Prep as of February 12, 2010

Pat and I are working at getting boat ready, arrangements made and plans organized for an April 3rd departure. There are lots of things we have to accomplish that we know of and we will be depending on our great friends and family to help us manage the things that pop up on shore, so to speak, once we depart.
Pat was a travel agent for many years and I might add a very good one. Her travel agent mind which is organized and full of expectations about itineraries and schedules is at odds with mine which is when the sun rises, we will make a plan for today. It has lead to some interesting conversations and during one of them, I got a good laugh when I said to her, I know we will not have it all together on our departure day of April 3rd, but I will have gas in the tanks, keys in the ignitions and telling her, "Honey get in the boat, we are leaving."

On the technical side, I have ready to "hard wire" in a ham radio installation. For any hams reading this, I have an ICOM 706 MK II G and a Trans World 2010L antenna. The antenna is portable and is attachable to a post secured to the bow rail by a couple of "D" rings with stainless steel hose clamps. It probably could not withstand the forces of the boat pitching etc and salt spray while under weigh so it will be up only when at anchor or at a dock. With all this stuff soft wired in and at the dock, the 100 watts and this antenna makes a good account of itself, having made radio contact with stations as far away as Spain, Brazil and all points in between with good and readable signals.

My call sign is W8PWP and I will spend much of my available operating time on 14,300 which is the home frequency of the Maritime Mobile Service Net. Their website is www.mmsn..org

Other things to do to the boat include installing a battery booster in the DC power leads to the cabin refrigerator to keep it operating when the battery voltage fluctuates downward as it does when the batteries are in discharge mode and not on shore power or with the engines or generator running.)

The other important thing I hope to get accomplished is to eliminate a rainwater leak from what I think is a poorly sealed rub rail. When it rains heavy, we get moisture at a minimum and at worst liquid water in an aft storage compartment and when it rains really heavy, we get stains on the teak cabin sole. Gotta fix that. Once all that is done, the Salt Shaker will be ready enough.

Among the many other things to do and among the things accomplished is I registered the EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) with NOAA and have sent my application for the "ships radio license" to the FCC which is no longer necessary for travel within the US for pleasure craft with simple radios (VHF etc) but is necessary to be "legal" for travel to other countries (Canada in our case) and communicate from our US documented vessel with shore stations of that country.

I have my lifetime third class restricted radio telephone operators permit already. I had my first one issued in 1958 for legal operation of "ship to shore" radios of the day which I somewhere along the line managed to loose and got it replaced with a new one in 1976 so I would be legal when operating aeronautical radios back in the days when flying was my hobby. I am pretty sure the FCC no longer has a record of this since they changed all of their records to electronic and numbered stuff but they are issued for a lifetime and, hey, I have what they gave me and I expect it to be good.

Lots more to do but I needed to make a practice post to get a feel for this modern "google technology" so here it is, my first post.

Tony and Pat