I brought the boat down from the yard today. The rig wasn't set up so it was
fifteen miles as a power boat. As soon as I got out of the river, I set up
the newly installed ST1000 driving the Cape Horn windvane.

Wow. I never had so much fun not doing something I used to think of as fun.
I know most of you take this for granted but I've always been a "keep it
simple", minimalist sailor. There's something about a boat that steers
itself that makes you feel like an adult.

I spent a good part of the leg down the bay sorting out lines and making the
boat a bit more presentable after the hasty mast stepping and departure. The
remote was close at hand and what luxury to just reach down and push the
buttons when a floating log or pot buoy came up.

It was a cold, raw day (an inch of snow in the northern part of the state)
and would have been a long cold trick at the wheel single handed. Another
nice thing I've discovered about autopilots is that being able to move
around and do things makes you feel a lot warmer.

I don't know how I ever got along without this thing. I may never steer
again. What's next? Radar? (Now that I can leave the wheel, I could even go
and look at it.)

--

Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
I brought the boat down from the yard today. The rig wasn't set up so it
was fifteen miles as a power boat. As soon as I got out of the river, I set
up the newly installed ST1000 driving the Cape Horn windvane.

Wow. I never had so much fun not doing something I used to think of as
fun. I know most of you take this for granted but I've always been a "keep
it simple", minimalist sailor. There's something about a boat that steers
itself that makes you feel like an adult.

I spent a good part of the leg down the bay sorting out lines and making
the boat a bit more presentable after the hasty mast stepping and
departure. The remote was close at hand and what luxury to just reach down
and push the buttons when a floating log or pot buoy came up.

It was a cold, raw day (an inch of snow in the northern part of the state)
and would have been a long cold trick at the wheel single handed. Another
nice thing I've discovered about autopilots is that being able to move
around and do things makes you feel a lot warmer.

I don't know how I ever got along without this thing. I may never steer
again. What's next? Radar? (Now that I can leave the wheel, I could even
go and look at it.)



Yep... my ST4000 is truly great. The remote makes it greater.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On May 17, 8:17 pm, "Roger Long" wrote:
I brought the boat down from the yard today. The rig wasn't set up so it was


Roger Long

F@#king amazing. Isn't that some modern stuff? Too bad it took you so
long to get on the same page.

On Thu, 17 May 2007 20:17:02 -0400, "Roger Long"
wrote:

I don't know how I ever got along without this thing. I may never steer
again.

Yep, absolutely right. You will helm the boat, but only when you want
to. That's a big difference.

What's next? Radar? (Now that I can leave the wheel, I could even go
and look at it.)

I sailed for years in Maine without RADAR but no more. It's just as
addictive as an autopilot. Do it right - get the ARPA functions and
the ability to do a chart overlay. I had never seen ARPA functions in
action until about 3 or 4 years ago when I was looking over the
captain's shoulder on the Monhegan Island ferry. We went home and
bought a comparable Furuno system for our trawler. Even my wife loves
it, and she is not easily impressed by marine electronics.

Roger Long wrote:

I don't know how I ever got along without this thing. I may never steer
again. What's next? Radar? (Now that I can leave the wheel, I could even
go and look at it.)

--

Roger Long

Next thing you know you're going to have a video
camera mounted on the masthead to help with
docking ;-)

Me... I want an underwater video camera to help
spot the coral heads before I hit em.

Don W.

Silver K wrote:
If you are still planning your trip to New Brunswick you may want to
seriously look at having a radar.

Nice to hear from you. I have my fingers crossed on the Saint John trip.
Still waiting to see how the shipyard construction schedule for the next
research vessel shapes up.

Working as I do primarily for academic institutions, I'd gotten used to
having summers mostly free. Wouldn't you know that, when I finally decided
to take advantage of that fact and spend much of the summer cruising, the
pattern would change. It looks like I could be spending more of this summer
in airports and motels than on the boat.

I've spent way too much on the boat this winter to consider radar. I'll
have to deal with traffic the way I have for the last 40 plus years, using
my shallow draft and willingness to navigate close in to stay out of the
high traffice lanes.

I hope to see you this fall.

--
Roger Long

"Don W" wrote in message
t...
Roger Long wrote:

I don't know how I ever got along without this thing. I may never steer
again. What's next? Radar? (Now that I can leave the wheel, I could even
go and look at it.)

--

Roger Long

Next thing you know you're going to have a video camera mounted on the
masthead to help with docking ;-)

Me... I want an underwater video camera to help spot the coral heads
before I hit em.

Don W.


If you are still planning your trip to New Brunswick you may want to
seriously look at having a radar. The Bay of Fundy is famous for it's fog.
If you do get caught in the fog without radar, you will need a good radar
deflector to help Fundy Traffic guide you around the tankers.

Sterling

In article ,
"Roger Long" wrote:

Silver K wrote:
If you are still planning your trip to New Brunswick you may want to
seriously look at having a radar.

Nice to hear from you. I have my fingers crossed on the Saint John trip.
Still waiting to see how the shipyard construction schedule for the next
research vessel shapes up.

Working as I do primarily for academic institutions, I'd gotten used to
having summers mostly free. Wouldn't you know that, when I finally decided
to take advantage of that fact and spend much of the summer cruising, the
pattern would change. It looks like I could be spending more of this summer
in airports and motels than on the boat.

I've spent way too much on the boat this winter to consider radar. I'll
have to deal with traffic the way I have for the last 40 plus years, using
my shallow draft and willingness to navigate close in to stay out of the
high traffice lanes.

I hope to see you this fall.

Roger, I don't remember who it was who responded to me, but his point,
expressed more succinctly and powerfully than my summation was that it
was irresponsible to boat off the coast of Maine in a fog and hope
others spent the money and developed the expertise to prevent accidents.

Regardless of staying out of high traffic or not, if one is on the water
in the heaviest soup and moving at any sort of speed at all, one
endangers himself and others by not using best available technology.

I found the original post sufficiently compelling to change my opinion.

Harlan

--
To respond, obviously drop the "nospan"?

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
Silver K wrote:
If you are still planning your trip to New Brunswick you may want to
seriously look at having a radar.

Nice to hear from you. I have my fingers crossed on the Saint John trip.
Still waiting to see how the shipyard construction schedule for the next
research vessel shapes up.

Working as I do primarily for academic institutions, I'd gotten used to
having summers mostly free. Wouldn't you know that, when I finally
decided to take advantage of that fact and spend much of the summer
cruising, the pattern would change. It looks like I could be spending
more of this summer in airports and motels than on the boat.

I've spent way too much on the boat this winter to consider radar. I'll
have to deal with traffic the way I have for the last 40 plus years, using
my shallow draft and willingness to navigate close in to stay out of the
high traffice lanes.

I hope to see you this fall.

--
Roger Long

Make sure you have the latest charts concerning the Bay of Fundy and
approaches to Saint John Habour.

The ship anchorages and lanes have been re-arranged to accommodate the Whale
conservation program.

I only hope that the electronic charts have been updated correctly. For
that area, I like to have paper charts back up with the latest notice to
mariners.

"
I've spent way too much on the boat this winter to consider radar. I'll
have to deal with traffic the way I have for the last 40 plus years, using
my shallow draft and willingness to navigate close in to stay out of the
high traffice lanes.

I hope to see you this fall.

--
Roger Long

I will send you the lineup for the Harvest Jazz & Blues festival when it is
released in June. The best deal is daily passes which will get you into all
shows that day. The water in the Saint John River refuses to go down this
year, we still havn't put our docks and expect that it might be another
week. We had several cm of snow yesterday and it is below freezing today.
When you decide that you are actually going to do the trip, it might be
possible to meet in Grand Manan or Cutler. I could probably use a little
holiday that time of year.