Day 333, Year 9: New Navigation Set-up
Date: Friday, September 19, 2014
Weather: Sunny with Blue Skies, Strong N Winds Bringing Us a Chilly Day
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
We have thought and read and discussed and thought and read and discussed some more trying to figure out the cheapest and best way to have good navigation software on Windbird. We used MaxSea on our computer at the nav station with a monitor in the cockpit all around the world and it was great. BUT our old MaxSea software only works on a computer with Windows XP and all of our computers with the that operating system have now died and gone to heaven. For the past couple of years we have been using Open CPN software with our old C-Map charts plus the free downloadable NOAA vector charts. But recently we found out that old C-Map charts have voids in the Bahamas and other places and NOAA charts don’t cover all of the Bahamas, so we have been looking for a way to use new C-Map charts that are affordable. There are two ways to do that. You can buy a 10” tablet for $450 and then buy new C-Map charts for under $50 or buy new MaxSea navigation software for $450 and then buy new charts for $210. And we need two different sets of charts. As much as we love MaxSea, we decided to go with a new tablet, free downloadable software and affordable charts. Plan2Nav is the free software for tablets from the folks who make C-Map charts. So that is what we are going to use. The new Samsung 10” tablet arrived today so Mark has a new toy to keep him busier than ever. We could have used the software on Mark’s 7” Nexus tablet, but if something happened to his tablet, we would have no back-up. Thus the new tablet. And we got the 10” instead of another 7” because it is much easier to see. If we had bought another 7” tablet we would have stuck with Nexus, but their 10” doesn’t get the same rave reviews. Therefore, we went with the Samsung. And the case Mark bought for it comes with a keyboard. I have a feeling this will become his computer as well.
My mornings continue to be filled with cleaning out more and more storage areas. Mark headed to Heather’s early this morning with our Dorade boxes to sand them but he didn’t get very far before he had to come back and pick me up so we could get Ollie from daycare. Heather really needed to stay at work this afternoon, so we headed to H & J’s with a sleepy Ollie. He napped all afternoon while Mark sanded and I launched an all-out attack on Heather and Jed’s den. They have been trying to get it completely emptied for a few weeks now so they can paint and then get the new furniture. When Heather got home from work, she pitched in and we did it. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have a first coat of varnish on the Dorade boxes and Heather and Jed will have the den painted. Tomorrow is soccer Saturday and then the boys are coming here for an overnight, so I might not get the final sanding of the boxes done until Sunday afternoon with a first coat of varnish on Monday. But hopefully the absence of the boys at home tomorrow afternoon and evening plus Sunday morning will give Heather and Jed a chance to paint.
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| 140919 Day 333 Cape Cod, USA–New Navigation Set-up |
