Evanston: things that worked
During my three weeks on GANNET last month, in fact everything worked, but a few things particularly pleased me or were unexpectedly useful.
The Aurinco solar panels had been in place on the deck for a 
while. In sunny San Diego and in combination with the Blue Sky Solar Boost 1000e regulator, they easily kept my two AGM batteries fully charged and I never did connect to shore power. What is particularly pleasing about them is how well constructed, how thin, and how unobtrusive they are.
The JetBoil stove is perfect for me. Small, easily stowed, quick to boil two cups of water. I really can’t imagine anything better.
I just realized that I have a tea kettle aboard, which I bought as standard boat equipment before I knew how I would cook. I’ve never used it and with the JetBoil never will. I’ll bring it back here next time,
The distance back to the tiller pilot is, of course, not far; but while underway, particularly at night, I appreciated not having to climb up on deck and make my way aft.
I experimented with several different kinds of seats on THE HAWKE OF TUONELA before settling on Sportaseats. Without a Sportaseat at Central on her Great Cabin floor, life aboard GANNET would be less pleasant.
My back bothered me during my first few days in San Diego until I learned that none of the fixed angles for the Sportaseat is exactly right for me. Clicking through all the positions releases the back and I found the right angle and had no more problems.
Sportaseat offers a small slip-on lumbar cushion. I’m taking one back to GANNET in January.
As seems to be a common experience, I use my iPad more than my laptop. I expect that when Apple comes out with a mini iPad with a Retina display I will buy one of those, too.
The only thing I can’t do is publish this site from the iPad, and I could probably do that if I wanted to use something other than iWeb
I find it preferable to use Aperture on my MacBook Pro to manage and adjust photographs and Quicken to keep track of my finances; but there are ways to do both of those on the iPad.
Being able to tether the iPad to access the Internet on my laptop in San Diego was invaluable.
The iPad with iNavX software is proving to be an excellent chartplotter.
The iPad itself is made more useful by a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard
which looks as though it were designed by Apple. When neither is in use, the keyboard clips onto the iPad’s magnetic side. While I’ve not typed anything long on the keyboard, it is remarkably good for its size and on GANNET I wrote most emails on it.
Both keyboard and iPad fit inside a Pelican iPad case, which is waterproof and crushproof, and eliminates worry about protecting the iPad while underway.
I was surprised that I had enough room to use the 15” MacBook Pro on my lap while sitting at Central. I maxed out that laptop when I bought it two years and have since installed a solid state drive. I usually buy a new computer every other year, and smaller and lighter would be better; but the Pro is more than powerful and fast enough for my needs. So I keep saying, maybe next year.
While underway on GANNET, the MacBook Pro, too, lives in a Pelican case.
Monday, November 19, 2012