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When we arrived yesterday I immediately set about repairing the broken freshwater connection on the transom. The part was here when we got to the boat and the repair went smoothly.
This morning I tackled the installation of an AIS unit. That is Automated Identification System. It is a receiver that picks up radio beacons from commercial vessels that are required by law to broadcast their position. Some private boats do the same. This AIS receives the info, shows it on the chartplotter display and provides details on the vessel such as name, speed, direction and size. There is also an alarm that can be programmed to alert you if that vessel is on a likely collision course. It gives you a pre-programmed distance and time warning so that you can react before you are in real danger. Another unique feature is that AIS can “see” around corners which radar cannot do. Thus if one is approaching a bend in the river where the radar cannot see, the radio beacon can be picked up and thus a large tow pushing barges can be detected in time to communicate by VHF radio rather than rounding the bend and finding the entire river blocked and nowhere to go. This piece of equipment is relatively inexpensive versus the potential benefits. The decision to add this equipment was made after a 43 foot pleasure boat with 5 people aboard sank last week in less than five minutes by after passing too close to a tow pushing barges.
We brought our little Daisy’s ashes aboard and put them in a special place with her picture. We had promised her she could go on the Loop and she is going one way or the other. A picture above shows her place in the main salon.
Tonight the members of LGYC had hot dog supper to raise money for the galley addition and it doubled as a Bon Voyage Party for us and fellow member Dr. Rod Triplett who is also leaving on the Loop this week. They had a beautiful cake made with the AGLCA logo on it. Apparently Publix can scan a design, print it with food coloring on edible sheets and then lay it on a cake. Then they use icing to trace over the design making it look fantastic. Look at the cake picture above with Jan, Dr. Rod and me.