SD Day 7 - Navman Sounder OK

I spent over two hours at McDonalds updating the blog yesterday afternoon. At the end of that session I had 15 minutes of battery life remaining on my webtop computer for a Skype conversation to Australia. I peddled home in the dark, using mainly the sidewalk, giving constant vigilance to cars darting in and out of fast food businesses. Tonight I will check yesterday's blog upload. I am particularly interested in the outcome of that sailing video upload that appeared to have gone OK.

Soon after waking this morning we checked the bilge. There was about 2 cups of clear water in the bilge - clear water, not red or green, which absolves the water tanks.

We plan to move the boat to the San Diego Yacht Club today and keep a few days here at the Police Dock up our sleeve. I spoke with Karen at the club yesterday and she said that she could see 3 slips that would suit us, so was optimistic about finding accommodation for us. However, she asked that we call this morning to get a specific slip assignment.

Yesterday I updated Pachuca's cruising log spreadsheet to include the San Diego leg. For the 500 sea miles between San Francisco and San Diego we averaged 1.9 knots, which is not surprising given the light winds in the first few days and the huge amount of heaving to under strong adverse winds. The numbers for the entire 20 months of cruising since Fremantele are:

Avg Speed Knots: 3.5
Dist Sailed Nm: 12026
Days Under Sail: 144
Lay Days (in port): 482
Days Away: 616

I can report good news on our Navman depth sounder problem. Yesterday morning I checked the transducer and found it fully bathed in olive oil that looked clean enough and of the right color to put on our next dish of spaghetti. I then turned on the unit and saw a depth of 2.1 meters, climbing upwards in 0.1 meter increments to 15 meters. Later I saw the depth back down to 0.1 meters, but climbing. Eventually the "DUH" moment arrived when I realized that there was a pattern and the unit might be in some sort of diagnostic mode. I recalled that Arnold and I had put the unit in some sort of self test mode way back in Tahiti Iti when we thought that the unit was faulty. (It wasn't. We were anchored in over 40 meters of water, but that is another story already covered in the blog.) I dug out the manual and saw that the unit could be put in and out of "simulation" mode by simultaneously holding down the "alarm" key and powering it on. Soon after Arnold returned to the boat from his bicycle trip for a hair cut he held down the "alarm" key on the display and I powered up at the switch panel and the unit began to report a credible and consistent depth of 5.1 meters. This morning I noticed that the tide is up and the unit is reporting 6.1 metes.

Arnold agrees that I should proceed with the installation of the new Raymarine depth sounder for several reasons. First, it gives us redundancy on a facility that is vital to the welfare of the boat and crew. Also, the Raymarine unit will display depth at the chart plotter, giving the navigator a more comprehensive view of the situation. Finally, the Raymarine unit may report deeper depths than the 35 meters or so that the Navman does. Incidentally, the Navman is 10 years old.