Thursday November 7. Going south again.

Written by Jack van Ommen on November 7th, 2013

I wrote the below Wednesday evening but was too tired to drag my self to Mosquito Alley: I am back in the water. I took another day to fill in the low spots on the keel with epoxy putty. I touched up the scratches on the hull from the 200 plus locks abuse. I still have no working AIS . I am totally confused and I am just going to give it a rest. The SailMail is not working either yet. Chip Adams from Everett, Wa., who sold me the ICOM SSB radio and the Pactor modem back in 2004 has been of great help and I am real close on getting it to work without the control cable. It all seems to work  but I cannot make the connection yet. I think it is the puny little batteries that were sold to me in Amsterdam to replace the batteries  I bought in 2008 in Beaufort , N.C. I was told that the USB  hockey puck GPS antenna I have been using for my digital charts on the laptop for the last few years cannot be used for the AIS GPS receiver that needs to hook up to the VHF radio with AIS capability. So, I bought a Humminbird GPS receiver here but though I think it can be made to work I have not succeeded with it yet. So, my $400 multiplexer and the new $ 200 GPS receiver  are staring at me and I am ready to throw them overboard and tell them that Columbus and Magellan did just fine without them.  The weather forecast  for tomorrow looks very good NE  force 4/5// Today they were stronger. Right now, Wednesday evening they are Westerly, here. Do, I will plan to take off in the morning and make a stop in Barcelona , Friday evening or if the good conditions hold continue to Ibiza. I will try the SailMail again, underway, but iy might be a few days before I am on the internet again.

Thursday a.m.: A beautiful day to go south. I’ll be on my way after getting my bank account recharged and a few groceries.

 

4 Comments so far ↓

  1. grady meadows says:

    Jack, I am contemplating a sailing trip similar to yours in the Med. How much money per month does it cost for you to cruise in the Med. Also, what do you think of the idea of buying a sailboat in England and taking the canals to the Black Sea?

    Thanks much, Grady Meadows

  2. jackvanommen says:

    Dear Grady,
    It would be very difficult to estimate the monthly expenses for you in the Med. In a nutshell Turkey is no longer the cheaper destination. Marina moorage is very high in Turkey. Greece moorage is often free. Croatia is also costly for moorage, even anchoring is charged. I would recommend that you read my blogs for the Danube trip in 2010/2011. And you should check the blog of “Orca” of Mary and Rick Munden, they bought their Westerly 31 in England (it’s for sale in the Med….) and did the Danube, Black Sea at : http://cruisingtips.net/blog/?page_id=2
    And you should read the book of an American couple who did this route in 1925…. “Sailing across Europe” by Negkey Farson. Used copies are sometimes available at Amazon, etc. Good luck! Just go for it!!

  3. Matthias Klemm says:

    Jack,

    Let me know the make and model numbers of multiplexer, VHF(AIS), GPS receiver and I will try to figure it out. Basically NMEA out of VHF(AIS) and GPS connect to the NMEA in on the multiplexer and depending on what type of multiplexer you have the computer and/or tablet connects to the multiplexer wirelessly or by cable.

  4. jackvanommen says:

    Hallo atthias,
    It is a ShipModul. It is working for the VHF/AIS receiver but am trying to get the AIS targets on either my tablet or lap top. I think I maybe on ttrack with my old Nobeltec system. I’lll let you know tomorrow.