Monday, November 3, 2014

Titusville - Grand circle route through Merritt Island

He sat on the piling just behind Fleetwing, never stirred when I took the picture
My radar display started acting up (typical boat problem...) where 1/4 of the display showed horizontal lines instead of the radar return showing boats, coast, etc. It has to be some driver chip for the screen display but there's nothing I can replace, it has to be sent back to Raymarine. Calling them I was told to send it in for an estimate to their repair shop in Nashua, NH. So off I went to the post office (no FedEx or UPS nearby) to use Priority Mail (flat rate, no weight charge as long as it's under 70 lbs) but the largest box they offered in Priority Mail was 1/2 inch too small! That put me into a box I had to pay for (you don't pay for the Priority Mail box) and I also had to buy bubble wrap (the kind you throw away when at home), strapping tape and labels. So because of the 1/2 inch, I had to shell out about $30 more dollars at least.

A vulture at Merritt Island, likewise bold, they are use to people
So now the radar display is on its way to Nashua for Raymarine repair. I'm due to get an estimate first before repair commences so I'll be waiting with baited breath for that call. It ought to be inexpensive to replace one chip but then it's boat electronics and you can usually multiply by 10x if not 100x over a reasonable charge.

Many flowers around
For the rest of the day we thought we'd explore north of Titusville and visit the Haulover Canal bridge. It's a narrow spit of land connecting Merritt Island with the mainland which was later dug out for the canal. It now has a bridge that raises for boat traffic. It's a hot spot for manatees and much wildlife. But then we have about 20 manatees in the Titusville marina so we can get better photos locally.


Home again (the boat), I left Ann and Hoolie off and headed back to Enterprise to return the car. It's due to turn warmer the rest of the week with temps into the low 80's, nice. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

How do these nut-jobs find you, and why do they need to rant here??