Goodbye Newport

41 29.3N 71 19.1W -- Newport RI

It is our final night in Newport and after living here for just short of 7 years I sure will miss it. Today we put the finishing touches on most of the boat prep, went for a short shakedown sail, and then finished the last few items on my list like inspecting the rig and putting "Great Stuff" foam in the wire chases through watertight bulkheads to finally make them watertight. Tonight the project is final computer prep, so I hope to be in bed by 11:30 to get 5 hours sleep before we shove off at O'Dark 30 in the morning (~5:00). The blog will be updated daily and you can track us via YotReps. I am not sure if the map to the right is going to work, but if you hit the "Enlarge" key, I know that it will track our position reports which we will try to send at least once a day. Please don't freak out if we miss a report, it probably just means that I am dealing with a minor computer problem. Nothing a few hours in front of the screen can't fix, but my stomach may not allow me to.

Thanks to all the support from my friends here in Newport. Jeremiah dropped off the last of my sewing projects today (4 beautiful scuba gear bags). Thanks to Dani & Damon for an awesome going away gift bag, thanks to Geoff and David for all the support from the office, and thanks to many others for the good wishes. Finally thanks to my Dad, who is celebrating his birthday for about 60 more minutes. I will miss you immensely. Please send updates on the Sox. Finally, I won't be checking my normal e-mail on passage, so please send any important messages (or just good wishes) to YachtVisions at gmail dot com. Please keep messages to text only and no attachments unless necessary.

Trip Preparations

Well it has been WAY too long, but I have been WAY too busy to keep the blog updated.

Since you last heard from me I sprained my ankle, went to France for a wonderful vacation, and then got hard to work getting the boat ready for the trip. 3 weeks of 12 hour days later and my long list is coming to a close. The short version is we got the bottom painted, running gear serviced, and the rig painted. While that was being done by the yard I tore down, cleaned inspected and re-assembled the rigging, added a masthead antenna for AIS (see more below) installed the Iridium Openport system on a custom spreader mount and installed a matching mount for a future Fleet Broadband system we will be testing when it is released. Onboard many items were installed, repaired, or tinkered with including a nice new Dive Compressor and this week I have been putting the finishing touches on things such as foredeck locks and equipment stowage. More on all that in coming weeks, but today I will talk a bit further about AIS.

The system is now fully installed with the masthead antenna and I am very pleased with the results. Even in a "noisy" environment like Newport I can pick up ships 30 to 40 miles out and can also see that I am broadcasting well using MarineTraffic.com's AIS viewer.

Below is a screen grab from the delivery from Cove Haven Marina in Barrington back to our the Newport Harbor Hotel & Marina.


Pretty cool I think, and very nice to know you are transmitting and being seen by the big boys.

Last Day of Work

Today is my last day of work at PYD. It has been a very enjoyable almost 7 years including my senior year internship in 2002. Special thanks to David for creating such an enjoyable work environment; Jacob & Roland for showing me the ropes and becoming great friends; Dave, John, Jon, Bobby, and Adam for helping out so much in your short times here; and Geoff for taking over and making me feel alot better about leaving.

iPhone Grib Viewing

Word is iNavX v1.2.0 has been submitted to Apple over the weekend and includes the ability to download (via xTraverse account) GFS grib data and view it on the charts. The data is only available at a 1/2 degree grid and only the GFS model is available at this time, but you can see the forecast out to 60 hours at 12hr increments.

My suggestion to make this FAR more valuable would be to have a way to download the latest QuickSCAT satellite wind measurements as well. Dealing with multiple models is probably way to complicated for the small screen, but the ability to download and view the actual wind around you in the last hour would be extremely valuable for the mobile navigator.

There's a Hole in my Cockpit, Dear Liza

Earl got a great start in my absence at the end of the week, cutting the "soft patch" hole in the cockpit cutting back the foam core and filling with thickened epoxy. It makes getting into and out of the boat a little difficult, right now, but he hopes to have the G-10 spigot in place tomorrow and then we can lay the patch back in place and wait until the teak comes to cover all this up.

CSYS Presentation

. Phew! Just fisished our Presentation on the Mk II Navy 44s. Fly back to Newport tomorrow am and hope to have time to write up an update on iPhone navigation.

Ski Trip

This week finds me with my three college buddies (Nick, Corey, & Anthony) skiing in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Today we headed over the pass to Grand Targee and had a truly epic day. They got 7" last night and at least another 5" over the course of the day. Corey & I found a very cool run after passing the gate with warnings about a cliff or something. The first time was a little hairy, but we found a nice chute the second time and had an amazing run except that I ran my leg into a stump, so it is a little sore this evening. I plan a lay day tomorrow to catch up on some work, biggest being a presentation to the Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Seminar on the New Navy 44.