#105 NOW June 12, 2006, 10:00UTC +12 hours (New Zealand Standard Time) Aboard Done Dreamin' docked at Port Nelson, awaiting better weather. Good Morning, I arrived back at Nelson with almost 100 pounds of baggage and parts for the boat. With winter definitely here (temperature the other morning was 38 F) the Hurricane heater has become a necessity. While in the US, I picked up a new igniter and flame sensor. In addition, the very helpful factory representatives in Vancouver, Washington gave me an upgraded circuit board. This solved all the issues, and I am now enjoying a cozy warm boat. I have only the highest recommendations for the Hurricane Heater and the fine people that work at International Thermal Research Inc. As you may recall, the watermaker pump went out just before our departure from Tasmania. Thursday I spent most of the day installing a new pump motor and adding an accumulator, which I hope will solve some of the problems with this system. Sometime I will write a detail description of the problems I have encountered with this system and the fixes that have finally improved its operation. Once again, the Spectra factory personnel in San Rafael have been most helpful. Gary Knopp asked what kind of software I was using aboard Done Dreamin'. I realize that everyone has their favorite, and strong feelings abound as to which is the best. Four years ago when I purchased the boat, the electronics sales people talked me out of using The Capn and instead recommended Raytech software. This seemed to make sense since I had all Raymarine hardware. Well, after numerous software crashes, and a high level of frustration, I deleted the program from my computers, and made Frisbees out of the CDs. I am sure their software has improved over the past several years. Enter The Capn. This program has continued to amaze me. It never crashes and is so intuitive. The US Coast Guard also chose it and I believe they provide some support for the Navy. It works for me. Now for a disclaimerI have been out to sea for several years and this is an industry that is changing by the hour. I am really not up on the latest stuff. My recommendation is to do your homework and see what works for you. A good solid, easy to use program without too many bells and whistle may be the best choice. There is defiantly a learning curve. Perhaps more important than which software you select is how you use it. On Done Dreamin, I have two computers running all the time each with its own navigation software and a complete set of charts. These computers are independent of each other and even have separate power sources. I back this up with paper charts either purchased or printed out on my printer from the Captain. As a rule, I never go anywhere without an electronic course line on the chart. Some exceptions would be going up a winding river. I feel this is important, as it is easy to become disorientated in fog or poor visibility. Having a course in front of you with a heading and distance to the next waypoint can be very reassuring. A word of caution is in order here. Blindly following a line on a chart will not always work. Try that in Mexico or Western Samoa and you will most certainly end up trying to cross great stretches of land. A chart made 100 years ago is not to be trusted. Always use all available sources when navigating, GPS, Radar, and visual! Another rule I have is to make up the route on the computer, then upload the entire route into the GPS's. In my case, I have three GPS's. Thus if your computer fails you still have the route in the GPS. This one little rule saved the day for me, but that is another story and much to long to go into here. I then couple the autopilot to one of the GPS's. Of course, position is continually updated on the computer chart by output from a GPS. Thus, you can see that careful planning and a standard mode of operation will pay big dividends when everything seems to fail at once. Another piece of software that I have found very useful for long passages is Visual Passage Planner 2. It contains all the Pilot Charts for the World. I have commented on the use of this program several times before (See NOW #39). It is one of my favorites. I am a real fan of Microsoft Excel. The development and use of spreadsheets and charts to record and monitor fuel burn and range, can be very helpful on long passages. In aviation, we call these "howgozit" logs or charts. They can become very sophisticated with ETPs (Equal Time Points), Point of No Return, and Projected time/miles to fuel exhaustion etc. Some free things you can legally download off the web include: Bowditch Chart 1 Nav Rules Sailing directions World Port Index Light List Most of these are in PDF format, which allow quick searches for the information you may need. Unfortunately, I am not connected to the internet and cannot give you the web sites for these. However, I believe most of them may be found under U.S. Government Publication Maritime Safety Information Division. As you can see, I become all wound up when it comes to Navigation. For me it is the part that I enjoy the most about cruising. By now, I have probably lost most of my readers. I hope that the few of you who have made it to the end, have found something of benefit. Life is a Cruise, Larry -- Larry Rick Done Dreamin' Nordhavn 40 #33 Site: http://gricknet.homedns.org/Dads%20Web/doneDreamnHome.htm

The link for these has changed a bit.. it's now at: http://www.nga.mil/portal/site/maritime/ click on "publications". Keith _____ The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. --Ronald Reagan ----- Original Message ----- <snip> > > Some free things you can legally download off the web include: > Bowditch > Chart 1 > Nav Rules > Sailing directions > World Port Index > Light List > > Most of these are in PDF format, which allow > quick searches for the information you may need. > Unfortunately, I am not connected to the internet > and cannot give you the web sites for these. > However, I believe most of them may be found > under U.S. Government Publication Maritime Safety > Information Division.

> -----Original Message----- > From: Keith > The link for these has changed a bit.. it's now at: > http://www.nga.mil/portal/site/maritime/ click on "publications". REPLY Tucked away in a corner is something called "calculators". These are javascript calculators you can download and use off line for all sorts of useful tasks onboard. Too numerous to mention all of them, but two immediately caught my eye. Distance to object using two bearings and a compass deviation corrector program based on observed azimuth of celestial objects. Arild