Friday, May 31, 2013

BOOM BRAKE - Part 2

The installation is complete:


The New Shackle Taking the Place of the Pin
This Was Done on Both Sides



Port Side Fixed Line



Line Running Through the Dutchman Boom
Brake




Starboard Turning Block on Shackle
on the Chainplate, Then to Guide Block on 
Stanchion


Turning Block on the Tensioning Side




Overall View of Starboard Side:  Note the
Tensioning Line Ending on the
Small Winch


Friday, May 24, 2013

SSB SUCCESS!!!!

Well I'll be damned!  It WORKED!!  We connected to the Friday Harbour Sailmail station and sent a message (albeit to my work e-mail account).  The system works.




Terminal Window with Connection At Last!!!



The Terminal Window with the Data on the Link 
at Friday Harbour Showing.  Note the Transmit and 
Receive Progress Showing








Wednesday, May 22, 2013

SSB Frustrations - An Inch Closer

I actually connected to Friday Harbor for  a few moments but the e-mail was not transmitted.  Inch by inch I guess.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Sailmail Frustration

This SSB thing is not straight forward at all.  Now that everything (except the DSC antenna) is hooked up, I have tried repeatedly to connect to a Sailmail location and test the system.  No luck.  I just ordered a manual from the supplier of the Pactor Modem in Ladysmith BC.  I may need help on this one.  

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Rigging the Boom Brake

We tuned the rig (nice and taught) and trial placed the Dutchman Boom Brake.  Paul and I talked about how to rig the brake and agreed to keep it as simple as possible.  I went to the Island Packet Owners website and found that the IP 485 "Sea Cloud" had successfully installed exactly the same brake in consultation with the inventor of the brake.  The lesson here:  the yacht owners groups are INVALUABLE in getting information on dealing with issues on your own boat.  The IP Owners site has come to the rescue many times because - let's face it - our colleagues out there have probably faced the same problem you might be facing before at some point.

So here is the set up described by the owners of "Sea Cloud" which we will adopt for Terratima:



The Dutchman Boom Brake in the Same Position Aft The Vang.
We Have the Identical Brake Placed in the Same Location.





Fixed End of the Brake Line Tied to a Large Bow Shackle Mounted 
at the Checkstay Chainplate Replacing the Standard
Clevis Pin Holding the Checkstay Turnbuckle




On the Starboard Side Chainplate, "Sea Cloud" Has the
Same Large Bow Shackle Replacing the Clevis Pin,
But a Turning Block is Placed Here



View of the Adjusting End of the Brake Line
Running From the Turning Block 
to the Small Winch on the Starboard Combing



Friday, May 17, 2013

Rain, Rigging and Boom Brakes

It's raining today and we have a bit of  a busy boat.  The grounding of the SSB has been done and we are getting the proper power output although strange things happen when we transmit.  The NMEA connection works and we have position information for both the VHF and the SSB.

Both the genoa and the staysail came down and the rig is being tuned by Paul from Oceansailing.ca and a boom brake is being added.  Crappy day to do the work, but the boom brake is a safety element when I find myself single-handing the boat downwind.   I managed to lose one of the furling guides for the inner stay overboard (that sickening sound of "splash" as the part hit the water never to be seen again).

The configuration of the boom brake will take shape once we have the new bale placed and the vang reconnected.  Then we can mock it up.  

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

SSB - Sailmail On A MACBOOK - No Easy Process

We have our SSB installed, but it still needs to be grounded.  That should be done shortly, but the process of making our Mac talk to the SCS Pactor IV Dragon 7400 Bluetooth modem, joining Sailmail and getting it all working was a bit of a pain in the nether regions.

First of all, we have a MacBook Pro computer and not a PC on board, so the fist thing we needed to do was to install Parallels Desktop.  The reason:  all the modem software is for a PC, so we have to get the Mac to pretend its a PC.

It's been a few years, but our old computer was a DELL desktop, and we had Windows XP, so after installing Parallels Desktop, we had to install Windows XP.  Of course it had none of the Microsoft Service Packs, so we had to go on line with an ancient version of Explorer to download all the Service Packs (there are 3) to update XP to where it is now (and where we can get an upgrade to Windows 8 should the spirit move us to so so).  Microsoft's site was intent on getting us to install Explorer 8, which of course we could not do without the operating system being "Service Packed" to the hilt.

After much frustration and time, we had the proper screens:


Windows XP Starting Up on a MacBook Pro


Windows XP needs to be at least past Service Pack 2 to have it look for Bluetooth Devices.  A careful read of the somewhat badly translated (from the original German) Installation Guide lets you know that the pairing key is the latter part of the alpha-numeric string of the modem's serial number.  That alone should be in highlighted text somewhere, but no, it's in the thick text.  

One word here:  do the pairing FROM WITHIN WINDOWS and NOT from Mac OS.  Once done, it works fine.  You get the screen below that shows the Modem paired.

Windows XP in Parallels Desktop 
Showing the Bluetooth Devices Paired


Now for a word on how the modem and the ICOM IC-M802 are connected.   The modem comes with two connection cables and you use both:  One goes from the ACC socket on the ICOM to the 8 pin socket on the modem.  The second goes from the 9 pin REMOTE jack on the ICOM to the 13 pin socket on the modem.  

So you're all set to do Sailmail.  With XP running and the modem bluetooth connection in place, you can start the Sailmail program (which you downloaded and installed in the Windows OS (and NOT the Mac OS)


Starting Sailmail



The Sailmail window allows you to open the "Options" menu and put the Pactor settings in.  You can also compose e-mail messages here, but to send, you click on the little mailbox icon to "post" the message.



Sailmail Window

No comes the interesting part:  to actually send or receive a message, you have to connect to a Sailmail location on one of their frequencies.  To do so, you click on the little blue globe that appears in the line of icons toward the top of the window.   This brings up the other window


The Terminal Window 

Once the terminal window pops up, you can choose the location and frequency of the Sailmail stations and you will see the frequency automatically tuned on the ICOM (a little amazing actually).  Then you hit the green circle on the left side of the window (ensuring the "handshake" button is DOWN - that is ON).  The radio will transmit (and do wild things if it is not fully grounded).  Ours made the most horrific sound that seemed to be coming from elsewhere in the boat.  I have been told to shut off the refrigeration and hang on.  




Sunday, May 5, 2013

INTERESTING SUNDAY

The SSB has been installed and the split lead antenna is in place.  We still have to connect the GPS antenna to provide the radio with positional information.



ICOM M802 SSB Transceiver at the Nav Station




Pactor Dragon 7400 Modem and the M802 Radio Box



GAM Split Lead Antenna on the Port Aft Stay
It is Connected to the AT-140 Antenna Tuner


While all this was being done, the varnish finish on the teak was being sanded and reapplied on the starboard side:



Mirror Finish on the Teak Toerail

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Kits Beach

Carolyn and Christopher went for a walk with Skoki to Kitsilano  Beach and English Bay.  Have a look:


Looking Toward Bowen Island 



Looking Toward North Vancouver


Downtown Vancouver in the Background




Carolyn at Kits



Farewell John

Meet Dr. John.




He has been tied up in front of us for the last five years here at Shelter Island Marina.  Before we arrived, he had been here for 25 years.  He is a retired obstetrician.   He would spend his summer sailing with his son Chris around Vancouver Island and beyond.  They had also sailed the Pacific leaving from Vancouver, sailing down to Cabo San Lucas, then over to the Marquesas, Tahiti, Bora-Bora, on to Hawaii then back home.

John is leaving us and heading off to Snug Cove  and the Union Steamship Company Marina at Bowen Island.  It's a great spot and we wish him well (and will drop by at some point).

Live aboard communities can be quite tight and we know we will be missing John a lot.  It will take some getting used to not having Tjaldur (the name of his boat - the national bird of the Faroe Islands) tied up in front of us.



John and crew-mate Dan





Tjaldur Getting Ready to Leave



Tjaldur Heading to the Gap and Down 
The Fraser River


Farewell John

Friday, May 3, 2013

Asymmetric Spinnaker

We'll not use a roller furler for the asymmetric spinnaker we are thinking of adding, but we will use the ATN tacker and sock as shown here.




COMPLETE THE STORY

 Hello all.  I must admit to being a bit reticente in completing the story of our trip to Mexico.  It is marred by an incident of mental hea...