Sailing through a sea of stones!

Check out this blog entry by the crew of sailing vessel Maiken. They sailed right into a sea of floating pumice near a new island that has arisen from a subsea volcanic peak near Tonga.

It's also on CNN but the Maiken's blog has more photos than the news reports of the new island.

That is truly Bizarre.

That is truly Bizarre. Thanks for sharing Mike. How are you and Valinor doing? We should hook up again. I plan on taking the boat out Saturday.

Jeff

I'm on vacation next week in Cabo San Lucas, but weekend after next, I will be down at the boat again.

I got my Simrad WP32 installed at last, which was somewhat of a struggle. I ended up damaging it and had to send it back for repairs. But I got it attached and powered up last weekend, and went out to the fairway outsiede the marina Sunday to calibrate the electronic compass. This involved motoring around in a circle.

I was having problems with traffic, so I moved a little east into the basin opposite the fuel dock. I got too close to the submerged hazard at the east side and got the keel caught on the bottom. But someone came out in a tender with a 40HP outboard, and helped me back off the way I came, and freed the keel. My diver is supposed to have done a check on the bottom for damage this week, I haven't heard from him yet, need to call him before I leave tomorrow morning for Cabo. The rudder snagged the chain for one of the bouys marking the hazard as we backed down, so I am a little worried about it.

Ain't boating fun.

Mike,

I got the Simrad WP32 also last month. The installation was challenging, in terms of getting it perfectly centered. However, once that was done, it works like a charm. The electricals are wired into our B&G instruments, which allows us to steer to a compass heading (already have a fluxgate compass with the system), wind angle or GPS waypoint. I love it.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

I hope everything's OK down below.

Hi Mike,

I hope everything's OK down below. I also have a Simrad auto (tiller) pilot and attempted the calibration dance in circles in our little channel. I also had to do a calibration on my Raymarine Wind indicator. Same kind of thing. Interestingly enough I never was able to complete the calibration on the auto pilot as directed in the instructions so I just set a course and cross referenced it with my magnetic compass and GPS and found out it was calibrated perfectly. Go figure. My wind indicator had to be calibrated but the auto pilot worked fine right out of the box. So next time you go out, just see if it holds a course. I have my Simrad interfaced with my Magellan Meridian Marine hand held GPS and it works great. I haven't seen any deviations yet. Good luck with everything.

Hey, weather permitting, I will be going to Avalon over Thanksgiving weekend. Have fun in Cabo.

Jeff