The calm after the storm
Right now, as I look out of our boat, the sky is clear, the water is glassy and the flags are barely moving. That certainly hasn’t been the case the last couple of days where we have had thunderstorm warnings and small craft advisories. We were fairly surprised to see the local racers heading out last evening for the first race of the season. I bet that was exciting!!!
Wind 30+ knots or so but the rain never came.When I wrote about provisioning for our pretend two-week cruise, it was suggested that we write down all of the food that we have stored in the bilge. Check! Rebecca was on top of that. The card shown below lists items that are located in the port bilge and there is a similar one by the refrigerator listing the items hidden within it (it’s not easy to see what’s at the bottom of a top-loading refrigerator).
The white board is on the inside of a cabinet door.
Last September we picked up pre-loved (isn’t that what the used car salesman call them) VHF handheld radio. It came with a charging base that was designed to be screwed down onto a table (I guess). I wasn’t terribly comfortable leaving it sitting vertically without having it screwed into something but I am still trying to avoid unnecessary holes in the boat. My solution was to screw the base to a small block of wood which was sized to fit in the pen tray at our nav station. It just sits in there so can be removed whenever we want but it is much more stable than it was before. Just a little thing but it works.
Playing around with this radio I found that it can actually receive AM/FM (music) stations. Amazing what you can find out when you read the manual!
Speaking of little things, the little bit of plastic shown in the photo below is the flush mount adapter for our new radio. It did NOT come with the radio, and get this, it sells for about 40 bucks! Good thing the vender sent it to us gratis. I would have been pissed if I had to pay that extra money for that little bit of plastic.
Yes, that was 40 bucks!
Yesterday we received confirmation that we now have our very own MMSI number. We can now program that into our radios to use the DSC functions. If you don’t know what those things are and you are one of the small minority who actually care, just google it. 🙂
To create a home for our handheld, I mounted one of those teak units that is a combination 2 drink holder and binocular holder (in the center) at the end of a flat counter, so it also serves as a bookend, so it now holds 1 drink, 1 radio & the binoculars and keeps books in place, as well. The multi-tasking made the extra holes drilled to mount the unit more palatable.
Sounds like a great solution!
Those flush mount brackets, specifically for fixed mount VHFs where they are typically out of sight, are an absolute rip off. I have installed 1 or 2 radios a week for three years and have never bought the kit. Rather than line the manufacturer’s pocket for what is the equivalent of pennies work of plastic, I have a box of 1/2″ starboard blocks that I cut up and drill to fit with machine screws. That takes me about two or three minutes, looks good, and is just as secure. I then tell the customer to take their partner to dinner with the $40 instead of throwing two $20s behind the panel.
Hi Jay. Yes, I thought of trying to make something too and I would have if I had been forced to pay for them. I think that’s very nice of you to pass that along to your clients!