From what I understand about search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. is that they are constantly using "bots" to search the internet for keywords; these keywords in websites will help to make the search results for users more effective and relevant. So with that in mind I present the paragraph below, at great satellite data transfer expense (OK, not really that much) in hopes that our problems with Raymarine's new chartplotter, the e7, will be recognized. Please skip to below the following paragraph and continue reading our blog about our journey aboard Wild Goose.
>>>
Raymarine e7 chartplotter problems. Crappy toggle switch, random shutdowns, lost tracks, random movement of cursor, toggle switch sticks in engaged position. Raymarine e7 is not ready for the marine environment. Curse you e7. Raymarine rushes e7 to market to beat competitors but neglects sea trials in salt water environment. Raymarine e7 problems onboard transatlantic crossing. Raymarine beta testing musy have been nonexistent. Raymarine e7 problems. Raymarine owned now by Flir corp. Wild Goose has Raymarine Auto-Pilot, Radar, i70 data screen, Flir night vision handheld, SeaTalkng backbone, Raymarine Fluxgate Compass. Raymarine e7 chartplotter causes problems. e7 e7 e7 Raymarine e7 chartplotter problems. Crappy toggle switch, random shutdowns, lost tracks, random movement of cursor, toggle switch sticks in engaged positions. Raymarine e7 is not ready for the marine environment. Curse you e7. Raymarine rushes e7 to market to beat competitors but neglects sea trials in salt water environment. Raymarine e7 problems onboard transatlantic crossing. Raymarine beta testing was nonexistent. Raymarine e7 problems. Raymarine owned now by Flir corp. Wild Goose has Raymarine Auto-Pilot, Radar, Raymarine 650 AIS, i70 data screen, Flir night vision handheld, SeaTalkng backbone, Raymarine Fluxgate Compass. Raymarine e7 chartplotter causes problems.. e7 e7 e7 Raymarine e7 chartplotter problems. Crappy toggle switch, random shutdowns, lost tracks, random movement of cursor, toggle switch sticks in engaged positions. Raymarine e7 is not ready for the marine environment. Curse you e7. Raymarine rushes e7 to market to beat competitors but neglects sea trials in salt water environment. Raymarine e7 problems onboard transatlantic crossing. Raymarine beta testing was nonexistent. Raymarine e7 problems. Raymarine owned now by Flir corp. Wild Goose has Raymarine 650 AIS unit, Raymarine Auto-Pilot, Radar, i70 data screen, Flir night vision handheld, SeaTalkng backbone, Raymarine Fluxgate Compass. Wild Goose is primarily Raymarine driven. Raymarine e7 chartplotter causes problems. e7 e7 e7.
<<<
OK, back to the blog. The most recent reason for the above is that last night the e7 completely froze for no reason. The zoom wheel that is used to pan in and out would not work at all and no buttons could work. The touch screen wouldn't work, so there was no action that could be taken. And for the Raymarine tech people that landed here due to the 2nd paragraph of search engine chum, no the e7 touch screen was not in its "touch locked mode." So the e7 was unusable. When we rebooted the e7 by turning it off and restarting it the touch screen and other functions were restored. The only problem was our entire tracking data for the data screen was lost and a new track (history of where the boat has been) was created that went due West to infinity. If it had been daylight I would have taken a picture. So the e7 erased all of our distances from and to waypoints on our original track and was now tracking to infinity. Our original track still showed on the screen, but the new, "West to infinity" track, was now the track the e7 was using to plot our movements. Before this we could telly you exactly how many miles we had traveled on this leg of the trip (over 1,000 miles), but now that is no longer possible unless we add the new track to the old track.
None of this requires any immediate attention. We can get where we are going and we have many backups including the use of Coastal Explorer software on my PC. Even our iPad and smartphones have the information we need. It is just frustrating to find that the new e7 is so unprepared for a real marine environment. Our ancient RL70C chartplotter would have been better for our current trip. Now we know why the two RL70C chartplotters fetched as much as they did on eBay. They buyers knew it was a reliable and tested unit.
The e7 has a toggle switch that is used to position the cursor over certain items, similar to what you would see on a Sony Playstation remote. The toggle switch can then be pressed down to obtain additional information; a wonderful concept. For instance, with AIS when another boat appears on the screen you can use the toggle switch to maneuver over the other vessel and push down on the toggle switch. A pop up screen will then let you get additional data on the vessel. You can find the name of the boat and its type, how long the boat is, the draft of the vessel, the country in which the boat is flagged, their current speed over ground, and most importantly their "TCPA," or Time of Closest Approach; time when you would be closes to the other boat or possible collide if neither of you changed course. The problem is that the toggle switch gets stuck in the down position and you have to pull it back up with your thumb and index finger. Many times this will cause another function to engage - it will either place a waypoint at the point of the cursor or it will ask if you want to engage your autopilot to steer toward the erroneous waypoint. At some points the cursor will begin erratically moving East or West (left or right) for no reason. You will then have to use your thumb and forefinger to pull the toggle switch back up and then use the touch screen to "find ship", meaning return to your boat.
Enough about Raymarine. Our trusty Yanmar 4JH-HTE diesel engine 7,650 engine hours is ticking along marvelously, (knocking on all wood I can see!). We are in a completely dead zone as far as wind is concerned. Right now there is 3-5 knots of wind. The seas are like a lake, albeit with some large, long period swells. It is not uncomfortable at all and makes for great sleeping, but we would rather be sailing. We are listening to some of the other boats that are having to motor also, and some that are Northeast of us have good wind from the low pressure system that swung down a few days back. But this all part of the deal for sailing; perfect wind, too much wind, not enough wind etc.. We aren't complaining at all. It is still a great environment to relax and read, talk about lots of random topics and eat great food.
Everyone on the SSB net is now talking about "fuel management." The concern for all of us is that as you motor and deplete the fuel you to regularly recalculate the amount of fuel you have remaining and the miles yet to go. At some point, if you motor for a long time, you could be forced to choose to sit and wait for the wind, even though it might be days away. We have a little less than 1,000 miles to go, so we have nowhere near enough to motor the rest of the way. Neither do any of the boat, and the reality is we will get good wind at some point. It's amazing that for four or five days we had perfect winds from the South and Southwest and now we have none.
These high pressure zones of no winds are a real problem near the equator and ITCZ where there can be weeks and hundreds of miles of calm winds. It is known to drive people mad sitting on a sailboat bobbing up and down for long periods of time. That's not going to be the case here, and though we would rather sail, we can motor for a few days and still save some fuel for getting into port. We hold 100 gallons of diesel fuel and consume about 1 gallon per hour. In addition to that we have four 5- gallon tanks strapped on deck, so that gives us almost a day of extra engine power. Some of the bigger boats on this trip have larger tanks, but many are much smaller and we have seen some boats with as many as 10 five gallon tanks strapped on the deck. You do what you have to do.
We are doing great on water management. We hold 200 gallons of water and are still on the original 80 gallon tank we started with in Bermuda on May 16th. Unfortunately that is likely because no one is taking many showers, but so far I haven't noticed any ill effects. I will be quick to let them know. I had a shower two days ago and Linda yesterday. I think we have had 2 each, and yes there is hot water. The idea is to take a "boat showe,r" so it's not like a spa, but it does feel good to be clean. Lisa and Mike are taking showers too, but I am not counting. On the Bermuda leg it was tough with the boat heeling as much as much as it was.
Hopefully our SPOT tracker is still putting out our position. If not, we are at 36 degrees (i don't have the degree symbol) 30 ' North and 48 degrees 06' West. I think if you enter coordinates into Google Maps it will automatically plot the position. You would use the degree and minute (') symbols.
Showering takes some effort on a passage, and so does shaving. Mike and I think we look pretty salty with these new beards. And we still have a week to go for them to grow and grow. We think we are looking more and more professorial each day. Others will insist it doesn't really make us any smarter, but it can anyone deny that it makes us look smarter. Mike wrote a journal the other day and read some of it to us. It is really artistic writing. I have asked him to type a blog post, so hopefully he will do that as the next post.