Imagine a thick New York accent, “So sue me, already.” Maybe the whole thought is, “Hey, pissed off cause I can afford to keep this cherry Bunker & Ellis as shiny as a violin? So sue me!” Sorry, no electronics today, folks, but another in a continuing series on catchy boat names. Have a great weekend (and if possible do drop by the fabulous Maine, Boats, Homes and Harbors Show.)
Ralph may be very much for sale, but until that happens I going to keep piling on the temporary electronics. Check out the bigger picture of this rig…dual MFDs, dual satellite weather, and dual ultrasonic weather stations…and some other stuff. By the way, if you don’t get the name, does it help to know that the dinghy is “Norton”? Wishing you a cool and boaty weekend.
Panbo readers who’ve been with me for a while may remember how I’d regularly link to my Power & Motoryacht columns as they simultaneously came out in print and online. It worked nicely, I thought, as the columns often brought together the blog noodlings into a more coherent whole. But that came to a screeching halt last fall when, due to personnel changes, PMY cut back on what went onto www.powerandmotoryacht.com.
Well, the situation seems to be changing. My 2006 columns aren’t up yet, but PMY did recently post the features from our June Electronics issue, including my opus on PC charting programs (and also Pete Dubler’s hands on experience with M-Tec marine cellular gear and highliner Karl Anderson’s take on creating 3D bathymetry). I dare say the same gentleman is also responsible for putting much of the Voyaging Spring issue online, including my Helm Shot column, profiling Steve Smith and his Raymarine H6, and Hudson River Melting Pot, a totally non electronic feature that I had a lot of fun researching. Plus Sail has put up a page linking to PDFs of its three May communications articles including my take on significant 2006 products. When it rains, it pours.
My understanding is that both PMY and Sail are working on vastly more informative Web sites, and it’s my hope that Panbo might be involved in that effort. (In the meantime, thanks to all who dropped something in my PayPal tin cup yesterday.)
It was a miserably rainy weekend here in Maine and much of the East Coast…lousy for boating, but good for testing weather systems and fooling around with blogs. It took Yme and I longer than anticipated to actually transfer all of Panbo’s accounts, but now it’s done, and I’m feeling a little frisky. Hence the slightly modified blog name, header graphic, and sidebars. Yes, that is the threatened contribute link over there. I do spend more time on Panbo than is economically justifiable, so here is a way appreciative readers can help…until the big sponsorship revenues kick in (smile).
At any rate, please join me in a big thank you to Yme Bosma who founded Panbo—including coming up with the mysterious, but memorable, name—and is now toiling away at the amazing Eccky and no doubt many other high tech endeavors. Here’s wishing him some dry air and fine boating.
Like many blogs, we’ve had a lot of trouble with spam comments. For a while now, we haven’t even let comments go up without first inspecting them, which is a bit of a pain for commenter and inspector (me) alike. I’m pleased to announce that you can now use the TypeKey Authentication Service—which is free and reputable—to post comments immediately. Signing up only requires a name and e-mail address, and your deciphering one of those graphic code thingies that frustrate software spiders. Once acquired, your TypeKey name and password will work on many blogs created with Movable Type. Please register.
We are still allowing comments from unregistered, even anonymous posters, but we have to deal with hundreds of spams a day to make that freedom available. It is tempting to simply limit all comments to folks who are TypeKey registered.
Ralph is in the water and running sweet, but I’m trying to remember that I want to sell it (just can’t call this boat a ‘she’) so that I can seriously look for a larger boat that Andrea and I might cruise for weeks at time, maybe all the way down the East Coast. Ralph is an odd boat, a 1976 Wellcraft that I completely made over in the late 90’s. I’ve just put a pretty complete listing, with lots of photos, at UsedBoats.com. Please be in touch if you’re interested, or just have advice on how to sell it. Thanks.
I was hiking to Schoodic Head this afternoon when I got a very garbled cell call. Going by the few words I heard (“Mr. Ellison, we’ve…”) and the phone number, I guessed that either Gizmo had been found or my house had burned down. Well—hot diggity dog, and blow me down for being such a pessimist—it turned out to be option one, and sounds like Gizmo is in good shape. More detail tomorrow.
PS, 7/7: Yesterday I found the fellow who recognized Gizmo from the Village Soup article; he doesn't want his name in print, but he's a good guy, and a boat owner, and praise be to him. Thanks also to the Waldoboro officer, who made me feel somewhat less dumb by saying that his boat also sits in his yard completely unlocked, ready to go. Thanks too to my local officer who encouraged Village Soup to publish an article, and of course to Village Soup itself.
As for the thieves, it seems like they weren't too smart. They took the big cooler, the anchor, and docklines but left a tank full of gas and a color fishfinder. They also scraped the name decals off—and some paint, darn it—as if they were going to keep the boat, but then they abandoned it. I suspect they changed their small mind(s) when a friend said, "Hey, I saw that boat on the Internet", or maybe they just couldn't sleep due to the bad vibes sent their way by my friends on the Soup message board and here on Panbo! Thanks to all!
I can hardly believe it. I’ve lived on the same property since 1978, and no one’s stolen even a paper off the front step. Late this afternoon I went up to the area behind my house I like to call my “boat yard”, intending to hook Gizmo onto the new trailer hitch I’d just installed this morning. The plan was an early morning fishing trip (and engine check) on Lake Megunticook tomorrow, and an island exploration near Jonesport on the 4th of July. But Gizmo was gone. Some time in the last few days, some bastard had the brass to haul it away, even though several of my neighbors can see the area fairly well. I’ve talked to the police and prepared a .pdf to send around and post (download here). If you live in New England, please be on the lookout for Gizmo, and wherever you are please think very, very bad thoughts about whoever stole my boat. Thank you.
It’s late and hot out, and I’m behind in so many ways…so how about a little this ‘n’ that:
* Remember the guy who was out trial sailing his schooner Maggie B. off Nova Scotia in March? Well right now he’s 13 days into a passage to Brazil and just about to cross the Equator. If I understand his Web site correctly, his crew are four French mademoiselles and an English engineer. Damn!
* NavimaQ is back. I remember back in ‘99 interviewing the couple that first developed this early and popular Mac charting program, literally as they sailed their cruising boat down Chesapeake Bay. Neither the cruise or marriage worked out, and NavimaQ has been off the market for several years. Now Barco Software has rewritten it for OS X, but it looks to me like they’ll need to market it better (more screen shots, demo, etc.) to have a chance of denting GPSNavX.
* Today I spoke to a nice gentleman who just had a bad lightning experience in Ft. Lauderdale. Headed to the Bahamas, he started up his 58’ Viking and next thing he knew his dual MTU’s were revved up in reverse out of control and he was crashing around his canal. Several of his electronics are blown out or damaged and he thinks the accident was caused by lightning screwing up the Mathers/ZF electronic engine controls (though apparently they check out OK now). Anyone heard of electronic controls going crazy like that?
* So I may have been a little jealous about the Bermuda Race last weekend (still don’t know who won), but I did manage to build an antenna farm suitable for my driveway and other test locations. Check it out big size and you’ll also get a peek at my almost new GMC Sierra hooked up to Gizmo, and ready to explore Malaga Island and thereabouts with my daughter tomorrow (which explains yesterday’s screen shot).
So immediately after I bragged/blogged about riding the high tech LimoLiner to New York City, I managed to incapacitate my laptop! It was pouring buckets when we stepped off the bus, but I just didn’t think about leakage through the zipper of my snazzy rolling computer bag. I’d left the laptop in standby mode, too, which I think may have compounded the poor thing’s fragility to a few drops of water. At any rate, I did notice moisture and I did try to dry it out, but when I turn the old Gateway Solo on all I get now is a “can not find operating system” error message. It may be repairable (and I do have a boot CD back in Maine), but I thought this a good excuse to buy a new mobile computer (with a wonderful 17” screen). And I lost very little data as I’m fiendish about backing up (pat on back). Still, the whole deal has set me back time wise, and I don’t yet have all the software tools I need to create full Panbo posts. So posting may be raggety here until I get back to Maine at the end of this week. Treat your electronics better than I do!
