Preparations for the Cruise

The boat is almost ready for our excursion to the islands.

I filled the diesel fuel tanks and spare containers last week and yesterday I got 10 liters of low octane gasoline for the outboard motor.

Two days ago I began checking out the electronics, and the chart plotter, radar, AIS, depth and wind instruments are working OK.

Yesterday I became re acquainted with the HF radio and this morning was able to listen to Don Anderson's weather report on the Amigo net.  The reception was not very good but I am confident that I will able to hear his and other weather reports more clearly after we are away from the surrounding masts in the marina.

I tested out the Sailmail system on the Acer netbook (running Windows XP) and everything that I tried checked out:  the computer remotely tunes the HF radio, the GPS antenna connected to the USB port passes data to the software, and the propagation window is working fine.  I successfully sent out a test message to my Gmail account and generated a position report message.  I haven't tested out the Grib file and weather fax functions but am confident that they will work OK.  Better yet, I replaced the Acer with the new Toshiba laptop (running Windows 7 Premium) that I had purchased in Seattle and got Sailmail working with remarkable ease.  One of my concerns was that this new laptop has only 2 USB ports and I required 3:  one for the mouse, one for the Pactor modem, and one for the GPS antenna.  Fortunately Jean back in Port Townsend had allowed me to rummage through Burl's computer bits and pieces and let me take what appeared to be a USB port expander: one end plugged to a computer USB port and the other end with 4 USB port connections.  I plugged the Pactor modem and GPS antenna to this port expander and they came up as COM7 and COM8.  Sailmail worked fine with this new computer, and so did C-Map, which displayed the position of the boat using the GPS antenna.  (Thanks Jean!)

On the deck yesterday I rolled out the jib for the first time in over 7 months and checked out the fittings.  I tested the electric anchor windlass and it was OK.  The Zodiac was already secured on top of the life raft but I had to lash the boarding ladder to the deck.  The cockpit is clear of no essential bits and pieces.

Today I'll visit Telcel to purchase 30 days for the dongle that provides internet access when we are within range of a cell phone tower.  We should be able to use in Escondido.  Also, I'll notify the marina of our plans.

The day before yesterday Brenda and I took inventory of the cabin lockers and were amazed at how much canned and dry provisions are on board.  No wonder, given that I had provisioned the boat for passage to Ecuador and beyond.  Some of the cans are getting rusty so we plan to eat our way out of this problem.  Nevertheless we will need fresh food so today we will purchase fruit, vegetables, meat, bread, etc.  And of course we'll stock up on beer and wine.

I put in a double load of laundry today will probably be ready this afternoon.  I'll wait until Wednesday morning before topping up our water tanks.