some photos of the freezer going back together.
This is the removable plywood/epoxy box with the plates inside sitting on a heavily insulated box. The upper box slides down inside the blue insulation. This is so the system can be easily removed to be taken off and worked on.
To the right you can see the plywood box now down inside the insulated box. On the lower right is the hole that the pipes go thru to connect up to the compressor system.
Below, located on a shelf above the engine, in the engine room, is the compressor setup. In the foreground, the shiny silver thing is the evacuation pump (attached temporarily to pull a vacuum on the system). The compressor is behind the evacuation pump. The gauges provide readings on tempurature and vacuum status.
This was the last major project we had to complete before we could leave. Now we just have to finish up about 20 minor ones! (ie time to get off this stupid computer and keep working on my list!)
Labels: Satellite Beach FL
Labels: Satellite Beach FL
Labels: Satellite Beach FL
Labels: Satellite Beach FL