Captain's Blog 8-2-16

Planning day.

Thorough review of charts has yielded us a slew of good coordinates to follow.  We were looking for something beyond just "keep the land to your left at approx 3 miles....."  Also put together a quick meal schedule with Will and Jonathan for while we are in the keys (Bruce was absent from this meeting as usual).....  Looks like spaghetti, "chicken goo", and of course the ever necessary steak and lobster are on the menu (aside from the obligatory pizza order and sandwiches)....

I would say that we are now ready to rock and roll!!!!

Clearwater to Marathon

Pg references are Maptech Region 8 15^th Edition

Day 1

1.       Pg 14

ICW  down to St John’s Pass

Target G“9”

N27deg 36.22min

W082deg 51.87min

2.       PG 14

Target G“1”

N27deg 32.20min

W082deg 48.50min

3.       Pg 14, 13, 12, 2

58nm @ 159deg

N26deg 39.85min

W082deg 19.55min

4.       Pg 11, 10, 2

17.6nm @ 156deg

N26deg 24.50min

W082deg 10.00min

5.       Pg 9, 2

Target Gordon Pass

N26deg 05.50min

W082deg 48.70min

Day 2

1.       Pg 10A

Exit Gordon Pass

N25deg 41.30min

W081deg 38.77min

2.       Pg 27A

Target Bullard Bank (Keep to Stbd) - G”17”

60nm @ 150deg

N24deg 50.00min

W081deg 10.00min

3.       Pg 4A

Target John Sawyer Bank (keep to Port) – Straight shot between R”16” and R”18”

N24deg 45.65min

W081deg 45.65min

4.       Pg 19A

Faro Blanco

N24deg 42.68min

W081deg 06.30min

7-24-16.  Radar and antenea installation:

I arrived to PL early and started to open access ports in anticipation of the eventful arrival of deck hand Bruce. Once Bruce was aboard, the real fun began.....  In truth, we made short work of running the wires and pushed the install through to completion pretty quickly.  Good job SeaRay for making a boat with accessible hatches for wirring. Our greatest issue was running the new Garmin wires down the radar arch.  Unfortunately whomever previously removed all the old electronics decided to leave all the cable in place.  This meant there wasn't enough free space within the arch to pass the new Garmin wires.  Once we figured out the wires were causing the issues, we removed the old cut up wires and the new Garmin wires came through.  With the large access hatches, running the wires into the dashboard was a cinch.