I installed some more electronics this week.  I installed a Uniden UM-525 VHF radio and the Wham4X remote wireless microphone.  I picked the Uniden over Icom because of the feature set – the wireless mic.  I have enough wires running from the nave station to the cockpit as it is.  The wireless mic operates at 2.4GHz and is in the 802.11b,g bands so I was expecting some interference.  It seemed to work ok in the vicinity of the boat.

I have a lot more testing to do but it has some nice features.  You can have up to 4 wireless mics working at one time.  This means the off duty crew can have one for emergencies and on duty crew one or more.  When you transmit over the wireless mic it appears as side tones on the main radio but there is an intercom mode.  The mic has a cradle that works as a charger too.  I charged the batteries about 20 hours before use.  The mic batteries appeared hot when I removed the mic from the cradle.  I wonder if the life will prematurely end due to overcharging?

The radio testing with my portable indicated that the position of the mic to the lips was very critical.  The hand mic position was near the base and the wireless mic was near the top.  I do not like that either.

I installed the MMSI code and it tis ready to rock-n-roll when I hook up the MNEA  I/O the DSC radio should transmit the positon if a distress is initiated.  I thought the distress was one push of a button but now I find it takes 3 steps – push 1 goes to a menu of distress types – select type and push 2 – is confirm yes/no.  I am worried my crew might not be able to think of all this in a pressing situation.  I wish it was one push of a button and would auto default to send the ch 70 signal.

Now comes the wind system hookup. Smiles!

After a beautiful week of late August type perfect weather it was bound to happen – a Low has come.  Thunderstorms are in the area but none have hit yet.  It was 90 degrees F hot today on a falling barometer and it is still muggy. 

Yesterday we started early on the bright work and finished at 1800 hours.  It looks good.  All we did was the handrails but it took a lot of time for some reason.  At least they have the first coat of Cetol Light so the rain will not soak into the wood.  One big project should finish off the boat.  Then we might have 5 years to routine maintenanace before another several hundreds of hours of stripping and re=varnishing.

Here in western Michigan we have been in the center of a high pressure area for several days.  Warm days, cool nights light to moderate winds and a Baro hovering between 30.10 and 30.20.  This weather is expected to last a few more days and into the weekend.

I spent last Saturday wiring up the new Garmin 492 GPS unit.  I fired it up late Saturday afternoon and everything worked fine.  The winds were too light to sail so I decided to tackle the little project.  Sunday we spent most of the day sailing and managed between 2.8 and 3.2 knots on a broad reach – as you can see the winds were light again.

 Monday after work, I started to wire in the NMEA out of the GPS into the Raymarine autopilot.  I finished this little task Tuesday evening.  I have no way of testing it until the next time out on the water when I can try the Track Mode.  I built a buss system so that I can put 3 devices on the GPS NMEA Out.  I will add a DSC Radio and connect the GPS to it using both of the radio’s NMEA In/Out so that the GPS will show Emergency Alerts and provide the radio the Lat/Lon data.  I may use the last to connect my computer some time in the future.  I am not sure but I may need to buy a protocol converter that talks both NMEA and SeaTalk to make all functions work.

I still have to get the ST60 Wind System going.  I am just praying the mast wiring I changed last winter is correct and functional.  I am procrastinating on this one because I do not want to do the foberglass and wood work.  Perhaps I’ll get some guts and start it next week.  The summer season is off to a good start.

Saturday past was a beautiful day.  We started for the 30 minute motor to Lake Michigan.  Just outside the marina the high temperature alarm started blaring.  We turned around and headed for the slip.  After the engine cooled off I checked the coolant in the fresh water tank – there was none.  A quick check of the bilge did not show any coolant in the oil catchers.  The only thing we could figure out was that the mechanic who repaired the leaking water heater must have drained the coolant and not replaced it.  It took 1.2 gallons(4.5l)to fill the tank to the proper level.  This means the coolant level was about half of what it should be.  After running the engine for 20 minutes the engine did not overheat.  We spent the rest of the day freeing up a stuck shutoff cable. Baro was 29.95 and falling.
Sunday was on and off rain all day with thunder and lightning.  This was also the day that I was informed that I had forgotten a significant birthday and was in quite a bit of trouble all day.  This day was not so fun.  Baro was 29.65″ and falling.
Monday was foggy in the AM with rising winds and baro 29.39″.  I would call the winds gale force and the boat is bouncing around as I write.  I should sleep pretty good tonight.  The low is very stuborn and is just hanging over our heads with no show of movement.  I tried tracing some cables but lost inspiration.  Now I am just listening to Delilah on the radio and brewing some tea – Earl Grey.