Goodbye Verizon Internet

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Goodbye Verizon Internet

I was in the middle of yesterday's post, when my cell phone rang. I did not know the number but decided to answer it, and good thing. Hello, is this Mr Doak? We have data that your cell phone internet card is being used in Bermuda. Did you know that? Well, did you know that your bill is over $8,000.00?

Yup - been sitting out there on the boat, every night, for the last 2 weeks, reading the news, running around the internet, and posting to this blog, and reading and writing emails, to the tune of $8k. Well, when I explained what was going on, they made an accommodation and reduced the bill, to a tiny percentage. But while on hold, I quickly submitted the post without re-reading it or completing it, for that matter, and logged out, and will no longer have instantaneous internet. (Funny thing, they did not offer me the monthly Global plan though, for some reason related to the outdated card I have. Seems the guy at Verizon Wireless (Comp. owned store - not contractor.) sold me a card that was going out of style, with the 3G networks coming on line, and this old one is not part of the "Global Network". I might have joined, now that I see what the difference is.) I will have to do as every other cruiser does, and that is dink to land, and find a free wifi hook-up. So, if you don't hear from me so often, you know why.

(An UPDATE: After returning to the boat this afternoon without the laundry done, by the way, I got out my 5 Mile WiFi Antenna, hoisted it up the main mast on a spare halyard, and lo and behold get great reception from several Wifi spots ashore. So, back on the internet with more regularity. I have replaced the TV with the Internet, I guess!)

I have been working on the steering, and all the connections are complete, and I spent an hour bleeding the system, and gave up, to come ashore. There is a remote chance that I will have to un-do some of it, and tighten some existing connections, and also, add bleeding valves to the system. Right now, I am using Mike in Fl's method, which is turning the wheel at the helm back and forth, over and over a thousand times, or so it seems, so far.

(Another UPDATE: When I returned to AF, I stopped at the helm and put a few dozen more cycles of turns and she is now hitting the stops when turning to port and close on starboard. But, still have about 15 turns, lock to lock, so there is a lot more turning yet to do. But she is coming around. Will see what the pressure on the resevoir reads in the morning, to determine if it all must be un-done, and some fittings tightened.)

Yesterday, I did NOT catch any fish. Maybe I am using too big a hook. Or wrong bait. (Reminds me of a story my dad told about a city fellow who moved to farming country, went to the breeder to buy some chicks, to raise to broilers and sell. Ordered 10,000 chicks. A week later was back and ordered another 10,000. Fellow mentioned that he was impressed with this city boy's spunk, to get into it big like that. City boy says, "Oh, no. The first crop all died." So supplier says it would be a good idea to know what he had done wrong before he commits to another 10,000. City boy says," Well, I have been reading up on farming and think I have it narrowed down to 1 of 2 things. I either planted them too deep or too close together." So goes my fishing, I think. But, today, will finally cut up some bait, and try again. Well, probably tomorrow, now. I was using chicken skins - from some barbecued chicken - but could not devote any time to watching the pole, and actually fishing. I just tied off the pole and checked back every now and then. Put some old, dried out baloney on last night, and lowered it about 6 or 8 feet - shallow enough that I could still see the bait - and it was still there this morning, so I guess it was not deep enough to attract any one's attentions below.

I checked on line today, and the Canadian and US govt's have suspended their search for the lost Canadian, singled handing out of Halifax. If anyone hears of good news in this matter, I would appreciate an email. The article I found said that they had surveyed 152,000 square nautical miles in 18 separate flights, looking for him. It is a big ocean, and with bigger seas lately, so a relatively small 45 ft boat would be hard to find, especially white hull against white wave tops, but it seems to be an end to a fellow's wonderful life at sea. It could have been me.

Well, I guess I will be telling Bart to mail that letter to Verizon soon, cancelling my service. Oh well. The darned thing wasn't good enough to use Skype anyway. This Wifi I am using now, at Bermuda Yacht Service's free to cruisers lounge, is faster than what I had here. I just had to ride in to use it. Brought some laundry and will go up to the laundromat, either the public one here in town, or at the Bermuda Dinghy Club which opens at 4pm, and do a couple loads.

But, all in all, things are moving slowly forward. OK - off to the laundry. More later.

*Back on the boat at 530 pm, no laundry done, still sitting in the dink, for that matter, but I have internet again. Yeah! Will have something to do tonight. (Read most of a novel last night. Will finish tonight after dinner.) In the mean time, I am going in to the dinghy club and do a couple loads, and have a couple beers whilst waiting.

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About Annah Foster

Annah Foster is a 1980'ish Morgan 462. She is a USCG Documented vessel and the year on the document is 1979, which I believe is the year the keel was laid. She is known as a ketch, which means she has 2 masts, and the aft mast is forward of the rudder. She also is a center compartment boat, which means the helm is located between the 2 masts, which are, by the way, the main and the mizzen. She is equipped with roller furling on the jib/genoa sail which is the big triangular sail on the front. Her empty weight, or rather displacement, is 33,000 lbs, which is fat for her length. Mr. Morgan believed in thick fiberglas for strength and I am told that at places it is often found to be 2 inches of solid fiberglas. Her keel has encapsulated lead weighing 8,000 lbs.

She boasts 2 staterooms, - v-berth forward with separate head and twin beds aft with separate head, including the famous bathtub. The configuration of the aft stateroom could easily be changed with a change in the mattresses to an almost queen berth, port to starboard, but currently she has twins, running fore and aft, with 2 large mattress cushions separating them. There is also a ladder and sliding hatch aft for egress in an emergency, to the aft deck, which I call the back porch. I bought some director's chairs for it and have sat there many evenings enjoying a drink and sunset. The aft deck is also the location of the propane gas grill, storage for the 2 outboard motors, Yamaha 4hp 4cycle, and a Yamaha 15hp 2 cycle, which power a new Apex Lite 10'6 inflatable dinghy, which can hang from the installed davits.

The main sail has 2 reefing points on jiffy reefing and the mizzen has 1. No lines lead to the cockpit but the jib, main and mizzen sheets.

She has a Switlick 6 man life raft mounted aft the mizzen mast. And, an emergency tiller aboard.

She is equipped with a Perkins 4 cylinder diesel engine, powering a Hurth transmission and turning a 4 bladed Max Prop, which feathers when sailing, and reverses pitch in Reverse so that she has the same thrust as in Forward. One unique design flaw is that the propeller shaft exits the boat at 3 degrees off center, making the port prop walk in reverse, even worse. The engine is equipped with about a 90 amp alternator with a very good voltage regulator.

She also has a Westerbeke 5.7 kw diesel generator, which produces 110 v AC power, and charges the batteries thru a 40 amp charger. I also have a Honda 1000 watt gasoline powered generator for emergency 110v, and an automotive battery charger aboard.

She came with an old Windbugger wind generator, not quite perfectly mounted. Stowed in the V-berth, there is a replacement AirX marine wind generator and 8 foot mast waiting to be installed, along with the controller, and 2 solar panels, which are half the possible wattage the controller can handle.

She has 3 4-D AGM batteries for the house bank and a type 18 start battery - all are 12volt.

The 4 gallon water heater will heat with both engine cooling water and 110v AC power and is equipped with a mixing valve to prevent scalding.

Tankage - Water - 110 gallon port and 85 gallon center tanks
Fuel - 175 gallons
Range when new at 2250 RPM is almost 800 nm.

Currently, her refridgerator and freezer are 110 volt AC, with several holding plates each which must be manually started and stopped. She has waiting to be installed, 2 Cool Blue 12 volt systems, with automatic controls, but truthfully, I don't know where the new holding plates will fit.

Electronics -
She is equipped with 2 VHF marine band radios, one at the helm and the other at the nav station, with repeater at the helm, and a hand held low power VHF 'walkie talkie'. Also, at the nav station, she has a Single Side Band HF radio - SSB with a Pactor 2 modem making her capable of downloading NOAA weather fax and Sail Mail emails and Grb files. onto a dedicated IBM laptop. She has as primary a Raymarine E-80 Chartplotter at the helm and a smaller Garmin Chartplotter for back up at the helm, a handheld Garmin Chartplotter, and an older Furuno GPS at the nav station. She has an older Raytheon black and white 24 nm radar at the helm, with a repeater at the nav station. She has a RapidFix 406 EPIRB, emergency locator beacon, that is hand activated. She has a new Clarion AM FM CD player, with input for computer or MP3 player on 3 sets of individual speakers - cockpit, salon, and aft cabin.

For those who do not know me, I named her for my parents - Annah Margaret and George Foster Doak. It is through their beneficence that I am able to live this dream and I felt that I should dedicate my boat to honor their memories.