We're moving to the boat tomorrow, and with any luck at all, it will be our last week in the yard. We expect to splash at week's end. Three weeks of very hard work...enough!

Yesterday, we finally collected all of our new electronics and got them connected to the network, Our depth finder is not functioning since its name is not on our chart plotter's list of possible sources. We have a service note in to B&G, of course.

Everything else worked well. The new electronic compass/GPS was immediately on-line, as were the radar and chart plotter. Our surprise was how well the AIS functioned, a third party device on a B&G network. It functioned better than it previously did, with its new NMEA2000 connection, and it delivered good positions on tens of local vessels, including all of the other information that they transmit on the AIS signal. I suppose that the higher bit-rate of the new network accounts for some of that, as well as a generally more robust network.

As a side note to that robustness comment, we are trying to incorporate our old autopilot into our new system. As I was removing the old SeaTalk1 network wiring, I noticed that the shield/ground wire leading to the old autopilot was black with corrosion, unusable. Replacing and re-stringing the wire cost us a new hours, since we had to continue to snip wire until it was shiny, but it was necessary. NMEA2000 connections are sealed and no wires are exposed, so I expect much enhanced performance and endurance.

The E22158 Raymarine translator device that converts SeaTalk1 into NMEA2000 is installed and my homemade cables seem to be working. When I powered it, it showed a light code pattern that I didn't understand, so I powered it off quickly. A reassuring email response from Raymarine told me that the code meant, "healthy", so I'll continue that experiment.

I downloaded all of the updates for our new gear and at some point will install them. It's always a hazardous exercise since a mistake in their programming our our primitive facilities could lead to instrument failure. I'll probably wait until season's end to proceed and if the updates fail, I'll cart them home.

There is a space under the cockpit that Conni has christened the "Man Cave" since I spend so much time in it. She's convinced that I have lounge chair and big screen TV, but the reality is far from that. Regardless, it's fairly protected space and the only space large enough for our electronics and such to be mounted: I've used it for years for that purpose, in fact. Since I'm removing so much old wiring, cutting cable ties to release wires, the place is simply festooned with hanging wires. Of course I've got to crawl in there today and get things re-attached, and this does provide an opportunity for simplification of the various wiring runs. I'll spend some time in there today.

Conni made dinner reservations for us a top-rated restaurant tonight. It's our first meal out since arriving and we move to the boat tomorrow. it's much more primitive living since a boat hull out of the water is hot and the showers at the yard are primitive by any standards. Still, it'll only be for a week, we hope, and we've done it before. I'm unsure of the quality of communications we'll have there and we'll have no transportation, so blogs might be few and far between. I have a few photos of new things to post but photos of places and things that I've posted in the past are uninteresting and the work we've done on cabling is simply not worth the effort.

Conni is working on everything. She's got the inside as livable as she can make it. In the hot sun, she's scraped old varnish in preparation for re-varnishing. She always lends a hand, and more importantly, her brain, on other tasks. In almost every case where I say that I've done something, she's been there in one way or the other, helping pull wire or providing her analysis. It's been a team effort.

With luck, I can write again about our move tomorrow. Wish us luck.