Last fresh (more or less!) banana finished today with b'fast cereal. Still some apples & tomatoes and some lettuce in the fridge.
Looks as though being on this (port) tack isn't working out too badly - it's keeping me closer than I expected to my rhumbline course to Kauai while keeping S of it as I wanted. Pressure is still on the high side at 1022/23, occasionally 1024 - light winds are still being forecast for north of my position over the weekend.
It turned from being grey overcast all morning to a lovely sunny afternoon. After relaxing in the warm sunshine, I felt it was time to get down to the instrument problem-solving I'd been putting off - I decided to isolate my depth display from the rest of the 'bus'to see if that solved problem of lights switching off erratically, radar misbehaving, autopilot down, etc, etc. (Mark on 'Alchera' had suggested this possibility)
I have a forward-looking sounder so I would not miss the depth display particularly and I had the feeling that this was the unit causing my problems. Sure enough, it worked!! No 'beeping' about missing GPS data, lights stayed on, autopilot looked as though it was working - hurrah!! Encouraged by my success, I thought I'd look at the NMEA Interface box which had also stopped working - meaning no data input to PC. I had another & thought I'd re-wire it to see if it worked. Unfortunately, although I thought I'd turned off the instruments before attempting the re-wiring, it became clear that I had not - I found myself with NO instruments at all - I'd obviously fused the lot! Grrr!! Now I had to get down under the aft bunk to clear a space around the course computer where the fuses were in an awkward position.... Just as well I'd bought several spares before leaving SF.
With that done, the instruments came on....YES!... but NOT the GPS input...why not? I checked for a signal from the antenna - nada! Tomorrow's job... it was rollcall time by now!
'Dogbark' had made landfall safely (although with major spinnaker track damage, we heard). Well done, Al!!
The wind seemed to be getting up, so the 'chute needed to come down - got a mite difficult in the darkness and strong wind, but I was glad I'd decided to do it when I did.
It's VERY rolly tonight (the change of wind direction to NNE for a time has made for big, confused swell, I think) - and the instruments have a new 'beep' message - 'shallow alarm' - but I've disconnected the depth - so why...? Sleep...!
Trackback URL