16/5/09

Well I’ve been in New Zealand for a week now and thought I was doing pretty well with jetlag until last night.  I slept from 11pm to 2am, tossing and turning the rest of the night until I gave up and got up at 7.

Before leaving on the trip we installed AIS  (Automatic Identity System) which is extremely useful in identifying and tracking shipping.  In some ways it’s better than radar.  This information was displayed  in my navigation program on the computer.  I thought it would be good to also have it on the dedicated navigation display in the cockpit. This led to upgrading the displays and installing a new digital radar. Which of course also meant changing to a different type of electronic chart.

While were at it we’re having a new computer which is a quarter of the size of the old one and draws almost no electricity. It’s called “Stealth.” Of course all this has upset the inter-instrument communications set-up and it has taken several days to sort it all out.  The Inmarsat C died last year and was just sent off to be tested.  Nothing wrong.  It turns out to be a cable failure between the  antenna on the first spreader and the unit.  We’re running a new one in today and hopefully everything will be functioning.

I have an upgrade for MaxSea, the navigation program which doesn’t display AIS properly and has a few other annoying niggles so I’m going to put back the earlier version which at least works.

All being well we will test the new sails and adjust the rigging on Monday.  We’re hoping to leave Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.  Our weather router from Antarctica will give us a synopsis on Sunday and again on Wednesday so we’ll have a

pretty good idea of what to expect.  We know it will be cold and wet.

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