Maritime mobile following, July 10-19 2020.

[RadioRay]

Gil is safe in the home port. Now time to RECOVER from his 'vacation'.

-RadioRay  ..._ ._

[Zener]

I'm glad he is home ok, (no mishaps), was a wee bit concerned when he said his fitness level was low before the trip. He'll sleep for a while. Followed his journey, guesstimated he's done 730km over 102 hours sea time at over 7km/hr.

Great job, all the best.

[gil]

Thanks Ray and all of you guys for your support and atemps to contact me, much appreciated. I did make a few contacts. It will take some time to edit the video. Not as much radio as I hoped but you will see why... I am safe and sound at home, though exhausted. 40hrs at the helm in 7 Beaufort winds is something I did not think I could do. There was a few SAR operations those two nights, fortunately I wasn't the object of one. It is a constant psychological and physical battle to stay on the boat, not being thrown off and exert constant pressure and movement on the tiller. Legs, arms, core muscles, everything works constantly at max capacity. The boat was laid on its side twice and I was both times times thrown in the opposite stanchions, "launched" would be a better expression because I am pretty sure I was briefly airborne for an instant. Thanks to my safety harness! I could only use my electric auto-pilot for a few hours, as it could not cope with the conditions. But then, what other choice is there? To me staying home watching TV is more risky ;-) in the grand scheme of things...
Now I am catching up on sleep and recovering, which will take a couple days...
TTYL :-)

Gil.

[mjvanek]

Thumbs up Gil.

[gil]

Thanks!
Gil.

[gil]

Hello everyone :-)

Back to normal, almost, with a sailboat in port! Just to conclude, I found operating maritime mobile very difficult, and commercial radios completely inadequate for the marine environment, no surprise there... You simply can't have a radio in the cockpit, period. Either it will get sprayed with saltwater or be washed overboard, and the little RG-316 antenna cable isn't going to prevent that. You may fish it back but it will likely never work again. My Yaesu VX6 did well though, to monitor marine channel 16.
My solution will be to install a PRC-320 inside the cabin for voice comms and a 30m QCX for CW with extended key and headset cables to the cockpit. I will place those radios at mid-level in the cabin between bilge and roof. You always have to think of what would happen if the boat was, however briefly, upside-down. I also need to think of a means to receive messages while under-way, which may involve a Raspberry Pi and JS8Call, maybe Winlink.

I do not know if my salted Minion SDR will work again, and I better hurry troubleshooting it before more damage occurs...

Boat-wise, I have a long list of modifications and safety equipment to add. I just installed two new batteries... Solar panels will follow. I am looking at Solbian but it's very expensive; not this year probably. Right now I am setting it up for safe coastal cruising, with the objective of upgrading to an ocean-crossing vessel as time progresses. There is a lot of cosmetic work to do, inside and out.

Now let's resume our regular program ;-)

Gil.

[NCGunDude]

Gil, I really enjoyed your maritime videos. I'm looking for a Compac 19 or something similar to trailer. Looking forward to getting on the water. Your videos are an inspiration!

[gil]

I can only recommend a full-keel boat :-)

Gil.