Portsmouth Lay Day

There has been a break in the action, no movement of the good ship Liberty today.  Instead the skipper tackled trying to get our new tablet computer to run our navigation software.  He was only partially successful.  You can only have the software installed on three devices and we had reached our limit.  A call was made to California tech support to have them deactivate versions that were on now unused devices.  After installing and testing the software on the new tablet we re-booted and the software acted like it was a recent install that wanted the 25 digit activation key entered.  After a few rounds of this is was back on the phone to California.  They needed to call back when a tech was available, unfortunately they called back when we weren’t available so it looks like this issue waits until Monday.  We only had three computers and one tablet running while doing all of this.  It gets complicated……

It did give us time to watch the action outside our little protected dockage area, and there was plenty all day (and most of last night as ship yard work goes to about 11 PM and  restarts about 6:30 AM.   There is some sort of naval vessel in the beige floating dry dock in the background (Titan) and large ship traffic passing on the river.

No lack of activity here

We went to the Shipyard Museum that was adjacent to the boat.  While interesting was comprised mostly of pictures of boats built or repaired here.  I thought there might be more technical information concering the working of the yard but that probably isn’t interesting to most people.  The cost was only $2 so no complaints.

The tide was up again this afternoon and our dock got drowned again.  Maybe this is by design, you don’t have to keep this cleaned off as Mother Nature washes it down twice a day.

Automatic Dock Cleaning

A quick update on the shyster with the sailboat that stiffed the marina in Catskill.  He said that he has had a run of bad luck with his engine and has to keep getting it repaired.  We are not sure how that has any bearing on the fact that he didn’t pay for services rendered by the marina but he claims he will square up with them at some point.  Hopefully we have put enough distance between us that we won’t ever see him again.

This evening we went to the Commodore Theater for dinner and a movie.  They have a nice setup in this restored theater and the food was good and more than reasonably priced.  Even their wine prices were respectable.

Commodore Theater

Tomorrow we fuel up and head into the Great Dismal Swamp.  Good thing we didn’t go in there tonight, being Halloween and all.

Dave

Well, Happy Halloween!  The two little kids we had dinner with last night, Will and Emily, paraded around the block today.  It was a lot of fun watching all the kids.  I even got a “hey” and wave from Will!

I also took a walk up High Street, which seems to be the main street in Portsmouth.  I stopped and got a cup of coffee in the corner coffee shop and just strolled in and out of all the nifty little shops (nice part of the day!)

Dave and I made a visit to a Naval Yard Museum (pretty interesting).  We then went to see a movie and had dinner in the theater.  We saw the movie “The Judge” (which was pretty good!).

Tomorrow we are off to the Dismal Swamp!  (whatever that is!!!)

Bobbi

Newport News / Norfolk / Portsmouth

The anchor came aboard at 8 AM so we could join another squadron of boats (12 and mostly sail) heading out of Fishing Bay and south towards the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay.  It seems difficult to cruise alone on the bay, at least during this time of the year during the southern migration.

Winds were as predicted, about 15 knots from the N to NW pushing us down the bay with an ebbing tide.  With the wind behind us and the tide pushing we approached 8 knots at an RPM that generally nets 6.8 knots in flat water.

The aircraft carriers USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) is quite visable 5 miles from the harbor and is an impressive sight along with the rest of the navel vessels just inside Hampton Roads.

We stayed on the far side of the channel when passing the navy docks.

Going up the channel, we hit 1000 NM (1150 statute miles) since we started and have another 1000 NM to go to get to Florida, 52 of those miles being done today.

1000 NM and counting

More warships as well as small vessels patrolling the perimeter, we again kept our distance.

Our tax dollars at work

I just thought this pair of giant cranes were neat.

There are a few “free” docks in Portsmouth, the first one we came to was chock full of boats, the second one (High Street South Landing) was completely empty.  The sign at the entrance said no docking from 12 AM to 6 AM but the information on Active Captain (our favorite on-line source of information) said to ignore the sign as this rule hasn’t been enforced since the city took over ownership of the basin.  We went in, tied up and in less than 1/2 hour the basin was full of boats.  We need to talk to who ever designed this place as the docks were under a couple of inches of water when we arrived.

High Street South Landing. Free, but no power or water

A street person helped us tie up and he didn’t seem to care if he got his feet wet in the process.  We gave him a couple of bucks, some sandwiches and fruit to share with his buddies.  He confirmed that boats tie up in this basin overnight all the time.

The tide dropped the water level below the docks when this picture was taken.

We will be staying here tomorrow and then leaving for the Great Dismal Swamp early on Saturday morning.  We want to be in the swamp when the weather turn ugly in a day or so.  Winds are forecast to gust into the upper 30’s and we want to be in a protected area at that time.

Dave

Well, we made it to Portsmouth!!!  Guess what??  They have wine in the grocery stores here!!  (It’s a miracle!)

We had a great late afternoon and evening with Jennifer, Andrew, Will and Emily (Our son-in-laws step-sister and family).  Jennifer first stopped down to the boat with kids and took Dave and I grocery shopping  (That’s where I found the wine!)   We then walked to  the Bier Garden (a wonderful German restaurant a few blocks from the boat.  Thank-you Jennifer and Andrew!!   What great kids you have, they made my day!!  Also, thank-you so much for the flowers

 

Fresh Flowers from Jennifer, Andrew, Will and Emily

Tomorrow I plan on watching Will and Emily’s Halloween parade.  Their school is just  a few blocks away from the boat.  (I’m sure it will help me get my Halloween fix!!)

Dave and I are also planning on going to a movie tomorrow evening.   There is a dinner theater right up the street.   We will  be able to have dinner and watch a movie at the same time.   What will they think of next??  (Come to think of it I’m pretty sure you can do that at home for free!!!)

Bobbi

 

Deltaville, VA….. Fishing Bay

The dock lines were taken in at 9:15 this morning, no need to rush as the forecast called for SW winds at 10 to 15 knots, diminishing in the afternoon to 5 to 10 knots.  On our way back to the bay we passed a couple of “kids”, ages 28 and 31 who decided to chuck their IT jobs, sell everything, move aboard a 28 foot boat and head south.  When the money runs out they will decide what to do next.  I guess they decided to do it while they were young and we applaud them for their spunk.  They were actually going to leave yesterday but the forecast was straight south at 20 knots so they put things off for a day.

On a reach now, but it is going to turn into almost a straight beat in a few miles.

We plowed along at 6.5 to 7 knots, with the wind pretty much on the nose for about 20 miles before going into Fishing Bay, just south of the Rappahonnock River.  The tide was going down the bay with the wind coming straight up the bay making for a pretty steep chop.  The wipers were engaged every few minutes and every once in a while we would splash water over both sides of the bow at the same time.

While we would have liked to make Mobjack Bay, about 20 miles further south, tomorrows forecast is for NW winds of 10 to 15 knots.  An 8 AM start will find the tide turning, pushing us down the bay with the wind behind us.  That should help us grind out the remaining 40 some odd miles to Newport News in short order.

We actually took an anchorage a little further up the bay on the south side as the wind was gusting to about 20 and wasn’t forecast to switch to the north until early morning.  Of course at 5 PM the boat swung around to the north as the front came through at about 20 knots.  It has dropped since then to about 10 and isn’t forecast to be much higher through the night.  We came within about 5 minutes from pulling the anchor and going 3/4 miles across the bay to anchor in the new lee shore but the rain started so that plan was shelved it was going to be dark soon.  We are actually fine here;  15 feet of water and 80 feet of chain (5:1 scope) on our 60 lb Manson Supreme anchor.  I do keep tabs on things using the chart plotter however and will be up a couple of times during the night to verify we haven’t moved.  The one nice thing about a dock is that you sleep a bit better, unless the tide is going up and down and the boat is banging off the dock.

Bobbi looks pretty serious about working on her puzzle and she put in a couple of hours on it late this afternoon.

Puzzle Lady

Total miles to date:  956.2 NM.

Dave

Well, we were officially in Virginia on Monday!  (I realized that this morning!!! Oh my!!)  Today went well, we did watch the two young men set off on their adventure today.  I wonder how their parents were feeling?

Yesterday I mentioned how I miss our kids and grand-kids, I also miss our Friday night dinners with Dave’s dad, Ron.  It was our “date” night.  Ron always made sure he had wine for us when we ate at his house.  If the weather was good the three of us would have dinner on the boat.  It’s a “date”  this summer Ron!!!

We will be off to Portsmouth tomorrow.  We will get a chance to visit our son-in-laws step-sister, Jennifer and her family.  We are really looking forward to it!!!  We had to have some of our mail sent to Jennifer.  Thanks Chris for taking care of it!

Well, we will see what tomorrow brings!

Bobbi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Reedville, Jennings Boatyard

The day dawned warm and sunny, short pants were the order of the day.  We haven’t been able to wear shorts for what seems like weeks.  It will be short lived as the highs this weekend are in the 50’s but we know we are moving south towards warmer weather.

The sailboat to the left of Maple Sugar (left of Liberty) is an interesting case.  Evidently he purchased a boat having never sailed before and has left for points south.  He doesn’t have much to say to us as we are a powerboat-er in his book which is good.  Our first exposure to him was in Waterford, NY at the end of the Erie Canal.  We next ran into him in Catskill, NY where he was getting his spars stepped.  Now he is near us in Reedville, VA.  They have a free towing service around here and they dragged him in last evening.  Evidently he has engine problems all the time and knowing nothing about them keeps paying people to fix it.    He was busy recounting on how he stiffed the guys in Catskill that stepped his masts for him, and didn’t seem to be apologizing for it.  I will find out from Dale and Sylvia what the story is tomorrow.

Jennings Boatyard

Like all real boat yards, they have an area where dreams come to die.  It is somewhat sad to see how much effort has been expended on some boats before the owner comes back to reality and realizes the boat isn’t worth much more than the salvage price of the spars and the lead in the keel (if they are lucky).

A bit of rot in the strip planking, but we can epoxy that back together…..

Even work boats are left to rot

On a lighter note, after lunch in a nearby restaurant (one of two open this time of year) where I had a crab cake sandwich and Bobbi had a hamburger,  we dinghy-ed over to the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum (5 miles by car or 15 minute dinghy ride) and toured the facility.  They weren’t too busy on a Tuesday afternoon and gave opened their buildings for us while giving a personal tour.

Fisherman’s Museum

They had lots of information and pictures on the menhaden fishery, which I found interesting having recently read a book on this industry. Menhaden have been called ‘the most important fish in the sea’ and Reedville is home to an Omega Protein plant as the fish are very oily and used to produce anything with Omega-3 oil.

Omega Plant. If you want to smell something disgusting, be downwind of this place.

On Monday and Tuesdays you can use a pusher boat to help harvest oysters, otherwise it must be done under sail.

We thought this sign was interesting:

Their boat building/repair shop is staffed by volunteers.

After the museum we hiked up to the Post Office where I was able to send my hand held sonar (depth finder) back to Hawkeye for some out-of-warranty repair (no charge).  I don’t think we used it more than a few times and it stopped registering depth.  The Hawkeye web site indicated there was some issues with certain models (all built in China, no surprise) and to send it back.  We didn’t realize it was malfunctioning until we were on the Hudson, so after it is repaired it will be going back to Erie and we will get it to us somehow.  The odd thing was walking down Main Street in this town was like being in the twilight zone.  Virtually no cell service from Verizon (very unusual), so no access to Google Maps and no locals around.  We came across the volunteer fire department, the garage doors were open and I went in to find somebody to ask directions, only there was nobody to be found.  Six fire engines and no people.  Eventually we did find the Post Office and the lady went way out of her way to find an appropriate box to ship the unit in, packing material etc.  All that to save us a few dollars rather than using a one-rate box.

Back to the Museum where we left the dinghy, Dale and Sylvia were there with their dinghy and we started back.  They have an fancy rigid hull inflatable with a decent gas outboard, ours is an electric motor on a hard dingy so we were no match for them on the journey back.  They were finally able to pass us on the water.

Bobbi bought some crab cake seasoning at the Museum, so we mixed it with the remainder of yesterdays crab and had it for dinner.  I am convinced you can mix anything with crab meat and it tastes good.

Crab cakes, baked potato, Ceasar salad and wine

Last night we were hoping to watch the launch of an Antares rocket that was to resupply the space station.  The launch site is Wallops Island, due east of us.  We saw nothing and found that mission was scrubbed due to a sailboat being down range.  I kidded Dale and Sylvia that it probably was Canadian.  We did see the space station go over a few minutes later which was a new experience for me.  Tonight they were scheduled to launch again.  After nothing appeared I checked the computer and found that the rocket exploded upon lift-off, fortunately there were no injuries.

Dave

Well, I was able to sleep in until 9:15 this morning, seemed like heaven after yesterday’s 7 a.m. shove off!!!  It was 81 today and sunny, just a nice day.

We met two interesting folks at the Fish Museum.  They showed as every bit of the museum as possible.  (fun time!!!)

The best part of the day was riding in the dinghy.  I mentioned to Dave how much fun we are having, he said he agreed and wondered if I could really believe we are doing what we are doing!!  I still miss my kids and grand-kids, but this is really a chance in a life time.

We will be off again tomorrow morning, (not until 9 a.m.!)  We will be heading for Fishing Bay, where we will probably be on the “hook”.  Then off to Portsmouth the next day!

Bobbi

 

Fleet cruise to Reedville

We needed to leave Bill and Judy’s dock at 7 AM this morning while the tide was still high.  Liberty showed less than one foot under her keel at that time and kicked up a bit of mud when we left.  Bandit was our escort down the river before Bill peeled off to take Annie for her morning swim.  We left the river with fourteen other boats, most of them probably waiting for the bay to calm down as it was blowing 20 with gusts to 30 the day before, all of us had the same idea; get going as soon as possible.

Pilot boat Bandit leading us out

It was a perfect day to get some more miles in down the bay.  We have heard that the mouth of the Potomac River (7 miles wide as it empties into the Chesapeake) is as nasty as the Delaware Bay depending on the wind direction and tide.  Lucky for us we crossed over in about five knots of wind slack tide.  We won’t need to pay attention to this location until next May.

Smith Point Light on the south west corner of where the Potomac empties into the bay

We came into Reedville, went up and down some of the creeks to scope things out before landing at Jennings Boatyard.  It appears we will be here for another day as the forecast is for South winds with gusts to 20.  Since we have no desire to power straight into 20 knots of wind we will lie over.  The cost is $1/ft/night + $5 for 30 amp electric service.  The docks are brand new floating docks installed this year and is a real working boat yard.  Pictures tomorrow.  Almost all the rest of the boats that were with us continued on as they were probably trying to make up for lost time being weathered in at Solomons.  It is nice to be out of phase with them now so we don’t have to compete with anchorage or dockage space with them.

Last year we stopped in Reedville while driving to Annapolis from Newport News to visit our old trawlers (Finlandia) sister. We pulled up to the same restaurant with Liberty, jumped ashore and bought a pound of crab meat.  We had to wait a few minutes as they had to finish picking it, so it is fresh, fresh, fresh.

Since it is almost Halloween, here is a picture from Bill and Judy’s dock from yesterday:

Keeping away non-Pilgrims, I guess

Dave

Well, we are in Reedsville!   Today seemed like a long day. (some of us just aren’t morning people!)  Tomorrow we will go investigating the town and see what we see.  We are going to be in Reedsville for two days, the weather is suppose to be warm tomorrow but windy.  Well, we’ll see what happens tomorrow!

Bobbi

Solomons, Day 2

We spent most of the day aboard a boat (big surprise), but not our boat and not one that only goes 7 knots.   Bill and Judy have a 23 foot Privateer, a cuddy cabin twin 90 hp outboard boat they use for diving and fishing.  We zipped out to a beach on the Patuxent so their golden retriever (Annie) could go for a swim and we could do some beach combing.  You can occasionally find sharks teeth on the beach and while we didn’t find any, Bobbi did locate some beach glass and some shells.  We didn’t exactly leave with out any sharks teeth as Judy gave us one as a souvenir of our visit.

Leaving for a tour of the river and harbor

Sylvia and Annie enjoying the ride

Fruitless search for sharks teeth

After the beach combing we went down the river and toured Solomons by water.  The actual harbor has multiple marinas and an anchorage.  It was interesting to note that the anchorage was essentially empty and there were a lot of empty slips as most people have pulled their boats for the year.

Returning back to Bill and Judy’s house, Judy had to leave for work as she commutes to Frederick where she teaches at Hood College, a 2-1/2 hour drive.  Judy belongs to Sisters on the Fly which is an organization of women who just hang out and go places together.  The like to “decorate” their campers with wild themes.

Bill was “stuck” with us and we did our best to eat some of the leftovers from last nights dinner, have some wine and sit and relax while watching an afternoon football game.  We also checked the weather for tomorrow again and planned our next stop which should be Reedville, VA.  An early 7 AM start is called for so we can leave on a high tide otherwise it might not be able to get away from the dock without stirring up lots of mud in the process.

Dave

Well,  we left Choptank on Friday.  What a great time we had with Bicky, (we stayed at Bicky and Dave’s dock in Choptank) she has a unique way of making everyone feel very comfortable.   Bicky kept us laughing the entire time, what a sense of humor this lady has.    Thank-you Bicky for a great time.  We owe you a “million”.  Hopefully we’ll see you and Dave this summer and enjoy a glass or two of wine together!

What  a fun day on the water today!.  We had the  best time out in Judy and Bill’s power boat, Bandit.  It felt good to be out in the wind and waves as well as walking along the beach.   Judy and Bill are fellow “Pilgrimers”.   Thank-you Judy and Bill for dinner, Smith island cake, a great day and a new found friendship.

It is just amazing the different adventures Dave and I are enjoying every day.  If someone would of told me this is what retirement is like,  Dave would have sent me to work kicking and screaming all those years.  I have to say life is good!!!

Bobbi

Solomons

This morning our host in Church Creek made us a very fine breakfast before we left for the western shore of the bay.  I didn’t see her carrying a knife as she walked down the pier to say goodbye although maybe she had a folding rigging knife in her pocket.  The knife would be used to cut our dock lines in case we decided not to leave.  In all seriousness, we had a wonderful stay at their dock and home and we hope to see them when they are cruising their Lord Nelson Tug in Florida waters this spring.

 

Breakfast

The trip across and down the bay was uneventful, as it should be if you are doing this cruising thing correctly.

Perfect weather

The water was pretty much flat until we were about five miles from the mouth of the Patuxent river when the southerly wind picked up to about 10 to 15 knots.

 

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Bill and Judy Sherman own Dreamboat Annie, Pilgrim #11 and it is kept below their house up Cuckold Creek.  They brought out their 23 foot powerboat and met us at Solomons to escort us to their dock where we parked right behind their Pilgrim after six hours on the water.  We came in at high tide and were only showing about a foot and one half of water below our keel at the dock.  Maple Sugar, the Gozzard 36 sailboat is docked just around the corner from us this evening at a deep water slip.  The only problem with their slip (besides the lack of electricity) is the fact that there is a real steep cliff that needs to be scaled to go ashore.  They can use their dinghy to come to where we are and use the stairs to get Bill and Judy’s house.

You can’t get much further up the creek than this

Two Pilgrim nestled in at the dock

View of the dock near the house

Our hosts prepared a nice steak dinner for us that included Judy’s great grandmothers crab cakes recipe and Smith Island 10 layer cake.  Nobody left hungry (or thirsty).  It was one again nice to talk to people face to face that we have only known over the Internet when corresponding about the Pilgrims.

Dave (Bobbi has already fallen asleep for the evening, too much excitement again; maybe I can get her to edit this post in the morning).

 

 

Church Creek, Day 4

Finally, the sun is back.  Today dawned with nary a cloud in the sky although it was still blowing a steady 10 with gusts to 20.  The skipper busied himself with finding a replacement PC to supplement the Raymarine stuff.  We decided on a Toshiba tablet that has an internal GPS and runs Windows 8.1 allowing us to use our Coastal Explorer software.  Nobody in the local area has one as it has been replaced with a slightly cheaper model that does not have a GPS and only half the amount of RAM so it needs to be purchased from Amazon.  We will have it shipped to a shirt tail relative in Portsmouth where we will be landing in a number of days.  It only took about 1/2 day to sort this out, retired people can’t be rushed.

The other 1/2 day was spent installing additional ventilation ports in our fly bridge.  We moved our on-demand propane water heater up here and I wasn’t happy about how warm the mounting area was getting, even though the unit was only being used for five minutes at a time.  We added four of the white vents and as usual, most of the time was spent in digging out tools and cleaning up.  We needed to pull the steering wheel and our gear puller and special socket to remove the nut was buried in different locations on the boat.  We knew we had the tools, it was just a matter of locating them.  One of the tasks we wanted to complete before we left was a complete inventory of all tools and their location.  Guess what didn’t get done?

 

Additional Vents

The evening sunset was spectauclar, with the wind dropping to around five knots.  Tomorrows run to the Solomons should be in fairly flat water (famous last words).

 

Evening in Church Creek

Dave

 

 

Church Creek, Day 3

The day dawned windy and gray once more, as the wind blew hard all night causing us to check on the dock lines at 2 AM.   There wasn’t too much happening this morning so the skipper just hung out with the bird while doing the days electronic chores on the phone.  E-mail, weather, that sort of thing.

Keeping the skipper company

Back when we were wandering the boat stores in Annapolis, I was on the lookout for some little red/green markers that remind you of which side of buoys the boat should be on.  It sounds silly, but when you are tired and you are approaching a marker, it isn’t always obvious which side you should pass.  Red – Right – Returning only works if you are returning in a channel from the sea.  There are lots of water ways that aren’t connected directly to what you might think is the “sea”.  Anyhow, we were using some blue tape and moving the tape from side to side to keep us on the straight and narrow.  It turns out that Gatsby had one of these cute little things and Dave was kind enough to give us theirs.  I guess he figured we needed it more then they do at the moment.  By the way, when going “down river”, you rotate this thing 90 degrees so the red is on the left.

I can get rid of the blue tape now

Lunch was at the Suicide Bridge Restaurant, so named because it was adjacent to the (suprise) Suicide Bridge.  The bridge got it’s name from the fact that two people shot themselves on the bridge, not because the bridge was so high that you could jump off it to commit suicide.  Evidently with a name like this it now seems to attract people who want to do themselves in.  Some are successful, some aren’t.

The crab cake sandwich was well worth the drive to get here.  People on the Eastern Shore will tell you the real blue crabs come from the east side.

I ordered mine sans tomato

We took a trip out to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge to check out the wild life.  It is a haven for bald eagles and we counted six in the short time we were there.  The mosquitoes are real nasty there.  I got bit near my lip and it swelled up and got numb really quick, looked like I was in a fight and got the worst of it.

Blackwater Wildlife Refuge

Dave

Well, I’m back from visiting our friends Kathy and Bill, who live in Ocean Pines (about an hour and half from where Liberty is docked). Kathy and I worked at the Red Barn when we were teenagers!!    We had a great time together the past two days; a little wine, a little reminiscing  and a lot of laughing!!!

Kathy and I had planned on kayaking yesterday, but it was too cold.  Today we planned on bike riding, but still too cold, so we decided to visit Blackwater Wildlife Refuge (what a beautiful and peaceful place).  We walked along the walking path and were able to see several bald eagles and a huge heron (what a sight!)  Dave came along today and enjoyed it as much as we did.

Kathy and Bill’s daughter, Marybeth, was visiting from California while I was there.   It was just a pleasure to spend time with Marybeth and see what a beautiful  lady she has become.  (Marybeth, I can only imagine how proud you have made your mom and dad!!!)

We will be spending another great day in Church Creek .  Well, we’ll see what tomorrow brings!!!  I can’t wait!

Bobbi

 

Cold and Rain at Church Creek

The weather in Church Creek is cool, the wind is blowing and the rain has been falling off and on all day.  Winds at the Thomas Point Lighthouse on the Chesapeake have been 20+ knots all day with gust over 30 out of the North West.  We are not missing anything by being tucked away where we are.

The crew is still away on shore leave while the skipper attends to the many never ending jobs aboard the boat.  The score:  Boat 2, Skipper 0.  Boat wins again.  We decided to change the coolant in the genset.  Our notes indicate we were only able to drain a little over a quart from the block when we did this job a few years ago (only 10 hours on the genset since then), yet the manual states it should hold over 4 quarts.  Same story this year, draining took about two hours.   We had to build a trough to route the coolant from the drain bib to a container to drain the block, which also drains the manifold.  There is no way in the world to effectively drain the heat exchanger as the drain bib only has about an inch of clearance from the sole.  This is inside the sound shield framework so do they expect you to just let the coolant run all over inside with no way to capture it?  I can see why this job doesn’t get performed too often.   We need to chalk this up as a partial coolant change.

Next up was tackling our computer issues.  I decided I had nothing to loose by re-formatting the hard drive on the XP computer that we use as our backup nav system since it is running so slow that it has become almost useless.  I really like Coastal Explorer for laying out multiple way-point courses on the PC but the Raymarine system wins when needing a radar overlay or showing AIS targets.  The fact that I can’t pan or zoom Coastal Explorer on the PC has become a real issue.

Well, where do you think the CD’s with the XP operating system are?  Hint:  not on the boat.   For some reason there is no mirror image of the original install on the computer, maybe due to it’s advanced age.  OK, we should be able to do a re-install of the OS from what is on the hard disk.  You need the magic certificate of authenticity number to do this which is no problem as it is on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop.  Except it says it is invalid.  OK, no problem, get it from the system registry.  Not that easy as it is encrypted.  OK, download a program that un-encrypts it.  Great, except that when you run the install utility it starts to holler about missing files.  I guess you need the CD’s.  I give up.

Our main communication computer also has Coastal Explorer (CE) on it as a backup.  This used to work with a USB to Serial adaptor that I purchased and tested.  All was well until we had to install a wireless keyboard when the laptop keyboard went bottoms up.  All attempts to uninstall the drivers for the wireless keyboard to get the computer to talk to the GPS were for naught also.  I would buy a hockey puck GPS to interface with CE rather than using our external GPS but read that isn’t the solution in the majority of cases.

I remember back when PC’s first came out.  There were only thirty some files that made up the operating system and I knew what each one did.  Now I can’t seem to get two pieces of equipment to talk to each other.  I had to give up again.  It is hard to believe that I spent virtually the entire day on these few tasks.

We had left over Chinese for dinner tonight which was shared with our host so were able to finish it off.  Thank goodness as I have now eaten it three days in a row.  Now there is a bit more room in the refrigerator.

Today is the last day in our Verizon billing cycle.  We have gobbled 15.4 GB of data over the last month.  Thank goodness for our unlimited data plan and we haven’t even streamed a movie during that time.

Time to check the dock lines before shutting things down for the night.

Dave