On Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 12:08:44PM -0400, [email protected] wrote: > > The Frumious Bandersnatch has broken free of the mud of Julington Creek and > started the voyage north. > > We anchored in the St Johns river Saturday night just east of the pilot > boat dock (which is just east of the ferry landing) on the south side of > the river. Fierce current, three to four knots, but great holding and the > big ships throw no wake as it is a slow area due to all the docked vessels. > > We had a delightful Sunday afternoon gam with Wally of S/V Gypsy Wind > yesterday while anchored here in Fernandina. Jan and I are now engaged in > making the ship ready for sea. > > After we leave here our next port of call will be Norfolk VA. Perhaps we > can meet some List members while we are there.
We won't be there in time to see you, I'm afraid. The drive motors in *both* our autopilots died, so we've ended up in Charleston after steering by hand all night. The marine industry having conspired to drive the price of the average autopilot (a thing less complicated than the average radio-controlled car, which sells for about $50 - with a snazzy paint job, yet!) to several thousand dollars, I'm currently hunting for a few 12v, 5W motors with a 4mm shaft to replace the dead ones. Neither Raymarine, which made the unit, nor Canon, which made the motors, will sell me anything - "it's too old" is the excuse in one case, and "you're not buying 50k units" is the excuse in the other - so I'm working at getting motor manufacturers (located via GlobalSpec) to send me some "test" units, while also hitting hobby shops and the wealth of knowledge and "make do" found there. Meanwhile, I've got a week worth of business to do in Columbus GA, which is within a reasonable driving distance from here, so at least that much is positive. Was anyone here aware that 4mm is the standard output shaft for radio-controlled boats? Oh, the things you learn... :) -- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET * _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
