08/11/2007, Portsmouth Rhode Island
It's arrived! Tomorrow is the Falmouth Road Race that I have been training for. I'm really excited as I've been able to raise about $1700 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Foundation. Tomorrow I will meet my team mates. Many of them are cancer survivors themselves. So I thank everyone very very much for contributing and providing me with ample inspiration. It's still not to late to donate and sponsor me. Click the link on the right and it will take you to my race homepage where you can contribute. You have until the end of August.
I ran the race last year and averaged 8.71min per mile. Not sure how I managed that. I just am not sure if I can keep that pace going. But how know? I'll report back, hopefully with some pictures of me blasting across the finish line in under 61 mins. That's my goal. Also you can google for the live webcast starting a 9 am ish eastern standard USA time. Wish me luck!
Capt Chris
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Comments [3]
08/05/2007, Newport RI
I have solved at least one logistical snafu. As you may know I make Christa my home. I will not be released from my Coast Guard duties until October 10th 2007. But I have the bulk of the month of September off to burn off leave. I plan on using this time to sail to the Chesapeake Bay and I also consider this the start of my circumnavigation. Well, when I come back to Newport RI on October 1st to finish out my last 10 ten days of service, I didn't have a place to live because Christa will be in Virginia. Enter the Institute.
In my endless quest to find a free wi-fi signal I stumbled upon the Seaman's Church Institute. They have a cheap breakfast joint, library and a very interesting cast of characters. So I fit right in. Just as i got done reading the Institutes mission in walks Jack Reed, the head guy. I tell him that I will be a destitute sailor on or about October 1st. Bottom line is, I'm in! I will have a room for as long as I need at $135 per week! Very jazzed. This place is not located in the hood, it sits right amongst the hustle and busle of Newport. Now I just need to sell my truck! Please read the history of the place below that I pasted from a website.
"The building was designed to house and serve seafarers of all types. At first they were primarily naval personnel, fishermen, ferryboat captains and their crews, yachtsmen, crews from freighters, Customs Officers, an office of the Coast Guard, and countless young persons from all parts of the world. While the last continue to find Seaman's Christian Institute a haven, the mix of the others is somewhat different today. Nonetheless, it is still primarily oriented towards those who derive their livelihood from the sea or marine related trades such as members of the fishing community, seamen from merchant vessels and yachts and workers on the waterfront, or in the marine trades, in addition to transients and tourists."
Capt Chris
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08/05/2007, Newport RI
To contrast the different types of cartography I've posted this screen shot of Sydney Harbor using C-MAP NT. You can see the obvious differences between the CAPN program which runs MAPTECH raster scan charts. I like the idea of using to different charting systems. In my opinion a mariner has a better shot at identifying potential hazards.
Voyage planning is really an important part of sailing. I think a successful voyage is partially determined by the amount of effort put in prior to departure. In general, I start out by reading the Coast Pilots and Sailing Directions for a given area. This just gives me a general feel for the area and joggs the brain into asking more questions. I also spend a significant amount of time skulking through book stores and perusing the appropriate privately compiled cruising guides. For example I have read Bruce Van Sant's "Thornless Path to Windward" four times. I also will have checked out the Pilot Charts to verify historical weather patterns and such. Anyway.....
As I mentioned before I do all my voyage planning on the CAPN program. After I get a feel for what I'm up against I start building the route and studying the charts. I base all speed's at about 4 to 5 knots. Christa has a weight problem and is not very fast. During this exercise I play the what if game. I try to what if every conceivable scenario and then have a general idea of what i would do. This makes things less scary. I will always identify alternate ports of call and heavy weather anchorages.
After the route is built in the CAPN, I print out the waypoint list and print "chartlets" on one of my two printers. This way if I have electronic failure I can use the chartlets as a temporary alternative. I will then take the waypoint list and carefully plug the waypoints into the NAVMAN system so that I have the same route in two different navigation systems.
Sound labor intensive? You bet. But it really lessens anxiety because to a certain degree you have already made the trip, just in your head! I will just briefly mention that during this whole process I will start analyzing weather patterns. This process itself can take a few hours per day.
Capt Chris
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07/30/2007, East Providence RI
An important part of cruise preparation is deciding on the onboard navigational systems. I really feel sorry for the people who have not had the benefit of using computer navigational software as a matter of course in terms of employment. The learning curve can be very steep. I am a true believer in electronic navigation, you just have to pay attention and have back-ups.
I had the joyous experience of serving as the Chief of Navigation aboard the CGC Morgenthau for a couple of years. Aboard Morgenthau we grappled with the interface between paper based navigation and e-navigation. We eventually broke suction and went totally paperless. During this period I became a believer, the systems simply work. Computers and GPS have become extremely reliable and to me it is worth the risk to not keep a paper plot. Here is what Christa has aboard.
My primary NAV system is a NAVMAN Chartplotter that runs C-MAP NT cartography. It is not my favorite NAV system aboard, but C-MAP is very accurate and the NAVMAN is reliable. The simple fact is the NAVMAN does not consume vast sums of electricity, is daylight viewable, easily viewed from the cockpit and waterproof. The downside is the screen is small and the C-MAP cartography has so much detail it can become beastly to read sometimes. To mitigate the detail you can filter out certain data, such as depth contour lines and shipping lanes, but you must pay attention because you could be filtering out important details!
My second system is the CAPN Navigator Program which was recently bought by MAPTECH. I run this NAV program on a Presario 700 laptop (see 7/13/07 post) with a handheld GPS plugged in via a USB cable. The picture is a screen shot of what the CAPN program looks like in action. It is by far my favorite system. It runs the raster charts which give it the old school paper feel. But more importantly it really is good for voyage planning. It allows you to "snap" around charts rapidly, create routes and waypoint lists and manage all this information easily. I probably like it best because it is the program I used the most while in the Coast Guard. Most Coast Guard ships run the CAPN as a "situational awareness tool" on separate laptops. I say this while rapping on wood, I have never seen the CAPN prog fail. Never. It has been around for about 15 years and is tried and true. The downside for me on a little sail boat is the power consumption to run the laptop. So I will not run both the laptop and NAVMAN at the same time except when entering or leaving port, basically during "navdetail."
My third NAV system is GPSNAVX which is a MAC based program that I run on my iBook G4. The NAV program works like a champ and is really inexpensive, about $60. I have no complaints with this program at all and it does have some advantages over the CAPN program, but I'm just more comfortable with the CAPN. GPSNAVX also runs on a GPS plugged in via a USB cable. Wait....their is more...
I had another Laptop that also ran the CAPN, but the laptop crapped out. I took it to a computer store and was able to salvage the hard drive which is now in a gizmo that acts as a "mass storage unit". So this means I can plug the mass storage unit into any computer with the USB cable and have access to the CAPN Navigator program.
All in all, including the NAVMAN I have 4 GPS units aboard, I guess I am a fanatical about it, but I get off on the whole navigation process! In my next installment on the blog I'll explain a little on how I am plan and execute a voyage.
Capt Chris
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Jim
fair winds
colin and nichola SV emerald
07/26/2007, Newport Rhode Island
I turned 40 last week. I spent the past weekend, inland with friends up in the Berkshires northern Mass. Just a beautiful weekend. Obviously I was fighting crime the whole weekend!
Capt Chris
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