(posted 04/06/24)
Up at 6 am, Reneé listened to the news, we had breakfast and read our bible for the day, such is our morning routine. Brian and Ben arrived at 8 am and immediately began working.
There are a few really tough parts of the instrumentation update that are difficult, the part up the mast is one and was the first thing that they worked on. The cell amplifier came down, an idea that sounded good when we were leaving San Diego, but n practice didn’t really work. The limited power for the amplifier and other technical issues prevented it from ever really working. There is also the issue of virtually no cell towers in Baja. So, while the amplifier might get an additional 25 miles, that is less than a day’s travel, and then it will be a couple of weeks before we were in range again. The next issue with it is that the co-ax cable was very large, and loose inside the mast resulting in a lot of noise from it. It also took up a bunch of room inside the mast.
The wires inside the mast were pretty crowded, the following wires are or were in the mast:
Cell amplifier (very large co-ax)
VHF radio antenna
Wind speed and direction sensor
Anchor light
Masthead navigation light
Old Analog Radar very very (yes really big) co-ax and power
Deck light
Steaming light (another navigation light
Loud hailer (speaker/microphone) very large shielded wire (.oversized for the application)
We removed the cell amplifier cable and antenna, the old analog radar, and replaced the wire for the loud hailer with smaller wires.
All to give room for the new radar (digital) that uses two smaller wires, power and data.
In the process the loud hailer got broken and will have to be replaced.
The next big project was wiring up the instruments above the gangway, this was probably the hardest part of the project, requiring “fishing” cables through the ceiling and a variety of small holes.
They finished at about.6 pm, at the end of the day the radar is working. They will be back at 8 am, EASTER SUNDAY.
no pictures today