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Sail Plans

Pilots routinely file flight plans for flights longer than a day trip, and doing so for a cruise is similarly prudent. Below is the sail plan for my cruise to Alaska this summer. Additionally, I create a spreadsheet with a complete itinerary, notes about tidal gates and contact numbers for marinas where I expect to stay. I also project fuel consumption and identify fuel stops where I expect to refuel. This is particularly important for orienting crew (and their families) so they understand procedures on the boat as well as contact numbers in the event of emergencies or shanges in schedule along the way. Finally, I provide crew with documents explaining what they need to know about traveling aboard Ripple, and what personal gear they should have: http://svripple.blogspot.com/p/travelling-aboard-sailing-vessel-ripple.html http://svripple.blogspot.com/p/inside-passage-sailing-expedition-what.html Alaska 2018 Sail Plan S/V Ripple (WN 2423 NE) Ski...
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Installing and Networking a Class B AIS Transceiver with a Chart Plotter and VHF Radio using NMEA 0183

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In 2015 I purchased an AIS receiver for a trip up the Inside Passage.  This posting is largely an upgrade of the  posting for that installation . I suspected at the time I might look back on purchasing only a receiver as a false economy, and that turned out to be the case. I want to be SEEN as well as to see others. This year  I purchased a Vesper XB 8000 AIS transceiver to replace the perfectly functional Digital Yacht AIS receiver that I had benefitted from over the previous three seasons.   My decision to go with Vesper was based on the reputation of their product and their customer service,  and also because the device makes the data on my network visible via a WiFi gateway.  This should make it easier to pull off tracking and route data, and to display AIS targets on tablet or phone as well as the chart plotter. The XB-8000 also provides an easily managed anchor alarm, accessible by tablet or smart phone.  I won't have to sit in the cockpit ...
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Re-powering s/v Ripple

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My Summer, 2017 Adventure An irregular sound, a vibration untuned to the sum of your experience: this one was a momentary drop in RPM... 25, maybe 50 rpm. I bumped the throttle, right? Then it happened again, and denial shades into anxiety. The opening hours of a 6 week cruise: Seattle, up the inside passage, over the top of Vancouver Island and a leisurely meandering through the inlets that indent the west side. But this journey ended just as it began. A series of intricate diagnostic rationalizations, fuel filter and impeller changes availed us not at all. Lots of oil gone missing! Limping into Kingston Harbor, Ripple’s Yanmar 1GM10 turned the last of some 300,000,000 revolutions in my service. Broken-hearted 1GM10 Only slowly did I surrender the hope of rebuilding my faithful one-lunger.  As it happens, Yanmar does not make an oversized piston for the engine, as they enlarged the size of the cylinder when the 1GM transitioned to the 1GM10, and given that...
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