Finally, we get off

We were supposed to go in the water last night but we were after this beautiful, wooden boat. The owner had worked on it for three months over the summer in 95 degree heat. For a wooden boat, that’s a very dry environment. Once launched, the water came in since the wood had shrunk. The yard had to leave the boat in slings overnight for the wood to absorb water and swell - and hopefully become waterproof once again. The owner spent a fretful night listening to the bilge pumps but ever so gradually, the flow lessened. I came back the next morning.

Now itwas my turn. I looked pretty puny in the enormous slings used for all the big boats in the marina. At my yacht club in New York, I am one of the biggest boats in the yard - not here! So I floated through the air and was launched once the wooden boat was moved to a side dock (the flow had lessened to a point that it was manageable and seemed to be decreasing).

Everyone in the yard at Stingray Point Boat Works was very professional. They obviously knew what they were doing. They even put fresh plastic on the slings before lifting Fleetwing. They had a big roll for just that purpose mounted on the travel lift. Once in the water, Fleetwing started right up and we were off, heading south to Hampton. 

Along the way, I turned on tracking and when I arrived at Hampton, I uploaded the first track of my fall trip south, T_10_1_19.gpx. I will be doing that daily each day I move. I plan on being at Hampton for three days so we can get Fleetwing organized inside. The yard did a great job on the exterior but the inside is a mess. We just piled stuff in the aft cabin so we could shove off. You can access the track for downloading at the link. 

bobicw

I updated my iPad Pro to iOS 13 and so far it hasn’t shown the GPS loss of fix problem. I was running Aqua Map and Navionics SonarChart and discovered that the Navionics app also will use the external GPS when connected to an AIS receiver that sends such info over WiFi like the 

Vesper Marine XB-8000. So the moral of the story is that if you have an external gps source over WiFi, both the Aqua Map and Navionics apps will use it for GPS location instead of the internal GPS chip. In order for me to test for the iPad Pro loss of GPS problem, I have to periodically turn off the WiFi connection from the Vesper unit to the iPad Pro. 

So I walked Hoolie, filled the tanks with water and ran the fuel tank down to almost empty. I was pretty sure I had enough to reach Hampton but I wasn’t positive. Unfortunately, I shared that concern with Ann who wasn’t pleased that she had to join the captain in worrying.  I will have a new record (for me) in the amount of fuel I will be taking on when I leave. Hampton is also the home of Hampton University pictured above. 

Now it’s two days of inside work but at least we are on the water again! It’s a great feeling!