Well, I’ve started the process of putting in the autopilot. The first week of the process was mostly conceptual, “how do I mount the drive”? I found the manual to my old Autohelm 6000 ($800 on Ebay) on the Raymarine site. It is pre-GPS interface era. I never did hook up my last autopilot to the GPS so I won’t miss it. I’m still trying to figure out the graph for the drive installation. There is a graph that is supposed to tell one how far from the rudder post to attach the drive. I’m still scratching my head, and I’ll have to call Raymarine. I tested it the other day and it seems to be working fine. I have found an entire sub-culture of people who are crazy about the old Autohelm autopilots. Autohelm was made in
Well I’m down to about $1,500! I suppose I should be more freaked out but I’m not. The DVD duplications are paid for; I have an autopilot, and a really cool 40’ sailboat. I think I did okay by selling Namaste. I did loose being in the South Pacific but I’ll be back cruising shortly.
I still need to find a Garmin GPS that reads my bluecharts. Garmin hooked me up with my last GPS but it went with Namaste. My contact left a few years ago and nobody knows about Project Bluesphere anymore. I still have my BlueChart chips which is the important part. My situation at Raymarine is the same.
I’m also looking for a compressor & paint sprayer, some tools, dive gear, and supplies for various projects. If I have enough epoxy, sand paper, paint and supplies I’ll go to a beautiful island somewhere (south of 10 degrees) and just work on Splendid. Of course I’ll set aside 3-4 hours a day to spear fish, comb the beach, read, and nap!
I’m thinking of renting out a stateroom on Splendid when I go. I’m looking for a younger guy who wants to learn about cruising and may want to join me for a spell.
Well it’s Friday and I need to get to my autopilot installation.
I hope everyone had a splendid weekend.
Sail far and live slowly.
Alex
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