A rainy day in Florida

Today has been a day of drizzle and every now and then a real shower. Not that much one can do.

Yesterday afternoon when I got back to the dinghy (after riding my bike with Peter to all marine stores in about a 10km radius) it was full of water. My life vest had even inflated. I had suspected that there were tiny little holes in the corners under the transom. Once I was back on the boat I pulled the boat on deck, deflated it and had a look at it. There are tiny holes, I was going to get my patch kit, but then I though maybe it would be better to fill the holes with epoxy. So, got the epoxy out, filled the holes and left it to dry.

Then I got back to my GPS wiring project. I properly connected the power wires, and even got them on a labeled switch now (“SAT NAV”). That sounds like a 2 minute project, but off course that is not true. Including climbing in and out of the locker, diving upside down into it, it took a good hour.

This morning I spend inside the boat. Had bought some mineral teak oil the other day, and did the floor with that. Until now I had been using lemon oil, but that would not last very long (the floor would have to be redone within a few days or so, well, that is not going to happen). I might also take the little carpets out, they are starting to get old, and the back of them leave rubber marks on the floor.

This afternoon it started to clear up a little. So I decided to finish my GPS wiring project and soldered the data cable. For this I need to use the invertor since the soldering iron needs 110V. Well, the battery did not have enough juice left to power the soldering iron, so I ended up running the engine. While doing this the alternator overcharge light was on, I am not so sure why that is, for sure the battery wasn’t full, so I might have to look into that one day. I screwed up the first 9 pin connector, so went for a new one (I had a bag of those things, but funny enough I had no wires). Then I got the thing soldered, ran the wire through the locker, connected it onto the GPS cable, and sure enough it is working.

Now all I need is an application that can properly exchange information with the unit. I can read in the NMEA positions fine, but I would like to be able to upload and download routes and waypoints. Found some Linux tools that might be able to do that (though, I have the feeling that Garmin changed their protocols). Anyway, this might be an ongoing project. Went through the places where I thought I could have the computers installation disks, but did not find them. So, I will go ahead with Linux. It will be more fun that way anyway (but it will also involve more hobbying, and I don’t always have time for that).

While on-line today I already got some Linux projects done: installed a new driver for the touchpad and got a blog client application installed. The touchpad driver was needed so I can tap the touchpad as a single click (something that I was used to but did not work with the default drivers). Then I downloaded the sources for Drivel, recompiled it, and got it working (so I am now updating this blog entry with the tool).

I think the dinghy epoxy project was successful, but I am not so sure if that was actually needed. Maybe the water had gotten into the boat through the drain plug, which might not have been closed tight enough. Anyway, the boat is not making any water now. Now I need to shop for a new CO2 cartridge for the life vest.

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One Response to A rainy day in Florida

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