We canceled the rental car we had reserved for today. We did decide to head back to the boat just for the day to take a load of stuff up and give me a chance to play with the new plotter. On our way up Sylvia from RJ Marine called to say that she had ordered the part and schedule us for a Tuesday install. That sounded good to us with luck we might be able to leave by Thanksgiving.
Back at the boat Scott reassembled the lockers while I played with the new toy. We opted not to go for touch screen, one because it is more expensive and second because when the Captain pokes the screen he gets nutso when stuff moves or changes. For my piece of mind this is a good choice, we have a touch screen on the IPad and have been using it for navigation, I have seen and felt the heart burn first hand. It is much better for our marriage this way.
The interface to the plotter is remarkably intuitive and not bad to use. Manual entry of waypoints and routes could be a bit tedious and prone to error, there is no keyboard, requiring scrolling down thru lists. I am working on seeing if I can interface the unit to my IPad and upload routes. I'm pretty sure it can be done but just need to work out the logistics.
While we were working Sylvia called to say that the part for the autopilot was not available from the manufacturer (Simrad has gotten out of the autopilot field). She had located the part and ordered it but it would not be in for 7 to 10 days. Once she had a better handle on when the part would be in she will call and get us back on the schedule. Double damn! That really threw a monkey wrench in our plans.
We are hearing that the mooring field in Marathon is filling rapidly we had hoped to be there the day after Thanksgiving. That isn't happening now. Fortunately we have good ground tackle if we end up on the hook down there for a while.
Thank goodness we signed into the current Marina for a month's dock, we are definitely beyond the daily rate point, at which it's less expensive to rent for a month. Now we are concerned that we need to be out by Dec 9. Once we have a scheduled date for the finish of the install we'll rent a car again so we can leave the Mime at the condo. In the meantime will make a few trips up to check on the boat and bring what we can each time we go. Hurry up and wait.
The picture is of the Sunrise over the ocean this morning. I never tire of seeing them.