back on track

Gudrun V
Axel Busch
Wed 12 Sep 2012 00:19
Tuesday, 2012-09-11, 14:00, 19:16.980S, 162:02.540W, COG 255, SOG 7kn, Wind
15kn SE

Yes Uwe ... "never change a running system". Oh, how I can see my friends
chuckling at my foolishness. 3 years on the boat and I start playing with
the autopilot half-way through a one week trip. Doh! Well, just shows how
bored you really can get at sea.

So, I tried to calibrate the new autopilot for an hour, driving in circles,
but it didn't work. I guess my and Raymarine's definition of calm don't
match. So I installed the old autopilot again, and now everything is "sweet
as". Now that is a New Zealand expression and means ... fine. Have to
practice my NZ dialact ey, not far now :-)

Liked the old autopilot (ST4000) better anyway. Raymarine ST6002 is for the
can. First of all you turn it on have to wait one minute until it's ready.
ST4000: immediately. Want to change rudder gain at the ST6002 because the
sea got rougher: turn it off first. ST4000: no problem. And the remote
control is crap too. The battery lasts for only about 8h, then it starts
beeping. But you can't turn it off, you have to plug it in first, because
the alarm that goes off every 2sec interrupts the shut-down procedure. You
can also not turn it off while in auto pilot mode. So there's no way to
conserve battery power. And no, the cradle doesn't come with a plug. Great
user research guys. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but after a day
it annoyed me so much I turned it off and not on again. Next upgrade (or
boat) I'll rip all the Raymarine stuff out.

Time for lunch, I'm starving. Still 448nm to go.