Category: Zany

“The crew was pretty grumpy as we headed north out of the Panama Canal. Hopes of spending a wild reggae Christmas in Kingston, Jamaica had recently been dashed (rumor was that there was a lien on Regina in Kingston), so on the morning of 24 Dec 1979, we found ourselves dropping anchor in Bahia du Mole…” Thus begins a sweet Christmas story written and mapped by my old mate Steve Nelson on The Friends and Crew of Regina Maris Facebook page. I’m sure that many far flung cruisers will enjoy Steve’s true tale, but I can practically smell it…

I think we’ve had some great product coverage recently, thanks largely to Kees Verruijt’s excellent METS coverage, and I’m glad to report that Kees, Dan Corcoran, and others have more entries in the works. I know I’ve said it before but this winter Panbo will truly get more voices, and more frequent entries. Which makes me feel indulgent about posting mosting non-electronics photos of my beloved boat!  I spent some of the Thanksgiving holiday going through the images I collected during the trip south, and I couldn’t help but feel very thankful for the vessel I lucked into and the coast I live along…

While I was enthusiastic about the first Penobscot Bay Rendezvous last summer, when the event came around I only managed to make a couple of the parties and do a little spectating (above). But I sure liked what I saw and am pleased that this year I’m helping to manage the PBR as the Powerboat Fleet Guide. I like how the event welcomes both power and sail –and how it attracts a mix of local and visiting boaters too — but the powerboats need something to do besides watching sailboats race (as enjoyable as that can be). I think we’ve come up with some great plans…

Yes, I was a grinning fool when Panbo — for the second year in a row! — received the BWI Award for Original Online Content (all awards here). Plus it seemed the perfect moment to debut the new Panbo logo hat I’d just received the day before, and purely by happenstance I was joined at the podium by two friends from the even smaller world of marine electronics. Bill Bishop got Third Place for his Marine Installers Rant blog (check his Award entry here and don’t miss the cartoon he submitted as the essay) and Bruce Angus did the presenting because he’s now Interim Director of the NMEA, which sponsored the category. But don’t think that NMEA had anything to do with the judging, which was done anonymously by three fellow members of BWI. Well, actually I do know who one judge was because she was quoted thusly: “Ellison obviously knows his subject matter inside and out, but never takes himself too seriously, actively soliciting input and contributions from his readers.” For which I will be eternally grateful…

I may have become 65 years old yesterday, but no barnacles are growing under this blogger’s keyboard!  It’s a still a work in progress, but have you seen the new line of useful function and social media icons that recently appeared at the end of each Panbo entry (also seen above)? The “Print” button will get you a nicely formatted version of the entry with reader comments included, but without extraneous web page stuff. And the “Email” button makes it pie simple to send someone a link plus a bit of the entry with an image and an optional comment from you. The Email button also leads to all sorts of other share possibilities, though you may have to join ShareThis to use some of them.  I’m not clear on that and a few other things…

That’s the helm of the Hinckley T55 with the wireless JetStick I discussed yesterday. It’s undeniably gorgeous but it’s also fairly terrifying to a guy like me who changes electronics frequently. I so believe in mounting as many electronics as possible in panels that are easily replaced. And I’m really not all that odd; electronics get updated a lot these days. Heck, that ST70 on center is already being replaced with the i70 which would way better compliment those twin E-Wides, but the simple hole-saw i70 cutout is quite different than the ST70 hole. Here’s betting that it won’t be too long before sweat and money is expended chopping into that fine joiner work. Note, too, how many different little control systems are sprinkled around this helm, which is no fault of Hinckley, but rather an indication of how much further the marine electronics industry has to go toward truly integrated helms…