It’s been a long time since I’ve tested this. I tried earlier and it failed. Took me a while to figure out what was wrong. Hopefully this blog will get out there. It means we can continue to share what we’re doing when we’re unable to access the internet. Fingers crossed.
The SSB setup has had a bit of a makeover. Jim kindly gave me some spare copper strip he had which I’ve used to create, hopefully, a better ground plane. I am still using the water cylinder but it’s now hooked up to the tuner via the copper ribbon rather than a wire. This is supposed to be better. We’ll soon see. Installing the copper ribbon was like working with razor wire. My hands are covered in little slices. I’m going to avoid after shave for a few days.
Today was very calm so it was shopping day. We first went to Island Water World who had agreed to raise the handle on our dinghy where the seat is supposed to sit. This will stop it falling out. While this was done we did some major provisioning of the liquid kind. This involved two treks to the cash and carry. Hopefully the boys won’t go dry at Xmas. We also bought a barbecue cover which Helen has adapted to fit over the grill my parents bought us. That’ll keep the elements off it.
It was overcast for much of today so the battle with the batteries didn’t last too long and a truce was declared.
Tomorrow Eddie should be here to install the radar. We bought the mount today. I need to measure it against the Garmin template. It’ll probably need some form of adapting plate made. At the same time we can run cables through to power the SSB off of the main batteries. That’ll reduce the wires that dangle around and annoy Helen.
The new parts from Lagoon, we now know, are on their way. The complication will be timing the install. The weather for next week forecasts strong winds – worse than we experienced when my parents were with us. This may make delivery more complicated as we want to duck into the Lagoon and get nearer the airport for when the kids arrive. We have a spot planned. This may also mean wet bums for the kids when we finally get them aboard the boat. All part of the fun.
Soon the chores will be done. The light at the end of the tunnel grows closer and larger. Then we’ll be off and hopefully getting some island time in.
FOOTNOTE: SSB sending still has an issue. All blog messages arrive pending when sent via SSB. Figured out how to solve it for other emails but not this one yet.
FOOTNOTE2: Now sorted.
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