Monthly Archive: September 2018
My 2018 cruising started with a trip straight up Lake Michigan’s Wisconsin coast bound for Manistique, a small town on Michigan’s upper peninsula. We had something very rare, three consecutive days of flat water on Lake Michigan. So we made the most of the conditions and ran all three of those days for a total of 300 nm at 9 kts. We made it the length of the lake to Manistique without incident. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it into Manistique harbor without incident.
Evinrude announced today that it has partnered with Navico, the parent company of Lowrance, Simrad and B&G to create an integrated experience for consumers using the Lowrance and Simrad navigation and sonar products with Evinrude E-TEC G2 engines.
While the Connect all-in-one WiFi and cellular get-online system — with the cell service included — is Winegard’s first entry into the marine internet market, they’ve been at it in the RV world for quite some time and the rock-solid RF performance is pretty impressive even if the interface seemed rather bare-bones to me.
C-MAP, a leader in digital marine cartography and cloud-based mapping, announced today a new C-MAP Free Chart Campaign for the U.S. and Canada. Offering boaters unparalleled charting detail and functionality, premium C-MAP charts will be offered free via mail-in rebate with the purchase of select Lowrance, Simrad and B&G fishfinder/chartplotter displays through authorized dealers…
Inmarsat has announced a new partnership with Lagoon from Groupe Beneteau that enables its superior Fleet One connectivity solution to be available as a line-fit and retro-fit option on all Lagoon catamarans… the unique offer provides boat owners with a cost-effective, two-year package that features unlimited satellite communication as required, plus shoreside GSM 3G/4G (including 5Go/month broadband) in more than 100 countries and Wi-Fi connectivity within 10km.
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) recently published an alert detailing the effect of Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) caused by some LED products, and the potential for electronic communication interference. Simple testing can identify whether there’s a problem, but the situation can be avoided if owners choose products that are certified to international standards.
This great aerial image from Marinas.com shows the peaceful, safe harbor I so enjoyed while keeping Gizmo at both marinas. But New Bern got pummeled by hurricane Florence last night, and it’s hard to tell the amount of damage or how worse it may get. I find myself unable to think about much else, and while the quality and density of available information is amazing, I want more…
Except for the possible name confusion, I’m very pleased to report that Ben Stein has become Panbo’s new Publisher while I get to focus entirely on the Edit side. As you may know, “new Ben” has been serving as a Contributing Editor since January, we walked the Miami Show together, and it was “Ben S” who spearheaded the Panbo website rebuild that went live in late March. We’ve been working together closely…
For almost a year I hardly used this little control and monitoring panel because the attached EFOY fuel cell was already flawlessly performing its duty: If engine alternator, solar panels, and/or shore power were not keeping Gizmo’s main battery bank at the voltage parameters I’d configured, the EFOY automatically and quietly charged the bank for a variable period also configured. While the amp hours are expensive, I’m convinced that an EFOY Comfort could be a very pleasing addition to many cruising sailboats and trawlers…
