That somewhat odd looking "waterborne structure" is Robinhood Marine Center's first Island 40, designed to give renters who may only have small boat skills a wicked nice Maine cruising harbor experience, as in swinging on a mooring with seals, osprey, lobster men, and cruisers for neighbors, with good exploration possibilities in all directions (and with a pleasant "destination" marina nearby). And it's a hoot! I'm sitting at the Tessie Ann's spacious aft dinette right now, enjoying a cool sea breeze and the use of a well thought out battery/inverter/solar panel system...
Today I checked out some just-received Garmin gear prior to installation on Gizmo, and I noticed some nice little changes. For instance, this AIS 600 has an automotive blade fuse instead of a glass cartridge and its relatively flimsy holder (which should all vanish from boats, I think). And Garmin's included NMEA 2000 cable is thicker than it used to be, indicating, I'd guess, some added EMI protection (needed to get NMEA certification, pdf on that subject here). Garmin has also started using separate split screw collars -- seen on and off in the photo -- on lots of connectors besides Ethernet, which means easier to run cables (in some situations). Note, too, the most LED indicators I've ever seen on a Class B transponder. Tentatively speaking, the thing seemed to work pretty well too...
Paneltronics new load shedding system is somewhat related to my battery/monitor/charger travails. Boaters of all sorts are struggling to manage their electrical appetites, and the line between electrical and electronic is getting fuzzy indeed. And there are all sorts of us; I have no need for AC load shedding personally, though this device is unique in that it's aimed at boats like Gizmo...
There's no such thing as a stupid question, right? Please? Above is the only label on each of Gizmo's main bank 8D batteries, and though it says AGM in big letters upper right, I'm not completely sure that they actually are Absorbed Glass Mat batteries. Can anyone confirm one way or the other? Then I might have a better sense of how well my battery monitoring system is set up, and what it's telling me...
It's just a draft -- artist I'm not -- but maybe someone out there in Panbo land can craft this into something fun for a hat and business card? The graphic idea is an electronic wave turning into an ocean wave, but I'm open to another design...as long as it floats some boats. Seriously, the first hat (a nice long-billed, cotton khaki cap) will be yours, plus my undying gratitude. (If it would help to start with my draft creation in vector form, you can download it as an .ai file.) Homework is completely optional, of course, and you, like me, may have a holiday to celebrate...
There's a lot to say about this screen and how the values got there, or didn't, but what I like the most is how Maretron's DSM250 is displaying the outputs of two NMEA 2000 depth transducers at once, and that I was even able to name their data windows in an informative way. I think the screen will be useful in some tight gunkholing situations, and would be even more so on a larger vessel or a multihull. Unfortunately this level of N2K data management is not yet available elsewhere, unless I've missed something...
