I've recently had a conversation with a fellow HAM - I thought this
might be
of interest to those following our refit adventures; if not, delete...


Skip,
Looks your boat readiness work is progressing like mine. We were going to
leave March 15, then April, now May. I keep finding things that have to be
repaired or replaced. I hope that light at the end of the tunnel I see
isn't a train. Sometime before June 1 now. I saw a nice wifi setup at the
Miami boat show. It had an amplifier for both directions and an omni
antenna. $550.
You don't need to have the EPIRB before getting the ships license. Just
check the blocks for VHF, HF, EPIRP, etc. and it covers everything. I have
mine but don't have the EPIRB. Use the Koch software 20 minutes a day for
3 weeks and you can pass the code. Last I heard, the FCC "might" drop the
code in late summer.
We will be south of the hurricanes during July-October in Prickly Bay,
Grenada or in Trinidad. Hopefully they won't have another "Ivan" for
another 50 years. My insurance says the boat has to be south of 12' 40"
from July 1 to Nov. 1. That's Mayreau/Tobago Cays and south. We are going
straight from Ft. Lauderdale to St. Johns, USVI, then a quick trip down
the leewards to Mayreau. We will probably spend a couple of weeks in the
Tobago Cays on the way down to Grenada.

Kelton,
s/v Isle Escape

Hi, again,

I'd thought one had to register the epirb - else how will they know who
it
is? - and every time one registered a piece (or however many) of gear,
there
was a charge; that's why we've delayed. I have no doubt that I can
pass the
code with a little work. I don't recall which program I used, but I
was
listening at a rate (the one I used could be adjusted from 0-200WPM,
and
ditto pitch) which was notably higher than the test one. I'll study to
the
test and knock it dead. It will take a considerable greater amount of
study
to kill the general test, as there's so much which I can't figure out,
use
common sense, or rely on my 40-years-ago physics radio course to
know/remember. However, I figure if I use the radio regularly, just to
get
familiar with it, many of the bands issues will become transparent.
I'm
assuming I'll not sit the test again until we're in the Virgins, unless
there's another event in the Bahamas as I think I recall last year
around
the same time as the SSCA test.

I misunderstood - I'd thought you were going to the Virgins - I see
it's
only a transit point. That's essentially what we plan - except we'll
not
hurry there. One of our sisterships has been in Green Turtle Cay for
over
20 years, and the worst hurricane damage suffered to date has been the
loss
of a frisbee antenna last year. That's sitting on his mooring - so
that's a
good sign, as far as I can see :{))

I don't suppose you got a name/maker/seller of that antenna? I've got
close
to that in the gear I have (but haven't yet checked out the addition of
the
router that a pro feels will make it work; too many other priorities
right
now), so, while pricey, if it actually worked, I'm sure there would be
a
market for it. Mine is a bit of Rube Goldberg-ish, in that I'm
cobbling
parts together to make it happen. Beats 1200 for Pactor and 300 baud
text
only, for sure, though, if it works (even with the other pricing)!

We're almost finished in the bow cabin; I've just stuffed the
spinnaker,
storm staysail and sea anchor and lots of spare hoses and various
hardware
salvaged from a boat in the yard destined for chopup in the 2 spaces
under
the bunk and am about to start the second of the two teak fishing pole
holders over one of the shelves. After that, it's install the ventair
already cut, retrieve the bedding from the sailmaker who covered them
for
us, and shut the door behind me as I move to the forward head, likewise
nearly finished. Lydia's mother, in the states to petsit for a
relative
nearby, will join me aboard in 10 days; if she can stand the heat, she
really enjoys detailing boats, and there's a lot of detailing to do!
If
not, she'll catch her plane back to England in a couple of weeks, or
stay on
for however long it works out, if she can handle it. So, total
finishing of
the forward area is my focus right now :{))

I'm now at the point where I'm going to try to move aft, finishing out
stuff
as I go, rather than the helter-skelter projects which have been
happening
all over the boat. Topsides, we have just a bit of wear protection for
the
anchor system, and a kludge around the new 60# CQR with its much longer
shank, which will allow us to secure it; the 55# Delta makes it in the
space
allowed previously for the old 45# CQR which was stolen during my
surgery
absence. I figured out how to make the two chain retrieval and
deployments
work with the single windlass, with which I am *very* well pleased, and
I'm
as well pleased with the fact that adding enough 3/4" MaxiBraid to
total
300' of rode (175'/125' in chain/rope and rope/chain for the two) in
both
halves still allowed the locker to not overflow or castle into the
deployment end of things. Those two systems should be enough for
anything
other than hurricanes, as they're both "oversized" for the boat - and
yet,
for the changeout of both anchors and adding 300' of 3/4 rode, with the
removal of the Fortress to the stern, and the somewhat lighter
windlass,
there's no change in weight forward.

It's taking, of course, much longer than we want - what boat project
doesn't?? - but the list is finally getting shorter. I just crossed
off
nearly half the "current" list for the contractor I'm using, there's a
couple more electrical items which have been completed with more to
come
today, after which we'll tackle the mast-area lighting. After that,
there
still remains the finalizing of plumbing, radio(s) installation,
liferaft
certification or replacement and truing of the shaft elements (which
will
involve shaft removal, repitching the MaxProp and, later, engine
alignment
of some significance, plus I'm replacing the stuffing box with a
dripless
system and adding a line cutter to the prop area) remain the only
significant remainders before we can splash and commence to seatrial.

So, despite my wishing that would happen in a couple of weeks, reality
and
experience suggest it will be more like a couple of months :{/)

When we get them in, and are testing them out, we'll give you an mmsi #
call
on the SSB and Ham, to test them out, as well.

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing
about in
boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's
the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

On 26 Apr 2006 07:55:24 -0700, "Skip Gundlach"
wrote:

Hi, again,

I'd thought one had to register the epirb - else how will they know who
it
is? - and every time one registered a piece (or however many) of gear,
there
was a charge; that's why we've delayed.

Epirb registration is free. Radio license isn't but it's cheap, is
good for 10 years and covers all the radios on board. HF, VHF, Epirbs.

You need 5wpm for the code now. You can get there in 1 day. Go to one
of the big Ham convention next time there is one near you. They
usually last 3 days. You can take the test 3 times. That's how I got
to extra. If I can do it, anyone can.

Jeannette AA6JH
Bristol32
S/V 'Con Te Partiro'
http://www.eblw.com/contepartiro/contepartiro.html