Chart Plotter Scare

I had got a big scare from the chart plotter last night. We got a 15-20 kt "Coromuel" S-SW wind unique to La Paz. At about 11 PM I decided to turn on the chart plotter to activate the anchor alarm. The plotter would not come up and was acting strangely. The screen came on and displayed the boat with its course and heading vectors in the middle. But there was no chart and the only key out of a total of 16 that it would respond to was the one for moving the cursor around. Every minute or so it would spontaneously reboot itself and start again. I tried using the breaker to turn it on and off and also activated the AIS but this did no good.

Great! No chart plotter and I am in La Paz where the chances of getting a good and fast repair are slim. The integrated Raymarine system is very efficient both in cost and functionality. However, the flaw is that if you lose the C120 display you lose access to your charts, radar, and AIS display. I knew that I could push on to Costa Rica and probably all of the way to Australia using C-Map which I have in both of my laptops, but I would sorely miss the AIS because sailing single handed I would not be able to constantly watch out for ships. Fortunately I have an independent "third party" Comar AIS so at least I would still be broadcasting my location to ships in the area.

I tried to put the matter out of my mind until morning but I had difficulty getting to sleep because I kept going over and over the issue. I realized that the C120 is probably the most mollycoddled instrument on board. Although it is designed to survive in a cockpit environment this one is firmly fixed on a purpose-build wooden frame that protects it from shocks, water, and even sunlight. A thought ran through my head of taking a bus to San Diego to get the unit repaired.

At about 1 AM I got up and had another go. I tried to jiggle the cables in the back but they were too firmly fixed to move around. I thumped the unit with the soft part of my fist. I repeatedly punched every key. All to no avail.

There are 6 buttons along the bottom of unit. By sheer luck I was holding the first one down while I powered on the breaker. A coundown to "factory settings" started. I let it count down the unit went into factory settings, seemed to die down, then came up looking normal.

This morning I have exercised the unit quite a bit and changed some of the factory settings. The chart plotter seems to be working OK but it will be a few weeks before I'll be relaxed about it - well, as relaxed as any cruising sailor can be about the equipment on his boat.

One reason why I want to avoid a delay in my planned return to Australia in 12 months is that the longer I stay out the higher the probability of something failing along the way. I've got a spare HF and VHF radios, 5 GPS's, and other spares on board, but there is a limit to the amount of spares one can carry.

PS Maybe I was too pessimistic. I've just checked the Raymarine web site and there are dealers both here in La Paz and in Puntarenas in Costa Rica.