Hawaii - Christmas Dinner and Radio Fixed

Yesterday Kerry invited the "residents" of The Fuel Dock to Christmas Lunch at the Hawaiian Yacht Club. John and I knew that the Sydney Hobart Race (SHR) was due to start at 4 PM local time and we were hoping to have a look at it on one of the club's big flat screen TV's.

I showed up with 5 cold beers and a bottle of white wine. Unfortunately there was not much interest in the SHR at the club so John, Rob, and I went upstairs and managed to get the TV on after some trial and error. John made at least two passes from the lowest channel up to the last channel which was over 230, but there was simply no coverage of the SHR.

Downstairs we were treated to what I can only describe as a banquet put on my the club members, several whom were working hard at the kitchen. I loaded my plate with a little bit of everything, pacing myself so as not to fill the plate too full. I got to the end of the food and oops! there was another section with four large trays containing the ham and turkey. It was probably the biggest meal that I have eaten in years and it was delicious. Kerry's invitation (a club member) and the hospitality and generosity of the Hawaiian Yacht Club are highlights of this adventure that I will never forget.

This morning I woke up at 6 AM to catch the PBS news then at about 7.30 set up my laptop outside of the shop. I found out yesterday what happened to our internet service. From the boat I was using a wireless service named "Jerome". That service started to degenerate then quit altogether but outside the shop I was able to connect to one named "The Fuel Dock". It turns out that "The Fuel Dock" is the main router and "Jerome" was a secondary router set up by Jerome, who recently departed for a job in the Bahamas, to service his and other boats on my side of the shop. Well, "Jerome" has failed and now I must go to the bench outside of the shop for my internetting. However, this is no hardship since I am surrounded with three cages of exotic-looking birds, not to mention the local visiting birds who seem completely relaxed among humans. There is electric power available and free coffee whenever I want it. First thing in the morning there is even a fresh newspaper on the bench awaiting my attention.

While I was setting myself up for this morning's internet session Wally, Kerry's husband, sat next to me to eat his breakfast. I asked him for advice on our short wave radio problem. He recommended a friend Ron, who has wide communications experience (e.g. ran a Sailmail site) although he did not operate at the electronic component level. Failing that, there is a company called Oceantronics not far from the Home Depot that Arnold and I had visited.

Wally phoned Ron on his cell phone. I introduced myself, thanked him for his time, told him that I had a Kenwood TKM707 with a Kenwood Mat-100 tuner, then gave him the symptoms. He asked me if I had the Squelch on. Huh? I said that I didn't know. He said that having the Squelch on would give those symptoms. I told Ron that I was starting to feel pretty stupid and that I would go and check.

I turned on the radio, got good initial reception as usual, then hit the Squelch button to turn it off. For 10 minutes I heard news commentary from Radio Australia with amazing clarity then I zipped around the various channels to confirm that the reception was holding. I came back and told Wally and later Ron that I was very happy to call myself a complete idiot. Wally had suggested that the problem might be a degenerated coaxial cable and he suggested that I swap out all of the coax cabling - from the backstay to the tuner, and the tuner to the Kenwood. I think that I will do that because I have no idea how old that cabling is.

Ron said that one of the competitors in last year's TransPac race made the same mistake and was not able to figure out the problem, so I should not feel too bad. He said that with Icom radios the trap is that the "speaker" button is next to the "on" button and people will inadvertently turn off the speaker and think that the radio has failed. Ron also said that he knows the Kenwood TKM 707's and says that they are practically indestructible. In fact, he is installing one on a boat this afternoon and had offered to visit Pachuca and swap radios to eliminate that as a problem.

Ron said that I owed him a beer. I replied that I owed him a case of beer. He asked where Pachuca is and will visit soon.

All's Well That Ends Well, even for idiots.