Happy New Year, 2019 is going to be a busy year
A full load of test equipment ready to be loaded onto Have Another Day
I’ve started multi-brand, underway testing with lots more to come in 2019. Have Another Day’s 2018 ended with quite a few installs planned or in progress. I’m pretty excited to see how the various products will work in real-world cruising aboard our boat if the weather decides to clear up and let us actually cruise.
In early October we left Chicago and headed down the flooded Illinois and Mississippi rivers before joining up with the Ohio River. We then had several pleasant travel days through the waters of the Tenessee Valley Authority before heavy rains and more flooding ushered us down the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile Bay. After a pretty exhausting trip down the rivers I’m hoping for easier cruising through Florida.
Have Another Day’s upper helm with MFDs from Garmin, Raymarine, and Simrad
Our fall cruise gave me a good chance to get better acquainted with the latest MFDs from Simrad, Garmin, and Raymarine. I was able to confirm what I’ve believed and preached for some time, each of the major marine manufacturers is building very capable, responsive and easy-to-use MFDs. I believe the choice is truly one of which system you the user finds easiest to use. Though, sometimes the eases or difficulty of integrating with existing electronics on a boat can push your decision one way or another, as Steve Mitchell has found over in the forum.
We plan to spend the remainder of our winter in the St Petersburg and Fort Meyers areas. Once we cross the Gulf, I have several more installs planned including:
- A Raymarine Cam 210 to complete the requisite equipment for ClearCruise AR (I helped judge the IBEX Innovation awards where we awarded ClearCruise AR the technology innovation prize and Ben E. helped judge the D.A.M.E. awards where it received a special mention)
- A BlueGuard Innovation’s BG-ONE smart Bilge Pump Switch and control panel (Another IBEX Innovations awards winner)
- Siren Marine’s MTC monitoring system
- One or two wireless docking control systems
- A FLIR M232 thermal camera
- Replacing the wiring and antennas of multiple underperforming VHF systems
I’ve been writing for Panbo for a little over a year now but I’m still pretty new to temporarily installing equipment designed to be permanently mounted. The biggest challenge is installing in a way that lets me return the equipment to the manufacturer when I’m done testing without leaving gaping holes behind. I’m still developing techniques and I’ve been slower than I would have liked getting equipment installed as I figure it out. I look at Gizmo’s mast with some jealousy of the ease it provides in making changes to the installed equipment but I’m confident I’ll figure it out.
The beginning of 2019 is shaping up to be an interesting time with product announcements and demonstrations on the horizon as well as the 2019 Miami International Boat Show in mid-February.
And a Happy New Year to you, Ben^2 ! Not much in the way of new electronic equipment or systems for Atsa this year, tho it looks like a new generator is in the works.. I, too, have some cable and antenna issues, so we’ll share that joy:) We’re spending the holidays in Ft. Myers (Lesley & I but not Atsa, she’s in Riviera Beach), but we hope to be long gone before Have Another Day gets there (but ya never know).
Thanks Hartley, sorry to hear we will miss you in Fort Meyers. Hopefully we will run into you along the way somewhere.
Ya never know – we’ll be there thru the end of January (at least) ‘cuz we’re committed to Burns’ night with Lesley’s mom. 🙂 After that, it depends on the generator.. But at least we can pick on Ben in Maine regarding the outside temperature!
I did do a project that you can probably identify with, tho – I got tired of the rusty L-bracket and encased my Bullet in PVC so it would mount on a standard 1″ marine mount (AKA 3/4″ pipe thread) – now all I have to do is run an ethernet cable back aft & hook it up.
Hey Ben^2! Happy New Year to you and yours also . . . I’m a local now (formerly PA resident with boat in NJ) on the “Nature Coast” of FL about an hour North of Tampa (where the manatees “roam”) and would love to visit with you in St. Pete, whenever you get to this area. I’m doing some electrical and electronics upgrades to our 1998 Bayliner Avanti 3685 (well, when she comes out from under the plastic) and would love to see what you’ve done with ‘Have Another Day’ and what you’re proposed changes might be as well. Dash area for me is a bit limited on this express cruiser and have a number of upgrades to consider prior to Spring splash so somewhat diligently considering all options. Hope your year is as good as it gets!!