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Navigation
| On board we keep it simple. Should the batteries go flat, we can fall back
on traditional navigation using our Sestrel Major compass and our Walker's
towing log. Under normal circumstances we navigate the easy way, i.e. using GPS, compass (we carry two, one magnetic and one electronic), log/speedometer, depth guard and radar. The radar is our best friend as he already guided us into a Portuguese port in poor visibility of <20 meters. |
Chart plotter yes or no? "We don't need a radar as we already have a chart plotter." These were the words of a collegue and we are deeply concerned about the guy. We do have a recent version of C-Map and can run it on our laptop computer (if conditions permit it). By the end of 2005 the computer was interfaced with GPS so you can imagine that this was not item #1 on our list of priorities. But as "home" is further and further away, the less detailed sea charts we have, so eventually we will use the computer more and more. But our navigation is still based on paper charts! |
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Computer
troubles: jumping mouse Connection our GPS to our laptop resulted in a problem: as soon as we connected the USB-to-serial-cable from the laptop to the GPS, the computer mouse started to run like mad on the desktop screen and even worse: it started to do things by itself. The computer identified the mouse as a serial mouse, and that was the problem. Fortunately there are always sailing IT-men around and René from Vagebond (www.vagebond.net) solved our problem. Via Google and forums he discovered a Microsoft page "Overview of the COMDisable Tool.htm" which gives a description of the problem plus a tool to solve it. René also made a note of what he did exactly; for an IT-man it is simple but for a "normal"pc-user life ain't easy and you never know, system crash and Windows has te be re-installed mid-Atlantic... So if the problem occurs again, we now know how to tackle it. And in the meantime we already helped many sailing colleagues out, as the jumping mouse is a common problem. |
Updated 11/2006
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