Busy night
11 October 2017
Alan/Overcast and Gray
Night was busy. Went around islands and reefs so several changes of course trying to get away from the dangers with the wind insisting that we head toward them. Big thunderstorms and thunder all around but not right where we were. They dissipated or got away by 6am but we got a bit of a squall after that. Just 20-25 kts for an hour and a half so we did some good speed that I used to reset ourselves further west. The sting of shoals and reefs runs about parallel to our course which is SSW (208T to be exact). But the squeal didn't last long enough for me to gain enough westing to avoid the wind shadow of 2 little, but looking very high, islands named Kao and Tofua (in the middle Tonga island group), So I'll pass to the East of them which is fine.
SO the displayless chart plotter processes all the data from the instruments coming in on the NMEA2000 network as well as the radar. then rebroadcasts that data to the Furuno network. The onboard computer is on the Furuno network and thus I can control the radar from the computer. That's good! But I had set an anchor alarm on the plotter before it went bad, the alarm set to sound if I moved out of a circle of 60 meters. (That was the first night at anchor. So the stupid "smart"
plotter remembers that alarm, even when I turn the plotter off, then back on) which of course is sounding nonstop because that 60m circles is far far away by now. Now I messed around with the plotter remote and managed by luck (I guess) to blindly turn off the alarm. The problem is that it also disabled the radar. So I turn the whole goddamn thing off and back on, and the radar works again, great!!!, but guess what... yep the fucking alarm is back on as well!!!
Oh well....
Weather is overcast, grey and muggy: tropical paradise!